Council of North American Map Societies

Minutes of Meeting – January 30, 2010

Members in attendance: John Doctor – CONAMS, Alice Hudson- New York Map Society, Don Piccolo-Arizona, Jeff Katz – Washington Map Soc., Howard Lange – Washington Map Soc., Art Holzheimer – Chicago Map Soc., Heather Kinsinger – New York Map Soc., Tom Sander – Soc. For Hist. of Disc., Wes Brown – Rocky Mountain Map Soc.

The meeting, held during the lunch hour at the Miami Map Fair, was called to order by President John Docktor.

Jeff Katz reported that Washington Map Society has been developing a Facebook site for the society. The principal advantages are 1) to provide a forum for conversation that is accessible to more people, 2) to publicize society programs, and to 3) reach out to younger prospects who may be responsive to the Facebook medium. The Society has found that the percentage of new members finding out about the Society via the website is ever increasing. They suspect that Facebook will also become more popular in time and they wish to be ahead of the wave. There is a potential for abuse in terms of inappropriate comments but this fear may be exaggerated. The Society needs a Facebook Administrator to review postings and delete those that are most inappropriate and provide comments to others.. The Society’s general feeling was it was better to respond to critical remarks rather than deleting them, unless the remarks are totaling inappropriate. Any Society is invited to communicate with Jeff Katz for more information.

The proposal for establishing a referring relationship between participating CONAMS members and the Cartographic Marketplace run by Robert Putnam was discussed. The unanimous conclusion was not the pursue this arrangement.

Washington Map Society reported that they were co-sponsoring a booth (at cost of $500) at the April 2010 meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Washington D.C. Their monthly meeting will be a joint event at the conference venue.

Tom Sander gave an update on SHD activities.

We will try to meet again over the lunch hour if enough members of CONAMS attend the Phillips Society meeting in Washington on May 21, 2010.

Recorded by Wes Brown, Secretary