2011 VMATYC Conference

VMATYC held its 25th Annual Conference on March 25-26, 2011 at the Fred W. Beazley campus of Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth. It was well attended, with over 100 registered attendees.
The theme of the conference was "Focus on Developmental Mathematics: Developing Successful Students". There were several presentation sessions devoted to the state-wide developmental mathematics redesign effort. The Chancellor of Virginia's Community Colleges, Dr. Glenn DuBois, addressed attendees in a special session focusing on the revision of developmental education in Virginia's community colleges. The banquet keynote speaker, Elayn Martin-Gay, gave a talk on overcoming some of the challenges that developmental students face. Attendees had plenty of opportunities to obtain information about and discuss the changes being made in developmental mathematics in Virginia.
There were 15 separate presentation sessions given by VMATYC members, 5 presentations given by vendor representatives, and 2 roundtable discussions. While the focus of the conference was on developmental mathematics, the presentation topics ranged from statistics to mathematical software to distance education to mathematics in music. We had great vendor participation for the conference. Seven vendors set up displays and six vendors provided door prizes, including an iPod Nano and $250 in gift cards.
Special thanks go to the VMATYC members of the Tidewater Community College coordinating committee who made the conference happen. Tom Garrett managed the overall effort of the committee. Judy Williams coordinated the arrangements for conference lodging, the Friday banquet, and catering for the pre-banquet reception, Saturday breakfast, and end-of-conference lunch. The efforts of Mike Kirby and Charlotte Newsom were responsible for great vendor participation and wonderful door prizes we had for the conference. Dana Mitchell made sure that there were plenty of extra refreshments and drinks throughout the conference. Thanks to Joy Conner for running the registration table throughout the conference.
Special thanks goes to Dr. Deborah DiCroce, Tidewater Community College's President,
who provided $2,000 of Tidewater Community College funds to conduct the conference. These funds allowed for the conference to put on the pre-banquet social and Saturday breakfast and lunch.
Conference evaluations completed by attendees indicated that the conference was a success. Of the 44 attendees who rated the overall conference, 33 rated it as "excellent" and 11 rated it as "very good". The keynote speaker/presentation and peer interaction with colleagues from across the state were the top two highlights of the conference mentioned in the evaluations.

John Gallo, VMATYC President, TCC