The British Cartographic Society, c/o Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR, is registered with the Charity Commission (No. 240034). The Society was founded 28th September 1963 as a Learned Society and the Constitution and By-Laws adopted in September 1964.
The Charity is administered by the Council of the Society, who are the Trustees, comprising (at 31st December 2022):
Council Members: Mr C Budas, Mr S Burry, Mr J Goldsmith, Mr H Holbrook, Dr A Kent, Dr J Peaty, Ms C Seldon, Ms E Watts.
The normal term of office for service on Council shall be one year for Officers and two years for Members. When a Member does not complete the normal term of office, Council may seek to fill the vacancy for the unexpired period by election at an Annual General Meeting.
At the 59th Annual General Meeting on 9th June 2022 (held online), a proposal to extend the terms of service of Officers and Council by six months was approved. This extension of the terms of service was required due to the change in our financial year and new AGM times.
Co-opted Members of Council: Mrs P Williams. Co-opted Members are not Trustees of the Society.
Honorary Coordinators and other post-holders:
Chair of Membership Committee: Ms E Watts
Chair of Programme Committee: Mr P Naylor
Chair of the Publications Committee: Mr J Goldsmith
Chair of UK Cartography Committee, International Cartographic Association: Dr Alex Kent
External Liaison Officer: Alan Grimwade
Editor, The Cartographic Journal, and Chair of the Editorial Board: Dr A J Kent
Senior Editor, Maplines: Ms C Robinson (until September 2022)
Acting Editor, Cartographiti: Ms J Fox
Historical Military Mapping Group (HMMG) Convener: Dr J Peaty
Maps and Surveys Editor: Paul Hesp
Map Curators’ Group Convener: Mrs P Williams
Restless Earth Coordinator: Ms J Johnston
Society Administrator: Ms L Bourne
Society Awards Officer: Mr J Goldsmith
Aims
The object of the Charity is the promotion of that class of knowledge which distinguishes the Art and Science of Cartography. For that purpose, the Society shall, inter alia:
facilitate the exchange of information and ideas amongst the members of the Society and others;
hold meetings and publish periodicals and books;
arrange and participate in national and international conferences;
advance cartographic education and encourage research;
support the maintenance of libraries and collections of maps, books, plans and photographs;
print, publish, sell, lend and distribute communications made to the Society;
provide and award medals and prizes;
do all other things incidental to the Society’s object provided that no part of the property or funds of the Society shall be applied other than for charitable purposes.
The Trustees’ policy is to offer a forum for the exchange of ideas and the sharing of cartographic knowledge, and to inform Members of technical changes and opportunities that affect their professional standing. Volunteer members manage most of the Society activities, apart from:
Society administration is outsourced to Watershed Creative Ltd.
Website development and management is undertaken by Dominique Rene.
The design of Maplines, the Society’s membership magazine, was outsourced to Caroline Robinson, until June 2022 when Pink Salt Studio took over.
The BCS Restless Earth programme is run by Jennifer Johnston.
Services Provided
Conferences (Society Annual Conference)
Regular cartographic/GIS-related talks
Society Awards for excellence in cartography
Society Awards Archive
Support for students at the Conference in the form of bursaries
Corporate and Freelancers’ Directories (website)
GeoViz Programme to promote innovative cartographic visualization
Restless Earth Workshops for schools
General cartographic information and advice through the BCS Forum
Society Publications and Resources
The Cartographic Journal (the peer-reviewed academic periodical of the Society – ISSN 0008-7041)
Maplines (the news magazine of the Society)
Cartographiti (the newsletter of the Map Curators’ Group)
Maps and Surveys (the newsletter of the Historical Military Mapping Group)
Cartography – an introduction (2nd edition) (ISBN 978-0-904482-25-6)
A Celebration of 50 Years of The British Cartographic Society (ISBN 978-0-904482-24-9)
Careers in Cartography (available on the website)
The Map Curators’ Toolbox (available on the website)
Directory of UK Map Collections (available on the website)
Representation on National and International Organizations
British and Irish Committee for Map Information and Cataloguing Systems (BRICMICS)
International Cartographic Association (ICA)
UK Committee of the ICA (UK Cartography Committee)
UK GEOForum
World Cartographic Forum
Special Interest Groups
Historical Military Mapping Group
Map Curators’ Group
Partnerships and Collaborations
The Society has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with the Charles Close Society and the International Map Industry Association (IMIA) to co-promote each other’s aims and activities. It has also signed an MoU with the Government Geography Profession (GGP) to collaborate on the GeoViz Programme (see below).
