Dr. Phil's Home · Last Update: 13 October 2002

MIAAPT - Michigan Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers

NOTE: To conform better with National AAPT practice and minimize confusion with other "M" states, we have adopted the abbreviation MIAAPT over earlier variants (MAAPT, MCAAPT, etc.).

Our Fall 2002 Meeting was Saturday 12 October 2002 at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City MI. Next up will be the Spring 2003 Meeting on Saturday 12 April 2003 at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn MI.

• Here's the new Official MIAAPT Web Site.

• Here's the Advance Program for the Fall 2002 MIAAPT Meeting .

• Here's a copy of the Fall 2002 MIAAPT Meeting Call for Papers .

• Here's Dr. Phil's Spring 2002 MIAAPT Meeting site.

• Here's a list of Past MIAAPT Meeting Sites since Dr. Phil joined MIAAPT in 1994.

What's happenning with MIAAPT?

• From the Fall 2002 Meeting:
  • About 38 members attended the Traverse City meeting on 12 October 2002.
  • We had twelve speakers from ten institutions from many parts of Michigan, and three brief items in the category of Quickies and Stump The Professor.
  • Reminder that Elections at the Spring 2003 Meeting include 2nd Vice-President (from a four-year institution) and Section Representative to the national AAPT.
• Your officers for 2002-2003:
  • Phil Kaldon (Western Michigan University) is now President
  • Steven Rea (high school) is 1st Vice-President and Program Chair for the Fall 2002 and Spring 2003 Meetings
  • Mike Lopesto (Henry Ford Community College) serves as the new 2nd Vice-President
  • H.C. Snyder (St. Clair Shores Community College) continues to serve as our Secretary-Treasurer
  • Al Gibson (Rochester Adams High School (retired)) is serving a three-year term as Section Rep to the national AAPT
  • At the Spring 2003 Meeting we will elect a new 2nd Vice-President from the ranks of the four-year institutions, so plan ahead...
  • Alex Azima (Lansing Community College), President 2001-2002, joins our talented group of Past Presidents
• We are trying to join the 21st electronic century:
  • Our diverse membership has uneven access to e-mail and the WorldWide Web. Quite frankly, despite promises from big corporations, schools nad government, universal electronic access not only isn't here, it isn't always reliable. Plus it shouldn't be forced onto people who don't want it.
  • But snail mail costs have risen greatly since our membership dues were last changed -- and are likely to go up again soon.
  • Yet we need to stay in touch with everyone much more often than we do.
  • So we are identifying who needs to have physical mail, and also who wants to just receive e-mail updates and don't need a physical mailing.
  • We are also working on having a consistent, updated Web presence.
• We need to beef up our recruitment:
  • There are still plenty of high school, two year and four year college and university faculty who either don't know about MIAAPT or don't think that MIAAPT has anything to offer them.
  • We train many future high school physics teachers in Michigan and we should work on getting these students to come to MIAAPT meetings, where they can meet their colleagues and gain valuable networking.
  • It's corny, but the best and fastest way to get more people to come to MIAAPT is for you, our current members, to drag someone you know along with you!
  • And in the coming year we are going to target mailings to some of the schools and institutions who haven't been coming.
• We're looking at ways and making MIAAPT meetings fun and different:
  • There are a lot of good things that are happening at our current MIAAPT meetings.
  • But only a small fraction of our membership/mailing list actually comes to any particular meeting.
  • We are pretty constrained to hold our meetings on Saturdays, which does take people away from other activities.
  • We already try hard to vary the geographical site and type of host institution.
  • Because of the density of population and institutions, much of our membership comes from Southeastern Michigan. So we have to both accommodate them and reach out as far "out-state" as is practical.
  • The Upper Pennisula is hard to crack -- travel times from there are very long. I can recall only one U.P. attendee in eight years (from Michigan Tech). Should we try to have a sub-section meeting in the U.P. sometime? It's something to consider.
  • We looked into having the Fall 2002 Meeting at a northern Lower Pennisula resort, but while it would be "fun" and a chance to combine a meeting with a family outing during the autumn color season, the costs and guarantees that the resorts required made it impossible for a group of our size. So for the foreseeable future we shall continue to hold meetings at members' institutions.

Communications go both ways -- contact any MIAAPT officer about any issue. We'll be glad to hear from you.

13 October 2002 · PEK