This is a summary for all Pi Mu Epsilon Chapters of the Meeting of the National Council of Pi Mu Epsilon, Inc., January 15th, 2010 in San Francisco, CA.

This is a summary for all Pi Mu Epsilon Chapters of the meeting of the National Council of Pi Mu Epsilon, Inc., January 15th, San Francisco, CA.

New Chapters:

• University of Vermont (Vermont Beta #338). This Chapter was installed by Past-President Joan Weiss on September 24, 2009.
• Plattsburg State University (New York Alpha Xi #339).  This Chapter will be installed by President-Elect Eve Torrence on March 1, 2010.
• Simmons College (Massachusetts Theta #340). This Chapter was installed by Past-President Joan Weiss on December 3, 2009.
• University of Nebraska at Omaha (Nebraska Gamma #341). This Chapter will be installed by President David Sutherland on February 12, 2010.

Lectureships:
Grants for Councillors to visit these Chapters were approved at our August meeting.

• North Dakota Alpha Chapter at North Dakota State University. President David Sutherland spent October 8-10, 2009 with this Chapter.
• Louisiana Eta Chapter at Nicholls State University.  President David Sutherland spent October 28-29, 2009 with this Chapter.
• Maryland Epsilon Chapter at Loyola College.  Councillor Paul Fishback spent November 12-13, 2009 with this Chapter.

• Minnesota Iota Chapter at Augsburg College. Councillor Kendra Killpatrick spent November 12-14, 2009 with this Chapter
• Alabama Zeta Chapter at Alabama State University.  President David Sutherland hopes to visit this Chapter in the spring.
• Kentucky Eta Chapter at Centre College.  Councillor Angela Spalsbury will be visiting this Chapter March 31 - April 1, 2010.

Preparing for the 2011 Elections.  David Sutherland appointed a committee consisting of the President, Past President, President-Elect, and Secretary-Treasurer to suggest a slate of potential nominees.  The Secretary-Treasurer will contact Chapters by email for their suggestions of nominees.

Arrangement for August 5-7, 2010 Pi Mu Epsilon Conference Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
The MAA, as a part of its MathFest, will furnish projectors for all student talks with no cost to Pi Mu
Epsilon.

• Registration. Speaker and Delegate applications will be put on the www.pme-math.org web site by March 1.  Copies of the applications will go to Councillor Angela Spalsbury who is in charge of arranging and printing the student program and to Secretary-Treasurer Leo Schneider who will reimburse speakers and delegates for their transportation. The student speaker/delegate registration procedure will be approximately the same as previous years.  Leo Schneider is working with the MAA to change the procedure for Pi Mu Epsilon Banquet tickets for speakers and delegates.  We will purchase the tickets for our speakers and delegates from the MAA and distribute them to the students with the tee shirts at the Student Reception.
• Student Reception. Pi Mu Epsilon tee shirts and Pi Mu Epsilon Banquet tickets will be distributed to Speakers and Delegates at Wednesday afternoon’s Student Reception.
• Frame Lecture.  Nathaniel Dean from Texas State University in San Marcos will give the Frame Lecture on Friday evening.  His topic will be the Incomprehensibility.
• Judging.  President-Elect Eve Torrence will be in charge of the judging.  There will be at least ten $150 cash prizes for the best papers.  In addition to the seven that have been underwritten by a grant from the American Mathematical Society, there will be two additional prizes underwritten by the American Statistical Society.  The paper ranked in the top ten that is judged to represent the best student research will receive its prize from the Council for Undergraduate Research.  In addition to these ten prizes, there may also be $150 prizes for top papers in the areas of applied mathematics furnished by the SIAM, of environmental mathematics furnished by SIGMAA-EM, and of mathematical biology furnished by Bio-SIGMAA.  No student can receive two prizes.
• Pi Mu Epsilon Banquet.  Student prizes will be awarded at the Pi Mu Epsilon Banquet Friday evening.  Pi Mu Epsilon students will register for MathFest in a special category that includes the subsidized cost of a Banquet ticket.
• Chapter Advisors’ Breakfast.  There will be a breakfast for Pi Mu Epsilon faculty advisors early Thursday morning.  It will not be listed in the MathFest Program.  Advisors will get their invitation by email from the Secretary-Treasurer and receive the location and time when they RSVP. The table favors for the breakfast will be mathematical puzzle/sculptures designed by Eve Torrence. 
• Pi Mu Epsilon Journal:
• The Andree Award for the best student-written article in the 2009 issues of the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal went to
1. Giulia Fanti and Brian Nowakowski from Olin College of Engineering and Princeton University, respectively, for their article, Habitats on Costa Rican Jaguar Poulations
2. John Holmes and Adam Shull of Wabash College and Valparaiso University, respectively, for their article, Properties of Ideal Divisors
• The Journal is receiving a larger number of articles for publication than ever before and is looking for additional volunteers to referee submissions. 
• The Problem Section of the Journal is also receiving many more submissions of problems than it can publish.  The on-line version of the questions is very popular and many high school and college mathematics clubs and students are submitting solutions. 

Long Term Planning.
100th Anniversary in 2014 of the Founding of Pi Mu Epsilon.

• Buttons.  Eve Torrence suggested that we have a contest to design a button to advertise Pi Mu Epsilon’s 100th birthday in 2014.  Each Chapter can submit at most one entry.  We will offer a $50 prize to each of 3 to 5 Chapters with designs deemed the best.  The Council considered voting on the best of the chosen designs at MathFest 2010, but decided that it would be better to involve all Chapters.  We will unveil the contenders at the Pittsburgh Student Reception and send the designs to Chapters about that time, asking Chapters to vote on their favorite with a deadline some time in October.  We will then begin distributing the buttons at our booth at the January 2011 JMM.
• Lanyards.  David Sutherland will make sure that the MAA knows that we are interested in distributing lanyards in 2014 to remind everyone of Pi Mu Epsilon’s 100th birthday.
• Tee Shirt.  Doris Schattschneider, who designed our current tee shirt, when contacted, stated that she might try to design a 100th anniversary tee shirt for us.  An alternate suggestion was to have a tee shirt design contest in 2011 if the button design contest in 2010 sparks interest about 2014 among our Chapters.
• USPS Cancellation.  David Sutherland stated that is was probably too early to contact the post office about this.  We need to keep it in mind, however.
• 60th Anniversary of Pi Mu Epsilon Student Talks in 2011.  Past President Robert Smith volunteered to write a history of student talks at summer meetings.

The complete and official minutes of this meeting will be available from the Pi Mu Epsilon Secretary-Treasurer after they are approved at the August 2010 meeting of the Pi Mu Epsilon Council in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.                                                 

Respectfully submitted
Leo J. Schneider, Secretary  and Joan Weiss, Past President