Joining the Otter Specialist Group

The Otter Specialist Group is part of the IUCN Species Survival Commision, and applies the aims of SSC to otters:

• to inform the world about the status and trends of global biodiversity, thus providing measures for the health of our one and only biosphere
• to monitor, evaluate and report on the effectiveness of the combined global conservation actions to mitigate current and emerging threats to biodiversity

Aims and Scope of OSG

As with all Specialist Groups of the World Conservation Union (IUCN),  group members are appointed by, and at the discretion of, the Chair of the OSG, who is himself appointed by SSC. Beyond a requirement to have a continental coordinator for each continent on which the group's organism of interest is found, it is entirely up to the Chair how the group is organised and what kind of membership it has.

Jim Conroy, the Chariman of OSG, believes the aims of the group are best met by a broad range of skills, experience and disciplines, so the current membership covers zoologists, toxicologists, ecologists, conservation practictioners, wildlife rehabilitators, zoo personnel, educators and public communicators amongst others.

The Chair has set up a small Membership Team to handle applications and proposals for membership and to conduct the initial assessment.  This team consists of Lesley Wright, Nicole Duplaix, Arno Gutleb, Tom Serfass and Anna Roos.  We then recommend new appointees to the Chair.  If he approves them, Lesley Wright, the Membership Secretary, issues the formal invitation to join the group, acting on the Chair’s behalf.

There are three levels of membership: full members, affiliate members and student members. Affiliate membership is an intermediate category, usually reserved for new applicants who may eventually become full members, depending on their level of experience with otters.

Any member of the OSG can propose others for membership.  What we are looking for is people who demonstrate a long-term commitment to otter conservation, in the broadest sense – this means that we have a very wide range of members: researchers, environmentalists, ecologists, toxicologists, zoo staff, rehabilitators, vets, educators and many others.  This produces an active forum with a wide range of views, but everyone should have as their primary focus the continued survival of otters.

How to Join OSG

Firstly, read about the scope and purpose of IUCN, SSC and OSG

If you believe you can make a contribution, please email to Lesley (lc.wright@yahoo.co.uk)

• a short (one or two page) resume of your otter-related experience, current activity and future plans, and your areas of interest
• if available, any supporting text from an existing OSG member

This will then be circulated to the Membership Team for consideration.

If and when you are accepted as a member, Lesley will also need

1. about 100 words outlining who you are and what you do (for introducing you to the rest of the members of OSG) and
2. a longer paragraph with more detail about your current otter work and interests including any web links for the Members-Only pages of the website, plus a postal address, phone number and email address. This information will only be available to OSG using a password-protected area of the website. the purpose of this is to allow other members to look for potential collaborators or people who have specialist knowledge or unusual resources.

If you have any queries please contact Lesley (lc.wright@yahoo.co.uk )

The OSG Membership Team