MathFest 2025

I've spent a half week in Sacramento attending MathFest, an annual meeting of the Mathematical Association of America. I joined the MAA in 1978; I was a high school student taking upper level math courses at nearby Ursinus College, and one of the department members, John Shuck, taught most of my classes. I still consider him to be one of my best math instructors, finding ways to explain and motivate difficult mathematics concepts. He was an MAA member and invited me to use one of Ursinus's student memberships. I continued when I went on to university myself and now have been a member for 47 years. Hard to believe.

Side note: I ran into Shuck at a math conference years later and had the opportunity to thank him for the help he gave me at the start of my career. He remembered me. Sometimes life's like that.

The MAA focuses on faculty and students, primarily at the undergraduate level but also at the graduate level. I have found regional and national service in the MAA to be incredibly satisfying, helping others to do good things. Sometimes that's involved leadership roles.

I don't know if my students realize that about me. They tend to evaluate me in terms of my teaching but my service to the profession (including them) has taken up more of my time and effort over the years. It's like good design: when done right it's invisible.

For various reasons I tend to know a lot of the senior members of the MAA, including working with a number of the senior officers in different contexts. They have given me reason to take great pride in my organization and in them.

For many years MAA has pushed to improve itself; this has played out in nuts and bolts such as section bylaws becoming more inclusive. In 2018 I chaired the Southeastern Section when it approved bylaws revisions stopping major committees from having too much influence over its successors, intentionally or otherwise excluding certain groups. I am very proud of that. Now I am leading a Bylaws Revision Committee for the section that is revising the bylaws again. Petrified processes always perpetuate the status quo; you only get better by treating foundational principles as organic, responsive to the needs of the moment.

Right now we have a dictator leading the US; organizations that were set up to serve as checks and balances are refusing to do so. There is a strong push to limit opportunities to only members of past majority groups, to return to some supposedly golden age when white men showed the way.

Prominent universities are bowing before the dictator, out of fear of loss of funding that would change them in ways they find unthinkable. Written dedications to providing equal access to opportunities are being rewritten to pretend that they never strove that way.

The Mathematical Association of America has always articulated a mission statement and a value statement. Here is the current version of both.

MAA's Mission

The mission of the MAA is to advance the understanding of mathematics and its impact on our world.

The Mathematical Association of America is the world’s largest community of mathematicians, students, and enthusiasts. We further the understanding of our world through mathematics because mathematics drives society and shapes our lives.

MAA's Core Values

Community

• Cultivates participation in mathematics through outreach and partnership.

• Strengthens community through collaborative activities for mathematics professionals, students, and enthusiasts at all levels.

Inclusivity

• Advocates inclusivity and celebrates diversity by promoting mathematics for all.

• Broadens access to mathematics through initiatives to engage diverse audiences.

Communication

• Advances creative discoveries in mathematics and communicates them to the world.

• Communicates the role of mathematics in a changing society.

Teaching & Learning

• Fosters the open exchange of ideas about the teaching and learning of mathematics.

• Develops and promotes research-based instructional resources and practices.

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is one of the largest global communities of mathematicians, educators, students, and mathematics enthusiasts, united by a collective love for mathematics.

As a long-time member, I am proud to say that the MAA walks the walk and talks the talk. 

This week retiring President Hortensio Soto spoke of the value of Service and how it was inseparable from her Spanish heritage.

This week Executive Directory Michael Pearson told the Business Meeting that we live under a fascist government and that it was the organization's responsibility to resist before addressing the inherent details of supporting all, inclusively. 

These were not casual political speeches; these were statements of people who live the values of the organization and are guided by them.

The whole conference has been like that. People excited to be part of a community. A community much more diverse than when I joined, much more interesting, much stronger. I saw the joy everywhere I went.

Many, many organizations have let me down over the years and most especially the last seven months. Not the MAA.

Proud to be a member.