Women Count is organized by the Women and Mathematics Network, under the auspices of the MAA Committee on the Participation of Women. This year’s conference will focus on disseminating information about successful outreach programs for young women. The hope is to encourage the establishment of more such programs throughout the nation and to equip those who might want to do so. By sharing their expertise, those currently engaged in outreach programs can offer real help to those establishing new programs.
The conference is scheduled the day before MathFest and at the same location. The hope is that this will make it easier to attend and also make the conference more visible. Women Count can thus serve both as a professional development opportunity and as a way to publicize outreach efforts to the broader mathematical community.
Support for the conference is being provided by the Association for Women in Mathematics, the National Security Agency, and the Tensor Foundation. Participants in the Women Count Conference will be selected from the applications of experienced and prospective program directors. Team entries that pair an experienced director with a prospective director from the same geographic region are particularly encouraged because this enhances the opportunities for continued mentoring following the conference. Partial travel support will be provided for participants. This conference will include a workshop on grant writing, and breakout sessions for programs for high school students versus those with a middle school focus. Guest speakers will lead sessions on such issues as selection of program format, recruitment of young women, types of hands-on activities, possible funding sources, and assessment procedures.
Representatives from the National Security Agency, the Mathematical Association of America, the Tensor Foundation, and the National Science Foundation will be invited to speak on their programs that assist and support mathematics outreach activities.
Information about this conference and an application form may be found on the MAA website at http://www.maa.org/wam/.