SIGMAA on Statistics Education

Minutes of the SIGMAA Meeting at the Joint Mathematics Meetings
Friday, January 8, 2002, 6:00 – 8:00 pm


In Attendance       Welcome/Chair’s Report        Treasurer’s Report

Regular Business:    Fall Elections        Outreach and Liaison Work

Old Business:    Membership Services        Web Page    Newsletter

New Business:       Miscellaneous Announcements        Open Discussion        Presentation

Those in Attendance
Thirty-two people attended the meeting. Their names, school affiliations and email addresses are at the end of the minutes.

Reception
The meeting began with a reception.

Welcome/Chair’s Report
Dex Whittinghill, chair, welcomed everyone and opened the meeting by encouraging us to "Ask not what your SIGMAA can do for you, but what you can do for your SIGMAA."  Dex reported that our SIGMAA has grown from 170 members as of January 2001 to 447 names this November 2002.  The email list has been set up and was used to elect new officers.  Dex also invited members to send out announcements using the email list, sigmaastat@majordomo.rowan.edu.

Treasurer’s Report
Dex Whittinghill, chair, gave the treasurer’s report in KLD Gunawardena’s absence. Dex reported that the proposed 2002 budget is still evolving and provided the following status report.  

Tentative budgeted expenditures totaled $1,400.  The breakdown is as follows:  Food $1000 ($800 for Joint Math Meeting and $200 for Mathfest); Travel reimbursement $300 ($200 for JMM & $100 for Math Fest); Postage Costs $100.
The expected dues  were $4160.00.

Chair's Note:  The budget is still evolving in February.

Regular Business
A. Results from the Fall Elections
Dex announced the results from the officer elections this fall, and he introduced the new officers: 

Chair-Elect: Carolyn Cuff, Westminster C
Treasurer: Bob Hollister, Jacksonville University

He re-introduced the continuing offices:

Chair (2002-2003): Mary Sullivan, Rhode Island College
Secretary: Ginger Holmes Rowell, Middle Tennessee State University

Dex also thanked Allan Rossman and KLD Gunawardena for their service as past-chair and treasurer, respectively.

(New officer terms officially begin at the close of the January meeting.)

B. Outreach and Liaison work.
Dex Whittinghill, chair, talked about the outreach and liaison work, indicating that he hoped we would be able to do more of this in the upcoming year.  He referred us to the list of groups and associations developed at the 2001 JMM meeting.  (This list can be found in the January 2001 minutes on the web at http://www.pasles.com/sigmaastat/.)   Steve Blasberg (West Valley College, Saratoga, CA) is still serving as a liaison work for AMATYC in Northern California, and Brian Smith (McGill University) has volunteered to also be an AMATYC liaison.  At the meeting it was suggested that we should also provide outreach to MAA sections.

Old Business
A. Member Services:  Updates and New Ideas

  1. Web Page  

Francisco Alarco'n (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) and Paul Pasles (Villanova), the Web Site Editors, have set up the Statistics Education SIGMAA web site. The URL is http://www.pasles.com/sigmaastat/. The site can also be accessed from the SIGMAA button on the MAA's home page (http://www.maa.org).

  1. Newsletter 

Pat Humphrey, Newsletter Editor, is looking for newsletter submissions such as

She announced that the newsletter team anticipates one or two newsletters per year.  A limited discussion followed about whether the newsletter should have an electronic or paper copy format.    

Pat requested submissions be sent to phumphre@gasou.edu.  Due to the threat of electronic viruses, Pat also asked that items be submitted as plain text pasted in the body of the email and NOT sent attachments.


New Business
A. Miscellaneous Announcements

  1. Dex told about the ASA endorsement/response to MAA "Guidelines for Programs and Departments in Undergraduate Mathematical Sciences". This information will soon be updated on the webpage.  The MAA guidelines can be found at http://www.maa.org/guidelines/guidelines.html.  This is a document that can be a great source for text links, for letters to send to your Deans, and other useful information.
  2. It was announced that the contributed paper session on "Best Practices in Undergraduate Statistics Educations" went very well earlier today and that was a session tomorrow on "Innovative Outcome Assessment in Statistics Education."
  3. More Announcements:
    1. AMATYC formed a Statistics Committee and they would like proposal submissions for the Annual AMATYC Conference in Phoenix, AZ, November 14-17, 2002.  Contact Brian Smith (smithb@management.mcgill.ca) by the February 15th deadline.  For more information see www.amatyc.org. 
    2. Mary Sullivan announced our SIGMAA submitted proposals for 2003 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, MD, January 15-18.  The proposals included a contributed paper session on successful statistics projects, an invited panel discussion on the state of statistics, and a minicourse using dynamical statistics software.
    3. Dex talked about having an informal meeting including a statistics fieldtrip at the 2002 MAA Mathfest 2002  in Burlington, VT, August 1-3. If you have ideas for Mathfest or MAA Sectional meeting activities please share them with an officer.

B. Open Discussion

  1. Dex asked for items for next years meeting to be sent by email to Mary Sullivan, 2002-2004 Chair.  (mmsullivan@ric.edu)
  2. Dex reminded everyone to notify him (whittinghill@rowan.edu) and the MAA if you/they/we have an email address change.
  3. John McKenzie (Babson College) suggested that we should think about ways that we could recruit more members.

The business meeting was closed, and Dex introduced Roxy Peck of California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo to talk about "Advanced Placement Statistics: The Curriculum, the Examination and the Grading Process."  This talk discussed the philosophy and content of the Advanced Placement Statistics course, as well as its impact on college and university statistics programs. She also provided info about exam development and the scoring process. If you are interested in being an AP Grader apply at www.ets.org/reader/ap.  More information and useful resources for statistics teachers can be found at the "AP Central" website (www.apcentral.collegeboard.com).

 

Names and Affiliation of Attendees

NAME

SCHOOL/AFFILIATION

Y. Mimi Augaye

Seattle Central Community College

Lisa Bloomer

Middle TN State University

Cathy Carter

Christian Brothers University

Yun-Pin Chen

Smith College

Julie Clark

Hollins University

Carolyn Cuff

Westminster College

B. Duplantier

CNRS France

Annalesa Ebanks

Mississippi State University,
East Mississippi Comm. College

Hyginus Emenike

DeVry College Technology

Bob Fontenot

Whitman College

Josie Hamer

Western Connecticut St. University

Jim Hartman

The College of Wooster

Bob Hollistor

Jacksonville University

Pat Humphrey

Georgia Southern University

Susan Kornstein

The College Board

Stacy Langton

University of San Diego

Bruce Lind

University of Puget Sound

Robin Lock

St. Lawrence University

John McKenzie

Babson College

Melinda Miller

Holt TX Woman’s University

Roger Nelson

Lewis & Clark College

Roxy Peck

Cal Poly, Sanhis Obispo

Matt Pickard

University of Puget Sound

Iwan Praton

Franklin and Marshall College

Nell Rayburn

Austin Peay St. University

Adele M. Rothan

College of St. Catherine

Ginger Holmes Rowell

Middle Tennessee State University

Steve Rummel

Heartland C. L.

Michael Schuckers

West Virginia University

Murray Siegel

San Houston State University

Brian Smith

McGill University

Mary M. Sullivan

Rhode Island College

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