The Mathematical Association of America North Central Section Minutes

North Central Section, Mathematical Association of America

Business Meeting, October 20, 2007

Bemidji State University

Bemidji, Minnesota

President Tom Sibley, presiding

Secretary:  C. Livingston.  65 people attended this meeting, including 11 BSU students.

Governor:  J. Galovich.  MAA is undergoing long-range strategic planning.  There is a focus for each period.   1.  Professional development, revenue, AMC.   2.  Membership, students, governance. (current focus)   3.  Books, journals, meetings.   Governor Galovich will send an email to section members to get feedback and possibly focus a session at the spring meetings.   Particularly interested in learning why people come to the meetings.

Information Officer:  S. Chiappetta.   Please send information about your school when the newsletter call comes out so that we can all celebrate the accomplishments of your faculty.

Treasurer:  R. Westhoff.  Passed out financial summary.  We have 19 institutional memberships at present. 

President:  T. Sibley. 

• Jerry Heuer has the NCS problem solving contest ready to go for November 10 and is prepared to continue this service to the section.

• The lunchtime Kakuro winners were announced.  The first place winner enjoys puzzles and is in charge of finding a puzzle for the spring meeting.

• Spring Meeting, April 25, 26, 2008 at the College of St. Benedict in Collegeville, MN.

• Pi Mu Epsilon, April 11, 12, 2009 at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN.

• Fall Meeting, 2008, Concordia College – Moorhead.

• Upon recommendation of the Executive Committee and a vote of the Section, the section will donate $303 to the MAA for a brick for the Halmos walk/patio between the two buildings at headquarters.

Summer Seminar 2009:

• Organizer:  President-elect Su Doree. 

• Possible topics:  computational algebraic geometry, dynamical systems, advanced statistics.  

• Possible locations are St. Ben’s/St. John’s or Augsburg. 

• If anyone has a topic to recommend, please let Su Doree or Tom Sibley know.

• Discussed having child care at the summer seminar.  

Issues Facing the Section:

An electronic questionnaire to section members asking for input about the section.  The possibility of subscribing to an electronic version of a journal in lieu of a hard copy was raised.

At this fall meeting we gave a $100 stipend to student speakers.  Plan to continue this in the near future, but only at fall meetings.  This meeting has 2 undergraduate and 2 graduate student speakers, 6 faculty speakers and 2 invited faculty speakers.

Section NExT: M. Hvidsten.  Next year the section will induct new section NExT fellows in the fall instead of the spring.  Keep this in mind when bringing on new faculty this year.

Awards:  Teaching award chair, Ivy Knoshaug and Service award committee member, Gail Nelson, presented an energetic call for nominations for these awards.  Information officer Chiappetta will update the website with deadlines, but we are reminded that it would be most convenient to make these nominations before our class schedules start in January.

Submitted by Co Livingston

NCS-MAA Secretary

October 20, 2007

Last updated on Saturday, November 17, 2007 .