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Approved by the Board of Directors of the Mathematical Association of America on February 15, 2022
The name of this section shall be the Missouri Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
The purposes of the Missouri Section shall be to advance the mission of the MAA on a regional level (namely within the territory defined in Article II below); to offer guidance to the MAA as it forms and fulfills its mission; to provide professional development and networking activities for Section members and mathematics students in geographically accessible locations; and to promote discussion and action on issues affecting mathematics teaching, learning, and research in the region.
The membership of the Missouri Section shall be members of the Mathematical Association of America whose MAA mailing addresses are in Missouri, postal codes 63000 to 65899. Exceptions may be made by the MAA Secretary upon request of the affected member.
The Missouri Section of the Mathematical Association of America shall make every effort to avoid implicit bias and to reflect the diversity of the Section. The Section shall ensure its committee members, officers, invited speakers, awardees, and other leaders represent the various geographic regions, types of institutions, and diverse membership within the Section. It shall strive for balanced representation with regard to gender as well as underrepresented groups, and shall seek out nominations for any positions or awards to help achieve that balance. Section committees and members may consult the most recent version of the document Guidelines for MAA Selection Committees: Avoiding Implicit Bias for guidance.
Article IV describes the officers of the Section, other members of the Executive Committee, and their duties. It includes nomination and election procedures.
The officers of this Section shall be a Vice-Chair, a Chair, a Past-Chair, a Secretary-Treasurer, a Newsletter Editor, a Program Chair-Elect, a Program Chair, and a Past Program Chair.
The executive committee of the Section shall consist of the officers of the section and the Section Representative to the MAA Congress.
Each Section officer must be a member of the Mathematical Association of America and of the Missouri Section.
The officers shall be elected at the regularly-scheduled business meeting of the Section.
The nomination procedure for Section officers shall be that the Chair appoints a nominating committee of three people to recommend a slate of candidates for offices for the upcoming business meeting. This committee should be formed at least six weeks prior to the business meeting. Additional nominations will always be permitted by members at the business meeting prior to the election of officers.
The duties of the Section officers shall be as follows.
A Vice-Chair will be elected in even-numbered years and will automatically become the Chair at the end of the next regular business meeting, and will become the Past-Chair at the conclusion of the regular business meeting two years later. Thus, an individual elected as Vice-Chair is expected to fulfill a 4-year commitment to leadership of the Section. The responsibility of the Vice-Chair is to assist the Chair in matters of governance and in promoting and sustaining a long-term vision and plan for the Section. The Chair has primary responsibility for sustaining and implementing strategies consistent with MAA and Section initiatives and works alongside either the Vice-Chair or the Chair-Elect to pursue those responsibilities. The Chair may appoint committees of the Section and shall be an ex officio member of each such committee unless specifically barred by vote of the membership at an official Section meeting or unless otherwise specified in these bylaws. The Chair is responsible for conducting both the Executive Committee meeting and the General Business Meeting of the Section at the annual meeting. The Chair does not vote in matters of Section business in either meeting except in the case to break a tie. The Past-Chair assists the Chair in the year immediately following the second year of service as Chair.
The Secretary-Treasurer and the Newsletter Editor shall serve staggered 3-year terms. The term of the Secretary-Treasurer will expire in years congruent to 0 mod 3 and the terms of the Newsletter Editor will expire in years congruent to 1 mod 3. Both positions are eligible to serve unlimited consecutive terms.
Duties of the Secretary-Treasurer include keeping minutes of business meetings (including meetings of the Executive Committee), preservation of records of the Section, maintenance of files of official correspondence of the Section, notifying members of all regular and special meetings, notifying members of the Executive Committee of meetings of that group. The Secretary-Treasurer is responsible for sending meeting reports after each meeting of the Section and an annual Section report to the Committee on Sections. Additional duties include the collection registration fees, the receipt of funds provided by MAA, the arrangement for safekeeping of all Section monies, the maintenance of proper and accurate books of account of such monies the timely payment of all debts of the Section, and the filing of annual reports with the MAA headquarters office. Finally, the Secretary-Treasurer is responsible for the disbursement of Section funds as directed by the Executive Committee with appropriate countersignatures from at least one other officer.
Duties of the Newsletter Editor include publishing the online Section Newsletter on a regular basis to keep the Section membership informed of all regular and special business meetings and other pertinent information.
An institution scheduled to host a meeting will provide the Executive Committee with the name of at least one Section member designated by the institution to serve (eventually) as Program Chair. The Executive Committee will submit a nomination to the membership for consideration. At the meeting two years prior to hosting the meeting, the membership will elect a Program Chair-Elect. The Program Chair-Elect will automatically become the Program Chair at the conclusion of the next annual meeting and will automatically become the Past-Program Chair at the conclusion of the subsequent annual meeting. Thus, an individual elected as Program Chair-Elect is expected to fulfill a 3-year commitment to leadership of the Section. The Program Chair-Elect will assist the Program Chair with details of the meeting such as, but not limited to, identification of and invitation of speakers, the call for proposals for contributed talks, and the organization of contributed talks. The Program Chair will have primary responsibility for all local details of the Section meeting. The Past Program Chair will serve as an advisory resource to the Chair.
