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The Treasurer's Report for the fiscal year 7/1/03 to 6/30/04 was accepted and the budget for the 7/1/04 to 6/30/05 fiscal year was approved. See: http://www.pme-math.org/conferences/national/2004/budget2004.html.
Elections for Councillors take place every three years. By the Pi Mu Epsilon Constitution, for this next election the ballots must be in the hands of the Chapters by the end of January, 2005. The new Councillors assume their offices on July 1, 2005. President Robert Smith appointed a Nominating Committee to propose a slate of candidates by October. This committee consists of President Robert Smith , Past President Douglas Faires , and President-Elect Joan Weiss . Any of these committee members would welcome suggestions for nominees.
The editor of the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal reported that there are currently over 100 papers being refereed for the Journal, and 10 papers are ready to appear in the Fall issue. The new editors of the Journal's Problem Section will be Harold Reiter and Ashley Ahlin, a father and daughter team. The number of libraries subscribing to the Journal has declined by about a dozen to below 300. This is unusual, since libaries rarely deliberately cease subscribing to a journal. The problem is that one of the firms that handles our library subscription journal sales has gone bankrupt. Chapter Advisors might wish to check with their libraries to make sure that their subscriptions are continuing, and if not, contact the Business Manager for the Journal, Michelle Schultz.
The web master for the Pi Mu Epsilon website reported that the site was down for about two weeks this summer due to a change in servers at his institution, but it is back and running and appears to be stable.
There were 43 student presentations in the Pi Mu Epsilon part of the 2004 MathFest in Providence, together with three additional delegates from Chapters not sending speakers. These student travelers were reimbursed a total of $11,107 in Pi Mu Epsilon funds for their transportaion and $5265 to assist them to pay for their subsistence (of which $5000 came from a grant from the National Security Agency) while at the meeting. $1350 in $150 cash prizes were awarded to the 9 Pi Mu Epsilon speakers judged best. 7 of these prizes were funded by the American Mathematical Society and 1 each by the National Council on Undergraduate Research and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
Pi Mu Epsilon annually pays for an exhibit booth at the January AMS/MAA meetings. To help the Councillors staff the booth, the Council voted to solicit some help from Chapter Advisors and Permanent Faculty Correspondents at active Chapters.
Pi Mu Epsilon owns a highly portable display stand that is used every January at the annual meetings. The first year the stand was owned, it was used at a few MAA Section meetings around the country and a few new Chapters apparently were attracted to Pi Mu Epsilon because of it. The stand has not been used outside the national meetings since then, so plans were made to circulate it around the country every year.
Pi Mu Epsilon received a $2500 grant for a program of Speakers and Chapter Renewal. Plans to implement the program were discussed, and the result can be found in http://www.pme-math.org/chapters/lectureship.html. It is anticipated that this grant will be renewed annually. These five annual $500 grants are in addition to other annual grant opportunities for Chapters that will continue to be offered: $50 matching prizes for mathematical contests or competitions that Chapters may design or implement, and $50 matching funds to host regional meetings in which other Chapters participate.
The remaining approximately 2/3 of the Council meeting was devoted to a continuing discussion concerning amending the Pi Mu Epsilon Constitution. The definition of Active and Inactive Chapters, and the procedure for changing from the Inactive state to the Active State has occupied the majority of this discussion. The Council hopes to complete its work by email so that the proposed amendments can be presented to the Pi Mu Epsilon Chapters for a vote this academic year.
Leo J. Schneider
Secretary-Treasurer, Pi Mu Epsilon, Inc.
