On 19-20 October 1996, JCW held its third annual intensive weekend meeting, at the O’Hare Airport Hilton in Chicago. The meeting was timed to coincide with that of the AMS Committee on the Profession (CoProf), and JCW met with CoProf at supper on Saturday night to discuss areas of common concern. All JCW members in attendance at this meeting found it extremely productive and agreed that the work accomplished was well worth the modest cost to the participating societies. There has been some variability in the travel support provided by the member organizations to its representatives for this meeting, however. It is the opinion of the JCW membership that the member organizations, in nominating representatives to the committee, should make a commitment to provide travel support for the annual meeting. If a member organization is unable to do so, it should limit its representation on the committee to the number of individuals which it is able to support.

In 1996, AMS provided full travel support for its representatives, three of whom attended the meeting. NCTM provided full support for two representatives, and ASA also provided full support for its lone representative. MAA, which has four representatives on JCW, provided a total of $1000 in travel funds, which did not quite cover the travel expenses of the two representatives in attendance. AWM and IMS provided no travel support for their representatives. The representative of SIAM did not attend, and at this writing no information is available about SIAM’s level of support.

The annual fall meeting is crucial to the conduct of JCW business. This meeting sets the agenda for business to be conducted by electronic mail throughout the year; moreover, it is perhaps the only opportunity for a majority of the JCW membership to meet face-to-face, as there is no single professional conference at which all of the mathematical disciplines are regularly represented. In 1996, there has been a considerable turnover in the JCW membership, including the appointment of a new Chair. The members agreed that in a time of changing leadership, the face-to-face meeting in Chicago was very important and should continue.

By far the most extensive collection, compilation, and publication of data is done by the AMS-IMS-MAA Joint Data Committee. This information is published on a regular basis in the Notices of the AMS. In recent years, the Joint Data Committee has begun a longitudinal study of 1990-91 degree recipients whose Fall 1991 position or address was in the United States. JCW will recommend to the Joint Data Committee that this longitudinal study be continued at least until the end of the century. JCW will also recommend that this information be disseminated biannually in the Notices, the MAA Focus, and the Bulletin of the IMS, and on these organizations’ web sites (with updates at least every two years).

In recent years, the November Notices has included a one-page summary of ‘Statistics on Women Mathematicians Compiled by the AMS’, which includes information on speakers at AMS meetings, broken down by gender, and a multi-year breakdown of the numbers of women and men receiving Ph.D.s, appointed to the editorial boards of AMS journals, and serving as trustees and members of the AMS Council. In 1996, publication of this information was delayed until the December issue. JCW urges the AMS to continue the annual publication of this data, and preferably to publish the information in the same issue each year.

Data collection and publication efforts are underway at MAA, ASA, and NCTM, but little or no information has been forthcoming from these organizations regarding their efforts in 1996. Follow-up efforts are underway to determine the status of these projects.

1. What is the quality of the initial appointment? For example, initial employment at a Group I school may take on a variety of forms, from a prestigious, research-oriented postdoctoral position to a courtesy appointment made by a department to one of its own Ph.D.s who is experiencing difficulty on the job market.

2. To what extent does the initial appointment meet the expectations of the candidate? For example, if a particular candidate aims for a position at a prestigious liberal arts college and receives one, has s/he been more or less successful than the candidate who receives an appointment at a research university under conditions which may not be optimal for the conduct of research?

3. What are the gender trends in employment over time? For example, does initial employment in a prestigious postdoc at a Group I school lead to subsequent employment at a research institution? What are the gender trends associated with these employment patterns?

In particular, JCW is concerned that, in order to get a clear and accurate picture of the interplay of gender and employment issues over time, it may be necessary to conduct a qualitative longitudinal study of a sample of respondents to the initial AMS-IMS-MAA surveys. JCW is in the process of discussing the feasibility of such a study, and hopes to take action on this issue in 1997.

JCW member Marie Vitulli has begun an ambitious Women in Mathematics project on the World Wide Web. This project, which is well underway but still under construction, may be accessed at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~vitulli/WomenInMath/. The member societies are urged to visit the web site, which is a model compendium of information on women in the mathematical sciences.

Minutes respectfully submitted by:

Margaret A.M. Murray

Chair, JCW

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0123

murray@calvin.math.vt.edu

540/231-8261

Date of expiration of the term appears in parenthesis; asterisk denotes expired term

Martha Aliaga (ASA, 1/96*)

Stella Ashford (AMS, 1/99)

Lily E. Christ (MAA, 1/98)

Mary Flahive (MAA, 1/98)

Ena Gross (NCTM, 4/99)

Harriet Lord (MAA, 1/98)

Margaret Murray (AMS, chair, 1/98)

Mina Ossiander (IMS, 1/97)

Connie Page (IMS, 1/99)

Tamar Schlick (SIAM, 1/97)

Sanford Segal (MAA, 1/99)

Robert Sibner (AMS, 1/99)

Berit Stensones (AMS, 1/99)

Marie Vitulli (AWM, 1/98)

Patricia S. Wilson (NCTM, 4/96*)