III. The Section Secretary or Secretary-Treasurer
Since the section secretary, or secretary-treasurer, is the officer who handles major business affairs of the section and initiates many of the activities of the section, and since secretaries tend to serve longer terms, this position merits special attention. Some of the tasks described here may be assigned to other section officers or members, but the secretary or executive committee should ensure that someone in the section is responsible for each task.A. Announcements of Meetings
The secretary should send preliminary announcements of each meeting at least three months before each section meeting. A secretary may arrange to receive section mailing labels for this purpose by contacting the national MAA office, which maintains a calendar for such mailings. Instructions for ordering labels can be found at www.maa.org/sections/handbook.html. The national office also can send a list of the email addresses of section members.The secretary should mail or email final announcements for the meeting at least three weeks before the meeting. If bulk rate is used for mailed announcements, the announcements should be sent four to five weeks in advance. Both preliminary and final meeting announcements may be included in the section newsletter.
B. Section Business Meetings
The secretary should make sure that all necessary business matters and reports of committees are included in the agenda of the business meeting of the section and of the executive committee. The secretary should inform committee chairs well ahead of time that they will be asked to give an oral report at the business meeting and that they should submit a brief written report to the secretary by that time.C. Registration Information
The secretary should make certain that pre-registration forms and on-site registration forms for section meetings are used to obtain a list of those attending and to collect the data for the annual section report. These forms should have the following check-off boxes: MAA member; 2-year college faculty, 4-year college faculty, university faculty, business/government, undergraduate student, and graduate student. The section may want to include other boxes, such as one for retired mathematicians and one for high school faculty.D. Reports to the National Office
The secretary must report the following to the national office:- the dates and places of future section meetings as soon as they are known,
- the names of newly elected officers as soon as possible after an election, and
- a report on each section meeting. Reports for the 2008-09 section meetings can be filed through our survey.
E. MAA Book Sales
The secretary may arrange to conduct an MAA book sale at the section meeting. Then the MAA national office sends books, copies of the publications catalog, fliers pertaining to new and recent books, and a supply of publications order forms. A 10% discount, below the member price, is extended to all meeting registrants.
In addition, each section receives 10% of the proceeds from each of its section book sales. After the MAA national office receives payments and orders from a book sale, a check is sent to the treasurer. A book sale with such a substantial discount for newly published books may stimulate better attendance at section meetings, particularly if the sale is given adequate advance publicity. The secretary may obtain full details on holding an MAA book sale from the Director of Publications in the national office.
F. Membership
The secretary may initiate and help plan campaigns for inviting nonmembers to join the MAA. Soon after each meeting the secretary should send a letter of invitation, along with a membership application form and a brochure describing MAA, to each nonmember who attended the meeting. The section newsletter downloadable membership form is available from the MAA website for reproduction in newsletters at www.maa.org/ecomtpro/timssnet/maa/08Individual.pdf. (See section I-F.)Other Responsibilities of the Secretary
Other responsibilities of the secretary include:- answering by the specified June deadline a questionnaire sent by the Committee on Sections each spring to be included in the Committee’s report at MathFest (click here to go to the questionnaire),
- providing newly elected officers and members of the nominations committee with copies of the bylaws of the section,
- seeing that a copy of the official bylaws of the section is on file in the national office,
- reporting to the national office personal items about members of the section such as national and regional recognitions as well as deaths (but not new appointments, promotions, sabbaticals, and retirements, which may be published in the section’s newsletter),
- informing the section membership of major events of interest occurring within the section through the section newsletter, email messages, short notes, or other means,
- preparing or updating a “Guide for Host Institutions of Section Meetings” and providing it to each host, and
- sending a note of thanks to speakers and the host institution after the meeting, or arranging for the chair or program chair to do so.
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