There is currently a draft MoU under consideration with the Association of Geographic Information (AGI) and the Society is in discussion with the Defence Surveyors Association (DSA) to establish a closer working relationship.
The Society is a member of the Foundation for Science and Technology and benefits from free advice on legislation.
Review of the Year
Council and Committee Meetings
During the reporting period, Council continued with the established pattern of holding shorter monthly meetings virtually via Google Meet/Zoom. In December 2022 some members of Council attended an in-person meeting in a conference room provided by the Steer Group in London. Other members of the Committee joined the meeting virtually via Google Meet on a large screen. Committee meetings generally took place on a regular basis allowing a more responsive way of working.
Membership
The BCS membership year runs from 1st January to 31st December. As of 31st December 2022, BCS membership comprised 12 Honorary Fellows, 64 Fellows, 341 Full members, 24 Corporate members, 17 Small Corporate members, 6 Educational, 60 Student and 42 Affiliate members, making a total of 566.
Membership subscriptions are one of the Society’s main sources of income and recruitment is a continuous process, as is the retention of existing members. This year has been another exceptional one with the Society operating in more agile and efficient ways, with the introduction of more online content and events.
The following have taken place or been introduced:
The BCS continued its GeoViz programme to promote the skills development in geospatial data visualization and all its forms and has recruited a GeoViz coordinator to deliver this initiative.
Related to this the Society has entered into an agreement with the Government Geography Profession (GGP) to create and deliver a Toolkit to support civil servants across all government departments to create better and more effective map outputs.
Dr David Forrest was awarded an Honorary Fellowship. He was the BCS President from 2000 to 2002, and in 2000 became the Society’s representative on the UK Cartography Committee (UKCC). Over the years David put significant effort into promoting the BCS, and was actively involved in several ICA commissions. In 2021 David stepped down as UKCC Chair, and, now retired, continues to carry out research and consultancy.
The BCS now has agreements with the following external organizations, the Government Geography Profession (GGP) and the Geographical Association, with the intention to foster increased collaboration for the mutual benefit of the partners.
Programme
The BCS Programme Committee is responsible for delivering the Society’s Annual Conference and its calendar of events. It has members that report on the Map Curators’ Group, the Historical Military Mapping Group, Restless Earth, BCS Awards, Teatime Talks and GeoViz.
In September 2022 we ran our second virtual Conference in conjunction with Steer where our annual awards were also awarded. This included a hackday, GeoViz and main conference.
Our Teatime Talks continue to be popular and regularly attract 40–50 registrations. Restless Earth continues to be popular amongst schools and we often hold two to three events per month. The Annual Winter Lecture was held virtually in November by Oliver Green. We have continued to run a number of virtual events with some of our recently adopted MOU organizations such as IMIA and the Charles Close Society. In September 2023 we will move back to an in-person conference as part of our 60th anniversary celebrations.
Awards
In 2022, awards were presented in the following categories: the Avenza Award for Electronic Mapping, the John C. Bartholomew Award for Thematic Mapping, the Garsdale Design Award for 3D Mapping, the OS Award for Excellence in the Use of Ordnance Survey Data, and the Stanfords Award for Printed Mapping. The new Peter Jolly Award, which is only open to BCS members, was created as a memorial for Peter Jolly following his untimely death in March 2022.
The Henry Johns Award for the most outstanding paper published in The Cartographic Journal was awarded. The Ian Mumford Award for excellence in original research by students was not awarded in 2022 as no entries were received.
The prestigious BCS Award was presented to the best entry from the winners of the major design awards. The 2022 winner was Atlas of Shanghai (2021 Version) entered by Shanghai Surveying and Mapping Institute. It was the winner of both the John C. Bartholomew and Stanfords Awards. The judging panel said: ‘Very impressive, lavish work with dozens of beautiful and varied thematic maps of many types, covering a wide range of topics. Difficult to judge in detail the editorial aspects of the book because of its language, but it clearly covers a huge range of information (sometimes perhaps too much) in imaginative ways. The well-designed maps, infographics, images and other artwork all fit together well, and the excellent packaging ensures this is a complete product.’
The announcements for all the awards were included as part of the BCS Conference in September 2022 which was again an online event. This meant we had to do the awards ceremony in an online format. The awards supporters or BCS officers supplied pre-recorded videos to ensure we could broadcast this as one section on the main conference day.
Full details of all these award categories and the results of the Society’s awards can be found on the Society’s website and were published in the 2022 winter edition of Maplines (pp.14–19) and are included in this Issue of The Cartographic Journal.
