Professor Ian Sloan FAA FAustMS President June, 2000

Subject: Invitation to Australia's Mathematical Scientists

Dear Colleague in the Mathematical Sciences,

I am writing to invite you to consider joining the Australian Mathematical Society, if you are not already a member.

The Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) is the national society of the mathematics profession in Australia. Founded in 1956, its mission is the promotion and extension of mathematical knowledge and its applications. It aims to represent all professional mathematicians in Australia, whether pure or applied. The special interests of the latter are represented by ANZIAM, standing for "Australia and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics", which is a division of AustMS.

What does the Society do?

Mathematics and the community

• The Society works hard to promote the cause of mathematics in the community. Together with the Institution of Engineers and the Institute of Actuaries, it is currently seeking government and corporate support for "Sticking with Mathematics", a proposed major media campaign aimed at persuading young people and their parents that taking the best possible level of mathematics at School is the best preparation for a career.

• The Society represents the interests of the profession to government, both directly through submissions (e.g. on the Green Paper on Research, and the future of the ARC) and delegations (e.g. a 5-member delegation represented the Society at "Science Meets Parliament" last year), and indirectly through its participation in the Mathematical Sciences Council and FASTS (the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies).

• The Society's publication arm produces three well-established journals: the "Journal AustMS Series A" (Pure Mathematics and Statistics), the "Journal AustMS Series B" (Applied Mathematics) (the latter soon to be relaunched as the "ANZIAM Journal of Applied Mathematics"), and the "Bulletin of the AustMS".
  
• It produces an electronic journal (the "Journal of the AustMs, Series B Electronic"), and is deeply involved in issues of electronic publication for all its journals.
  
• Free to members, it produces the "Gazette of the AustMS", issued five times a year, and very soon to undergo a face-lift.

• The Society runs two major conferences each year. Its main conference is its annual meeting, held in July or September, which caters for a wide range of mathematical interests. Sometimes this conference is held in conjunction with other societies: the 1999 meeting was held in Melbourne jointly with the American Mathematical Society, and the 1997 meeting in Auckland jointly with the New Zealand Mathematical Society. Held in February each year is the "ANZIAM Conference" (regarded also as the Society's Summer Conference), which has a strong applications flavour, and is usually held at a resort.
  
• In July 2003 the Society's Annual Conference will be held in conjunction with the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM 2003) in Sydney. The International Congress is organised by ANZIAM and underwritten by AustMS. It is expected to be the largest celebration of mathematical research ever held in the southern hemisphere.

• Recently Council decided, very reluctantly, not to bid to hold the 2006 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Australia. It may be that the (mainly financial) reasons for this decision will not seem so pressing in four years time, when it will be time to consider a bid for the 2010 ICM.

• Other services for members include an Administrative Directory of the Mathematical Sciences in Australia (listing all members of the Society, and all members of mathematics departments, and showing membership of AustMS and ANZIAM), which is in the process of being updated. The Society's web site at http://www.austms.org.au and other electronic services are being progressively upgraded.
  
• The Society operates a formal accreditation process: upon application and the payment of a once-only fee you can be accredited as a professional mathematician at the level of Graduate, Accredited Member or Fellow, according to your qualifications and experience.

• AustMS has reciprocal membership with many other mathematical societies, making the benefits of membership of, for example, the American Mathematical Society available at much reduced rates.

An application form for AustMS membership (with the further option of joining ANZIAM) can be downloaded from the AustMS Web site, http://www.austms.org.au. The subscription for the year 2000 is $74 (but only half this amount for the first year of membership) plus $12 for the option of ANZIAM membership. (For student members the annual subscription is only $18.50. Please encourage your graduate students to join.)

To conclude, if you are not already a member of AustMS (or ANZIAM) then please support our profession and consider membership. On the other hand, if you feel that AustMS is not an appropriate body for you, then please consider joining one or more of Australia's other professional societies in the mathematical and statistical sciences, such as the Statistical Society of Australia or the Combinatorial Mathematics Society of Australasia, or the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia.

Please feel free to get in touch with me on (02) 9385-7038 or email i.sloan@unsw.edu.au, or to contact any other member of Council.

Yours sincerely,

Ian H Sloan

President, Australian Mathematical Society