ICA takes its worldwide remit seriously: the executive committee has representatives from every continent; the newsletter is an excellent publication, sent by post across the globe and accessible on the web; the ICA website extends our reach to all cartographers and interested people worldwide; biannual International Cartographic Conferences take place in exciting international locations (please join us in Santiago de Chile this November, see 1 for details).

Promoting Ourselves
Commissions and Working Group meetings in 2009 have been held in venues from Prague to Bishkek, from Nottingham to Teheran, from Venice to Gavle, and from Chengdu to Gent (and most will also meet in Santiago).GIM Internationalmagazine promotes ICA to its international readership every month, and our affiliate members make their living from cartographic activities everywhere.


Online Proceedings
A recent method of showing the world the importance of our activities is the hosting of past Proceedings of International Cartographic Conferences on the ICA website. Visiting the Publications section of the website ( 2) will lead to online Proceedings from the 19th(Ottawa 1999) to 23rd(Moscow 2007) conferences, for direct viewing. The Proceedings are presented in a straightforward manner, with themes easily identifiable (usually by Commission name) and selection of individual papers made simple. These publications should prove immensely beneficial to cartographic researchers and practitioners: it is possible to follow the development of contemporary issues through the changing content of presentations, but the facility is also notable as a site of record, indicating the achievements of cartographers in the years around the turn of the millennium. It is hoped that the availability of these documents in online electronic form will raise the profile of ICA within the scientific community.


Map of the Month
Another innovation soon to reach the website is a ‘Map of the Month’ feature. We hope initially to receive submissions for this from ICA affiliate members. The intention is to display high-quality cartography, submitted as a PDF or high-resolution scanned image, with a few accompanying notes about the map and its creator(s). Such a feature will further enhance the important role of the website in mirroring cartographic activity worldwide. Affiliate members are encouraged to submit their work through the Contact section on the home page.
Cartographers are an internationally aware group of professionals: many will travel to the 24thInternational Cartographic Conference in Santiago in November to show just how international they are.