membership, increasing participation from ornithologists throughout the Mid- 
dle East and a dynamic, hard-working Council. I have greatly enjoyed playing a 
small part in developing the Society and it has been a sp)ecial pleasure to work 
alongside such a good-humoured and committed group of individuals. 
Your new Chairman, Geoff Welch, will help to strengthen, broaden and develop 
OSME in many beneficial ways. He has been a tower of strength, serving as joint- 
secretary and librarian with great skill and dedication. His quiet, authoritative 
manner and knowledge of Middle Eastern birds and conservation issues will be 
of enormous value to the Society. 
Michael Rands 
Forthcoming OSME meetings 
The fifteenth and sixteenth OSME AGMs will be held on 17 July 1993 and 9 July 
1994 respectively. OSME is also planning another joint meeting in the Nether- 
lands in May 1993, and a further joint meeting with Birding World at Cley, 
Norfolk on 2 May 1993. Further details and locations will be announced in 
Bulletin 30. 
OSME situations vacant 
Would you like to contribute to the work of OSME? In July 1993, the roles of 
Treasurer, Publicity Officer and Membership Secretary fall vacant. Useful 
attributes for all these jobs are - a sense of humour, a commitment to OSME and 
plenty of spare time! 
The Treasurer: is required to provide accurate information on finances for the 
day-to-day running of the Society and to ensure that Council's ideas are not 
beyond the Society's means. Experience of accountancy would be an advantage. 
Please contact the current Treasurer, Major David Counsell, for further informa- 
tion (tel 0892 529110 or write c/o OSME). The post runs from July 1993 for five 
years. 
The Publicity Officer: organises events, deals with advertising, and devises 
other promotional schemes. If you feel OSME could be promoted better and 
would like to see more activities for members then this is the one for you - OSME 
is what you make it! Contact Mark Andrews (tel 0533 834875 or write c/o OSME) 
for details. The post runs from July 1993 for five years. 
The Membership Secretary: organises mailings, membership renewals, and 
deals with membership enquiries. Must be able to operate membership database 
on own computer. Contact Chris Tucker (tel: 0234 742333 or write c/o OSME) for 
details. 
These jobs must be filled at next year's ACM. If you v^ould like to help 
w^ith running OSME in other ways, please contact the Chairman, Geoff 
Welch (tel 072 873 298 or write c/o OSME) for details of other roles for 
which volunteers are required. 
30 
