Nov. 13 Exec Call

Nov. 13 Exec Call

On Call: Martin, Susan, Connie, William, Nancy
Membership renewals will be going out shortly. L.C. has auto renew and forms are already in hand. Nancy will check in with Eric and Michelle in SIngapore about their renewal and we will also poke at Simon Lui (NAL) about upgrading from affiliate to full membership.
Membership committee will convene soon about two outstanding applications, SANBI and CONABIO and will report back to membership about recommendations. Other institutions we want to follow-up on include Natural History Museum in Paris, Carnegie Museum and Univ. of South Hampton. Susan drafted informational letter to prospective members (on Google Doc) for discussion with Membership Committee
Martin will send a clean copy of the revised MOU to members today --to be sent to appropriate administrators for signatures.
Martin discussed plan for Mexico trip. He and William had a conference call with CONABIO staff in preparation for visit in mid December. Day 1 will sketch out their participation and day 2 will include meeting with head of CONABIO with official signing of MOU. Martin will send revised MOU and bylaws in advance for review and approval prior to signing.
CONABIO is paying for on-ground expenses. BHL is paying for air travel. Martin, William, Nancy and Carolyn will be attending. Connie unable to stay for entire visit but will participate via Skype.

William gave tech update - Mining Biodiversity starting to train on to tag to create the golden standard which will be fed into algorithm. Purposeful Gaming has constant flow of N&S catalogs and fieldnotes. A workflow for corrections is in process and group will be meeting with gaming co. to see back end of game. Players can improve OCR. Two different transcription tools in play will improve overall accuracy by bringing out the differences in results. SI has queued up items from transcription center which have already been through quality control process. Art of Life had some server problems now resolved and is using IA Flickr content. Changes to BHL portal/user interface improvements -- No more Citebank.org -- all content has been re-directed.
Next two Members meetings fall on Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays so Carolyn will send out a Doodle poll to reschedule the Nov/Dec Members call.