Highlights of 2005 meeting (April 30, 2005)
Report of the Secretariat
AMS Secretary Robert Daverman gave a report on the April 29 Secretariat
meeting.
- The Secretariat reviewed International Meetings through 2008 with
Taiwan at the end of 2005. Other meetings being looked at are Poland
in the summer of 2007, New Zealand at the end of 2007 and Brazil in
the summer of 2008.
- The new Special Public Lecture that will be delivered at a sectional
meeting once a year will be held on a trial basis at the fall 2005 sectional
meeting in Nebraska with Michael Atiyah as the speaker and at the western
sectional in spring 2006 with Benoit Mandelbrot as the speaker. The
(working) name of the lecture will be the Einstein Public Lecture on
Mathematics (in celebration of the Einstein Centennial).
- At the request of CoMC, the Secretariat is now sending a letter to
the Colloquium Lecturer with a note that CoMC encourages the Colloquium
Lecturer to help organize a special session related to the Colloquium.
Report on the Subcommittee to Review the Scientific Program at National
Meetings.
This subcommittee was composed of Paul Zorn,
Susan
Friedlander
and Irena Peeva.
The subcommittee reported that
overall they found that meetings ran well.
The subcommittee reported on the following:
- The scientific content of the meetings definitely meet the needs of
the membership.
- The Special Session on Current Events, organized by David Eisenbud,
was well received and should continue.
- The Colloquium Lecturer in Atlanta was well attended, especially in
comparison to some other recent Colloquium Lectures. It was felt that
attendance might be improved even more with catchier titles. CoMC endorsed
having the Secretary talk to the Lecturer about the value of choosing
titles that pique the interest of general meeting attendees.
- There needs to be a way to streamline the Prize Reception to make
it shorter. CoMC endorsed in principal keeping the Prize Session joint
and shortening the length of the prize recipients' acceptance speech.
CoMC suggested that the Secretary and President talk to the leaders
of the other Societies about keeping the acceptance speeches shorter.
Report on Focus Planning.
There was discussion on the recommendation
from the Focus Planning Report that the AMS create a new type of conference
program. CoMC passed a motion to endorse exploring new types of conference
on a trial basis. A subcommittee of CoMC will work to identify topics
for the conference and report their recommendations to the Secretariat
for final review and approval. Associate Secretaries Leslie Sibner and
Matt Miller volunteered to work with the new conferences.
Special Session on Current Events.
CoMC endorsed continuing the
Special Session on Current Events at the Joint Meeting as long as possible.
Report on the Atlanta Focus Group.
Jean Taylor moderated the CoMC
Focus Group discussion in Atlanta. The comments and suggestions from the
Focus Group were discussed during Taylor's oral report. Overall focus
group members were very satisfied with the Annual meeting. They also felt
that they did not want programming during the lunch hour and wanted to
keep it open. They also were happy with the type of Invited Addresses
(IA's) offered and had no suggestions for different types of A's. No formal
action was taken by CoMC.
Other informational items.
CoMC's topic for annual review for
2006 is to be the Review of the National Meeting (overall program including
governance meetings). A subcommittee consisting of Gregory Smith,
Chair, Gail Ratcliff
and Joel Hass
will prepare a report
on this topic for the next meeting.
CoMC will host a focus group at the San Antonio meeting on Friday, January
13, at 7 am. Joel Hass will chair the focus group.
Jim Maxwell,
Associate Exec. Director
Diane Saxe,
Director of Meetings
May 2, 2005
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