For the first time in the history of Polish cartography it was managed to create one, single organisation that gathers all cartographers from the whole country. Until 1999 members were scattered in different organisations and institutions, and were divided into groups of „large- and small-scale” cartographers, publishers and scientists, civil, military and navigational cartographers. Different research groups had indeed many successes and achievements but they represented only some parts of Association of Polish Cartographers (APC). After many years of discussions independent professional organisation was created and Poland joined the group of nearly forty countries that are active in their own cartographic associations.
APC is a professional and a research-technical organization of Polish cartographers based on voluntary membership. At the end of 2010, APC included 176 normal members and 5 supporting members. Joanna Bac-Bronowicz, Ph.D. Eng. from Wrocław University of Science and Technology has been the chairperson of the Executive Council from the beginning.
Statutory objectives of APC are: to represent authors and specialists working as cartographers, protecting the trade and copyright of cartographers, raising professional qualifications of its members, popularizing knowledge about cartography among the society, cooperating with local and national government in the scope of cartography. Said objectives are fulfilled by organizing conferences, symposia and competitions, publishing articles and reports on the situation of Polish cartography and cooperation in the work on legal acts and other documents related to cartography with the Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography. This ongoing cooperation is based on a special agreement with Surveyor General of Poland signed in January 2005.
APC organized 3. National Polish Professional Conference under the slogan “Cartographer’s profession”. The subject of delivered papers and the lively discussions by more than 120 participants which followed comprised four issues: the character and scope of cartographer’s profession, professional self-management and qualifications, copyright in cartographic and national geodetic and cartographic recourses. 2nd Professional Conference of Association of Polish Cartographers: “Cartography in new economic and political situation in the Eastern and Central Europe. Legal and organizational problems” under the auspices of the President of International Cartographic Association, the President of European Center for Architecture of Information and Communication Technologies; School of Geodesy, Cartography and Satellite Navigation and special patronage of the Surveyor General of Poland take place in Wroclaw in 2006. In conference take part official 30 guests from Eastern and Central Europe. The conference has an extraordinary chance to become an open and unique forum for presenting the output and the problems and enabling exchange of experience and good practice. The following issues will constitute the subject of the conference: review of official Topographic Data Bases (specially visualization aspects), situation of private cartographic companies and copyright and intellectual propriety rights. The conference materials was published in “Geodesia and Descripto Terrarum” in Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences. Additionally, during the conferences were cartographic presentation especially the output of cartography from Eastern and Central Europe.
APS was organized two Polish National Geoinformation Symposium: Map in Geoinformatics and was co-organised with related organizations four such Symposiums.
The regular competitions „Map of the Year” organized by the APC enjoys great interest with publications in the categories of wall maps, tourist maps, city tourist maps and last – maps in internet – being awarded prizes twelve times to the moment. Moreover, APC was the main organizer of the „Good tourist map, good tourist atlas, good tourist guide” competition held in 2009 during the 1st International Tourist Fair Wrocław 2009. The rules and the results of the competitions, together with submitted maps, are available at the APC website at: www.polishcartography.pl. Conference materials and information regarding the activity of APC and other events in Polish cartography are published in the „APC Bulletin”.
The Association cooperates actively with related organizations: Association of Polish Surveyors, Division of Cartography of the Polish Geographical Society, Commission of Geoinformatics of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cartographic Section of the Committee of Geodesy of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Polish Association for Spatial Information and the like.