-------------DRAFT ------------ DRAFT ----------- DRAFT ------------ Executive Committee Meeting January 28, 2005 UW-Center Baraboo Present: Ben Collins, Jayanthi Ganapathy, Irfan Ul-Haq, Kristin Lampe, Andy Matchett, Rick Poss, David Scott, Mark Snavely. 1. The meeting was called to order at 4:04 p.m., by Chair Ganapathy. Irfan Ul-Haq, of UW-Stout was introduced to the Committee. He will be working with Ben Collins through next Fall at which point he will take over as the Coordinator of the Wisconsin NExT Program. Matchett presented the minutes of the September 2004 meeting. These were accepted. 2. Matchett presented his treasurer's report, which was accepted. It was noted that the NExT program is a little behind, even though it has received its $500 allocation from the section this year. Ben Collins noted that there is money on reserve at the MAA for the Wisconsin Section, and he was optimistic that he would be able to secure some of that to improve the 'bottom line'. 3. Rick Poss gave his Governor's Report. One issue that the national organization will be looking at is the dues structure. There is talk of giving retired members less of a discount, since their income is often ample. Those who have thoughts about this are encouraged to communicate them to Rick. 4. The distinguished teaching award was discussed. Many things have been tried in the past to increase the number of nominations: Writing directly to all department chairs early in the Fall, simplifying the nomination procedure, letting nominations be submitted by email, listing the past recipients of the award on the section website, and so on. None of these measures has increased the number of nominations appreciably. This year when we had only one nomination, we tried extending the deadline, and that produced zero additional nominations. So nothing we have tried has been very successful. We usually get one or zero nominations each year. This year the number is one. On the good side, with only a very small number of nominees, the probability of a given nominee receiving the award, is quite high, well over 75%. This year the selection committee will be Matchett, Ganapathy, and Poss. The National MAA has given the sections more time to make their decisions. This year we have until March 1 to submit the nomination packet of the section recipient. 5. Rick Poss will complete his three-year term as Governor this year. He has served with distinction, and has done an exemplary job of keeping the Wisconsin Section in the decision loops on the issues that have arisin. The candidates for the next Governor are John Koker of UW-Oshkosh and Linda Thompson of Carroll College. 6. Kristin Lampe gave her report on the math contests. The Wisconsin Section high school contest was on December 2, 2004. This year there were 24 perfect scores, up from 1 last year. So the exam was less difficult this year than last. It is to be noted that Edgewood College has provided over 5000 high school students with a challenging and positive mathematical experience this academic year, and that the entire mathematical community in the state of Wisconsin benefits from this. We thank our good colleagues at Edgewood College for their splendid work! 7. Kathy Muhs is recovering from shoulder surgery, and could not be at the meeting. Next year, 2005-06, is the last year of her 5- year term. So we will need a new Newsletter Editor to begin transitioning in after the April 2006 Annual Meeting and to start officially at the beginning of September, 2006. 8. David Scott, our chair-elect, led a discussion of the spring meeting. He has received only 8 abstracts. This is about half what are usually received at this time. This is surely due to the fact that the Fall Newsletter, with its meeting advertisement, was for the first time not mailed to each member, but was only posted on the section website. One suggestion was to put a counter on the section website or on the Newsletter page, to see how many people actually access the newsletter online. Another suggestion was to have the preliminary program be mailed a little earlier than usual, so that enough people will have sufficient notice to respond to its second call for speakers. So far the invited speakers for the spring meeting are Frank Ferris (from the MAA), Michael Starbird (from CUPM). In addition to speaking, Starbird will run a session on CUPM issues. Jim Marty has said he will organize a session on assessment. Colleen Vachuska is in charge of local facilities at UW- Washington County. She is having a hard time getting the banquet costs under $20 per plate. Old timers on the Committee remembered, nostalgically, the banquet in 1983, in the room with several pillars blocking the view of the speaker, and with plastic cups. Times change, and we want to have suitable dining facilities for our fine colleagues and students. Therefore it was decided to increase the cost a little this year and also increase the subsidy from the section. So the cost for banquet reservations will be $18.00 for those pre-registering and $20.00 at the door for a few remaining tickets. As for the preregistration form that will appear in the preliminary program, which Kathy will mail to the entire section, that form already fills a page, and we do not wish to include check-boxes for demographic information such as Undergraduate student, Graduate student, 4-year college, 2-year college, etc. This information can be gleaned fairly accurately in a number of ways, and since students pay nothing, getting data on them is problematical. 9. The position of Student Activities Coordinator is vacant. Jayanthi Ganapathy noted that she had a colleague who has been involved in the game "Math Jeapordy". That colleague might be good for the job. Aaron Trautwein is in his last year as Public Information Officer. Andy said that he was ready to turn the job of Secretary/treasurer over to someone else at the end of his present term. His term ends at the end of the 2005-06 academic year. 10. Ben Collins gave his report on Project NExT - Wisconsin. The fall workshop will be September 29 - October 1, 2005 and is tentatively titled, "A Math Teacher's Toolkit". The main speaker will be Art Benjamin of Harvey Mudd College. Ben and Irfan will work jointly through Fall, 2005, and Irfan will take over full time after the workshop. 11. Jayanthi reported that she had talked with Sriskandarajah, and had his permission to recommend him to the Committee to be the candidate for Chair-Elect this year. The Committee was very pleased to hear this and confirmed him unanimously. So Sri will be the Executive Committee candidate for Chair-Elect in 2005. 12. There was a brief discussion of Math Awareness Month, followed by adjournment at 5:40 p.m.