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<div>While it may be the end of the road for the Committee per se, it is not yet the end of the road for FITS or a rejection of your interest in it!</div>
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<div>Please participate in the public discussion of the FITS time specifications discussions via the new format.</div>
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<div>Thanks,</div>
<div>cheers,</div>
<div>Bob</div>
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<span style="font-weight:bold">From: </span>Arnold Rots <<a href="mailto:arots@cfa.harvard.edu">arots@cfa.harvard.edu</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Date: </span>Wednesday, 26 March 2014 11:16 AM<br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">To: </span>"<a href="mailto:wfc@nrao.edu">wfc@nrao.edu</a>" <<a href="mailto:wfc@nrao.edu">wfc@nrao.edu</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Cc: </span>"Robert J. Hanisch" <<a href="mailto:hanisch@stsci.edu">hanisch@stsci.edu</a>>, Frossie Economou <<a href="mailto:frossie@noao.edu">frossie@noao.edu</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Subject: </span>The end of the road<br>
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<div>Dear colleagues,<br>
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I suspect that most of you are aware of the vote that took place in December 2013,<br>
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but I realized that I have been seriously amiss in not passing the result on to you<br>
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officially.<br>
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The IAU FWG voted in favor of the change in its voting rules. Although that sounds<br>
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rather innocuous, it has a dramatic impact on the AAS's WGAS FITS Committee, as we<br>
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are officially known; more colloquially, we were the North American regional FITS<br>
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committee.<br>
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One of the changes in the IAU Working Group's voting rules was the elimination of the<br>
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<div>regional FITS committees. Ergo, we do not exist anymore.<br>
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<div>Thus. it is my task now to convey to you that we have been dismissed.<br>
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<div>I would like to thank all of you (and by implication our past members) for your service.<br>
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<div>It has been an important service; our committee has served the community well and<br>
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<div>provided a meaningful contribution during an era when global connectivity was not<br>
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<div>what it is today. The landscape in digital astronomy is dramatically different from what<br>
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<div>it was several decades ago when the WFC was constituted and that change (to which<br>
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<div>we did contribute as well) has made changes in how we develop our standards inevitable.<br>
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<div>Part of that is the obsolescence of the regional committees.<br>
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<div>Thank you again and au revoir!<br>
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<div> - Arnold<br>
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<div dir="ltr">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
Arnold H. Rots Chandra X-ray Science Center<br>
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory tel: +1 617 496 7701<br>
60 Garden Street, MS 67 fax: +1 617 495 7356<br>
Cambridge, MA 02138 <a href="mailto:arots@cfa.harvard.edu" target="_blank">
arots@cfa.harvard.edu</a><br>
USA <a href="http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/" target="_blank">
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/</a><br>
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