Iowa Section of the MAA
Section Business Meeting
Saturday, April 2, 2005
Central College
Joel Haack (Chair, University of Northern Iowa) called the meeting to order at 11:33am.
1. Haack asked for first time participants in the Section meeting to introduce themselves; Mahmoud Almanassra teaches statistics at Wartburg College.
2. Al Hibbard moved that the minutes from last year’s meeting be approved; Cal Van Niewaal seconded the motion. Motion was approved unanimously.
3. Ballots for Chair-Elect and Secretary-Treasurer were distributed; nominations from the floor were requested, but there were none. Jim Freeman counted collected and counted.
4. Weber presented Treasurer’s report as given in the spring newsletter.
5. Jim Freeman presented Governor’s report and referred members to his report in the spring newsletter.
6. Election results were reported: Wendy Weber (Central College) was elected Secretary-Treasurer and Elgin Johnston (Iowa State University) is the new Chair-Elect.
7. Haack presented the 25 and 50 year membership certificates: Anne Dow (Maharishi University of Management, 25 years), Jim Freeman (Cornell College, 25 years), Ron Smith (Graceland, 25 years), and James Jakobsen (50 years).
8. Haack presented the Section Teaching award to Keith Stroyan (University of Iowa).
9.
Hibbard highlighted proposed changes in bylaws. AM Fink moved that the
changes be approved; Jim Freeman seconded the motion. Motion was approved
unanimously.
Scott Searcy moved, and Mariah Birgen seconded, that current officers
serve in their current positions for an additional year to make a smooth
transition from the current operation according to the bylaws to the new
proposed operations.
10. Haack announced that the position of Student Chapter Coordinator is vacant. The Public Information Officer position is vacant and will not be filled as the proposed new position of Information Officer will cover those duties.
11. Murphy Waggoner (Simpson College) reported on the Midwest Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium hosted by Simpson College and funded by the MAA, the NSF and Simpson College. The Symposium will be held Saturday, April 9th. The website detailing information on the Symposium is www.simpson.edu/math/beyond/mums2005.html.
12. Hibbard announced that there were forms available to offer to help grade portions of the American Mathematics Competition. Freeman announced that members should send ideas of how the Section can be more involved with this program to him for discussion at the next meeting.
13.
Discussion of the timing of events within the Section: Section Meeting
(which is in the spring as stated in the bylaws), Iowa Mathematics Competition,
Midwest Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium. This spring all events are on
consecutive weekends.
Discussion of whether the Competition could be held at multiple regional
locations in February, if results could be submitted electronically in case of
inclement weather, whether a speaker should be arranged so that there is a clear
value in going to one location. November conflicts with moving the Competition
include avoiding the programming competition, Nebraska Conference for
Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, Putnam Exam.
Moving the Section meeting to the Fall presented other opportunities and
problems: more graduate students would have an opportunity to attend and give
job related talks, but they are often so focused on getting applications out,
that they may not be able to get a talk ready.
It was suggested that the Bylaws be changed (Article IV, Section 1) from
the “The Section shall hold an Annual Meeting in the spring of each year” to
“The Section shall hold an Annual Meeting each year.”
14. General announcements for lunch.
15. The Section thanked Al Hibbard (Central College) for his work on our website and the development of the pre-registration form for the Meeting.
16. Meeting adjourned at 12:37 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Wendy Weber
Iowa Section Secretary-Treasurer