Mathematical Association of America--Southeastern Section Collection

The Mathematical Association of America, a group that focuses on undergraduate mathematics education, was officially formed at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio in December 1915. Almost immediately mathematicians and administrators saw the need for a Southeastern Section, but several attempts to organize the section failed, mainly due to World War I. Finally, on April 22, 1922, the first meeting of the Southeastern Section took place in the Main Building of the Georgia School of Technology. Sixty-three people attended the meeting, including fifteen who were listed as the section's founding members, among them Floyd Field, professor of mathematics at the Georgia School of Technology. The goals of the section were the presentation and discussion of papers, the improvement of mathematics teaching and libraries, and cooperation among organizations.

After the initial meeting of the Section, meetings were held annually in March or April. Early meetings took place at Agnes Scott College (1923), University of Georgia (1924), Phillips High School in Birmingham (1925), Emory University (1926), University of South Carolina (1927), and Duke University (1928). Generally, a guest speaker presented at each of these meetings, six or seven papers were read, and a banquet was held. Between forty and seventy people attended the first few meetings, but by 1928 about 100 were in attendance. The organization continued to expand during the 1930s, with additions both in attendees and in the number of papers read. By 1940 attendance had increased to 300, with a total of forty-two papers presented.

After a hiatus between 1942 and 1945 because of World War II, meetings of the Section began again with the twenty-fifth annual meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1946. Attendance gradually increased during the post-war years, so that by 1950 attendees at the twenty-ninth meeting at the University of Florida numbered about 250. Meetings throughout the 1950s and 1960s continued to draw between 200 and 300 people, with a total of between twenty and forty papers at each meeting.

In 1967, a group from Florida decided to form its own regional section of MAA because of the growth of the university and the mathematical community. Members from Puerto Rico and the Panama Canal Zone transferred from the Southeastern to the Florida Section. In spite of the founding of the new section, the meetings of the Southeastern Section continued to attract between 200 and 300 people during the late 1960s and 1970s.

One of the most active members of the Southeastern Section during the 1970s through the 1990s was John D. Neff (1926-1998), professor in the School of Mathematics at Georgia Institute of Technology from 1961 to 1997 and Director of the School from 1972 to 1978. Neff acted as Secretary-Treasurer of the Southeastern Section from 1972 to 1978, and he served as Governor from 1979 to 1980. Neff was awarded the Section's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1994.

The Southeastern Section has continued to operate with its original principles of promoting teaching and scholarship, building mathematical libraries, and cooperating with other organizations. Meetings continue to be held annually in March or April. As the Section has developed, it has expanded to include junior colleges and undergraduate students. The organization has published a newsletter since 1981, and it maintains its own Web site.