Only days after the Commission was approved by the ICA General Assembly at the ICC Paris conference, Chair Kenneth Field and Vice-Chair Anja Hopfstock held a second meeting at the 2011 Esri International Conference in San Diego. This was to be the first official meeting of the Commission though it was held in the same vein as the Paris meeting in that we sought further ideas on the issues and approach for the Commission from a wide range of people. There were a number of useful discussions and overlaps with the ideas that came out of the Paris meeting.
It was key for people to see the Commission bringing back the relevance of design to cartography, particularly in an age of democratized map-making; to convince map-makers who perhaps disregard a great deal of cartography to see the value of it in their own work; to provide examples of good practice and avenues to information; and to be open and inclusive.
These seem like good principles to us! Thanks to all who participated and whose comments will help shape our efforts to provide a voice for high quality design in map-making.