Mathematics conferences aimed primarily at undergraduates have been around for many years, but there have been too few for the number of students who could benefit from them. During the first three years of our previous grant we helped to increase the number of these conferences, particularly in regions of the country where they had not been in the past. We also involved more young faculty, particularly those in the NExT program. Since the network of the NExT faculty is very good, and the NExT program is not only sponsored by MAA but co-Directed by one of our co-PIs, we expect that word-of-mouth with increase the interest within this group.
As with the past grant, faculty members at institutions desiring to organize an undergraduate mathematics conference will submit a simple application form to the MAA. The PI's will review the requests electronically and make recommendations to the MAA. It is anticipated that most awards will be between $1,000 and $3,000, but larger awards might be considered in exceptional cases. These awards might cover the typical expenses involved with hosting any conference such as travel and honoraria for invited speakers, lunch and refreshments, and duplicating and postage for advertising, but will more often be directly student-participation oriented. For example, in the previous grant a priority was given to providing funds for student travel.. Indirect costs to institutions hosting the conferences are not permitted.
When reviewing the proposals, the PI's may choose to amend the budget of an application if some expenses seem unnecessary or if too much funding is requested for budget items that do not appear to enhance the goals of the grant. A strong bias will be given to programs that have a viable program for continuing their activity once the funding has expired.
In addition to providing funding for the conferences, the reviewing committee will offer organizers advice about speakers, format, organization, and advertisement of the conferences. The MAA will continue to provide administrative support, a web site, and national public awareness of the entire program and the individual conferences.
