Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC

In Attendance: Barry Balof, Kevin Charlwood, Dov Chelst, Bill Higdon, Lloyd J. P. Kilford, Dave Kung, Josh Laison, Heather Lewis, Aaron Luttman, Kristi Meyer, Patrick Rault, Sarah Ann Stewart, Emil Volcheck

Welcome to our new board members Barry Balof and, from earlier this year, Patrick Rault! Thanks, too, to everyone who organized at the Joint Mathematic Meetings. And congratulations to Ralucca, who had a baby just about a week ago!

A summary of the YMN Activities in Washington, D.C.:

* Finding Your nth Job (for n Greater than or Equal to 2) Co-sponsored with the MAA, Organized by Joshua D. Laison, Aaron Luttman, & Raluca M. Gera: There were about 65 people in attendance, and the feedback was positive.

* Graduate School: Choosing One, Getting In, Staying In Co-sponsored with the MAA,Organized by Kristi Meyer, Vanessa Garcia, & Alan Alewine: There were about 100 students, and the talk generated a lot of names for the email list. The head of Graduate Admissions from the University of Minnesota was also in the audience, and kindly answered several questions from that perspective.

* Career Options for Undergraduate Mathematics Majors, Co-sponsored with the MAA,Organized by Vanessa Garcia & Dov N. Chelst: There were about 75 people in attendance, almost all undergraduate (a few advisors).

* Poster Session Co-sponsored with Project NExT, Organized by Michael C. Axtell & Kevin E. Charlwood: This was a little more hidden than in previous years, so the foot traffic wasn't quite as high. Kevin has decided to step down from this after 13 years - thank you Kevin! Kim Roth has agreed to take over for Kevin.

* How to Apply for Jobs Co-sponsored with the MAA Committee on Graduate Students, organized by David C. Manderscheid: There were about 50 people in attendance; it went well.

* YMN Town Hall Meeting Organized by Sarah Ann Stewart & Joshua D. Laison: There were fewer undergraduates than in previous years. One suggestion was to change the name to something else to make it clear that it is intended for all attendees of the meeting. We decided to change it to Open Forum.

Plans for MathFest 2009 in Portland, OR (August 6-8)

* It has been approved by the MAA graduate student committee to have something to help graduate students give a 15-minute research-type talk and have folk from Project NExT, etc. give feedback. This would be a way to practice talk for the job search. We're going to try to reach 20 students. (David and Patrick will be there). Dovetailing with that will be a workshop on how to formulate a mathematical presentation for undergrads.

Plans for JMM 2010 in San Francisco [January 13 - 16 (Wed. - Sat.)]

* For everyone: Open Forum - Sarah Ann Stewart and Josh Laison agreed to run it again. They'll write a description to be included in/with the program.

* For grad students: How to Apply for Jobs - Josh Laison agreed to run this with David.

* For everyone: Poster session - Kim Roth has agreed to organize this.

For younger faculty: Tenure, you know you want it - Josh Laison and Barry Balof.

* For grad students: - co-sponsor thing on interviewing Sarah Ann Stewart

* For grad students - MAA committee on grad student (used to be in Human Resources): picking a research topic and an advisor [JOINT] Aaron

* For undergrads - Graduate School: Choosing One, Getting In, Staying In - Kristi Meyer will organize this again.

* Can we help with the JCEO [Joint Committee on Employment Opportunities] resume help desk? Kevin and Josh volunteered; others might also be willing to help out - we can send an email out asking people to volunteer for an hour. Sarah Witherspoon would probably be open to having YMN's name on this as well.

* (There was also the suggestion of an interview help desk, but Aaron said that this might be something that the MAA does in the near future.)

* (There was going to be an academic career fair, but there weren't enough employers for this. Can the YMN help with this?)

* (SIAM is starting to explore what could be done for Young Mathematicians, but they are probably not at a point where the YMN could contribute.)

* (Dave is on the committee for Early Career Mathematicians, who also want to have breakout sessions (like Project NExT, but open to all).

Other items:

* Could we put sample interviews on the *Concerns*? This could feature good answer and not so great answers.

* The blogs are going well. It would still be nice to have:

Someone teaching college level mathematics

undergrad applying for graduate school

first year teacher

Looking for non-academic job

Someone going up for tenure

As editors, we should be sure to comment on the articles that do come in.