Special Interest Group of the MAA
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SIGMAA on RUME Nominating Committee Report, January 17, 2003

The Committee consisted of Eric Hsu, Chair, and Harel Barzilai.

As required by the bylaws, the Committee members made a concerted effort to obtain more than one nominee for each office. This was done through individual solicitations, announcements at the SIGMAA on RUME Conference in July and calls for nominations posted to the ARUME listserv in October. A deadline of December 3rd, 2002 was set for the receipt of nominations and candidate statements.

The following persons accepted their nominations for the following offices:

Coordinator-Elect: Barbara Edwards
Secretary/Treasurer: Chris Rasmussen  
Organizational Director: none.

Here is a brief description of the duties of offices up for election, quoted from the SIGMAA on RUME charter at http://www.maa.org/sigmaa/arume/sigmaa_charter.html.

1. Coordinator-Elect and Past-Coordinator will serve as vice-coordinators, assisting the Coordinator. The Coordinator-Elect will become the Coordinator upon completion of the latter's term of office. (The Coordinator or a member designated by the Coordinator will preside at SIGMAA on RUME business meetings. The Coordinator will organize and direct the activities of the group, and will serve as its chief spokesperson. The Coordinator will serve as liaison with the MAA Associate Secretary.)
2. The Treasurer is responsible for maintaining all financial records of SIGMAA ON RUME and for preparation of financial reports as required by the MAA Executive Committee or by the SIGMAA ON RUME Executive Committee. The Treasurer is responsible for authorizing disbursement of organizational funds as directed by the membership or the SIGMAA ON RUME Executive Committee.
3. The Organizational Director will oversee the organization of the activities of SIGMAA on RUME such as conferences, workshops, etc., in accord with the decisions of the Executive Committee and the SIGMAA on RUME membership.

The Nominating Committee asked each of the above nominees to prepare a statement of at most 300 words, discussing what each candidate thinks are the most important goals for the SIGMAA on RUME during the upcoming two-year period. Nominees were also asked to describe their scholarly, research, and teaching background as related to those goals. These statements are appended to this document (see below).

SIGMAA on RUME members are also reminded that the election will take place by secret ballot at the January 17th, 2003 business meeting and that nominations can be made from the floor of that meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Eric Hsu, Chair
Nominating Committee
December 17th, 2002

I believe that the existence of SIGMAA on RUME is important for two reasons. First, the group encourages high quality research in undergraduate mathematics education as well as the expansion of the research community through the mentoring program. The Mentoring Committee supports a process in which more experienced researchers are encouraged to serve as mentors to new researchers by providing funding for essential collaboration components such as travel, transcription, and supplies. For the last two years I have played an active role on this committee.

Second, SIGMAA on RUME offers a forum for the dissemination of research in undergraduate mathematics education through contributed paper and invited speaker sessions at the Joint MAA/AMS Meetings in January and MathFest in the summer. A current goal for the organization is to create a journal that would feature papers by mathematics education researchers for practitioners at the university and college level. I fully support this goal and am a member of the Publications Committee charged with making such a journal a reality.

As coordinator I would continue the course charted by the first two coordinators in emphasizing the importance of establishing for this community a reputation for excellence in research.

Chris Rasmussen
Purdue University Calumet

The most important goal for SIGMAA on RUME in the next several years is to further develop our organization as the leader in undergraduate mathematics education research. In order to accomplish this goal I believe that we need to

• continue to develop and grow our standards for excellence in research,
• encourage members to publish their research efforts in high quality journals, including the Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education volumes,
• continue to foster partnerships with mathematicians and the MAA in ways that deepen our joint theoretical understanding of learning and teaching mathematics in general and undergraduate mathematics in particular,
• build strong relationships with leading mathematics educators whose theoretical interests cut across K-16,
• create opportunities to collaborate with research organizations such as the American Educational Research Association and the North American and International chapters for the Psychology of Mathematics Education