The structure of international scientific societies such as ICA and the other geomatics organisations profiled in GIM International is primarily built on the idea of national representation. It is not possible to be an individual member of ICA. But it is clear that the work of the organisation, primarily through its Commissions and Working Groups, is dependent on a large number of individual members of the international cartographic community collaborating and meeting to address issues relevant to every cartographer across the world.

One of the major methods of keeping individuals up to date and informing them of the work of ICA is through the regular ICA News/Nouvelles de l’ICA which is published twice per year and made available through the ICA website at www.icaci.org (choose Newsletter in the sidebar). ICA News has been expertly produced for the past seven years under the editorship of Professor Graciela Metternicht, Curtin University of Technology, Perth in Australia. ICA is enormously grateful for the significant achievement of Prof. Metternicht in presenting such a high-quality publication. This year, however, the editorship will cross the Tasman Sea to Igor Drecki of the University of Auckland, New Zealand: the June 2007 issue will be the last under Graciela’s charge.

The scope of ICA News can be determined from a glance at the contents of the most recently available issue, Number 46 (June 2006). A regular item in each issue is a report from the president on his activities in the preceding six months. The impressive range of activities and events in which President Milan Konecny participated in 2006 is detailed in this column. Announcements relating to future ICA activities are also made, such as how to enter for Travel Awards and the Barbara Petchenik Childrens Map Competition, and notices about the forthcoming General Assembly in Moscow 2007. There are also regular contributions from Commissions and Working Groups; in this issue the Mountain Cartography Commission reporting on its fifth workshop in Slovenia in April 2006, and the Digital Technologies in Cartographic Heritage Working Group reporting on its May 2006 meeting in Thessaloniki.

Updates also appear from the Commissions on Mapping from Satellite Im-agery, Ubiquitous Mapping, and Map Projections, along with the Working Group on the History of Colonial Carto-graphy. Further reports come from meetings in which ICA has played a major role. These include the ISO/TC211 meeting in Orlando, Florida, in May 2006, the FIG/IHO/ICA Advisory Board on Marine Cartography of April 2006, the January 2006 International Carto-graphy & GIS conference in Bulgaria, and the second GEO-SIBERIA meeting in April 2006. There are reports from member nations in issue number 46 from Sweden and Spain, along with news features and a calendar of future events.

Further information on this enormous range of international cartographic activity can be found in the online issue. ICA News may be changing editorship but its commitment to reporting activity from around the globe will be maintained.