During the 2^nd Conference on Cartography and GIS in Borovets our Commission had the opportunity to meet and to exchange opinions about our work. The meeting was held during the afternoon with the participation of representatives from seven countries. Co-Chair Jesus Reyes summed up the activities programmed for this year using a Powerpoint presentation that you can download from this website.

This newsletter also contains the main themes and information presented during the meeting; some of the topics were also included to our previous newsletter (and now completed with new information):

2. Proposal about the Barbara Petchenik Competition

After ICC 2007 the Commission members were asked to send their opinions about the proposals presented in Moscow. Till now the number of opinions is low, but we (Co-Chairs) are very interested to know the major number possible of diverse opinions, comments, etc to make better the proposal. For the meeting in Borovets we added to the original proposal the ideas suggested by our colleague Peter van der Krogt (The Netherlands), who sent a very detailed email concerning not only the judgment, but also technical requirements of entries and organization of the competition. We would like to ask all Commission members and interested colleagues to send their comments, opinions, questions, etc till July of this year, to have taken a decision about this theme for the next competition. Co-Chairs were also asked by ICA to propose a new theme for the next Barbara Petchenik Competition in 2009. If colleagues have any proposal, please do not hesitate to contact us by email.

3. Proposal for a School Atlas Competition

The proposal written by our Past Chairman Patrick Wiegand (about the possible organization of a competition on School Atlases, within the International Map Exhibition organized in ICC conferences) can be found also on our website. If any colleague has any opinion that can enrich this proposal, please send it for us.

4. Proposal for research themes in our website

During our meeting in Borovets Necla Ulugtekin (Turkey) proposed to create a new menu point within the Commission website to collect research themes, which can be developed by MSc and PhD students in universities or other higher education institutions all over the world. Our first idea is to make a list of themes arranged by countries, including colleagues' data (institution, address, email, etc) for personal contact. If you have any idea to complete this proposal, please contact us by email.

5. Upcoming conferences

4^th Congress on Cartographic Sciences & 9^th National Week on Cartography (4^to Congreso en Ciencias Cartograficas y 9^na Semana Nacional de Cartografia)

This event will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from June 25 to 27, with a session dedicated to the theme "Cartography and Education". The official language of the event is Spanish and the deadline to send papers is April 18. Two days previous to the congress (June 23 and 24) different workshops will be organized for interested colleagues. More detailed information can be asked by email (congresocartografia2008@gmail.com) or downloading the Call for the Congress from our website.

31^st International Geographical Conference

This event will be organized by IGU in Tunisia, between August 12 and 15. Detailed information can be found in English at this address: http://www.igc-tunis2008.com/index.php?lang=en. Depending on the number of Commission members that intend to participate, we can organize an informal meeting during the conference. Please, let us know your participation sending an email to our email addresses.

HERODOT Conference

This is an event organized by the HERODOT thematic network for Geography, in September 4-7. The participation of HERODOT members coming from the European Union (one representative per partner institution) will be supported for funding by the network. Non-EU and international partners cannot be funded for travel, but may be eligible for payment of conference fees and accommodation. Detailed information can be found on the HERODOT website (http://www.herodot.net/conferences/liverpool/HERODOT-liverpool2008.html).

During this event could be also organized an informal meeting, depending on the number of Commission members who can participate. Please, let us know your participation sending an email to our email addresses.

8. GIS Day

This year GIS Day is going to be organized all over the world on November 14, Wednesday. We would like to encourage colleagues to participate and organize activities related to this day, because this is a good opportunity to have a direct contact with children and young people interested on this field. You can make registration of your activity and find more information (including materials to be presented during this day) at www.gisday.com.

Temenoujka Lubenova BANDROVA Associate Professor Department of Photogrammetry and Cartography University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy 1, Chr. Smirnenski Blvd. 1046 Sofia Tel: +359 887 83 27 02 Fax: +359 2 866 22 01 bandrova_fgs@uacg.bg BULGARIA

José Jesús REYES NUÑEZ Professor Assistant Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics Eötvös Loránd University Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A, Budapest H-1117 Tel: +36 1 372 2975 Fax: +36 1 372 2951 jesus@ludens.elte.hu HUNGARY