Iowa Section of the MAA

Executive Committee Meeting

Saturday, April 17, 2004

Central College

Present: Ruth Berger (Governor), Jim Freeman (Governor-Elect), Joel Haack (Chair), Al Hibbard (Chair-Elect), Mark Mills (Newsletter Editor), Wendy Weber (Secretary-Treasurer)

1. It was decided that minutes from future meetings will be put on the web page.

2. It was agreed that Steve Nimmo and Morningside College need to be recognized in the Business meeting for their generosity in covering all costs of the Meeting in 2002.

3. Discussion of the Competition followed. It was decided that Weber would distribute pledge cards at the Business Meeting to encourage members to donate to the Matched Funds Campaign. Weber will check into the feasibility of having the competition money housed at the national office (so as to earn better interest than the current Money Market account).

4. Discussion of fees. Berger motioned (Weber seconded) that the registration fee for the Meeting be raised to $10.00 per member, with students free. The motion passed unanimously. Members of the Section will be informed of this decision at the Business Meeting later in the day.

5. Discussion of initiating a $5.00 charge per team for the competition. Doing so would help defray the costs of engraving the award and printing materials for the competition. Members of the Section will be informed of this at the Business Meeting.

6. Discussion of the roles of officers in the Section. We discussed the role of Public Information Officer. Haack will contact the current Public Information Officer (R.B. Campbell) and see if he would like to begin taking more of an active role in getting information (such as the winners of the Section Teaching Award and Iowa Mathematics Competition) out in a timely fashion to local newspapers.

7. Discussion of when to have the Mathematics Competition. The last few years it has been the Saturday of the Section Meeting. Hibbard brought up the difficulty in planning the Meeting and the Competition at the same time. It was also noticed that many faculty did not come until Saturday with their students (so they missed the plenary speaker on Friday evening) and also left early on Saturday (so their students could return to campus). Suggestions included having the Competition in late October, having individual schools administer exams, or having two or three host institutions. Haack will bring up the issue of when to have the Competition at the Business Meeting.

8. Weber reminded officers that a decision was made last year to have all officers write operational plans and send them to the Secretary-Treasurer. None have yet been sent. These plans should be updated annually.

Respectfully submitted,

Wendy Weber

Iowa Section Secretary-Treasurer