My term as your Governor is nearing its end. You will soon receive a ballot to
elect the Governor of the Michigan Section for 2004–2007. There are
excellent candidates from whom to choose (no actors or bodybuilders, though),
and I urge everyone to vote. Let me also urge you to do some or all of the
following: obviously, join the MAA if you are not already a member, and
contribute to Michigan Section activities by paying your voluntary Section
dues; nominate a colleague for the Section’s Distinguished Teaching
Award; nominate a colleague for the MAA’s new Henry L. Alder Award for
Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty
Member; buy a book from the MAA on-line; look up old articles in MAA journals
using JSTOR; join a SIGMAA (special interest group—the newest one deals
with mathematics on the Web); take a mathematical tour of England in May;
volunteer to serve on an MAA national committee; make plans to attend the Joint
Meetings in Phoenix in January, the Section meeting at Oakland University in
May, and/or the MathFest in Providence in August. Details for most of these
activities can be found, of course, on the redesigned
MAA Web site,
www.maa.org.
At the national level, the organization is in fine shape, with a $6 million endowment, a $6 million annual budget, and $6 million of currently active externally-funded projects. The Board approved upcoming summer MathFests in Knoxville (2006), San Jose (2007), and Madison (2008); the 2005 MathFest will be in Albuquerque.
As you enjoy reading the rest of this Newsletter, please join me in thanking Norman Richert for doing a great job as editor. While maintaining its long tradition as one of the best Section newsletters in the country, he has brought about improvements and increased efficiency on the printing and distribution end and saved the Section a nontrivial amount of money as well.
Jerrold W. Grossman, Governor