The Mathematical Association of America North Central Section Minutes

MAA-North Central Section

Minutes of the Meeting of the Board

Saturday October 18, 2008

Concordia College, Moorhead, MN

1.  Upcoming NCS meetings

List of past ten years and upcoming location and speakers (where known).

Fall 1998  Concordia College	Spring 1999 Carleton College
Fall 1999 University of Minnesota, Morris	Spring 2000 DECC, Duluth
Fall 2000 Bemidji State University	Spring 2001 Gustavus Adolphus College
Fall 2001 University of North Dakota	Spring 2002 St. Cloud State University
Fall 2002 Moorhead State University Davis Cope, William Michael O’Fallon (Mayo)	Spring 2003 Macalester College  Gil Strang, Frank Farris, Robert Lacher
Fall 2003 University of Sioux Falls Karen Saxe, Underwood Dudley	Spring 2004 Winona State University Tom Sibley, Carl Cowen
Fall 2004 North Dakota State University Jason Douma, Marty Isaacs (Polya)	Spring 2005 St. Olaf College Suzanne Doree, Steven Dunbar
Fall 2005 South Dakota State University	Spring 2006 Minnesota State University - Mankato  Steven Willson, Lowell Beineke,  Laurie Heyer
Fall 2006 University of Minnesota-Morris	Spring 2007 College of St. Catherine    Andrew Odlyzko, Allen Schwenk
Fall 2007 Bemidji State University David Appleyard, Jim Tattersall	Spring 2008 College of St. Benedict/St. John's University Paul Zorn, Deanna Haunsperger
Fall 2008 Concordia College, Moorhead Karen Saxe, Betty Mayfield	Spring 2009 Hamline University:  April 24-25 Jason Douma, George Andrews (Polya)
Fall 2009 Open	Spring 2010 University of St. Thomas Tchg Awardee
Fall 2010 Open	Spring 2011 Open Tchg Awardee

Next due for a Polya speaker 2014 Spring.   Have to sign up a year early.

Spring 2010 there’s a regional AMS meeting at Macalester.

 2.  NCS Summer Seminar

 Jennifer Galovich is organizing the seminar, with help from Jason Douma.

 ACTUALLY DOING IT!:  A Hands-On Approach to Computational Combinatorial Geometry

            Principal lecturer Professor Jesus De Loera, University of California, Davis

                        St.  John's University, Collegeville, MN, July 19-24, 2009.

 Notices will go in Focus and a website will be created.   As the time grows nearer, costs will be determined, as will any support given to newer faculty or graduate students.

 We wanted the list of previous Summer Seminars.  Here is what we have on file.  I emailed Ivy, Ralph Carr and Mike Hvidsten to see if they had records from 1977-1989.

Year	Topic	Location	Speakers
2007	Experimental Mathematics in Action:  Insight through Computation	Carleton College, Northfield, MN	Jonathan Borwein, Dalhousie University
2005	Bioinformatics:  Where Mathematics Meets Molecules	University of Minnesota-Duluth	Laurie Heyer, Davidson College
2003	A Tour of Combinatorial Games	Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN	Elwyn Berlekamp, Berkeley
2001	History of Mathematics	Bemidji State University	Fred Rickey, West Point USMA
1999	Counting and Calculus	University of Minnesota-Duluth	Richard Askey, UW-Madison
1997	An Intro. To Neural Networks	Winona State University, Winona, MN	Richard DeVeaux, Williams, College and Lyle Ungar, University of Pennyslvania
1995 10th annual	Geometry, Dimensions Across All	University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis campus	Thomas Banchoff, Brown University
1993	Cryptography & Computational Number Theory	NDSU, Fargo, ND	Carl Pomerance, Dartmouth College
1991	Dynamical Systems	University of Minnesota-Duluth	Robert Devaney, Boston University
1989	Computer Graphics	Carleton College
1987
1985	Discrete Math	St. Olaf
1983
1981
1979
1977

 3.  Activities at the NCS meetings

• Section NExT

• Chairs workshop -- Tom Sibley and Matt Richey organize a chairs workshop (open to all) preceding the spring 2009 meeting at Hamline (parallel to Section NExT) on Self-study and Program Review. 

