Those in Attendance
Thirty-seven people attended the meeting.
Their names and school affiliations are listed at the end of the minutes.
Reception
The meeting began with a
reception.
Welcome
Mary Sullivan, chair, welcomed everyone
and opened the meeting by having everyone introduce themselves.
I. Approval of Minutes
The minutes from the January 8, 2002
meeting were approved and the correction that Mary Sullivan’s term as chair is
from 2002-2003 was made (http://www.pasles.org/sigmaastat/
minutes2002.html).
II. Chair’s Report
Bob Hollister, treasurer, reported on the
success of the quality control field trip to Ben & Jerry’s during the
MathFest in Burlington, Vermont, August 1-3, 2002.
Mary announced that the 2003 MathFest will be held in Boulder, Colorado, July 31-August 2. An excursion will be planned. Please send ideas for a field trip to an officer very quickly. The officers will work to make sure everyone is informed about this opportunity. Members who would like to volunteer to lead the field trip in Boulder should contact Mary.
Mary asked for assistance with getting email addresses for members. She stressed that the main form of communication with members is electronic. To help with communication, once a year the MAA will help the SIGMAA send a written mailing to members. Bob Hollister pointed out that updating your contact information on the Combined Membership List does not automatically update your information with your individual memberships. Those individual organizations will need to be contacted separately.
At this year’s Joint Math Meetings, the SIGMAA on Statistics Education sponsored two contributed paper sessions on "Best Statistics Projects/Activities." The SIGMAA also organized a panel discussion on "The State of Statistics Education." Mary encouraged everyone to attend those events.
III. Treasurer’s Report
Bob Hollister, treasurer, reported that expenditures for food at the 2002
Joint Math Meetings and for field trip travel during the 2002 MathFest total
$1,109.13. The incoming revenue of $5,217.50 was mostly from dues. The
2002 year-end balance was $8,779.05.
IV. Regular Business
A. Results from the Fall Elections
Mary announced
the results from the officer elections this fall, and she introduced the two new
officers who will take over duties at the end of this meeting:
Chair-Elect: John McKenzie, Babson College, and
Secretary: Julie Clark, Hollins University.
Past-Chair: Mary Sullivan, Rhode Island College
Chair: Carolyn Cuff, Westminster College, and
Treasurer: Bob Hollister, Jacksonville University.
V. Old Business
A.
Member Services
Mary expressed appreciation for the people working in the two other positions of service for the SIGMAA.
VI. New Business
A. Miscellaneous
Announcements
Mary announced a few items that might interest members.
Carolyn Cuff, chair-elect, reported that the SIGMAA submitted to sponsor a contributed paper session called "Discourse on Inference" at the 2004 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Phoenix, January 7-10. In this proposed session, the speakers would present ways in which they have for successfully teaching confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, statistical power, and the interpretation of such results. Carolyn also announced that the SIGMAA has proposed a panel discussion on teaching mathematical statistics courses.
John McKenzie, Babson College, reminded everyone that the AP Statistics course is very popular and that graders are needed for the mid-June grading event.
Adele Marie Rothan, College of Saint Catherine, let people know that the ASA booth at the exhibit has a survey that we could use to let them know what short courses we would like to be offered at the Joint Statistics Meeting. She suggested that we could encourage them to offer some less expensive courses on topics like teaching a second course in statistics or a course in experimental design, and etc.
Chris Lacke, Rowan University, is interested in finding out if there is a demand for an on-line chat site for students who are preparing for the actuarial exams. If you are interested, please contact Chris at lacke@rowan.edu.
Jim Albert, Bowling Green University, announced that he is the new editor for "The American Statistician" and they are looking for papers related to teaching statistics. There is not a backlog of papers in this area. Also, if you have ideas for topics for special sections of papers, please let him know. His email is albert@bgnet.bgsu.edu.
Brian Smith, McGill University, informed members that the 2003 AMATYC meeting will be held in Salt Lake City. February 15th is the deadline for paper submissions. More information can be found at www.amatyc.org.
Mary Sullivan, chair, announced that she and Carolyn Cuff, chair-elect, were contacted about the possibility of creating an edited volume for MAA Notes related to best practices in the introduction statistics course. Mary said that members were welcome to send papers to her and she would coordinate efforts to create a volume.
John McKenzie encouraged involvement from the members of the SIGMAA. He
suggested that anyone interested in volunteering to help the organization should
contact an officer. "The more volunteers – the better."
The business meeting was closed, and the members participated in an interactive session in a small group format reviewing a prototype magazine of the American Statistical Association to provide feedback, per their request, on this prospective new publication. The tentative name for this publication is "Inference", and it is aimed at promoting an understanding of and an appreciation for statistics. Attendees received a copy of the prototype publication. Small groups read an article, discussed it, and provided responses to a brief survey. Mary will forward the responses to ASA.
| First Name | Last Name | School/Affiliation |
| Francisco | Alarcón | Indiana University of PA |
| Jim | Albert | Bowling Green University |
| Charley | Bertness | Indiana University of PA |
| Nancy | Boynton | SUNY College at Fredonia |
| Robert | Buck | Slippery Rock University |
| Gail | Burrill | Michigan State University |
| Steve | Carlson | Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. |
| Cathy | Carter | Christian Brothers University |
| Yung-Pin | Chen | Lewis & Clark College |
| Julie | Clark | Hollins University |
| Ben | Collin | U. of Wisconsin-Platteville |
| Carolyn | Cuff | Westminster College |
| Ron | Czochor | Rowan University |
| Bob | delMas | University of Minnesota |
| Lee | Dewald | Virginia Military Inst. |
| Steph | Fitchett | Florida Atlantic University |
| Jo | Hardin | Pomona College |
| Bob | Hollister | Jacksonville University |
| Pat | Humphrey | Georgia Southern University |
| Chris | Lacke | Rowan University |
| George | Litman | National-Louis University |
| Robin | Lock | St. Lawrence University |
| Deborah | Lurie | Saint Joseph’s University |
| John | McKenzie | Babson College |
| Daniel J. | O’Loughlin | College of St. Catherine |
| Paul | Pasles | Villanova University |
| David E. | Payne (Prospective) | Monmouth University |
| Iwan | Praton | Franklin & Marshall College |
| Jim | Ridenhour | Austin Peay St. University |
| Adele M. | Rothan | College of St. Catherine |
| Ginger | Rowell | Middle TN St. University |
| Sue | Schou | Idaho State University |
| Murray | Siegel | Sam Houston St. University |
| Brian | Smith | McGill University |
| Wasin | So | San Jose State University |
| Kay | Somers | Moravian College |
| Mary | Sullivan | RIC |
| Dex | Whittinghill | Rowan University |