Governor's Report

I want to thank the MAA members of the Florida section for electing me to be the Governor. This is actually an exciting time to be Governor because the role of the Governor is changing for the better. I naively thought that all the Governor did was report about section activities to the national leadership and report about national activities to the section. I discovered that the Governors actually "run" the MAA. That is, the Board of Governors approves the MAA budget, approves awards, approves certain appointments, etc. I gleaned after I was elected that choosing between going to a Board of Governors meeting or having six hours of dental work was not an easy choice to make. However, I was willing to serve as my predecessors had served. I was very pleasantly surprised when I was invited to an orientation for new Governors at MAA headquarters in Washington DC. The MAA is housed in a beautiful building in the heart of Washington DC. We took a tour of the building (great), met the staff (great), learned about the issues the MAA was working on (great), gave our opinions (great), and sat through several presentations (not so great). A main point of the orientation was to convince the Governors that their active participation on the national level was important. I was convinced. I agreed to serve on some committees. I attended my first Board of Governors meeting in San Jose, the day before MathFest. The meeting beat dental work by a mile. It had its dull moments, but by and large the pace was good and the discussions were interesting. Two items that arose that I'd like to discuss are: how does the MAA attract and retain new members and how can we increase attendance at section meetings and at MathFest. The discussion will take place at a Governor's session during the section meeting in February. Please come to this session to discuss these items and any other MAA related things that are of interest to you. I look forward to my next three years as Governor. Thanks again for giving me this opportunity. I wish you well and I hope to see you at Florida Southern on February 15 and 16.