President's Message

The Allerton Conference has always been special for IMACC. This year's conference was no exception. It was filled with interesting and entertaining speakers, informative sessions, and helpful roundtable discussions on curriculum, pedagogy, use of technology, and other issues we face as teachers.

This conference also was marked by some firsts. An expanded schedule of Thursday afternoon workshops and tours was offered, and a new Linear Applied Geometry group (LAG) met. LAG conducts its business at the pool table in the Allerton House basement, and it joins the raffle (conducted so well by Shirley Scheiner) and PASS (Probability and Statistics Study group) in helping to raise IMACC scholarship funds.

A couple of unplanned firsts included a brief unscheduled trip to the Allerton House basement on Friday night during a tornado warning. With the able help of the Allerton House staff in providing some auxiliary lighting, even this interlude turned into an opportunity to chat with colleagues from around the state. As it turned out, no harm was done at the conference site, and we were soon able to go on about our business. I had the privilege of conducting IMACC's first candlelight Board meeting after the storms passed. It was actually kind of fun, and I know it will always be one of my special Allerton memories.

A successful conference such as this is only made possible by the efforts of many people, including Past-President Jim Hall and his Program Committee; Conference Coordinators Mike Emerick and Lisa Carrington, who make the arrangements with Allerton House and the publishers; ConneXion Editor Marvin Johnson, who keeps us all informed about the conference; and the company representatives, who display their products and sponsor our social hours. Special thanks go to all of the people who were involved in the many presentations throughout the conference and to all who helped in so many ways to make this conference a success.

The coming year is filled with new challenges and opportunities. As we continue to see technology innovations and new approaches to pedagogy, we must continue to reflect on what these changes mean for our teaching, how we can use them to help our students learn and use mathematics more effectively, and how we can help our adjunct faculty assimilate the changes we hope to make.

Several of you have already offered your assistance and suggestions for next year's conference. I welcome your help and suggestions, and I deeply appreciate your willingness to work to keep IMACC one of the best AMATYC affiliates in the country. I hope you have completed a successful spring term, and I wish you all a good summer!

Karl M. Zilm, President