Business Meeting Wisconsin Section of the MAA April 16, 2005 UW-Washington County 1. The meeting was called to order at 8:00 by Section Chair, Jayanthi Ganapathy. Jayanthi thanked all who served with her on the Executive Committee this past year. She congratulated John Koker on being elected Governor of the Section. John will take over from the current Governor, Rick Poss, whose term ends on July 1, 2005. Jayanthi also announced the following transitions, effective at the end of the current annual meeting: Ben Collins, UW-Platteville, will take over from Aaron Trautwein as Public Information officer and Liaison Coordinator. Ben has agreed to add to these jobs one year from now the job of Newsletter Editor, taking over from Kathy Muhs when her term expires in April, 2006. Irfan Ul-Haq of UW-Stout will replace Ben Collins as director of Project NExT Wisconsin. Ken Price and Steve Szydlik, both of UW-Oshkosh, will begin a shared three-year term as joint Coordinators of Student Activities. 2. The minutes of the business meeting of April, 2004, and the current treasurer's report were approved. The treasurer pointed out particularly the striking drop in the cost of the Newsletter since we moved to web-based publishing. Our Newsletter Editor, Kathy Muhs, did an excellent job in guiding that transition. Thanks are due also to Tony Thomas who maintained and developed the section website during the transition. Finally, thanks are due to University of Wisconsin - Platteville for providing the actual server on which our web pages reside. 3. Rick Poss presented his Governor's report, and took the opportunity to encourage members to attend Mathfest in Albuquerque so that they can see how everything works and can be good hosts when Mathfest returns to Wisconsin, tentatively in 2008. Rick also presented the case for making some changes in the membership fee structure of the MAA. There was considerable interest in this topic and a discussion ensued. Only regular members who subscribe to all three journals pay membership fees which completely cover the costs. All other members are subsidized to some extent. Retirees, in particular, pay dues at a lower rate, but also often make very generous voluntary donations. After outlining possible changes and listening to the comments, Rick asked all members who have ideas about the matter to communicate them to him. 4. Jayanthi noted that the next annual spring meeting will be at UW- Whitewater on April 21-22, 2006. She then presided over a lively debate over the meeting sites for 2007 and 2008. The contingent from Madison Area Technical College would like to host in 2007. However the contingent from Eau Claire made a strong case that we should alternate from the east side of the state to the west, and eloquently invoked the image of the beautiful Chippewa River to entice. Oshkosh spoke up, asking to host a meeting, but seemed willing to defer until 2008. The following motion was then made and seconded: Motion/second: The 2007 meeting should be held at UW-Eau Claire. A clear majority voted in favor. But the central Wisconsin and eastern Wisconsin mathematicians thought that by joining into an alliance they could overturn the motion. They made an impassioned case for meeting where the population density is higher. This resulted in a motion to reconsider. Motion/second: That the previous motion be reconsidered. This, too, passed by a clear majority. Now Marshfield spoke up. They too would like to host a meeting. Would the meeting dissolve in chaos? No! The contingent from River Falls had arrived belatedly at the meeting, and their presence was finally noticed. Everyone knew that they stood with Eau Claire, making for a formidable and intimidating alliance of mathematicians from the west, speaking with one voice. The membership bowed to the inevitable and voted once again. Motion/second: Meet in Eau Claire in 2007. This time the secretary counted the votes: 17 for, 4 against, 3 abstentions. Thus it was decided that the 2007 meeting will be at UW - Eau Claire. Now three institutions have expressed interest in hosting a meeting in 2008. They are Madison Area Technical College, University of Wisconsin - Marshfield, and University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh. 5. Kristen Lampe reported on the math contests. The state contest is being run very capably by the crew at Edgewood College. Linda Uselmann and Steve Post are co-chairs, and Diane Benjamin, Ken Jewell, Filiz Dik, and Karen Thomas helped prepare the exam. Uselmann's and Post's term as co-chairs runs through academic year 2005-06. They have offered to let someone shadow them their last year so as to facilitate the transition as they step down in 2006. 6. Ben Collins gave a brief report on Wisconsin Project NExT. There is now a speaker list, which provides a directory of NExT members who may be called upon by math clubs, colloquium organizers, and high schools to give lectures on a very wide variety of topics. The list is available on the section website. 7. Frank Farris gave an interesting power point presentation on the state of the MAA. The big areas are revenue (treated by Rick earlier), professional development, and mathematics competitions. The array of professional development programs is, PREP, ACCESS, and NExT. The MAA is still considering what part of its website to make "for members only." 8. On behalf of the Wisconsin Section, the Secretary wishes to thank PRENTICE-HALL and ADDISON-WESLEY for supporting the present meeting with interesting exhibits. Prentice-Hall was represented by our good friend, Mike Perman. Representing Addison-Wesley we saw a new face in the person of Nola Akala. The section wishes to thank Mike and Nola for their positive contributions to our meeting. 9. The meeting adjourned at 8:57 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Andrew Matchett Secretary/treas.