Dear Colleagues s9

Dear colleagues: Thirteen hours ago (my time : 12:00 in Paris), the IGU newcomer, Samoa was among the first to celebrate the new year. As odd as it can be, 25 hours later (!), their close neighbor, the American Samoa will be finishing their countdown. 2017. As celebration goes on over there, all inhabitants of the planet are officially living, by convention, in 2017. (It will take however one more hours to the inhabited atoll Islands such as Baker and Howland to enter the new year). As the new chairperson of the "Cultural Commission", I would like to wish you all, as well as our planet, a happy new year. I would like to thank the IGU Executive committee for the confidence they decided to put in my nomination. Special thanks also to Benno Werlen for those 12 years at the head of the commission, and to those who served all those years on the steering committee. I have known Benno for sometimes now and, as it is the case for some of you, we regularly met at IGU meetings (Tel Aviv, Cologne, Kracow, Moscou, Beijing). I wish him all the best at the head of the new IGU commission on Global Understanding, which he helps to create following the IYGU (International Year of Global Understanding). That new commission will in many ways be a closed cousin of the Cultural commission, not least because Benno will serve on the Commission's new - and yet to be formed - steering committee as "past chairperson". Paul Claval, whom I met early December after my nomination, will also remain on the steering committee as honorary member; he was instrumental in creating the commission and chaired it for 12 years. Note also that Iain Hay, from Australia, will act as our Executive committee liaison. We will have more time in the coming weeks and months to discuss the Commission's agenda. At this point in time, the formation of a "diversely diversed" steering committee is my first priority (along IGU guidelines). I will be in contact with some of you on that matters. The (new) steering committee, and all members of the Commission, should then look forward to the Quebec City IGU Regional meeting in 2018; we've got to make sure that we have a strong presence and showing at that meeting, with original and joint theùatic sessions. Meanwhile, and for 2017, we should think of a special activity, the form and time has yet to be confirmed. Bonne journée, bonnes célébrations et à bientôt.

Louis Dupont, Chairperson, IGU Cultural Commission

Professeur des Universités / Full Professor Department of géographie Paris Sorbonne Université Directeur Laboratoire CNRS, EneC (Spaces, Nature and Culture) Directeur Master Culture, Politique, Patrimoine (Heritage)