Twelfth Annual General Meeting 
The Twelfth OSME AGM was held on 2 July 1990. It was well attended, 
and was generally hailed as on of the best yet. The talks were all of a 
very high standard and the business part of the meeting passed 
smoothly and quickly. 
This year, the contributors have been asked to submit copies of their 
talks for publication in the Bulletin, and that of Geoff and Hilary Welch 
is reproduced here as 'Djibouti - six years on'. Mike Jennings gave an 
account of the progress that has been made on the Atlas of Breeding 
Birds of Arabia, and surprised many people with his assertion that a 
survey of an area the size of an EngUsh county was quite possible in a 
morning - providing the habitat was fairly uniform desert. Mike has 
promised an update of the project for the next Bulletin. 
Paul Doherty stepped in at the last minute to provide a feast of superb 
photographs, mainly of raptors in Israel. He concentrated on the 
bewildering plumage variations shown by Steppe Buzzards (see Paul's 
article and colour photographs with H Shirihai in Birding World 
3(1):10-14), but he also showed many other species. Paul's talk was 
very well received, but the Bulletin could not do it justice. Instead, Paul 
has promised some tips on bird photography in Middle Eastern 
conditions for the spring issue. 
In the AGM itself, OSME's Chairman, Mike Rands, announced two 
ambitious initiatives: the Society's second expedition, to southern 
Yemen in 1992 or 1993; and a project to gather data for and eventually 
publish a sites inventory - 'Important Bird Areas in the Middle East'. 
Both of these will receive greater coverage in the Bulletin in due course. 
At this year's AGM, two Council members who have given stalwart 
service to OSME over the years retired: Dave Fisher and Mike Jen- 
nings. Indeed, they are the only two members to have completed two 
spells on Council, and thus have helped steer the Society through its 
formative years. 
In addition to their wise counsel, Dave has almost singlehanded edited 
the OSME Bulletin and maintained its very high standard; whilst Mike 
has ensured close contact with Arabia and the all-important Atlas of 
Breeding Birds of Arabia (ABBA) project, to which many members 
have contributed. We are sure that it won't be long before they are back 
helping OSME again. 
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