Chapter Representative Selection
Submitted 2/2/04 by Auburn University Chapter of SIAM, A. J. Meir, Faculty Advisor
Dear fellow SIAM chapter advisors:
A while back I asked you how you choose the chapter representative to the SIAM Annual Meeting. Below is a summary of the responses I received.
Quite a few chapters are new, or were new last year, many of these just sent the chapter's president (that is also what we did last year).
Some of the more established chapters have a review process by which the representative is chosen. Some of the criteria mentioned were: Service to the chapter (such as organization of events), research achievements/progress towards obtaining a degree, ability to give a student presentation, who would benefit the most from attending, who can best represent the chapter and/or department.
One chapter had an application procedure where students submitted applications and a committee judged the applications and chose a representative (I am assuming the criteria were similar to those above).
There was also a view that if there is some form of review, it is important to involve the students in the review process (I think in most cases mentioned the students were in fact involved in the selection process).
These are good ideas, and in many cases a combination of these may be used. This year we intend to run a student paper competition to choose our representative (I will be able to report in Portland whether we were successful or not).
Thanks to all who replied!
For more information about chapters, contact Membership Manager Tim Fest or Membership Coordinator Nancy Snell.
