Yes you read it right, Mapping Specialists is moving. On Monday, November 8, 2010, we will be working from our new location at 3000 Cahill Main, Suite 220, Fitchburg, WI 53711-7154. (Our telephone and fax numbers and website address will remain the same.) We are only moving a little over a mile, but changing cities! On many maps Fitchburg appears to be a very large suburb of Madison, but the town actually has only around 25,000 residents, and our new neighbors pride themselves on the small-town feel of their community.

While moving an office is no easy task, I think we are in pretty good shape. With a little planning and organizing the move should go smoothly. It's been 23 years since our last move, so the biggest challenge is sorting through literally decades of accumulated “stuff.” Some call this stuff cartographic memorabilia, while others—including myself—fondly call it junk. Though some of it truly is junk, we have found items that bring back memories of a bygone era in cartography. Scribers, scribe coat, clear Mylar, drafting pens, opaque—all remind us of how labor-intensive mapmaking once was. And the early versions of software, data tapes, and archaic hardware make us appreciate the relative speed and efficiency of modern computer mapping. Many of these pieces will find their way into a small “History of Mapping Specialists” display at our new facility.

I'm very excited about the new office. Though it is smaller than our current location, the efficiencies that the new space creates mean we can better meet your needs. The office is located in a business/retail complex, so part of our space will be devoted to retail sales. This won't be a large storefront, only about 350 sq. ft., but enough to offer visitors a nice selection of map products. We have a surprising amount of walk-in retail traffic at our current off-the-beaten-path location. It will be exciting to see how many people will stop in when we relocate to a complex that has over 2,000 visitors daily, and exposure to more than 140,000 commuters per week.

So, if you try to contact us via phone, fax, our website, or email Friday through Sunday, November 5–7, and either can't get through or we are slow in responding, you'll know what we are up to. You can expect us to be back up to full speed on Monday, November 8th. At least that is the plan—wish us luck!