Re: Re: AIS: checklist
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] Re: AIS: checklist
- From: J* J*
- Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 08:08:58 -0700
Iris Moose wrote:
>
> There is a massive misunderstanding and lack of knowledge concerning
> what
> the responsibilities are of being an ICRA (International Cultivar
> Registration Authority). I asked several questions the other
> day...one of them being "Which AIS directors are familiar
> with the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated
> Plants?" How many AIS directors even own a copy of the
> International Code Of Nomenclature For Cultivate Plants 1995,
> the book which details AIS's role as the ICRA for Iris?
Perhaps no one knew the answers, or thought the questions beyond their
scope of interest.
I don't know how many directors have a copy of the code or understand
the Nomenclature. I do know that they don't need to.-The reason?- They
have delegated that responsibility, appropriately so, to the
Registration committee. Delegation of authority is the key to
management. I know of very few CEOs that understand accounting, they
delegate to CFOs. The same principle applies. The members of the
Registration committee are knowledgeable, and pay attention to the
actions and RFCs of the governing body.
Second, Most of the actions of the ICRA have no impact on irises and the
actions of the registration process for irises.
Thirdly, The actions of the ICRA are not mandatory on the registration
authority for any plant. They are essentially advisory. For instance,
the ICRA allows five words in a name. We choose to only allow three.
Fourthly, yes we participated in the last conference, and will in the
2002. BTW, most actions of the body are accomplished in writing (mail, email)
> When the directors approved the digitizing of the Registration data
> they basically approved and but did not support it. I say this because I
> am reading about volunteers being turned down to help because they do not
> have a copy of one of the printed books. If the directors supported this
> project then surely AIS could have given the project a set of books that could
> have been torn apart and the appropriate pages mailed to people to assist.
> This might have cost the Society $100 but the job might already have been
> completed. Also, if the directors were familiar with current discussions
> relating to the digitizing of Registration records, they may have
> approached the project quite differently.
Once again you are making assumptions that are based only on your
perception of how things should be.
The Board of Directors have been very supportive. Among other things,
they allocate funds to pay for the website. And no, a "free" site would
be unacceptable for lots of reasons.
I am aware of only a few (2-3 max) volunteers that wanted to work but
did not have the books. For one I arranged a loaner.
The Board delegated (darn! there is that word again) the responsibility
for this project to me. I am aware of the discussions, have been from
the beginning before the project even started, and no I don't think I
would have approached it much differently. I had not thought of buying a
book and tearing it apart. It is an interesting idea. It would require
more administration (mailing etc) and that is an issue. If the
volunteers were to type the entries into an electronic document, then
there would have to be at least one if not two other volunteers to
proofread each section. More administration.
The '59 has been scanned already and under going preliminary
corrections. Maybe I will take Linda up on her offer. Actually, the
"tear up the book" concept may be most useful on the '39 where scanning
is going to be a lot less effective. Too much information is indicated
by typography, which can't be very well translated by scanning. But then
everyone has to know how to interpret every nuance of the entries.
There was no deadline set for completion of this project. It has gone a
little slower than I had hoped, but a significant part of that is the
amount of time I have available.
> The last Congress met in Scotland in 1998 and the topic of
> electronic checklists was on everyone's tongue
>.
Darn, and here I thought it was my own original idea, drat!
> Did you know that the next
> edition of
> the "Code" will be issued in 2003?
The registration committee did.
> I can reveal that it was resolved that there will be no mention
> of the term "culton", nor indeed will the word "taxon"
> appear: the next edition will remove much botanical
> jargon in an effort to become even more user-friendly for those
> non-toxonomists that the "Code" is designed to serve."
Sounds like you should join the AIS and become a member of the
Registration committee.
> Gerry, did you know that AIS as the ICRA maintains the registration
> record of Iris for everyone on this planet...not just for the sole use and
> benefit of AIS members?
And the AIS makes the publications available to everyone on the planet.
The website is as well. There is no requirement to provide either of
them for free.
> Also, the format of the R & I's is copyrighted but the data
> is not. AIS can not claim the data belongs to them solely. Fifty
> different people can produce fifty different CD-Rom versions of the same data
> but formatted differently and sell them all day long. There is no
> copyright infringement there
Actually that may be true. I have not researched the body of law to
evaluate that aspect of things. That would mean that each volunteer held
copyright to their section, but I hold copyright to the whole database
as it is published on the website.
John | "There be dragons here"
| Annotation used by ancient cartographers
| to indicate the edge of the known world.
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