Iowa Section of the MAA

Business meeting

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Central College

TJ Hitchman (Chair) called the meeting to order at 1:00pm.

1. Welcome and introduction of first time participants.

2. The 2010 business meeting minutes were approved as submitted by acclamation.

3. Hitchman invited the two candidates for Vice-Chair-Elect, Brian Birgen and Deb Czarneski to introduce themselves and the candidate for Secretary, Ron Smith, to introduce himself. Ballots were distributed, marked, collected and tallied. Deb Czarneski was elected Vice-Chair-Elect and Ron Smith was elected Secretary.

4. Ruth Berger, the Iowa Mathematics Competition Coordinator, presented the trophy for the 2011 Iowa Mathematics Competition to the two winning schools, a tie between University of Iowa and Iowa State University. They agreed that each school will display the trophy for 6 months.

5. Scott Searcy, Treasurer, presented the Treasurer’s report. About half of the money in our account is earmarked for the Iowa Mathematics Competition. This account is being depleted slowly so the competition can be funded yet for some years.

Cal Van Niewaal brought up that a motion had passed at a previous meeting to buy a brick for the MAA’s River of Bricks at the Carriage House Conference Center at the National Headquarters and apparently during the transition between Treasurers, this motion was not implemented. Searcya said he will get the brick purchased for the Section immediately. Changes in the meeting book sale were also explained. Books can no longer be purchased directly at meetings, all books must be ordered and shipped by the national office to avoid sales tax violations. Shipping continues to be free and the books are sold at discounted prices as in the past, and the Section gets a reabate for each book sold. The Section will maintain a single display copy of books and is in the process of depleting our supply of multiple copies of a single title. The one student presenter was allowed to choose a book from the excess copies and purchases were encouraged with an offer of “order one book, get an excess title of similar value for free”.

6. Hitchman made a short report on behalf of Governor Joel Haack. Highlights included noting that the MAA has a large amount of money, although it has been operating at a deficit and cost cutting measures have been implemented. The organization appears to be on solid financial footing. Also noted was the upcoming retirement of Executive Director, Tina Straley,, who will be replaced by the Asst Executive Director, Michael Pearson, and a new Treasurer, Jim Daniel, is replacing the retiring treasurer, John Kenelly. Finally, it was reported that Haack is in the process of writing a history of the Iowa Section and is seeking any and all historical information that members have and help from all interested parties. All sections have been requested to prepare a history for the centennial of the MAA in 2015.

7. Hitchman made a report from the Section Officers meeting at Mathfest: he mentioned the changes in the book sales to avoid being in violation of the sales tax laws and that the MAA still wants to host all Section websites. This will make all Section websites have a similar appearance (part of their “branding effort”), but it was decided last year that Al Hibbard has made certain extra tools available on the Iowa site that the Section likes and wants to keep, so for now, the Section is resisting efforts to move the website. Our recently “found” Iowa banner will now travel with the Vice-Chair Elect to each new meeting site so it can be displayed at the meeting and will be needed for the centennial celebration parade. The missing knob on one end of the dowel will be replaced.

8. Murphy Waggoner reported on the spring 2011 MUMS held at Simpson. There were 14 oral presentations and 20 posters presented by students from 11 schools. Funding has been secured for next year so it is being organized for next April.

9. Jon White requested that members consider nominating an outstanding teacher from their institution for the Iowa Outstanding Teaching Award. Details are on the website and there are many viable candidates that we as a section should be recognizing for their teaching.

10. Neil Martinsen-Burrell reported that the Iowa NExT fellows met on Friday before the Section meeting began and had stimulating discussions. There are two new NExT fellows , Jonas Myer and Bill Wood, and also Brenda Mammenga joined the group. The Iowa group is open to all untenured faculty members and graduate students in their last two years. Iowa NExT hopes that all untenured faculty members will be encouraged by MAA members at their institution to join this group.

11. There was a wide-ranging discussion of the idea for the Iowa, Nebraska & SE South Dakota, Missouri, and Kansas sections to hold a joint meeting in 2013. The Missouri section meeting in 2013 is scheduled for Maryville, MO (in NW Missouri) and they have formally invited the other 3 sections to join in hosting a joint meeting. It was moved by Neil Martinsen-Burrell and seconded by Russ Goodman that the Iowa Section accept the invitation from Missouri. The motion passed and Hitchman and Hibbard are on the joint planning committee for the upcoming meeting. The consensus of the group present at this Business meeting is that the Iowa Section should continue to hold our usual fall meetings in addition to joining in this joint meeting. If the 2013 meeting is successful, another joint meeting is being considered for 2015. It was also suggested that the Iowa Section inform neighboring Sections, such as those noted above as well as Minnesota and Wisconsin, for example, of our meeting dates and locations and invite their members to attend our Section meetings.

12. Announcements:

Matt Rissler was announced as the new Liaison Coordinator, replacing Russ Goodman, and there was some discussion of the role and need for Liaisons. Van Niewaal is on a MAA national committee looking for feedback on how best to use liaisons. Anyone with ideas should contact these members to express their views. An announcement about updating the Liaison information for each school was made by Baker asking that the information form for the national MAA be completed by a representative of each school.

MAA discount coupons for $10 Student Memberships were distributed.

The Sept 28, 29, 2012, Midwest Graph Theory Conference was announced.

Three books from the Sections “excess” book supply were given as door prizes to those present at the Business meeting. Winners were Steve Willson, Chris Spicer, and Amanda Matson.

13. The meeting was adjourned by Hitchman at 1:50pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Bernadette M. Baker

IA MAA Section Secretary