Proceedings of the Ninety-Eighth Annual Meeting

COMMENDATION WHEREAS THE WILSON ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY held its Annual Meeting in Fort Myers, Florida, on the beautiful campus of Florida Gulf Coast University, and RECOGNIZING that the Committee on the Scientific Program, under the astute direction of Jameson F. Chace, arranged and executed an exemplary exposition of oral and poster presentations, which included a workshop on banding birds, conducted by the North American Banding Council, and a symposium on the conservation of Florida birds, and RECOGNIZING that the Committee on Local Arrangements, through the efforts of Jerome A. Jackson, Bette J. S. Jackson, Kara Lefevre, and their able assistants provided a comfortable venue with warm hospitality, excellent meeting facilities, numerous opportunities for the conferees to interact both professionally and socially, outstanding field trips to view the South Florida bird life, and really nice weather, and WHEREAS the conferees found this meeting both informative and enjoyable, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that The Wilson Ornithological Society commends the Committee on the Scientific Program, the Committee on Local Arrangements, and Florida Gulf Coast University for a most successful and rewarding meeting in Fort Myers.COMMENDATION WHEREAS during the past two years Sara R. Morris has served The Wilson Ornithological Society in the role of President, and RECOGNIZING that her presidency was preceded by her service to the Society as an elected councilor, as chair of several committees, and as secretary, and RECOGNIZING that guided by her leadership The Wilson Ornithological Society has undergone significant administrative transformations to function effectively in the 21st Century, and that these transformations included selecting and migrating our membership and database functions to a new interactive program and adopting an online platform for manuscript submission and management for The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, and RECOGNIZING that despite the enormous workload she undertook she still maintained her characteristic sense of humor, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that The Wilson Ornithological Society offers its sincere gratitude to Sara Morris, and looks forward to her contributions as she continues to serve the Society in her new role as Past President.COMMENDATION WHEREAS John Smallwood has served The Wilson Ornithological Society in the role of Secretary for an astounding 16 years, and RECOGNIZING that as Secretary, he has faithfully recorded the minutes of co