National Organization Movement and Affiliation

A document outlining the history of NYSMATYC would be incomplete without a discussion of the Association's involvement with the national organization movement. The issue of a national organization has been before the NYSMATYC Executive Board throughout the first twenty years of its existence. In the early years, the issue was whether or not to "go national." Once a national organization was formed, the issue was whether or not to affiliate. The following is a chronology of events relating to the issues described above:

1.  The possibility of establishing a national math association of two-year colleges was discussed at the NYSMATYC Executive Board Meeting held on June 10, 1968. The decision was made to organize on a regional basis first before going national.

2.   The fall 1968 Issue of the NYSMATYC Newsletter contained a message from NYSMATYC President John Vadney calling for "...a panel composed of a national cross-section to discuss the question of the vehicle of adequate representation for T.Y.C.'s..." on a national level. Newsletter sent out nationally and contained a questionnaire on this issue.

 3.      A panel discussion was held at the 1969 spring NYSMATYC Annual Conference entitled "Go National".

 4.  NYSMATYC took an active role in the early 1970's in assisting neighboring states which were forming their own associations of two-year college mathematics teachers. (New England, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania).

 5.  In 1970, the NYSMATYC Newsletter becomes "the national arm of  NYSMATYC" and the name is changed to the Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges Journal. MATYC Journal becomes independent and incorporated.

 6.   The editors of the MATYC Journal become strong proponents of the formation of a national organization.

 7.   In 1973, a national meeting at Grossinger's in April 1974 was proposed by George Miller (MATYC Journal). He asked for NYSMATYC cooperation and support.  It was decided that the national meeting be held in conjunction with the  Annual sConference of NYSMATYC in April 1974 in New York City, to avoid having the two meetings compete with each other .

 8.   The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges was formed at the 1974 April meeting. Herb Gross, then at Bunker Hill Community College in Massachusetts, was elected its first president.  Note: Subsequently, the MATYC Journal became the official journal of AMATYC, until 1979 when AMATYC severed its association with that journal.

 9.   As a representative of NYSMATYC, Donald Cohen attended a meeting in Denver, Colorado, in October 1974 to name the national organization and to develop a constitution.

 10.  In October 1975, representatives of the NYSMATYC Executive Board  (Sam Mclnroy and Robert Burghardt) were sent to the AMATYC  Conference in Chicago. In March 1978, the Executive Board decided not to take an "official" position with regard to the national organization.

 11. For the next several years, the issue of whether NYSMATYC should affiliate with AMATYC was discussed with no consensus.

 12.  In 1979, the NYSMATYC Constitution was amended to provide for affiliation with other organizations.

 13. During the 1981- 82 academic year, the NYSMATYC Executive Board decided to take the issue of affiliation with AMATYC to its membership. Past President Larry Trivieri was to prepare the affiliation materials as prescribed by the constitution and to conduct the balloting. Due to unforeseen discrepancies in the balloting procedure, the Executive Board declared the 1982 ballot vote null and void and called for a new ballot to be taken. Past President Bruce Haney conducted the balloting. The vote resulted in non-affiliation.
Editorial Comment: The NYSMATYC Executive Board had spent a great deal of time and energy over the issue of affiliation with AMATYC. The 1982 vote was more against affiliation than a vote against AMATYC. The 1982 vote was perhaps an indication of the spirit of independence that NYSMATYC has demonstrated throughout its history. Clearly, the national organization was maturing and growing into an effective, well-organized voice of two-year-college mathematics educators at the national level. Affiliation was inevitable.

 14. At the 1987 spring NYSMATYC Executive Board meeting in Albany, New York, the Executive Board voted unanimously to conduct an affiliation vote with AMATYC in the spring of 1988.

 15. At the annual NYSMATYC Conference held in Syracuse in April, 1987, the Executive Board voted 11-1 to support affiliation with AMATYC.

 16.  According to the NYSMATYC constitution, the 1988 spring vote would be preceded by a list of all the obligations to both NYSMATYC and AMATYC as well as statements of advantages and disadvantages of affiliation.

 17. The affiliation vote was conducted in the spring of 1988. A total of 251 ballots were cast. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of affiliation: 222 in favor, 20 against, and 9 abstentions.

 18. In the spring of 2005, a vote regarding a possible affiliation with the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State (AMTNYS) was conducted.  The result of that vote was that NYSMATYC did not affiliate with AMTNYS.  The rationale for re-visiting affiliation with AMTNYS was that affiliating with that organization would provide NYSMATYC a strong connection between community college professors and high school teachers, along with services provided by AMTNYS.  At the annual conference, there was an open session for people to discuss the resolution.� At this session, there was considerable opposition to the resolution.� The concerns focused around NYSMATYC losing focus on the uniqueness of teaching at two-year colleges, and losing our voice at the state level on items that are unique to two-year colleges.

During the Friday dinner at the conference, John Vadney spoke on the history of NYSMATYC, what NYSMATYC has meant to him, and why he thought affiliating with AMTNYS would be a step in the wrong direction for NYSMATYC.� As per the constitution, a paper ballot was sent to all NYSMATYC members.� The resolution to affiliate with AMTNYS was rejected.