Subject: WGAS FITS Committee (WFC)

From: hanisch at stsci.edu (Bob Hanisch, ST ScI)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 15:34:32 GMT

As chair of the AAS Working Group on Astronomical Software I have appointed a
standing committee under the WGAS that will be the formal voting authority on
issues related to the FITS standard.  As many WGAS members know, in the past
our votes on FITS issues have been rather informal, including those WGAS
members who were able to attend our meetings during the summer AAS meeting.
The WGAS FITS Committee is analogous to the European and Japanese FITS
Committees, both of which have a formal voting membership.

  It is my intention to include all interested parties in the discussion of
FITS issues via the FITS newsgroup, WGAS meetings, ad hoc committees on
specific issues (e.g., the world coordinate systems that are now being
discussed), BoF sessions at the ADASS conferences, etc.  However, in order to
assure that all major data producing and data archiving institutions are
represented when issues come to a vote, the WFC has been constituted.  I have
tried to make sure that everyone is properly represented, but I would
appreciate it if people would bring to my attention any major omissions or
oversights.

  I have appointed Don Wells of NRAO as chair of this committee, and he will
organize the voting for the FITS proposals that are now before us (binary
tables extension, image extension, and agreement on FITS on media other than
9-track magnetic tape).

  Voting will be carried out by e-mail.  Approval of any issue will require at
least 13 positive votes.  In practice we will strive to work out any
substantive disagreements so that votes can be unanimous.

  The WGAS FITS Committee membership is attached below.

Bob Hanisch
Chair, AAS Working Group on Astronomical Software
hanisch at stsci.edu

                   WGAS FITS Committee, November 1992

Don Wells, NRAO (Chair)			dwells at nrao.edu
Lee Brotzman, NSSDC 			brotzman at ndadsa.gsfc.nasa.gov
Dennis Crabtree, DAO/CADC		crabtree at dao.nrc.ca
Eric Greisen, NRAO			egreisen at nrao.edu
Bob Hanisch, ST ScI (ex officio)	hanisch at stsci.edu
Arne Henden, OSU			henden at mps.ohio-state.edu
William Lupton, Keck Obs.		wlupton at keck.hawaii.edu
Eric Mandel, SAO			eric at cfa.harvard.edu
Bob Narron, IPAC			bob at ipac.caltech.edu
Bill Pence, HEASARC			pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov
Jeff Percival, U.Wis.			jwp at sal.wisc.edu
Skip Schaller, U.Ariz.			skip at as.arizona.edu
Barry Schlesinger, NASA FITS Office	bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
Peter Teuben, U. Md.			teuben at astro.umd.edu
Doug Tody, NOAO				tody at noao.edu
Michael Van Steenberg 			mev at ndadsa.gsfc.nasa.gov
Archie Warnock, NSSDC			warnock at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov
Winifred Williams, NSO			wwilliams at noao.edu

Preben Grosbol, ESO, IAU (non-voting)	pgrosbol at eso.org

---
Robert J. Hanisch                       Tel. (410)338-4910   Fax. (410)338-5090
Space Telescope Science Institute       NSI: hanisch at stsci.edu [130.167.1.2]
3700 San Martin Drive                   DECNet: STSCIC::HANISCH [6549::] 
Baltimore, MD  21218  USA               Bitnet: hanisch at stsci
To all members of the FITS community: