The Illinois Ornithological Records Committee, or IORC, is the committee of the Illinois Ornithological Society that evaluates records of rare birds and maintains the official Illinois State List of Birds, among other activities. We operate as a seven person unit, consisting of an annually elected Secretary and six members who are elected to staggered three-year terms. One of the members serves as the committee’s Vice-Secretary.
At the end of each year, two of the staggered three-year member terms comes to a close. This year, the memberships of Walter Marcisz and Paul Sweet ended. Both individuals were serving a second consecutive three-year term, and IORC’s bylaws mandates that such individuals must step off IORC before becoming eligible to serve again. IORC has been fortunate: not only have both Walter and Paul consistently provided expert commentary on rarity records, they have each contributed to the work of IORC in other ways.
Walter Marcisz served on IORC from 2017 through 2022. During that time, he helped to smooth the interaction between IORC and eBird, and he contributed greatly in identifying and recruiting new members for service on IORC. His evaluations of records were always thorough and typically included thoughtful and informative commentary. His voice in deliberations will be missed.
Paul Sweet is one of the longest serving IORC members over its entire history. He has been active on IORC in one form or another since 2005, including a number of three-year terms as a voting member, broken up by a multi-year stint of service as the IORC secretary. He further served for five years as vice-secretary of IORC. Paul also chaired a Bylaws Subcommittee for IORC, leading a significant revision of IORC’s operating procedures over the course of several years. In addition, Paul served as chair of the Archives Subcommittee, substantively advancing that subcommittee’s efforts to make more broadly available the variety of materials in IORC’s archives as well as to set standards for materials to archive for present-day records, including those that come to IORC via eBird. Thank you, Paul, for all your contributions!
Replacing Walter and Paul on IORC are Steve Huggins and Dan Williams, each elected to a three-year term as a voting member. Steve Huggins began birding at the age of four in his native England, and developed rigorous skills in the British birding scene. He has traveled broadly throughout the world on quests for birds and has seen about a half of the world’s species. He is well-known in Illinois as an accomplished birding and nature guide based in Chicago. Dan Williams has been a nature and bird enthusiast from an early age. Since the early 1970s he has been a advocate for conservation in the Rockford area and has contributed much energy to foster an appreciation of nature. The leadership positions he has held in local, state, and national organizations are too numerous to list here, but among those fortunate to have benefitted from his involvement are the North Central Illinois Ornithological Society, the Illinois Audubon Society, the Sinnissippi, the Burpee Museum of Natural History, and the Natural Land Institute. He was president of the American Birding Association from 1993 to 1997. He is a keen observer with a deep knowledge of the birds of Illinois, the United States, and through his extensive travels, the world.
The roster of IORC members for 2023 are the following individuals:
- Geoff Williamson (secretary)
- Steve Huggins
- Davida Kalina
- Adam Sell (vice-secretary)
- Terry Walsh
- Kyle Wiktor
- Dan Williams
