New Jersey Section

Report of the Governor SPRING 1999

Theresa C. Michnowicz

On behalf of MAA-NJ, I extend congratulations to Amy Cohen, Mathematics Department, Rutgers University, on being the recipient of the 1999 MAA-NJ Distinguished Teaching Award. Amy, an invited speaker at our Fall 1991 section meeting, currently serves on the ad hoc AMS-MAA Committee on Preparing Future Faculty. (http://orion.ramapo.edu/~ldant/distinguished.html)

I am pleased to announce that Barbara Osofsky, Mathematics Department, Rutgers University, is a candidate for the office of First Vice-President of the MAA. Barbara has been a governor of our section, an invited speaker at two joint national meetings of AMS-MAA-SIAM, and a program chair for several MAA MathFests. She continues to chair the MAA Short Course Committee and also serves on several other MAA committees. It has been many years since MAA-NJ has had one of its members as a candidate for a national position. Ballots for MAA national elections will soon be in the mail. Please be sure to return your ballot.

For MathFest99, the Association for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (ARUME) has planned papers for presentation, invited talks and will also hold a reception. The annual research conference will be in Chicago, Sept. 17-20, 1999. To join ARUME, contact David Meel (meel@math.bgsu.edu or dmeel@aol.com).

The Meeting of the Board of Governors at the Joint Winter Mathematics Meetings was held on Tuesday, January 12, 1999, at the Hilton Hotel, San Antonio. Topics on the agenda included membership, finances, the MAA Strategic Plan, meeting schedules, and appointments.

Caroline Fuchs, Director of Marketing and Membership, reported a downward trend in membership, which continues to be a major concern for the Board. Please encourage your colleagues to join the MAA, which can now be done via the Web. (http://www.maa.org/mbsvcs/membercate.html)

The MAA is in the process of updating its Strategic Plan of five years ago. Considerable time was spent by the Board on input for the Member Needs Committee, which will be reviewing the 1994 plan, studying the priorities of the MAA for the next millennium, and formulating a new plan. If you would like to have your priorities known by the committee, please forward the specifics to me. The Board of Governors will review the committee report at its next meeting,

Meetings approved by the Board are the Joint Meetings of AMS-MAA-SIAM, Washington, DC, January 19-22, 2000; MathFest2000, UCLA, August 3-5, 2000; the Joint Meetings, New Orleans, January 10-15, 2001; the Joint Meetings, San Diego, January 6-9, 2002.

The Board will consider scheduling summer meetings after 2000 with the proviso that summer meetings be fiscally sound.

The AMS will be celebrating World Mathematical Year 2000 at its meeting at UCLA, August 7-12, 2000. (http://www.ams.org/meetings/wmy2000.html)

The Board elected William Velez, University of Arizona, as Governor-at-Large Representing Minority Interests and Daniel Kennedy, Baylor School, Chattanooga, as Governor-at-Large Representing High School Teachers. Underwood Dudley, DePauw University, will join the Board as the Editor of The College Mathematics Journal; Titu Andrescu, University of Nebraska, will serve as the Director of the American Mathematical Competitions (AMC); and Walter Mientha, Director Emeritus of the AMC, University of Nebraska, will serve as the Executive Director of IMO.

After fifteen years of dedicated service as the executive director, Marcia Sward has decided not to continue in that position effective at the end of this year. A search committee for this position headed by former President Kenneth A. Ross is underway.

Finally, as the last item on its agenda, the Board voted to make the subcommittee on MAA Liaisons a standing committee.

The summer mathematics meetings will be held in Providence, July 31 - August 3, 1999. Paul Blanchard, Boston College University and Bently College, is the organizer of the short course, Recent Developments in the Teaching of Differential Equations. Barbara Osofsky, chair of the Short Course Committee, encourages those planning to attend the short course to register as soon as possible. (http://www.maa.org/meetings/2Day_shortcourse.html)

tmichnowicz@njcu.edu, michnowicz@aol.com