[TheMathLeague] Thank You

[Klein, Bob]

Dear Math League participants and family members-

As you celebrate the summer and its offerings, I wanted to take time on behalf of the leadership team to communicate our gratitude to you for your participation and encouragement in or math circle. We have completed two and a half years and enjoyed every moment.

Our math circle, The Math League, is one of about 200 student math circles in the United States and one of only two student math circles (of which I’m aware) in Ohio. Its success depends on you and the energy and commitment of the participants. The idea of a math circle is almost 100 years old (beginning in the former Soviet block) and most famous Russian mathematicians and scientists trace their interest in their fields back to their participation in a math circle. It’s about finding joy in inquiry that comes from thinking deeply about beautiful things.

As we begin the academic year in September (dates to be determined), we are interested in your feedback. I’m hoping that you will consider the following questions and provide any insights you have. We serve many students and must balance what/when we are able to offer the Math League so I can only promise that we value all feedback, even if we are only able to act on some of it. Please share your insights (participants and parents/guardians) on:

1.       Time—Saturday morning meetings – we know this is a busy time for many but have yet to find something better for all (including the facilitators).

2.       Frequency—Is every two weeks too frequent? Not frequent enough? If we went to weekly, we would need to think more about facilitator honoraria (see #4 below).

3.       Location – the Athens Community Center has generously offered us space for $10 per session and we are covered under their liability insurance.

4.       Cost – Currently we support the Math League with Ohio University funding the space costs and the rest on volunteers like Javier, Rebin, Rebecca, and many others. Should we charge a nominal fee and pay a small honorarium to each session’s facilitator? If so, what’s a reasonable fee per semester (typically 6-7 sessions)? Many Math Circles around the country charge a nominal fee between $100-300 per semester. We are not in it to make a profit and this would be to cover materials, space, and a small honorarium for leaders each session (something like $50 to prepare and facilitate a session).

5.       Recruitment- Are we getting enough students? Too many? Diverse?

6.       Content – Our primary purpose is to offer engaging, interesting mathematics and not to “cover” material. Our view is that students get enough “math-as-coverage” elsewhere (and this too is important but not what we do).

7.       Opportunities – Are we missing opportunities that we should be paying attention to?

8.       Valued—Do the participants feel as though they are important to the Math League and that we value them and their ideas?

9.       Communication – Does the Remind (text msg) communication function for last-minute communication? Is our email communication effective? How could we improve our website? Add “bi-weekly problems” for students who aren’t able to attend in a given week? Few of us have time to be webmasters so we’d need to weigh that. (http://themathleague.weebly.com/ )

10.   Special Request– I (Bob) and looking for help creating a 501c status for “Math Unbounded,” that could manage small contributions and grants that could support the Math League and similar efforts. The heavy lifting is the paperwork at the beginning. I could use some help from someone more knowledgeable than I in getting this started – would be happy to meet and discuss this with interested parties. This would make it easier to do things like add a “Donate” button to our website.

Allow me to thank you again on behalf of Javier, Rebin, Rebecca, and the many others who make The Math League a singular experience. We welcome your ideas. Please reply to kleinr at ohio.edu<mailto:kleinr at ohio.edu> directly and I will share your comments with the leadership team.

Happy Summer,
Bob Klein

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listserv.ohio.edu/pipermail/themathleague/attachments/20160704/8bd77036/attachment.html