[wfc] Call for Votes: WGAS FITS Committee review of the new FITS Standard

[Arnold Rots]

Dear WFC Members,

At the request of the IAU FITS Working Group I am calling on our
committee to conduct a review and vote on the proposed new FITS 
standard document.

Under our IAU FWG voting rules (at
http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/iaufwg/iaufwg_rules.html) the nominal time
period for this review is 3 weeks, but Bill Pence has extended this to
allow for the end of year holidays, and asks that the voting be 
completed by January 14, 2008 if possible.

All the necessary review material is available on the following web 
page:  http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_draft.html

In particular, it has been suggested that we concentrate our review
on the following 3 documents:

   1. Summary of Recommended Changes, dated 2007 July 23.
      This document summarizes most of the changes that were
      initially recommended by the Technical Panel.

   2. The Technical Panel's response to the public comments that
      were received from 23 July to 22 October 2007.

   3. The color-coded "differences" document that shows in detail
      all the differences between the latest new draft (version 3a)
      and the previous official version 2.1b.


CALL FOR VOTE
-------------

The formal question that is put to an affirmative (YES) or negative (NO)
vote is:

    Do you vote in favor of accepting version 3a of FITS Standard
    document as the authoritative standard, and, by implication, do you
    endorse the changes proposed in version 3a?

      ___  YES

      ___  NO


Votes need to be cast by 14 January 2008 23:59 (EST)

A vote of approval requires that at least 2/3 of the committee members 
cast a vote, and at least 2/3 of the votes must be in favor of the 
proposed changes. With a voting membership of 16, this means that the
casting of 11 votes is required.

In addition to this overall vote on the proposed changes, you may also
submit comments or suggestions for improving the new Standard document.
The IAU FWG will consider these comments during its final review of
the document.

Cheers,

  - Arnold


Current voting membership of the WFC:

afarris at nrao.edu               Allen Farris (NRAO)
arne at aavso.org                 Arne Henden (USNO? AAVSO?)
arots at head.cfa.harvard.edu     Arnold Rots (CfA)
bob at ipac.caltech.edu           Bob Narron (IPAC)
caa at gemini.edu                 Colin Aspin (Gemini)
Daniel.durand at nrc.ca           Daniel Durand (CADC)
dtody at nrao.edu                 Doug Tody (NRAO)
egreisen at nrao.edu              Eric Greisen (NRAO)
jcm at head-cfa.harvard.edu       Jonathan McDowell (CfA)
rthomp at stsci.edu               Randy Thompson (STScI)
seaman at noao.edu                Rob Seaman (NOAO)
skip at lco.cl                    Skip Schaller (Las Campanas)
sla at ucolick.org                Steve Allen (Lick)
stephen.walton at csun.edu        Steve Walton (CSU)
teuben at astro.umd.edu           Peter Teuben (U Md)
William.D.Pence at nasa.gov       Bill Pence (NASA/GSFC)


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Arnold H. Rots                                Chandra X-ray Science Center
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory                tel:  +1 617 496 7701
60 Garden Street, MS 67                              fax:  +1 617 495 7356
Cambridge, MA 02138                             arots at head.cfa.harvard.edu
USA                                     http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/
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