The 2nd Conference on Cartography and GIS in Borovets, Bulgaria, in ­January 2008 gave the ICA Commission on ­Cartography and Children the opportunity to meet and exchange opinions about plans for the period 2008-2009. Temenoujka Bandrova, Commission ­­co-chair and president of the Local Organising Committee, arranged the meeting.

Children Map the World
Co-chair Jesus Reyes summed up activ­ities planned for the next two years, with two topics as the main subjects of debate. The first addressed possible changes to the Barbara Petchenik Children’s Map Awards. ICA created this competition in 1993 as a memorial to Barbara Petchenik, a past vice-president of the ICA and a cartographer with a lifelong interest in maps for children. The award, aimed at promoting children’s creative representation of the world, is presented every two years during an ICA Conference or General Assembly. Many of the winning entries have been gathered together in a book, Children Map the World , edited by Jacqueline Anderson, Jeet Atwal, Patrick Wiegand and Alberta Wood, and published by ESRI Press (ISBN: 9781589481251). This book shows an extraordinary range of children’s interpretations of their world and their place within it. The Borovets meeting also saw some discussion of detailed ideas concerning updating the technical requirements for entries, the organisation of the competition, and the judging. Both the Commission and the ICA Executive Committee are committed to ensuring that the Barbara Pet­chenik Award retains its eminence and its attractiveness to children around the world.

Educational Award
The second topic for the conference was also related to the competition and to improvement of the representation and dissemination of geographical knowledge to the younger generation. The educational sector is an important part of worldwide cartographic activity and enterprise, and the meeting heard more of the proposal for an educational cartography award to be introduced by the ICA. This will be interpreted broadly to include, for ex­ample, conventional and digital ma­terials, maps, globes and GIS. The intention is to recognise the active work of those who produce cartographic materials for educating the children of the world.

Further Activities
Further information about the work of this active commission can be found at http://lazarus.elte.hu/ccc/ccc.htm, under the ‘Meetings’ tab. Listed here is the schedule for meetings around the world (Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Tunis and Liverpool) this summer, at which the Commission will be presenting its work. Also news on the production of the newsletter and a special publication, participation in the 2008 International GIS Day (November 19), and other activities designed to meet the Commission’s Terms of ­Reference.