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                       Wisconsin Section of the MAA             
                        Executive Committee Meeting
                         Friday, January 20, 2006
                      Madison Area Technical College
     
     Present:  Ben Collins, Jayanthi Ganapathy, Kristen Lampe, 
               John Koker, Andy Matchett, Jim Marty, Ken Price, 
               David Scott, Jeganathan Sriskandarajah, Steve Szydlik.
              
 
 1.  David Scott, Section Chair, called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.  
     The Secretary presented his minutes of the September meeting.  These 
     were approved subject to the correction of several typographical 
     errors.  

 2.  Andy Matchett presented his treasurer's report, noting that the 
     final combined January balance has been increasing for the last two 
     years.  This is due to the transition to web-based publication of 
     the Newsletter which has decreased the annual publication cost by
     approximately $300 dollars.  

 3.  John Koker gave his governor's report.  The new dues structure is 
     coming.  Regular members will still subsidize retired members and 
     students.  Closer to home, Simei Tong, UW-Eau Claire, and a colleague  
     have received a grant from the Office of Professional and Instructional
     Development of the UW System.  They are working to secure a follow-
     up grant and would like a letter of support from the Wisconsin 
     Section.  David Scott will consider the grant proposal and will 
     consider writing a letter of support.  

4.   Sri led a discussion of plans for the Spring Meeting, April 21-22 at 
     UW-Whitewater.  Meeting registration will start at noon, and 
     talks will begin at 1:00 p.m.  Sri distributed a grid showing a 
     preliminary schedule of talks.  A fruitful discussion ensued with 
     the combined wisdom of the group brought to bear on issues 
     concerning the spring meeting and the meeting schedule.  Invited 
     speakers will be Tom Banchoff, Ken Ono, Tim Pennings, and Steven 
     Rudich, the Polya lecturer.  

5.   Kristen Lampe reported on student math competitions, and she had 
     very significant news.  The next group to run the Wisconsin Section 
     High School Math Contest will be a group of faculty members at UW - 
     Stout.  Kristen had two schools to choose from and picked Stout 
     because several faculty there will be working together, rather 
     than just one person.  Steven Post at Edgewood College has a bunch 
     of leftover books for prizes, and is looking for an appropriate use 
     for them.  

                       Data from Kristen's report

     Contest         date            Notes
                   
     AMC 8        11/15/05  2760 WI students (3111 last year)
                            Average score:   8.89(WI)  9.835(USA)
     
     WI HS Contest 12/1/05  4887 students from 90 high schools
                            3 perfect papers (down from 24 last year)

6.   Kathy Muhs gave her report on the Newsletter.  This year Fall 
     Newsletter costs were $168, down from approximately $350 when we 
     published the Newsletter the old way.  The deadline for items for 
     the Spring Newsletter was set at Feb. 3.  The candidate for chair-
     elect will be Mohammad Ahmadi, UW-Oshkosh.  And this year's Spring 
     Meeting will be the 74-th annual.  

7.   Andy Matchett reported on the process for selecting the 
     distinguished teaching award recipient this year.  This year we had  
     more nominees than we have had in any of the previous five years.  
     And this year the deadline was November 1, 2005, which was earlier 
     in the fall than ever before.  Maybe an earlier deadline is 
     conducive to nominations.   Andy agreed to present the award this 
     year.

8.   Steve Szydlik and Ken Price led a discussion of student activities.  
     They propose to introduce a mathematical version of the game Jeopardy, 
     an entertaining diversion for our student participants.  This has 
     been tried at UW-Oshkosh and with John Koker's hand on the tiller, 
     firmly biased against faculty participants, it worked well.  So it 
     may work for us.  In any event, it is clearly an idea well worth 
     trying, and Steve Posts leftover prize books can be used as prizes 
     for Jeopardy.  In addition we can recognize the winners at the 
     banquet.

9.   Jim Marty led a discussion of the new rules for teacher licensing, a 
     controversial topic.  The experts in this area are Jim Marty, David 
     Scott, a school board member, and Kathy Muhs.  The information and 
     insights they shared were very interesting to those of us who are 
     relatively less informed about this subject that directly impacts all 
     people who ever have an opportunigy to teach future high school teachers.  
     
10.  Adjournment at 6:20 p.m.  The meeting was followed by supper.  The 
     first course was chocolate cake in the meeting room, courtesy of  
     of Gowri Sriskandarajah.  That was followed by Chinese food at 
     Tastes of Asia, in Madison.  

     Respectfully submitted,
     Andy Matchett
     Secretary/Treasurer