[wfc] The end of the road

[Robert J. Hanisch]

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!

Please participate in the public discussion of the FITS time specifications discussions via the new format.

Thanks,
cheers,
Bob

From: Arnold Rots <arots at cfa.harvard.edu<mailto:arots at cfa.harvard.edu>>
Date: Wednesday, 26 March 2014 11:16 AM
To: "wfc at nrao.edu<mailto:wfc at nrao.edu>" <wfc at nrao.edu<mailto:wfc at nrao.edu>>
Cc: "Robert J. Hanisch" <hanisch at stsci.edu<mailto:hanisch at stsci.edu>>, Frossie Economou <frossie at noao.edu<mailto:frossie at noao.edu>>
Subject: The end of the road

Dear colleagues,

I suspect that most of you are aware of the vote that took place in December 2013,
but I realized that I have been seriously amiss in not passing the result on to you
officially.

The IAU FWG voted in favor of the change in its voting rules. Although that sounds
rather innocuous, it has a dramatic impact on the AAS's WGAS FITS Committee, as we
are officially known; more colloquially, we were the North American regional FITS
committee.
One of the changes in the IAU Working Group's voting rules was the elimination of the
regional FITS committees. Ergo, we do not exist anymore.

Thus. it is my task now to convey to you that we have been dismissed.
I would like to thank all of you (and by implication our past members) for your service.
It has been an important service; our committee has served the community well and
provided a meaningful contribution during an era when global connectivity was not
what it is today. The landscape in digital astronomy is dramatically different from what
it was several decades ago when the WFC was constituted and that change (to which
we did contribute as well) has made changes in how we develop our standards inevitable.
Part of that is the obsolescence of the regional committees.

Thank you again and au revoir!

  - Arnold

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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 cfa.harvard.edu<mailto:arots at cfa.harvard.edu>
USA                                                   http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/
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