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HISTORY OF NORAC
and North American Breeding Bird Conferences

1981: Northeastern Breeding Bird Atlas Conference held 6, 7, & 8 November 1981 at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Woodstock, Vermont, with 14 states and provinces represented. Conference organized by Sally Laughlin, Chan Robbins, and Doug Kibbe. Proceedings were published by VINS.

1982: American Birds article "Atlasing the distribution of the breeding birds of North America, by Sarah B. Laughlin, Douglas P. Kibbe, and Paul F.J. Eagles. January 1982 issue.

1986: American Breeding Bird Atlas Conference at Cornell. Organized by Sally Sutcliffe and held at the Arnot Forest, this conference brought together western and eastern atlaseres and was the catalyst for the NORAC handbook.

1987: Atlas Conference at the AOU meeting in San Francisco.

1990: Handbook for Atlasing North American Breeding Birds published
The NORAC guidelines were compiled in this publication, edited by Charles R. Smith and published by the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, in an English and Spanish version, supported by a grant from the Merck Family Fund.
      Contents: Introduction by C. R. Smith; Standardized Breeding Criteria Codes, S. B. Laughlin, J. R. Carroll, and S.R. Sutcliffe; Planning a Biological Atlas, P.F.J. Eagles and David Balser; Survey Methods and Mapping Grids, C.R. Robbins and P.B. Geissler; Computer Guidelines by D.W. Brauning, L.A. Payzant, and L.P.M. Payzant; Publishing the Breeding Bird Atlas, J.R. Carroll; and Uses of Atlas Data by P.F.J. Eagles. The NORAC Directory of Atlas Contacts making up the back section of the book was revised and the booklet reprinted in 1994. The book is now out of print and instead available electronically at the BSC Website.

1991: 4th Breeding Bird Atlas Conference in Colorado. Held September 13-15, 1991 in Keystone Colorado; proceedings were published by the Colorado Bird Atlas, c/o the Denver Museum of Natural History.

1992: NORAC met in Estes Park Colorado at the Conference on the Status and Management of Neotropical Migratory Birds. A committee was appointed to give a recommendation on repeat atlases: Charles Smith, Mike Cadman, and Chan Robbins. Their later recommendation was that atlases be repeated at 20 year intervals.

1994: 5th NORAC Conference at AOU in Montana. Proceedings were not published: the Chair's luggage was lost on the return flight along with notes and tapes of the session!

1999: 6th NORAC Conference prior to AOU at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

2004: 7th NORAC Conference prior to AFO meeting in Ithaca, NY.

2006: 8th NORAC Conference to be held prior to NAOC meeting in October 2006 in Veracruz, Mexico.