History
Overview
The MAA was founded in 1915 in Illinois. Although the MAA was founded in Illinois, the Illinois Section was not the first section formed. The Illinois Section was founded two years later in 1917. Tony Bedenkovic of Bradley Unviersity has prepared a History of the Illinois Section of the Mathemtaical Association of America which outlines the founding of the section. It also includes a list of the locations of annual meetings and a list of Distiguished Service Award winners.
Newsletters
Linda Sons, then Section Chair, was reponsible for creating the first newsletter. The Newsletter was called "Greater Than Zero" - presumably the name was meant to imply that something was better than nothing. Patrick McCray followed Linda Sons as editor. Iraj Kalantari became the editor in 1991 follwed by Rich Wilders in 1997.
Between about 2002 and 2006 the newsletter was published sporadically at best and possibly not at all(?). Andrew Leahy began publishing an online only nesletter called "Out of Focus". (Prior newsletters had been printed and mailed; however, some were also posted on the Section's website.)
The 2006 revision of the Section's Bylaws created the the position of "Section Information Coordiantor". The newsletter and website then became the responsibility of the Section Information Coodinator, and the newsletter and webmaster positions were eliminated. Dan Hrozencik was the first Section Information Coordinator and served in that position unitl 2016.
Most, if not all, issues of the newsletters since the fall of 1998 are available at the newsletter section of the ISMAA Website.
Website
The ISMAA first had a presence on the web in 1995 when Scott Harrod posted a copy of the the 1995 Annual Meeting announcement on the MAA server; however, it was posted only a week or so before the meeting.
In late spring of 1995, Iraj Kalantari, then newsletter editor, posted recent issues of the newsletter on a webserver operated by the Educational Computing Network (ECN) of which Western Illinois University was a member. In early July the MAA provided a link to those newsletters.
In the summer and early fall of 1995 Scott Harrod and Iraj Kalantari collaborated to expand the newletter site into website that included not only the newsletters and program announcement but other items of possible interest to the members of the section as well. The MAA changed the link to the newsletters to point to our newly created homepage.
Intially the ISMAA website used file space provided by Western Illinois University on a websesrver operated by the ECN. In late 1998 it moved to a server at Knox College. Along about 2010 or 2011, the MAA began to encourage sections to move their websites to a server operated by the MAA. The contents of the ISMAA website on the Knox Server were moved to an MAA server in late January of 2011; however, the Section continued to use the server at Knox as the "official" section website. It wasn't until early 2013 that the Section began using the MAA server as its offical website. The server at Knox continued to be on line until about June of 2016. Although it was not used for the main website, it was still being used for online registration and submission of papers for the annual meeting.
The ISMAA board created the (appointed) postion of Webmaster in the fall of 1997. Scott Harrod was appointed Webmaster and served in that postion until 2006. Lisa Townsley than became the webmaster.
The Webmaster postion was eliminated when the 2006 revision to the bylaws went into effect. At that time the Webmaster's duties, like those of the Newsletter Editor, were assumed by the Section Information Coordiantor.
In 2016-2017 the ISMAA web site underwent a significant reorganization. This was accomplished by Anthony Bedenkovic and Scott Harrod. The major overhaul resulted in a new look and organization. This project continues with modifications made by the current Section Information Coordinator.