President’s Welcome 2025

Hoping to welcome you at the 77th MOS Convention.

From the 26th to the 28th of September 2025, MOS will hold its annual Convention (the 77th!) in
Frederick, MD. We very much hope to welcome you there in person.

Whether this is your first MOS Convention or whether you have not missed one in many years, there will
be something new for you. Most of our Conventions take place at the end of, or in mid-Spring. Last year
we had a mid-Fall Convention in Ocean City, MD, just one week before Thanksgiving. This year, we’ll
have a rare early Fall Convention at the end of September. Any warbler we’ll meet will be a rarity, unless it
is a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Nevertheless, you will be able to enjoy the diversity of birds in our State!
There will be many field trips, led by skilled leaders and attended by many MOS members. At the end of
this week, on Saturday July 26, you will be able to sign up for attending field trips.

Here are other changes compared to previous Conventions: we shall not stay every day, evening and
night at one and the same hotel. Frederick is close enough to Washington D.C., Montgomery and Howard
Counties, Baltimore, and other localities, to go back home every night.

More changes: the organizers of the Convention will not be the same as in previous years. Meg Harris
has stepped down after organizing 5 MOS Conventions. She is now replaced by Jim Rapp, another
enthusiastic and skilled organizer. The MOS Officers are also changing. On September 1st, I will stop
being MOS President and will become Past President while Steve Sheffield, Professor of Biology at the
U. of MD, Bowie, becomes President.

MOS Conventions are geared toward birders as much as they are toward birds. Become friends with
members of other chapters and of your own chapter, maybe around a nice drink. Learn about other U.S.
birding organizations; view and learn from interesting posters presented by researchers, biology students, conservationists or environmentalists. Meet our sponsors who will be delighted to talk to you; tempt your luck at winning something in a raffle or silent auction.

Each of our conventions is the perfect opportunity for reviewing our history and contemplating our future! Please, think of becoming part of it!

See you in Frederick,

Evelyn Ralston and Steve Sheffield
MOS President and Incoming MOS President