Dear All, Your Council met in London on 19 April. There will be a slight delay in posting the minutes on the BCS website as Tim Rideout’s laptop, the Secretary’s, was stolen shortly after the meeting. Anyway here are some of the major points as I remember them. The membership numbers remain solid as does our financial position in that we should have a small surplus at the end of our financial year on 30 June. As a charity, this is all we are allowed to do. There will be an EGM at Shrigley Hall during our Symposium in which you will be asked to allow Council to make the decision to increase subscriptions if required simply as a device to help manage the Society’s budget. I see no need for any increase at the moment. Following the Strategic Review there will be elections for Council each year. There will be 4 places on Council to be filled plus the positions of President and Vice-President. Nomination forms have been distributed in the latest edition of Maplines and nominations need to be sent to Roger Hore by 1 August. So if you wish to be involved with the development of the Society now is your chance to seek nomination. The plans for our Symposium at Shrigley Hall are complete and you can download the booking form Early Bird booking is available until 28 April so there are savings to be made if you book before then. Presenters at the Symposium include: Claire Dobbin from The London Transport Museum, Andrew Mahon from The Metropolitan Police and Rob MacFarlane from the Cabinet Office. Peter Barber will deliver the Helen Wallis Lecture and, for the first time, there will be a golf competition for the ‘Golden Ball’ trophy. Our thanks, as always, must go to our Symposium Sponsors: Autodesk, Esri UK, Victoria Litho, Cadcorp, Bentley, Ordnance Survey, Europa Technologies, STAR-APIC, Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson, PvPubs, Global Mapping, Newgrove Consultants and Steer Davies Gleave. In the meantime, there are several other events taking place: 9 May - The UK Cartographic Committee meets at the new Ordnance Survey offices in Southampton 12 May - GeoDATA in Dublin see geoinformationgroup.co.uk/training/geodata 16-17 May - The Esri UK Annual Conference is in London where BCS has a stand 8-10 June - Our own Symposium at Shrigley Hall. The next BCS Council Meeting will be short and will be held during the Symposium. Looking further ahead the Society will share a stand and be well-represented at the International Cartographic Conference in Paris 4-8 July and the Map Curators Group will meet in York, 7-8 September. BCS will also be involved in the London Mapping Festival which is an umbrella organisation for ‘mapping’ events in the broadest sense of the word from 1 June 2011 to 31 December 2012. So, we're hoping to hold our 2012 Symposium in the London area. Looking ahead still further, 2013 will be the 50th anniversary of the formation of BCS so there will be so there will be special events in that year too. Best Wishes Peter BCS President

Dear All, The minutes of your Council meeting on 22 February are available for you to read on the BCS website in the members section. Of course, you’ll need your membership number to login.   These are some of the major points of interest: The implementation of the Strategic Review continues. We have decided to keep the logo much as it is but consider changing the fonts and perhaps changing the strapline – suggestions would be welcome. Some changes to Maplines, the Magazine of the British Cartographic Society, will be gradually introduced. The plans for our Symposium at Shrigley Hall are complete and you can download the booking form at: www.cartography.org.uk/symposium There will be a great mix of presenters including: Claire Dobbin from The London Transport Museum, Andrew Mahon from The Metropolitan Police and Rob MacFarlane from the Cabinet Office. Peter Barbour will deliver the Helen Wallis Lecture and, for the first time, there will be a golf competition for the ‘Golden Ball’ trophy.   Our thanks must go too to our Symposium Sponsors: Autodesk, Esri, Victoria Litho, Cadcorp, Bentley, Ordnance Survey, Europa Technologies, STAR‐APIC, Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson, PvPubs, Global Mapping, Newgrove Consultants and Steer Davies Gleave. In the meantime, there are several other events taking place:   24 March, Better Mapping in Belfast see: www.cartography.org.uk/bettermapping    30 March, GeoDATA in London,   5 April, GeoDATA in Birmingham,   7 April, GeoDATA in Leeds,   12 May, GeoDATA in Dublin see: www.geoinformationgroup.co.uk/training/geodata   6‐7 April, GEO 11 in Elstree see: http://www.pvpubs.com/events.php  and the   11‐13 April, London Book Fair in Earls Court The Esri UK Annual Conference is in London 16‐17 May see: http://eukac.esriuk.com/   The next BCS Council Meeting is in London on 19 April. I’m pleased to say that our Individual Membership has increased slightly over the last year, however, the Corporate Membership has almost doubled in the last 3 years which is extremely encouraging. There is no room for complacency so if you have friends or colleagues who are interested in cartography and all that it entails then please do encourage them to join our thriving Society. Best Wishes Peter BCS President