First of all, my heartfelt thanks to all of you for electing me
Governor of the Michigan Section for 2004–2007. It is a great
honor, and I will do my best to fulfill my responsibilities in the
tradition of my predecessor—Jerrold Grossman
(2001–2004)—and our previous governors. Here are some of
the major issues and reports from my first Board of Governors meeting
at the Mathfest in Providence, RI.
There is continuing improvement in the MAA’s financial operations. The new Finance Director has corrected some accounting procedures, and the financial report is now transparent to all sources of funding. The basic structure of the budget is “Four Seven’s”, which includes approximately $7 million dollars in four catagories: operating, real estate, grants-in-place, and endowment. There is a new effort to build up the endowment . There has been an increase in federal funding of MAA projects, and renewed activity in the public science policy arena.
Publications are doing well. Sales are up and sales through Amazon are way up. Check out MathDL on http://www.maa.org. The server for electronic publications is now housed at MAA. There are some excellent resources, with links to JOMA, Classroom Resources, and other featured sites and articles.
News from programs and services: The PREP workshops have five more years of funding; more funding is coming for student conferences; ACCCESS, for new two-year college faculty, is up and running; SUMMA has organized its second summer of Student Research Programs for underrepresented students; CUPM has published two reports; and Math Bio 2010 is soon to be published. Find information about all programs on the MAA web site (and the meaning of the acronyms).
Childcare will be offered at the Atlanta Joint Meetings in January on an experimental basis. If successful, it will be offered at future conferences. The next MathFest, Albuquerque in 2005, will be the first wholly run by the MAA, both the registration/housing and the meeting.
The 2004 Mathematics Tour to England was a big success. Mexico (Mayan math) is the next destination, May 23 to June 2, 2005.
A Michigan note: the new advertising booklet highlighting MAA programs features a couple of photos from the 2003 Michigan Section meeting at SVSU—Jeff Weeks giving his Saturday lunch talk, and a table of students and faculty in their 3-D glasses watching him. Photos courtesy of Norm Richert, our esteemed Newsletter Editor.
Our organization is run very efficiently. At the national level, we have many fewer employees for the size of our membership than any of the other mathematics professional societies. Much of the credit goes to the extensive volunteer army of our state and regional MAA sections, and the national officers and committees. This is one of the many good reasons for you to join MAA at the national level if not already a member, pay your (voluntary) section dues, and get involved in your section and national activities (Focus is offering a free book to reviewers; contact Fernando Gouvêa).
Ruth Favro, Governor