MAA-Iowa Section Newsletter

Spring 2002

This is the web edition of the Iowa Section Newsletter. To receive a printed copy of the newsletter or to make suggestions/comments, please contact the editor, Mark Mills, millsm@central.edu.

Contents

• 2002 Iowa Mathematics Meeting at Morningside College - Joint Meeting of MAA and ASA
• Governor's Report
• Treasurer's Report
• Nominating Committee Report
• Officers of the Iowa Section

Governor's Report

The MAA Board of Governors met on Saturday, January 5, in San Diego.

The all day meeting consisted mostly of routine business and committee reports.

• The MAA office has converted all of its membership data to TIMMS, their newly purchased association management system. The software conversion significantly exceeded cost estimates, but will be well worth it. Record keeping and searches will be much simpler. Sections should be able to request mailing labels or e-mails for specific target audiences in their membership. Some privacy issues may have to be resolved. For now such searches have to be done by the national office. Members should be aware that changing personal data in the Combined Membership List online does not change the now independent MAA records. For now a separate call or e-mail to MAA headquarters is necessary.
• MAA’s Professional Enhancement Programs (PREP) will be offering several workshops this summer. The topics include Math education, Knot theory, Finite math, Distance learning. Check out the listing at www.maa.org/pfdev/prep/prep.html.
• Sections are strongly encouraged to start their own section NeXT (New Experiences in Teaching). As reported previously, some financial support is available to sections who submit a good proposal. Unfortunately, I had no responses to my appeal to the members of the Iowa section in last Fall’s newsletter. Do we have any national NeXT fellows who are interested in starting a section NeXT program? We need their leadership and initiative!
• MAA continues to add to its outstanding list of publications. Be sure to check out the MAA book display at our section meeting!
• MathDL (the Mathematical Sciences Library) is now operational and can be accessed through the MAA web site (www.maa.org).
• MAA is dues dependent. Even though our membership continues to grow, there will have to be a 4% member dues increase in 2003. Student dues will remain at $20 but that will only include subscriptions to Focus and Math Horizons. Students will pay an additional $10 for each additional subscription. By the way, lifetime MAA memberships are also available.
• John Kenelly of Clemson University was elected treasurer of the MAA.
• The MAA has received an NSF grant for a three year project on Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics (SAUM). The project director is Bernie Madison. Details can be found at http://www.maa.org/SAUM/index.html. As part of this program a few sections will be lucky enough to have an assessment workshop at their meeting this Spring. The Iowa section is one of these, I hope we will have a good turnout!
• The American Mathematics Competition (AMC) has a new chair: Elgin Johnston (congratulations Elgin!). Details about the competition can be found at www.unl.edu/amc. I was interested to find out that the AMC has an annual $1000 award for two students in each section.
• SIGMAAs are Special Interest Groups of the MAA. They each have separate membership dues (in addition to MAA dues). There currently are four SIGMAAs: Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education; Business, Industry and Government; Statistics Education; and History of Mathematics. You can learn more about them at http://www.maa.org/sigmaa/sigmaa.html.
• The Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS), which includes some members of the MAA’s committee on the Mathematical Education of Teachers (COMET), has published a new CBMS volume on The Mathematical Education of Teachers. This important document can be viewed at www.maa.org.cbms.
• After a report from the MAA’s Science Policy Committee the board had a long discussion on what would be the best way to influence public policy at the state and national level on issues that the MAA has taken a position on. No conclusion could be reached, the topic will come up again at future meetings.

The next Board of Governor’s meeting will be on July 31, preceding the MathFest (August 1-3) in Burligton, VT.

Ruth I. Berger

Treasurer's Report