VIII. Relations with the National MAA Office
The national office and the sections work together to achieve the goals of the Association. The MAA Director of Programs and Services is the liaison between the national office in Washington and the sections, and other staff members are closely involved with certain aspects of section activities. For example, the MAA Executive Director is an active member of the Committee on Sections, and the Directors of Membership and of Programs and Services regularly participate in the Committee's meetings. Many MAA Directors attend the Section Officers Meetings at MathFest and the Joint Mathematics Meetings to speak about national programs and to answer questions as they arise.A. Financial Considerations
A portion of MAA dues of section members is returned to the section by an annual subvention payment. (See section I-D.) Sections may apply to the Director of Programs and Services for occasional further support of innovative programs. The national MAA office offers funding for special section programs from time to time and handles payment of partial travel support for one officer from each section to attend the Section Officers Meeting at MathFest. (See the Preface.) Section treasurers must file an annual financial report with the national MAA office. (See section II-J.)The sections share the non-profit 501(c)3 federal ID with the MAA parent organization, and as such, are jointly responsible for ensuring that activities prohibited under the non-profit charter are not undertaken within the sections. The activities that are prohibited for any non-profit 501(c)3 organization include: participating in any political lobbying endeavors except those coordinated by the MAA headquarters; advocating or participating in any way in any political election; using any section or MAA resources to the benefit of an individual or group of individuals outside of the non-profit purpose of the MAA charter; disregarding any federal or regional laws as they may apply to any activities of the MAA; and utilizing any MAA resources, including any MAA sponsored website, to espouse or disseminate communications with religious content.
The MAA prohibits the solicitation by sections of federal grant dollars to fund any section activity or program except as may be coordinated with the MAA headquarters. Accounting for the expenditure of federal dollars, which automatically include the mandatory adherence to all federal funding and administrative guidelines, is beyond the scope of the sections to administer independently.
In addition to the above 501(c)3 prohibitions, the following should assist in establishing commonsense financial and administrative principles: pay all bills on time to ensure the continued good standing of the shared MAA credit rating; limit the use of alcohol to carefully controlled situations and give careful consideration to any other MAA sanctioned activity that may increase legal liability; safeguard MAA assets by severely limiting access to bank accounts, check forms, and debit or credit cards; when collecting funds at events, maintain careful oversight of the lockable cash-box during and after the event until the funds can be deposited. At such events, a two-copy, pre-numbered receipt book should be used to record all receipts of cash and/or checks with this book returned to the Secretary/Treasurer with the funds at the conclusion of the event; for a purchase of any significant dollar amount, solicit multiple bids and make purchases at the lowest possible price without sacrificing utility; consider procuring as much as possible through a sponsoring university as they are probably sales tax-exempt in your state.
Fund-raising activities that may produce income subject to "unrelated business income tax" (UBIT), should be avoided and include: games of chance such as bingo, casino nights, etc.; sales of merchandise not containing the MAA logo or other MAA designations printed on the item (this does not impact sales of MAA books, which are not an issue); and the solicitation of any advertising revenue from a sponsor/advertiser, the acknowledgement of which appears in any MAA periodical publication, including electronic ones.
There has been confusion about MAA sections and sales tax exemption. Sales tax exemption is conferred on a state, and sometimes local basis, and is independent of the federal income tax exemption which has been granted to the MAA. Several sections have investigated obtaining sales tax exemption in their regions unsuccessfully as the state and/or regional governing authorities traditionally limit sales tax exemption to entities maintaining a "permanent" business address, or further limit exemption to a few targeted entities such as non-profit hospitals, volunteer fire departments, etc. Due to the number of MAA sections, the limited financial resources available at headquarters to undertake such work, and the unlikelihood of success, MAA financial staff cannot assist section officers in pursuing regional sales tax exemption except to provide copies of corporate documents.
As mentioned elsewhere in this document, annual subvention payments cannot be released until the sections have forwarded the necessary financial reports to the MAA headquarters including year-ending statements for all bank accounts. The recommended report template can be found on the MAA website at www.maa.org/Sections/officer-info.html. MAA also requires that all sections have the bank(s) which house any of their accounts forward a duplicate original of the year-ending statement directly to: Sharon Tryon, Director of Finance, 1529 Eighteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036.
B. Services to Sections
The national MAA office provides many services to sections. Some of these services are listed below:- sending requested lists of section members, email addresses, and mailing labels;
- running the elections of section governors (See section I-C.);
- sending books and materials for MAA book sales at section meetings
- providing space and refreshments for the Section Officers Meetings at MathFest and the Joint Mathematics Meetings; and
- including section information and links to sections' web sites on MAA Online.
C. Section Coordinator of Departmental Liaisons
Each section should have a coordinator of the departmental liaisons within the section. The section liaison works with the national office to encourage all departments to have a liaison and to help maintain accurate records of current liaisons.D. National Deadlines
The annual deadlines for sections are listed below.| January 31 | Section Financial Report |
| March 1 | Nomination for the Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching |
| June 25 | Section Annual Report to Chair, Committee on Sections |
| June 30 | Request for Polya Lecturer (every 5th year) |
| December 15 | Nomination for the Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by Beginning College or University Faculty |
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