3 The Beginning Year 1922

On April 29, 1922, the organizational meeting was finally held at the Main Building of the Georgia School of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. There were 63 persons present at the meeting, including the 15 members listed as Founders of the Section. At the business meeting, it was decided to present a petition to the Trustees of the Association asking permission to form a Southeastern Section, to include the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The main interests were to be presentation and discussion of mathematical papers, improvement in the teaching of mathematics, the building up of mathematical libraries and cooperation with other organizations.

The meeting program included five papers:

1. ``Some Possibilities of the Slide Rule'' D.M. Smith, Georgia School of Technology
2. ``Marking Systems at the University of Georgia'' D.F. Barrow, University of Georgia
3. ``Zero and Infinity in Elementary Mathematics'' J.F. Messick, Emory University
4. ``History of Mathematics'' W.W. Rankin, Jr., Agnes Scott College
5. ``Einstein Theory of Relativity'' W.S. Nelms, Emory University.

At this meeting, it was also decided that the Section would hold a meeting each alternate year near the center of the Section, but invitations from distant colleges would be accepted in the other years. The Secretary was given permission to accept invitations for meeting places for three years in advance.