Governor’s Report

Carolyn Connell, Intermountain Section Governor (term from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2010)

Many thanks to my Intermountain Section colleagues for trusting me to represent us on the Board of Governors.

There are 29 regional sections of the M.A.A., each of which operates somewhat independently.  We’re one of the largest geographically, but in terms of members, we’re smallest (around 170 members) except possibly for the Nebraska/SE South Dakota section.  The several-state Southeastern section has around 1800 members, by comparison.  In any case, as a new governor, I got to attend a workshop at the MAA headquarters in Washington D.C. last June where I could learn a bit about the MAA and the role of a governor, in particular.  None of this was particularly new, since I served a term as our governor back in the mid-nineties, but there have been some changes since then.  One of them is that the MAA now conducts these training sessions for new governors, as opposed to the prior policy of just having new governors show up to Board of Governors meetings and try to figure things out (o.k., they used to have a welcoming reception the night before the meetings, but that hardly prepared one for the role of governor.)   Something else new:  we were one of the first groups to get to meet in the remodeled Carriage House, just behind the magnificent MAA headquarters building.  Seeing these facilities should be on your sightseeing list if you’re in the DC area.  It’s in the historic area of DC, really charming, and in particular, the Carriage House remodel is a great example of proper treatment of historic buildings.  It’s become quite an asset for the MAA as a highly-sought-after meeting place for various DC organizations.  Remodeling was made possible by a gift from Paul and Virginia Halmos in 2003.

Board of Governors Meeting at MathFest, San Jose CA, August 2, 2007:

There would be much to report from a meeting that lasted most of the day.  Highlights:  the MAA is in excellent financial health.  MAA books and publications in recent years have been excellent and are selling well.  Project NEXT continues to be a highly successful program and is one of the best ways to get new PhD mathematicians involved in the profession.  President Joe Gallian challenged sections to contribute bricks to the newly remodeled Carriage House; several sections have already done that, and perhaps we can discuss giving an ‘Intermountain Section’ brick at our spring meeting.  Details about the program are at http://www.maa.org/news/111407bricks.html (along with photos of the Carriage House).  Cost of one brick:  only $303, in honor of Paul Halmos’ birthday March 3.

Looking ahead, the MAA will celebrate its centennial soon (2009?); it seemed a good time to do some self-study in the organization; strategic planning for the MAA was implemented in 2005 and involves three cycles of study groups, each of which examines specific issues of interest/concern for the MAA.  As part of the August board meeting, we had small group discussions related to membership in the MAA, the topic of one of the focus groups in Cycle 2.  

An important topic that came up late in the meeting was a proposal about interviewing procedures.  In recent years, it has not been uncommon for interviews of candidates for math positions to be interviewed in hotel rooms rather than in the employment center at the meetings.  Not too surprisingly, this policy has caused some discomfort among some interviewees.  A motion to recommend strongly that interviews be conducted in the employment center passed with just one dissenting vote.  Needless to say, this discussion was a lively one, good for engaging everyone’s attention the late afternoon.