Collaboration is Key: Revising ICAO's IBIS Manual

I have just spent a week in Washington DC working with an amazing team on a revision of the ICAO Birdstrike Information System (IBIS) manual. This document outlines how States (countries) should send wildlife strike data to ICAO but at thirty years old, you can appreciate how out of date its guidance is.

Obviously, the B in IBIS is still focused on birds when we have moved to the broader concept of wildlife and if you delve deeper into the document, it provides a data structure much more suited to magnetic tape rather than cloud-hosted databases. But more importantly, we have thirty years of experience in data collection, analysis and sharing that we would like to incorporate into this guidance material.

We are still in the process of revision, and it would be inappropriate for me to share our current work, as it remains subject to change. Instead, I would like to talk about the process itself and the way this group of people from around the world* worked collaboratively to build some momentum. With that energy, we hope to have the document finished within the next year, on time.

All Chefs and No Cooks?

By the nature of ICAO working and expert groups, you tend to get the people that set the standards back home and run their own State's systems in these meetings. And while that provides for a lot of expertise, it can also bring together a fleet of freight trains. All running on their own tracks with tonnes of weight behind them.

Not so with this group. Plenty of members came from States with very mature wildlife strike reporting systems but we all recognised the limitations of our own approaches. Plus, we had a couple of representatives from and some consultants that have worked with developing nations to keep us honest and provide their own insight.

But above all that, it was the attitude and the integrity each person brought to the process. Every aspect of this document was discussed and re-discussed over the course of three days. We built, refined and, where necessary, tore down parts of the document as we homed in on what we wanted this document to say. Which was also a bit of a moving target at times.

Listening to Good Arguments

My own thoughts, ideas and positions were challenged and shifted during this week and thanks to the knowledge and experience in the room. Whether through logical explanations, clarifying confusing language or the expert use of an analogy derived from an anecdote delivered by another person the day before (see Smithsonian visit below), these discussions built on each other.

Once it became clear that everyone in the room was comfortable (hopefully) with being challenged, the ideas really began to flow. Argument and counterargument led to changed minds, better outcomes and more than a bit of laughter. The intellectual in me loved it.

Distraction or Team Building?

While it might seem irrelevant to the document update and more an opportunistic excursion, on the second afternoon, we took a break to visit the feather identification and DNA labs at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum across the Mall. Dr Carla Dove and her team led us into the famed specimen storage facility in the museum and presented a range of rare, bizarre, and famous specimens they have worked on.

Both the growing bird nerd part of me and the well-established #avgeek part were in paradise with specimens from US1549, extinct birds and many species I am yet to see in the wild. Unfortunately, we only got to scratch the surface with over 500,000 specimens in the collection. Dr Dove has so many great anecdotes, but I don't want to spoil them here. If you are lucky enough to attend a conference with her presenting, it would be better for you to get the punchline firsthand.

But was this just a distraction? I don't think so.

In the first instance, it was a drawcard for me even attending (and as a bonus, I got to take my oldest child along) but it was also a great team building exercise. The shared experience promoting bonds and triggered many discussions over dinner that night. And, as mentioned above, some of the stories told by Dr Dove were used the next day to put forward compelling arguments for why the IBIS manual should contain some paragraphs and not others.

It was a very functional highlight.

English Sucks

Just as a final point, let me have a whinge about the English language. Luckily for me, the meeting was conducted in, and the document is being drafted in English while only a bare majority in the room spoke it natively. I will be eternally grateful for having the luck to be born in a country that speaks the global lingua franca.

But sometimes, English is just terrible.

I think it was on the third day, we needed to pause the overall discussion and clarify what we mean by the word "report". Within this one room it was being used as a verb at least three different ways and a noun at least two. A pilot could "report" a wildlife strike to ATC, an aerodrome operator could "report" a strike to their national authority and the national authority could 'report" their strikes to IBIS. Plus a "report" could refer to the wildlife strike event or even a State or ICAO issuing a "report" of their strike statistics over a period of time.

We identified suitable alternatives with "reporting" and "report" being reserved for the national wildlife strike data collection process. Those alternatives may change over the next year and may only be relevant to the discussion within this document, but it is amazing how "back to basics" you sometimes need to go to ensure effective communication.

Campaign Trail

Somewhat by coincidence but also partly through self-selection, quite a few people in that room, including me, have been nominated for the World Birdstrike Association (WBA) Board. At the time of writing this post, there was still some issues with the final ballot, but members of the WBA are encouraged to check in with the WBA website and cast their vote accordingly.

My own pitch is that I wish to take a more active role in the organisation to nurture strong ties between research and operations as well as foster greater engagement in throughout the Asia and Pacific area.

WBA members can cast their vote by emailing their preferred candidates to boardwba@worldbirdstrike.com.