[SOS-PCA] SOS Help Document Updates! 2025 QC Guide, Guide to Shipping, and fresh Technical Protocol

[Hill, Sarah E]

Hello SOS collectors, managers, and coordinators,

We have been working hard to finalize a few document updates that should carry us through the end of the SOS season, and are ready to share them with you all. These documents will be updated in the GeoPlatform Help documents shortly, and we will also be reaching out to the web team again to get them updated on the SOS website. When consulting any SOS guide, always make sure you have the most recent version of the document.

Attached you will find four documents:

SOS QC Guide for 2025
This document outlines the QC/Data finalization and seed shipping process that we reviewed at the August collector call, contains common scouting/collection form errors to look for during QC review, and information on how to edit or deleting scouting and collection data. To view the recording of the August collector call where we reviewed the process, visit the SOS Recordings document in the GeoPlatform help documents. If you have any questions about QC or shipping, reach out to your Agency Coordinator for more information.

SOS Technical Protocol 2025 Updated August 2025 and Protocol Quick Guide Updated August 2025
We added additional cleaning facility contact and shipping information, added information about the data finalization and shipping process, and added a little more background information for scouting and collection planning. We also added the Landform Dictionary to the Appendix, and updated collector codes and their Agency Coordinators. Please replace the previous version of the protocol (dated April 2025) with this version dated August 2025.

SOS Guide to Shipping 2025
The Guide to Shipping quick guide has also been updated to reflect new seed cleaning partners and the data finalization process. Please replace any version you have with the current one, dated August 2025.



Please let me know if you have any other questions and as always, thank you all so much for your hard work and dedication to the seeds, plants, and all that they sustain.



For the seeds,

Sarah


Sarah Hill

Seeds of Success National Curator
Bureau of Land Management - Contractor


Seeds of Success<https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/native-plant-communities/native-plant-and-seed-material-development/collection>

National Seed Strategy<https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/native-plant-communities/national-seed-strategy>

Plant Conservation Alliance<https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/native-plant-communities/national-seed-strategy/pca>

Subscribe to the PCA and SOS listservs<http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo>

I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded ancestral, traditional and contemporary lands of the Nuwe/Nume (Paiute, Shoshone, Bannock) people, as well as other indigenous tribes who traveled through the area known as Idaho who have stewarded this land throughout the generations.
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