Restless Earth Workshops
The British Cartographic Society’s Restless Earth programme ran for its tenth year during 2021–22, with 29 sessions at 17 different schools. The interest this year was immense, with a total of 1,651 students taking part. There were four sessions held in 2021, with 218 students in attendance, and 25 sessions in 2022 with 1,433 students. All the workshops were in-person events and will continue as such into the 2023 school year.
The development of the second case study using the Nepal Earthquake of 2015 has been placed on hold due to the increased number of workshops. Progress will resume in August 2023 when there is a break from delivering the Restless Earth workshops. It is apparent from this past year that an easier version of the workshop would be a useful option.
Once again, we are very grateful to all our volunteers and those who support the workshops. Special thanks to all our volunteers, especially Stephen Dodds and Katherine Ganarin from the Ministry of Defence for their contribution.
Teachers continue to comment on the value of the workshops and express their surprise at the students that excel beyond expectation. The Society intends to continue offering the programme for the foreseeable future.
GeoViz
GeoViz is the direct replacement for our Better Mapping programme and is intended to offer design advice, online resources and the opportunity to share experiences for people involved in making maps. A GeoViz event was again part of the Annual Conference in 2022 and at EuroCarto2022 we now have dedicated web pages for GeoViz content. Geoviz has also appointed a GeoViz lead (Camille Rahier) to drive and to grow GeoViz content.
Government Geography Profession
The Society has been working with the UK Government’s Head of Geography to provide cartographic and geodata visualization advice and resources that can be used across Central and Local Government. The GeoViz toolkit is being created by the recently appointed GeoViz lead and the first stage will be completed later this year.
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Members of the Society represent a wide range of cartographic interests; they include practical mapmakers, map curators and collectors, academics and teachers, historians, GIS specialists and so on. Corporate Members cover an equally diverse field, including hardware and software manufacturers, government and commercial map publishers, and retailers and national libraries. To cater for these interests there are two main groups. If the need arises, the Society is willing to promote further groups.
Historical Military Mapping Group (HMMG)
The group (founded by Dr Peter Chasseaud FRGS) provides a point of contact and a forum for discussion for those interested in or engaged in research into any aspect of the history of military survey and mapping. Discussions have been held between the BCS and the Defence Surveyors Association about a MOU that would allow the HMMG and DSA to work more closely.
Map Curators’ Group (MCG)
The Map Curators’ Group is for librarians, curators, archivists, map historians and map collectors – anyone interested or involved in looking after map collections. It aims to provide a forum for discussion and professional support for all aspects of managing map collections in any format. In September 2022, as part of the Society's Conference, the Group hosted a virtual workshop on the theme of ‘Finding Maps’. This included papers on deep mapping, dealing with large physical map donations, and cartobibliography. The MCG also hosted an online training ‘Describing maps: a basic map cataloguing workshop’ in November led by Paige Andrew, a map cataloguer at Pennsylvania State University Libraries.
UK Cartography Committee (UKCC)
The BCS is the adhering body for the United Kingdom to the International Cartographic Association (ICA). The Royal Society continues to take an active interest in ICA affairs and contributes to the annual subscription. A sub-committee of BCS Council, the UKCC is responsible for submitting the UK National Report to the ICA General Assembly and for supporting the UK National Delegate to attend. The UKCC also allows individuals to participate in ICA activities by offering BCSICA support awards. In this period, BCS Council member Alex Kent has succeeded David Forrest as Chair of the UK Cartography Committee (UKCC) following the ICA General Assembly at Florence in December 2021. David will continue as UKCC Secretary and succeeds Ken Atherton, who fulfilled the role for many years. The Society is particularly grateful to David and to Ken for ensuring that the UK has been well represented internationally through the ICA.
World Cartographic Forum
This is an initiative (introduced by Alex Kent while President of the BCS) to bring together leaders of national cartographic societies from around the world to discuss common issues such as membership, collaboration and fostering the learning of new mapping skills. The fourth meeting of the World Cartographic Forum will take place at ICC2023 in Cape Town, South Africa, where we hope to again welcome delegates in person. The meeting will provide an opportunity to share experience of how the BCS has introduced measures to retain and grow membership.
Publications
The Cartographic Journal (the peer-reviewed academic periodical of the Society)
Printing and distribution of hardcopies of The Cartographic Journal remained severely affected during recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 throughout 2022. We hope that normal production schedules will resume in 2023.
Nevertheless, the Journal’s impact factor (IF) increased again for 2021, with its one-year IF now standing at 1.366 (highest yet) and its five-year IF at 1.516. The number of article downloads has also seen a marked increase (from 41,000 to 57,000 this year), which is possibly associated with wider readership trends arising from the limitations imposed by COVID-19.
