Coaches' Meeting 2005-2006

Minutes from May 17, 2006

  1. Treasurer's report. We came in under budget. Statistician's stipend lowered to $300.

  2. Written topics. Accepted.

  3. Oral topics. If the state topic matches one of the listed topics for 06-07, the proposed topic for 07-08 will be inserted in its place.

  4. Schedule and dates. 9/27, 10/26, 12/7, 2/1, 3/7. Schools should submit hosting conflicts ASAP.

  5. Stats and divisions packet distributed.

  6. Business (old)

    • Host school coaches SHOULD NOT work the problems, or even look at them before the contests. They may ask a non-team person to peruse for errors. There is no change in ribbons/plaques.

    • Questions from previous years are on the website, password protected so students don't have access. Currently they are not divided by topic, only by year. The topic lists can be found elsewhere on the site. A discussion about the database followed. There has been no update for many years, and our contract has probably expired. Rich Cortez from Conant would be willing to create a new database for all to use. Visual basic would interact with the database. It could be set up to print a 5 question test from a particular topic and calculator/no calculator.

  7. Business (new)

    • Most improved awards will be given to the three teams based on the number of places they move up in the team rankings. If there is a tie it will be broken by improvement in total points.

    • Job descriptions and "changing of the guard": Craig Morse presented job descriptions for NSML officers and board members. This was prompted by the fact that John Benson will be leaving as president in two years. Next fall, the board will vote in a "vice president" who will work with John Benson for two seasons. After that time, the VP will take over the duties, and John Benson will be active for at least one year and be a resource person to the new president. There is no term of office, as the method "in office for one's academic lifetime" has been effective thus far.

    • CAS: suggestions for next year

      • Keep the same system: Jr/Sr may use CAS calculators
      • Use no calculators at all -- make it a math league instead of a technology league.
      • Expand the policy of CAS to include sophomores
      • Expand the policy to include all students

      The discussion was brief. It was decided to keep the policy from 05-06 intact. Juniors and seniors may use CAS, but test questions should not require their use.

    • No teams have indicated they are leaving the league. Romeoville was welcomed as a new team for 06-07.

    • The policy regarding catastrophes (mostly snow) was discussed. If a school will not attend a meet, they should still provide an oral judge if scheduled. Some schools have traded dates for this purpose. The inclement weather policy covers most reasonable scenarios ... the most important thing is the safety of the students. Teams (coaches) are encouraged to trust the board members to treat cases fairly after the fact, keeping in mind that the spirit of meeting to "do math" is the main goal, with competitive results being less important. Reminders that host schools need to provide working phone numbers, best to include it on the info sent to coaches with room numbers and maps, etc. Coaches would have the information with them on the buses. In weather emergencies, schools have sometimes found a host closer to home. This is acceptable, but both the original and alternate host need to be notified. Call Joe or John if all are in agreement. Traveling coaches should keep host informed of their progress if they are late.

    • Retiring board members were thanked, and a call for volunteers to fill their vacancies was made. The board has recently taken on more responsibility for making decisions. There is usually one meeting (next year an extra one in the fall to determine a VP) a week before the spring coaches meeting, e-mails requiring responses, and committees to chair.

The meeting adjourned at 5:30 PM.