The International Cartographic Association invites bids from national members to organize the 17th General Assembly of Delegates and the 29th International Cartographic Conference in 2019 (GA and ICC2019). This invitation is according to the ICA Statutes, Article 9:
The General Assembly of Delegates will normally meet every four years. As a rule, the General Assembly will be held in conjunction with an International Cartographic Conference (ICC).
Any member nation may lodge a bid to host the GA and ICC2019. The GA and ICC are preferably held during the months of July, August or September. A southern hemisphere conference may be scheduled for October/November or March/April. A letter of intent should be sent to the ICA Secretary General and Treasurer, accompanied by completed bid documents containing the following details
The bidding is competitive and it is important that as much information as possible is provided to the General Assembly. Please be aware, that bids will only be accepted, if the bid documents are signed by the head of the national member organization (ICA national member) and the bid documents are complete.
The deadline for submitting a successful bid to the Secretary-General of ICA is 15 March 2015, 24:00 GMT.
The bids should be submitted in paper form (one signed copy, per surface mail) and electronically (PDF file, per email).
Accepted bids will be handled as all other General Assembly documents. They will be made available on the ICA website GA2015 section after 23 March 2015 (five months before the first session of the GA2015) in alphabetical order according to the Country Name of the bidding organisation. This section will be made available for all national delegates to the General Assembly.
The Executive Committee of ICA will not conduct any inspection visit prior to the General Assembly. The EC will not provide any selection or shortlist. The EC will not accept any invitation or offer in relation to a bid. The decision will be made only on the basis of the bid documents. Although the EC will be neutral in the process, it will be ready to express their assessment of the submitted documents if demanded from the General Assembly.
For the evaluation process of successful bids the following criteria will especially apply:
- Financial aspects (achievability)
- Strong support/leadership of the ICA national member.
- Governmental and private supporters (letters of support).
- Record of involvement in ICA and ICA activities, including involvement in ICA Commissions (Chairpersons, Members), active participation at ICC conferences or meetings, involvement in the Instruments of ICA such as the Barbara-Petchenik-Competition, International Cartographic Exhibitions, ICA Publications etc.
The General Assembly will vote on bids at the Second Session on 28 August 2015. Designated representative(s) of the bidding countries will get a 5 minute time slot for presenting their bids in the First Session of the General Assembly of ICA on 23 August 2015 in Rio de Janeiro. We strongly recommend all bidders to have a booth in the Technical Exhibition of the ICC2015 to support their bid.
The voting process will take place according to the ICA Statutes as follows:
Decisions at the General Assembly shall be taken by a show of hands and by a simple majority vote, of those delegates present, who have the right to vote. However, if at least two delegates make a request, the vote shall be taken by ballot. Should there be an equal division of vote, the President shall cast the deciding vote. Voting by proxy will not be permitted and no delegate shall represent or vote for any other member nation.
The successful applicant will be required to sign a formal contract with the ICA Executive Committee defining the relationship between the Conference Organizer 2019 and ICA. The contract is based on the “Guidelines for International Cartographic Conferences and General Assemblies of Delegates” and should be signed by the head of the national member after the General Assembly. A contract template will be available on the ICA website at the end of 2014). In case the contract is not signed in one month after the GA, the EC will offer the organizing right to the applicant who got the second most number of votes.
László Zentai
Secretary-General and Treasurer of the ICA