Since my three-year term in office ends on June 30, this is my last
Governor's report. The reality of this transition was brought home to
me by the arrival of the ballot for the election of my successor the day
before I am writing this. By the time you are reading it, all the votes
will be in, and we may know the outcome. However the election turns
out, we can be certain that we will have a Governor who will serve us
well since we have three people on the ballot who have been strong
contributors to the MAA and the Michigan Section.
As I end my term, I want to express thanks to the Michigan Section membership for placing their confidence in me to serve in this way. It has been an honor and a privilege to represent our Section on the MAA Board of Governors. It has been very interesting to see close up how our professional association functions, to grapple with issues of priorities and future directions, and to try to exercise wisdom in making decisions.
I also wish to express publicly my thanks to my employer, Northern Michigan University, for the financial support it has provided. Given our remote location within Michigan, attending Michigan Section meetings are always overnight trips, and generate 800 to 1000 miles of travel costs. Northern has been very generous in supporting my travel to all the necessary meetings in Michigan, as well as the two national meetings each year.
I also want to thank all of the people who have been involved in keeping the Michigan Section humming smoothly over the past three years. One of the benefits of being the Michigan Section Governor is being able to enjoy hearing how often our Section is held up as an example of well-organized professional activity at the national meetings. This takes the work of many people.
I do not have any specifics to report from the January meeting of the Board of Governors in New Orleans. Suffice it to say that things are going well. The finances are stable, the conversion to the in-house data processing system is going well, and there are some interesting new initiatives in the pipeline, such as the new Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications (JOMA).
Once again, thanks for the opportunity to represent you.
John Kiltinen, Governor, Michigan Section-MAA