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 section information director, Mark Mills, millsm@central.edu.

Contents

• 2006 Iowa Mathematics Meeting at Iowa State University
• Governor's Report
• Chair's Report
• Treasurer's Report
• Nominating Committee Report
• Announcements and Dates of Importance
• Officers of the Iowa Section

Governor's Report

The Board of Governors met on January 11, 2006 in San Antonio. The meeting was relatively uneventful. The Association is continuing with it's phased strategic planning process. There should be results from this process I can share with you after MathFest in Knoxville. Financially the Association is controlling costs and is balancing its budget, but it doesn't have a large enough endowment or other income generation to take pressure off of dues for the annual operation of the Association. The Board approved a formula for calculation of membership dues based on the operating expenses of the Association. (I will be happy to share this formula with any member interested.) The net result is that there will be a slight yearly increase in dues expected over the next four years. The renewal of membership form has also been changed--making the actual cost of options like adding journals more obvious. I expressed the concern that the Association was as dependent on membership dues as most of our institutions are dependent on tuition. I do not want to see the Association price itself out of existence. Tom Banchoff stressed how important and unique the MAA is among scientific organizations because of its emphasis on education. While the MAA needs to build its endowment and gain other revenue streams to reduce the need for membership dues supporting its annual operation, members need to look at membership in MAA not just at what the Association can do for them, but for what the Association does for mathematics education in the world. Project NExT is but one example of innovations pioneered by MAA. The MAA remains strong not just due to the financial support of its members but also by the time they volunteer to the numerous committees and projects of the Association. If you have strong interests, please let me know and I will recommend you for a position on an MAA committee in your interest area.

Most of the rest of the meeting was taken up with reports--all very positive. Once again, if you would like more information on the operations of the MAA, just let me know and I will happily share the information I have. I recommend you check out MathDL off the MAA main page. You can expect more information in digital form being available to you as a member of MAA.

I hope to see you in Knoxville this summer (August 10-12)!

Respectfully submitted,
Jim Freeman
jfreeman@cornellcollege.edu

Chair's Report

There are two items that I would like to bring to your attention.

First, note that we are again working on improving our Bylaws. Last year, we made some changes to the structure of our Executive Committee. As the timing of the annual mathematics competition was being discussed at our business meeting, it was pointed out that our Bylaws constrained us to having our meeting in the spring. To give us more flexibility, we are removing this constraint and making a few other cosmetic changes. Please review these changes and the rationale for them.

Second, I want point out that the Executive Committee has been making strides in preparing operational plans for each position. These provide descriptions of tasks, and a timeline to accomplish them, for each position. This allows candidates to find out what is coming if elected as well as providing direction once in office. We hope to continually refine these to make them more usable. If you have any suggestions along these lines, please contact the relevant person (or me).

Respectfully submitted,
Al Hibbard
hibbarda@central.edu
 

Treasurer's Report

Respectfully submitted,
Wendy Weber
weberw@central.edu

Nominating Committee Report

The 2006 MAA-Iowa Nominating Committee (Stephen Willson, Murphy Waggoner, and Gene Herman) has submitted the following nominations.  Elections will be held at the business meeting at Iowa State University on Saturday, April 8, 2006.

Vice-Chair Elect:  

Larry Naylor received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma in 1978, with a thesis on Galois theory in commutative rings. He has been teaching mathematics (and some computer science courses for a while) at Drake since 1978, and has been department chair since 1999. He has enjoyed bringing teams to the Iowa Mathematics Competition for the past several years.

Lynn Olson is a native Minnesotan and a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Morris. After a brief stint of secondary teaching he earned a BA at Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. in algebra from the University of Notre Dame. After teaching two years at Cardinal Stritch College he took a position at Wartburg College where he has been ever since. He has taught a wide variety of computer science courses but is currently teaching only mathematics. His current research interests are in unit fractions and the history of research in this area. In addition he is always willing to share his experience in leading travel trips to Europe.
 

Treasurer:
 

Cathy Gorini is Professor of Mathematics and Dean of Faculty at Maharishi University of Management.  She has been at the University since 1978 and has also served as chair of the Mathematics Department and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.  She is the editor of Geometry at Work in the MAA Notes series and author of The Facts on File Geometry Handbook.  Her undergraduate degree is in mathematics from Cornell University and her doctorate is from the University of Virginia.

Karen Shuman is currently Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Grinnell College. A graduate of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA, she completed her Ph.D. under the direction of Dorothy Wallace at Dartmouth College in harmonic analysis/signal processing. After working as a VIGRE post-doc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she moved to Grinnell in 2003 with her husband Christopher French, who is also Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Grinnell. In her spare time, Karen enjoys reading mysteries, traveling around England, renovating her house, and spending time with her three cats.

Announcements and Dates of Importance

None at this time.

Dates of Importance

April 1, 2006 - Midwest Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium at Simpson College

August 10-12, 2006 - MathFest 2006 in Knoxville, Tennessee

January 5-8, 2007 - 2007 MAA-AMS Joint Meetings in New Orleans

Please send corrections, comments and suggestions regarding the Iowa MAA Web pages to
Mark Mills, millsm@central.edu.