The overall number of submissions has risen and appears to have recovered from the slump of the previous year. This will be boosted further by two forthcoming Special Issues; one celebrating the 90th anniversary of the first printing of Beck’s Underground map and the other focusing on the timely topic of geospatial ethics. Greater representation at conferences in cartography (and associated fields) is playing a key role in driving up the number of submissions and attracting the best new research, which are both major elements of Dr Kent’s strategy for advancing the Journal.
Maplines (Membership Magazine)
The Society’s membership magazine was produced by Caroline Robinson as senior editor along with fellow editors Oana Candit, Ghada Sahbeni, Alina Vizireanu, Cristina Andra VrÎnceanu and Peter Vujakovic, with Liz Bourne as proofreader for the first two issues of the year. Caroline stood down as editor and Liz Bourne managed the production of the final issue of the year, alongside the editors and Publications Committee Chair, Jim Goldsmith.
Cartographiti (the Newsletter of the Map Curators’ Group)
Cartographiti has moved to online publication and reduced frequency and is available to all MCG Members and by request to non-members. Members and non-members wishing to receive back copies should contact BCS Administration.
Maps and Surveys
The HMMG newsletter Maps and Surveys continued publication under the editorship of Paul Hesp. It is published quarterly (March, June, September, December).
Cartography – an Introduction (2nd edition)
The second edition of the Society’s practical guide to making better maps by Giles Darkes and Mary Spence MBE was published in June 2017 and is available for purchase via the Society’s website.
Directory of UK Map Collections
The latest edition of the Directory is published on the BCS website. It is updated regularly and access is free and unlimited. Additions and amendments are collated through:
Corporate Members’ Directory
Accessible to all via the website, the Directory provides an opportunity for all Corporate Members to advertise their work and to list their contact details and areas of expertise. Corporate Members who wish to be included should contact BCS Administration or edit their own profile through the membership platform, Membermojo.
Freelancers’ Directory
Promoting the work of self-employed cartographers who are members of the Society, the Freelancers’ Directory is available on the website. Members who wish to be included should contact BCS Administration or edit their own profile through the membership platform, Membermojo.
Website (www.cartography.org.uk)
The website was updated and maintained by Dominique Rene throughout 2022 and continues to offer useful resources for members and those interested in cartography and geovisualization.
Social Media
The Society’s social media channels have grown by over 2,000 followers to 9,250 since January 2022, and include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and our subscribers on our YouTube Channel. The biggest annual increase (66%) has been on LinkedIn, where our professional networking has engaged over 1,000 additional followers. Engaging via these channels has led to a growth in membership, and to improved attendance at our online events. This engagement provides Council with better insights to focus on events and resources to match our members’ needs.
Twitter: @bcsmaps
Facebook: britishcartographicsociety
Instagram: @bcsmaps
LinkedIn: britishcartographicsociety
YouTube: British Cartographic Society
Exhibitions and Public Relations
The year 2022 saw a return to in-person external events and we were pleased to be represented at GISRUK, the GA Conference, Geospatial World Forum, IMIA Mapping Leaders' Forum, ESRI Conference, GEOBusiness and the Government Geography Conference.
Education
Prof. Peter Vujakovic stood down as Committee Chair in April 2022, but work continued, including developing a useful page of educational resources for teachers on the Society’s website. In addition, the ongoing development of the GeoViz resource will also support teachers and education into the future.
Finance
The principal sources of income for the Society remain membership subscriptions and the revenue from its publications. These are supported by donations, investment interest and Gift Aid claimed on a proportion of membership subscriptions.
The financial policy of the Society remains unchanged – to maintain a minimum level of funds in reserve to cover (a) 18 months of the cost of production of the Society’s publications and its web presence, and (b) 12 months operating expenses to cover the running and administration of the Society and in addition an amount equivalent to the cash flow requirement for a 12-month period. At the discretion of Council up to 20% of the reserve may be used to fund a special project on the condition that a plan is put in place to return the level of reserves to their target within a 12-month period.
Subscription income remains stable although there has been a reduction in donations. Reorganization of the way the Society is administered has had minimal impact on its finances. The removal of restrictions on social activities means that income from Restless Earth Workshops has recovered.
Throughout the period management of the Society’s finances has been in line with the agreed budget and there has been a surplus on its activities.
Although there has been a fall in the value of the Society’s investments over the year, from £104,591.83 to £98,570.28, it remains the case that the level of accumulated assets is adequate to meet the agreed reserves.
The trustees have considered the financial risks to which the Society is exposed and are of the opinion that systems are in place to mitigate any exposure to these.
Signed by Dr Seppe Cassettari (President) for, and on behalf of, the Council of the British Cartographic Society.
9th May 2023