Some discussion on how to advertise/title this.   At some institutions the chair is a division chair.  Sometimes there’s money to send chairs to these types of meetings.   We also want to include other interested people, such as future chairs or program review coordinators.    

• Students -- Peh Ng has activities for students. Can we rename as Student Activities Coordinator? 

 Concerns that emphasizing participation in and speaking at our spring meeting will wear away at Pi Mu Epsilon.   Might want to put more effort into student activities in the fall.  

• Number Theory Session will be organized for Spring 2009 meeting.

• Scheduling talks Friday –Co asked about scheduling an hour of regular talks on Friday evening, starting at 7 p.m., with the main speaker being at 8 p.m.    This possibility will be kept in mind as we move toward the spring meeting.

• Pedagogy or curriculum session?  Other workshops? 

 4.  Officers and committees (terms begin July 1)

 List of current members and term (where known). The * denotes in last year of service

 1.      Executive Committee

            Governor Jennifer Galovich, St. John's Univeristy (2007-10)

            President-Elect John Holte, Gustavus Adolphus (2008-11)

            President Su Dor'ee, Augsburg College (2007-10)

            * Past-President Tom Sibley, St. John's University (2006-09)

            * Secretary Colleen Livingston, Bemidji State University (2006-09)

            Treasurer Randy Westoff, Bemidji State University (2008-11)

            Information officer Shawn Chiappetta, University of Sioux Falls (2007-10)

            Student activities coordinator Peh Ng, University of Minnesota -- Morris (2008-11)

            * At-large representative Kris Nairn, St. John's University (2007-09)

            At-large representative Namyong Lee, Minnesota State University -- Mankato (2008-10)

 2.      Meritorious Service Award Committee

Steve Leonhardi, Winona State University (2006-09, Chair)

Dan Kemp, South Dakota State University (2007-10)

Person to be appointed now (2008-11)

3.      Distinguished Teaching Award Committee

Keith Agre, St. Cloud State University (2006-09, Chair)

Dan O'Laughlin, College of St. Catherine (2007-10)

Person to be appointed now (2008-11)

 4.      Nominations Committee:  Tom Sibley, Su Doree (Chair), John Holte

 5.      Other positions

Section archivist, historian: Maybe Ralph Carr is doing something with this.

NCS Team Contest team:  Jerry Heuer and Ron Rietz

Publicity chairman - Update:  Wayne Roberts sent Co the history of his role in this position.  It sounds very ad hoc and I do not see this position in our Constitution.  I believe our decision was to eliminate this position.

 5.  Reports from section officers

Secretary:  Co Livingston

We will do a hard copy newsletter again in Fall 2009.

Treasurer:  Randy Westhoff

Budget report reviewed.

Book store has a “new from MAA” table

Information officer:  Shawn Chiappetta

Absent.   Thanks were given for his great work.

Student activities coordinator:  Peh Ng

Is there a way to pay for lunch for students on Saturday? 

Section NExT:  Kris Nairn

Two new people this year from Augsburg and St. John’s.   Had 5 in attendance on Friday, for a discussion of assessment.

Governor:  Jennifer Galovich

Reassurance regarding MAA investments – “conservative and diversified” – Be prepared for some loss along with everyone else.

President:  Su Dor'ee

 Didn’t get to this part of the agenda:

6.  Other section activities

NCS Team Contest -- Is anything needed there?

Teaching and service awards -- need to encourage more nominations

Graduate students -- I am still in conversation with Jon Rogness at the University of Minnesota about possible connections to graduate students outside of our normal meetings. 

Other off-meeting workshops or events?  What do you think?

Submitted October 30, 2008

Co Livingston

Last updated on Tuesday, November 04, 2008 .