The organization of the Barbara Petchenik Competition 2013 is going on... In the Commission website you can find all the information related to the competition:

- Rules for the Competition in 2013: http://lazarus.elte.hu/ccc/pdf/bpcrules2013.pdf
- Parent permission form: http://lazarus.elte.hu/ccc/pdf/permission2013.rar

Appart from the materials written for the teachers organizing the competition in their classrooms (http://lazarus.elte.hu/ccc/bpc/bbpmc.htm and http://lazarus.elte.hu/ccc/bpc/ bbpmc12.htm), interested colleagues can also find a collection of 32 blank graticules that can be used by pupils to make their maps. This collection of map projections was made without taking into consideration any specific cartographic principle and they can be printed by the teachers and used as a starting point of the process of drawing a new map. All the graticules are visible for every 10 degrees latitude and longitude. The examples do not include intentionally the contour lines of the continents: we do not want to give children a previously created template map, because one of the main aims of the competition is "to promote the creative representation of the world", and a template containing also continents could notably limit them when drawing their own ideas. The address to access and download the graticules is http://lazarus.elte.hu/ccc/projections/index.htm.

A sad news related to the competition is that on 28 September we were informed by ESRI Press that they are not able to handle the publication of a third volume of Children Map the World, because all of their resources are dedicated to other mission-critical projects for the next several publishing seasons. ICA and in special the Commission on Cartography and Children regret that both organizations cannot continue together the publication of the series "Children Map the World", but at same time expressed that they highly appreciate and value all the efforts and the cooperation provided by ESRI Press in popularizing the Barbara Petchenik International Competition with the books published in 2005 and 2009.

2. Pre-conference workshop in Dresden 2013

The Commission is planning to have a Joint Workshop previous to ICC 2013 in Dresden. Commission Chair contacted ICC local organizers and reserved a conference room at the Technical University in Dresden on 23 August, two days previous to ICC 2013. The workshop will count with the participation of four ICA Commissions: Cartography and Children, Maps for Blind and Visually Impaired People, Education and Training as well as Planetary Cartography. The previous title of this workshop is "Sharing knowledge…".

This workshop will be different from previous ones: local organizers were so kind to ensure a room and technical accessories (projector and laptop) for this event, which will be only one day long. The main idea (still in discussion) is that by this reason each Commission will have the opportunity of presenting four works in a session and the programme of this workshop will be formed by a total of four main sessions (16 papers). We plan to make the participation in this workshop totally free, but subject to registration.

In January of 2013 participant Commissions plan to contact their members by e-mail with more detailed information to open the registration for the event.

3. Participation in the IGU-CGE Experienced-based Geography Learning 2012 symposium

From 22 to 25 August 2012 the University of Education in Freiburg (Germany) was the venue of the IGU-CGE Experience-based Geography Learning 2012 Symposium, an event organized previous to the 32nd International Geographical Congress in Cologne.

This three days event was an excellent opportunity to know in more detail the research activities developed by the members of the Commission on Geographical Education of the International Geographical Union during the last two years. Ideas and experiences were exchanged with them about the future of the relations between both Commissions, trying to strengthen our contacts with more specific common activities. At future, we intend to follow our contacts and to study the choice of having more active and fruitful communication, including re-taking the idea of organizing joint events.

It is no surprise to us that in many cases the papers presented in this symposium have many points of contact with the research topics developed by many of the members of our commission, as can be deduced reading the topics of the different sessions: Primary Geography, Fieldwork, Environment and Experience-based Learning, Perception/Preconceptions, Digital Media in Geography, Changes in Geographical Curricula, Professional Development, Perspectives on Geography, Maps/Cartography and GIS.

As one of the results of our contacts during the event, actually an Official Invitation for the participation in the 2013 Barbara Petchenik Competition (signed by ICA President and Commission Chair) can be read and downloaded in their website (http://www.igu-cge.org/), and this invitation will be also include in their next newsletter.

4. Facebook profile

Actually the Commission counts with a profile in Facebook, which was made public on 21 July 2012. The profile was created by two main reasons: the first one is of practical character, to facilitate the direct contact with Commission members who have their own Facebook profile, giving them a common profile to read about the Commission activities and other interesting themes related to our research field. The second one is because of our interest to make known the Commission and our activities for a wider spectrum of people, and Facebook is an excellent media to realize it. The statistics showed by the profile during the last months corroborated this idea: only in the week between 27 September and 3 October a total of 589 people were directly or indirectly reached, they read or had knowledge otherwise of the news published in our profile. The address of the profile is: http://www.facebook.com/icaccc.

4. Upcoming conferences and meetings

- European Navigation Conference 2013
Theme: Navigation - Expanding our Horizons!
Date: 23-25 April 2013
Venue: Austrian Institute of Navigation (OVN), Vienna, Austria
Website: http://www.enc2013.org/

- EUROGEO Conference 2013
Theme: Geography: linking tradition and future
Date: 9-11 May 2013
Venue: Sint-Lodewijkscollege, Bruges, Belgium
Website: http://www.eurogeography.eu/conference/2013-bruges/bruges2013.html
Deadline to submit abstracts: 31 March 2013

- Pre-conference Workshop of the ICA Commissions on Cartography and Children, Maps for Blind and Visually Impaired People, Education and Training and Planetary Cartography
Theme: Sharing Knowledge…
Date: 23 August 2013
Venue: Technical University Dresden, Germany
Website: Soon…

- 26th International Cartographic Conference (ICC 2013)
Theme: From Pole to Pole
Date: 25-30 August 2013
Venue: International Congress Center, Dresden, Germany
Website: http://www.icc2013.org/
Commission planned to be held in this event...

- VIII Colóquio de Cartografia para Crianças e Escolares
Theme: Para quem e para que a Cartografia Escolar: experiencias e campos de saberes (For whom and for what Cartography School: experiences and fields of knowledge)
Date: 24-27 September 2013
Venue: Universidade Federal de Sao Joao del-Rei (UFSJ - MG), Departamento de Geociencias
Conference website: http://www.ufsj.edu.br/coloquiodecartografia/
Facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/pages/VIII-Colóquio-de-Cartografia-para-Crian%C3%A7as-e-Escolares/158730127599974
Deadline to submit the papers: 24 February 2013

5. Possible date for our next newsletter:

March 2013

José Jesús REYES NUÑEZ Chair Associate Professor 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

Diah K. KRESNAWATI Vice Chair Cartographer,retired from: Center for Information and Services National Coordinating Agency for Surveys and Mapping (BAKOSURTANAL) Jl. Raya Jakarta - Bogor Km.46 Cibinong 16911 dkirana@bakosurtanal.go.id INDONESIA