Iowa Section of the MAA

Executive Committee Meeting

Saturday, April 8, 2006

Iowa State University

Present:  Ruth Berger (Competition Chair), Mariah Birgen (Vice-Chair), Jim Freeman (Governor), Al Hibbard (Chair), Elgin Johnston (Vice-Chair Elect), Mark Mills (Information Director), Cal Van Niewaal (Liaison Coordinator), Larry Naylor (candidate for Vice-Chair Elect), Lynn Olson (candidate for Vice-Chair Elect)

Hibbard called the meeting to order at 7:05am.

1. Minutes of last year’s Executive Committee Meeting were approved via e-mail communication in fall 2005.
2. Hibbard reminded the committee that the changes to the section’s bylaws are simply to remove the word “spring” from any reference to the timing of the section’s meeting, and some other clean-up of syntax.
3. Hibbard gave an update on the competition campaign. To date, $2,015 has been collected from the section and has been matched by Steven Willson. He will match up to $5000 by May 2006. Some discussion ensued about how the competition fund should be used and/or invested. The national office may have some way to invest the money in our competition fund in such a way that we could get a better return than we are currently getting, thus requiring less use of the principal. In order to make the fund last to perpetuity, Freeman suggested that we should only use the interest from the fund each year and then cover additional competition expenses from the section’s general fund. No decision was made.
4. Freeman noted that Van Niewaal won the Meritorious Service Award from the MAA for our section this year. This is on a five-year rotation.
5. Hibbard noted that the operational plans for the various offices continue to be updated and edited. They are available at the section’s web site.
6. It was suggested that we should officially invite the Iowa sections of the ASA, AMATYC, and NCTM to join our meetings. This will be added to the operational plan for the Vice-Chair.
7. An operational plan has been put together by Brian Birgen for a Section NExT. The plan calls for the section meeting registration fee to be waived for three years for the participants, and a couple of rooms need to be available at the meetings site during the first day of the meeting for sessions for the participants. The national MAA has funds to help with implementation. This will be discussed at the section business meeting later today.
8. We didn’t receive letters from the national MAA welcoming new members. It seems that this is something that must be initiated by the section. This will be added to the Chair’s operational plan.
9. Hibbard announced that the student chapter coordinator position is being suspended. There are very few student chapters in the section, and no one seems interested to take the position.
10. There was discussion about how to get more students involved in the section meeting. An idea suggested by Freeman was to make the meetings a place where graduate students could give possible interview talks and receive feedback. Mock interviews could also be arranged. However, this would require the meetings to be moved to the fall.
11. There was discussion about the timing of the competition. Some would like to see it moved to the fall to distance it from the section’s meetings and the Simpson undergraduate symposium. The concern is that many weekends in the fall hit a homecoming at one of the section’s schools. So the competition would either have to be in early-September or mid- to late-November. Berger will discuss this at the section business meeting later today.
12. Freeman and Hibbard will attend MathFest in Knoxville this summer. Van Niewaal is likely to attend.
13. It was recommended that the coordinator of Section NExT be invited to next year’s executive committee meeting.
14. The section needs to be sure to invite a Polya Lecturer when it is the section’s turn. This will be added to the operational plan for the Vice-Chair or Chair.
15. Meeting was adjourned at 8:10am.