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At the end of the Spring Meeting in April 1997 at Broome Community College, I took over as the chair of the MAA Seaway Section. Coincidence or not, the first section meeting I ever attended was also at Broome Community College in the spring of 1984. It was there that I met Howard Bell for the first time and he recruited me to the MAA. At that time, Howard Bell had just completed his tour of duty as First Vice Chair, Chair Elect, Chair and Past Chair. At the last Broome meeting, I mentioned this coincidence to Howard. He replied, that many things had changed in the section since the years he was its chair; in particular, many more people got involved. I am grateful to my predecessors for making this happen, in particular, Jack Graver, who started handing out questionnaires at meetings asking about possible involvement with the section. I want to continue this tradition, ensuring a steady stream of volunteers which is of vital importance for our success.

Our student participation has greatly increased over the years as you might have noticed. One contributing factor are the two EXXON grants we received for that purpose in the past few years.

But in some other ways, things have changed as well: as the world has embraced the electronic age, so has the Seaway Section. Formerly, all our communication was via regular mail. Now it is almost exclusively by e-mail, with an occasional phone call. We have almost completed building up the list of MAA Departmental Liaisons to the old level when Departmental Representatives were still in place. Communication with Liaisons is almost exclusively electronic. The website of the Seaway Section completes its second year providing up-to-date information on all aspects of the section. You can reach our website via the MAA site: http://www.maa.org

All this electronic communication does not make printed communication obsolete. For me, the printed word always makes a deeper impression than messages flashing by on a screen. It has been a longtime goal of the Seaway Section to elevate the Seaway Current from a publication containing only dry information about the next meeting to one which features contributions of CURRENT interest. It looks that under the new editorship by Joe Straight we are heading in the right direction. Anyone interested in becoming an Associate Editor for the Seaway Current, please contact me or write it on the next questionnaire.

Lastly, during my time as First Vice Chair of the section, I always got the same reaction from prospective MAA speakers I contacted to invite them for one of our meetings: They all were delighted to be invited to come to one of our meetings. They had heard many good things about our section, how well our meetings were run and the quality of the programs.

I am proud to serve the MAA Seaway Section as its Chair.

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