he i n t e r n a t i o n a l m e e t i n g of rarities committees held on Texel, Netherlands, during 12th-20th October 1991, agreed a set of guidelines for rarities committees. The British delegate at this meeting, representing the British Birds Rarities Committee, was G r a h a m P. Catley. T h e official Guidelines, which have already been published in Dutch Birding (15: 31-32), are endorsed and are followed by the BBRC. (The only respect in which the BBRC does not comply with the Guidelines concerns the publication of all records of all known escapes of all Holarctic species; it is the BBRC's policy to encourage each individual local report editor to include information on such escapes in an appendix to the main systematic list in county and regional bird reports every year.) Extracts from the Guidelines have been published (and sometimes misquoted or misinterpreted) elsewhere in the British birding Press. The following is the correct, official version:B a c k g r o u n d a n d t e c h n i c a l a s p e c t s o f w o r k o f r a r i t i e s c o m m i t t e e s . T h e following account was originally written by Peter H . Barthel a n d was discussed, modified a n d completed b y