proposals to change ICBN

[JOSEPH E. LAFERRIERE]

   I am  glad to  bury the  hatchet with  Tom Lammers, having
apparently reached some peaceful resolution to our disagreement.
   The Dandy  Dime posting  does appear  to have  drawn  some
attention. I repeat my statement that the section of the ICBN
dealing with  effective publication  should be  rewritten  to
spell out  unequivocally where  a new  name can be published,
rather than  listing places  it cannot  be  published.  If  a
registry committee  is to be entrusted with the power to make
those kinds of decisions, it must have clear criteria.
   He asked  for more  info on  the proposals  I submitted to
Taxon some  time ago. I checked my hard drive and I no longer
have copies  of the  ones I submitted in 1993. As I remember,
they had  mostly to  do with  lectotypification rules. At the
time, I  was at  Harvard and  involved in  a survey  of older
literature, encountering many myriad problems stemming partly
from vague wording in the ICBN, partly from the fact the last
person to  work on the family in question made a royal mess I
had to  clean up. The problem is that this was in 1993, after
the Tokyo  conference had  already taken place but before the
new ICBN  had been published. Hence some of my proposals were
similar to  ones already  accepted. For example, one proposal
concerned the  problem of  what to do if an author designates
as lectotype  a specimen  ineligible to  be lectotype. Do you
ignore it or treat this as a neotypification? The Berlin Code
said  nothing,  whereas  the  Tokyo  Code  clearly  specifies
treating this  as a  neotype. I  did not  know  this  when  I
submitted my  proposal. So, I plead guilty to not having done
my homework  on that  count. I  had never heard of Taxacom at
the time.
   More recently,  I floated  proposals on Taxacom concerning
thesis publication  and  more  changes  in  lectotypification
rules. The  former sparked  a lively debate, while the latter
was roundly  ignored. I  have yet  to draft  a manuscript for
Taxon on  either one.  I suppose  I  should  write  a  formal
proposal concerning  publication venues, such as we have been
discussing the last few days.
   QUESTION: when is the St. Louis conference, and do I still
have time  to make  a proposal?  I  am  currently  very  busy
getting ready  to move  to Mexico in a few weeks, so I do not
know whether  I shall  have time  in the near future. Perhaps
Velvet can  write the  proposal,  which  would  prove  rather
interesting.

--
Dr. Joseph E. Laferriere, Herbario, CEAMISH, Universidad
Autonoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico  -- OR --
c/o Mary Laferriere, 18 Maple Ave #3, Centerdale RI 02911 USA