Subject: WFC unanimous (20-0) on BINTABLE/IMAGE/Blocking

From: dwells (Don Wells)
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 93 11:34:20 EDT

Dear WFC friends,

There is no need to tabulate the YESes and NOs -- the WFC vote is
unanimous, 20-0 in favor of the BINTABLE, IMAGE and Blocking
proposals. I will post the result to sci.astro.* and to the WGAS and
HEAFITS lists within the next few days, but I wanted WFC to hear it
first.

I thank all of you for your patience during this long WFC process. I
want to give a special "thank you" to three voting members -- Eric
Greisen, Bill Pence, Doug Tody -- and to one non-voting member --
Preben Grosbol -- who assisted and advised Bill Cotton in the recent
negotiations regarding revisions to the BINTABLE draft. The spirit of
cooperation shown during this WFC process was consistent with our FITS
traditions. The BINTABLE process is now nearly complete, after more
than seven years of sustained effort by Bill Cotton and many other
people.  I hope that this duration (7+ years) will set a record that
will never be beaten!

Preben Grosbol and I expect that the Japanese FITS Committee will vote
soon. If, as we expect, they also approve the proposals, then the IAU
FITS Working Group will consider them. It is still possible to get WG
approval before the deadline to make the agenda for the Hague meeting,
in order to get a 1994 General Assembly resolution giving final IAU
approval to the three proposals.

Regards,
Don

  Donald C. Wells           Associate Scientist       [email-masked]
  National Radio Astronomy Observatory                +1-804-296-0277
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