The Executive Committee shall conduct the affairs of the Section between meetings. Quorum will be those Executive Committee members present at a regularly scheduled meeting held in conjunction with the annual business meeting or a simple majority of the Executive Committee for a Special Executive Committee business meeting. Executive Committee business may be conducted electronically between annual meetings.
If a vacancy on the Executive Committee should occur, then with the exception of Section Representative, the Executive Committee fills vacancies that occur between elections. If the first position in a sequence of positions (such as a Chair-Elect) is filled by appointment, members will elect the succeeding position (such as chair) in the sequence at the next regularly scheduled business meeting. For the Section Representative, vacancies are filled according to the MAA bylaws.
The Section normally shall hold one program meeting each year and an annual business meeting.
Program meetings shall be planned by the Program Chair and the Program Chair-Elect with input from the Past Program Chair.
Additional program meetings may be organized by the Executive Committee or their designees.
The annual business meeting shall be planned by the Executive Committee and the Chair will preside over the meeting.
The quorum for a business meeting shall consist of not fewer than 15 members of the Section and no business may be validly transacted at business meetings where less than a quorum is present.
A special business meeting may be called by the Executive Committee. A special business meeting shall be held if a petition requesting such a meeting and signed by at least 15 members of the Section is submitted to the Chair. No matter how called, arrangements for such meetings should be a responsibility of the Executive Committee, which may, of course, delegate specific duties to other members.
Each member of the Section shall be notified in writing or electronically at least 20 days in advance of any regular or special business meeting of the Section.
Members of the Section shall not be assessed dues. However, the Executive Committee may set a registration fee for annual meetings of the Section. Such a fee must be approved at a business meeting of the Section and shall apply to all annual meetings after approval until the Section approves another change in amount or elimination of the fee. Registration fees shall be used to help pay the expenses of conducting the business of the Section.
The assets of the Missouri Section shall be used exclusively to further the purposes of the Section and, in the event of the dissolution of the Section, the remaining assets shall be turned over to the MAA to be used for purposes consistent with the bylaws of that organization.
The standing committees of the Section shall be the Teaching Award Selection Committee, the Missouri Collegiate Mathematics Competition Committee, and the Nominating Committee.
The Teaching Award Selection Committee is responsible for reviewing the nominations for the Missouri Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, selecting the recipient, and reporting to the Secretary-Treasurer in a timely fashion.
The Teaching Award Selection Committee is chaired by the Vice-Chair or Past-Chair. The Chair of the Section will appoint two additional Section members to serve on the TAS committee. No more than one member of the 3-person committee should be a Teaching Award recipient in the last five years. If possible, the appointed members should be chosen so as to represent the geographic and institutional diversity of the Section in an effort to be as inclusive as possible and to avoid implicit bias. No member of the committee is permitted to serve for more than two consecutive years on the Committee.
The Missouri Collegiate Mathematics Competition Committee is responsible for all aspects of the Competition, including writing and grading problems, establishing appropriate rules, setting entry fees, publicizing the Competition, and working with the host school to ensure that adequate facilities are available.
This committee shall be chaired by the Competition Coordinator. The Competition Coordinator shall be a member of the Missouri Section and shall be appointed by the Chair. The Competition Coordinator shall ordinarily serve until he/she retires from the position. However, he/she may be removed and replaced by the Executive Committee if the Executive Committee deems that this action is in the best interests of the Section.
The members of the Competition Committee shall be members of the Missouri Section. Members are appointed to the Committee by the Section Chair upon recommendation by the Competition Coordinator. The number of members is determined by the Competition Coordinator and shall be sufficient to accomplish the work of the Committee. Members shall ordinarily serve until they retire from the Committee; however a member may be removed by the Executive Committee if the Competition Coordinator and the Executive Committee deem that this action is in the best interests of the Competition Committee.
The Nominating Committee is responsible for selecting a slate of officers for the positions open that year.
The Nominating Committee shall consist of three Section members. Each fall the Section Chair appoints the three members and designates a committee chair.
Amendments to the bylaws may be proposed by the Executive Committee or by a petition signed by 15 members of the Section.
Subject to subsequent approval by the Board of Directors of the Mathematical Association of America, these bylaws may be amended by 2/3 of the votes cast by a quorum at a business meeting of the Section.
The secretary of the Section shall notify each member of the Section of any proposed amendment(s) at least 20 days prior to the meeting at which voting on the proposed amendment(s) takes place.
A complete revision of these bylaws shall be subject to all of the same procedures required for other amendments to these bylaws.
Page last modified: February 18, 2022.