Welcome to the new Pacific Seabirds
By Anna Vallery
Welcome to the first installment of the new Pacific Seabirds! Pacific Seabirds is the official publication of the Pacific Seabird Group (PSG) and serves to provide members with recent news on financial reports, Annual Meetings, regional reports, conservation needs and outcomes, special events, awards, decisions of the PSG, and more, plus archive this information for all members. Over its history, Pacific Seabirds has taken many forms, changing based on the needs of our membership. This has included formats ranging from an informal, mailed newsletter to a more formal publication that was emailed out to PSG members twice a year.
Now, it’s time for Pacific Seabirds’ next update! This new version of the publication will be housed on the Pacific Seabird Group website and will take the form of a living webpage that will be updated twice yearly with new content including regional reports, PSG’s budget, Annual Meeting reports, and content from our membership. PSG members (like you!) can submit stories, notes, equipment reviews, book reviews, updates, art, and more!
A small committee has been working hard to take Pacific Seabirds in this direction based on feedback from a survey of PSG membership conducted at the 2022 Annual Meeting. This committee has not only developed the new outline of Pacific Seabirds, but has developed the new format of the publication and a new submission system for content!
Regional Reports
Regional Reports have been a central component of Pacific Seabirds and were highlighted as an important aspect of this publication to members in the recent survey. Regional Reports have historically been compiled by Regional Representatives, then sent along to the Pacific Seabirds’ Editor, who would painstakingly convert each report into the outlined formatting. During the 2022 survey, though, we heard from membership that formatting wasn’t a high priority. Based on this feedback, the Pacific Seabirds committee has updated (and hopefully streamlined) the method for submitting Regional Reports!
One of the biggest changes to the Regional Report submission process is that anyone can now submit their work directly to Pacific Seabirds via a new online submission form! Regional Representatives will still serve as an important source of information and reminders for members of PSG in their respective regions. This updated process will hopefully help streamline not only the editing of Regional Reports, but allow for members who live in one region but do work in another to submit their updates to the appropriate region with less confusion. Reporters will also be able to easily submit multiple shorter reports if they have projects going on in multiple different regions. Finally, this new process will be available to seabird researchers and conservationists who aren’t necessarily PSG members, allowing for the inclusion of more relevant information to PSG members.
For more information about the Regional Report submission process or to access the link to the submission form, click here. Regional Reports will be due by March 15th of each year and come out in each spring issue of Pacific Seabirds!
Additional Content
Members are welcome and encouraged to submit content to each new issue of Pacific Seabirds! The committee is looking forward to receiving submissions related to anything members are currently working on, from reports to art, and recommendations to current events. The publication will also now support a few regular series, including committee updates, upcoming events, and more. We are especially excited about the new member updates series—a chance to celebrate achievements of our members and any other changes or moves members of PSG want to share. In this issue, for example, we’re celebrating a thesis defense, our PSG Fulbright Scholars, and more! If you retire, get a promotion or new position, defend a thesis, or want to share another event, we want to know about it so we can share it with all of PSG!
To learn more about our content submission guidelines or to access the content submission link, click here.
Looking Ahead
The entire Pacific Seabirds committee is excited to welcome you to this first issue of the new version of our organization’s long-standing publication! We’re also excited to continue working alongside PSG membership to deliver important news and relevant information in a new way! If you have feedback or ideas, we would love your input. Please email editor@pacificseabirdgroup.org with those ideas or with any questions. Enjoy!
