It was in the spring of ‘95
The year of the big drought
At an NDMATYC meeting
Someone opened up his mouth.

“I move to have a fall conference.”
In the voting, the yea votes won
When chairpersons were appointed
The losers were Linda and Don.

Where do we have this meeting?
And how much do we charge?
The budget that they gave us
Was not so very large.

We found the optimum location
By using calculator and pen
To be in some guy’s pasture
Just south of Fessenden.

But the guy wouldn’t rent his pasture
And Pingree was no fun
So after some discussion
We settled on Carrington.

We had our first meeting in ’96
Things went according to our plan
Sixteen people turned out that day
To hear Judy Ackerman.

After that visit to our conference
Her career began to click
As a result of her visit here
She became head of AMATYC.

We marveled at the TI-81
Or was it the 82?
In any event, we were pretty impressed
With all the stuff it could do!

She said there’s no need for trig tables
Or to keep all that stuff in your head
But MY students know sin p/2
Even when their batteries are dead.

Early planning for ’97 took place
When the temperature was about 99
A Friday evening picnic
Would fit us all just fine.

But when the picnic time rolled around
It was 30°, with a northwest breeze
People began to grumble
Do we really have to freeze?

The people at the Chieftain said,
“We’ll serve it to you inside.”
So they made up great big burgers
And other goodies that were fried.

The meeting was led by Marv and Mary
Who were longtime friends of mine
They thoroughly engaged their audience
And everyone did just fine.

They spoke of how technology
Will change the way we test
We shared our own test questions
And decided which were best.

Our leaders have all been super
Each in their own way
We all agreed that the registration fee
Was well worth what we had to pay.

Bill Thomas took us in ‘99
Back to mathematical reform school
Problem solving should make sense
Instead of following a rule.

Mr. Thomas was a great teacher
Who was at least two meters long
And we all were just delighted
When he ended with a song.

He not only was very tall
But was built just like a tank
Mike had to pay his food bill
With a loan from First State Bank.

As the first AMATYC president
Herb Gross didn’t exactly come free
But I liked having him here a lot
‘Cause someone was older than me.

He thought of math as a language
With adjectives and nouns
But when it came to bald jokes
I thought he was way out of bounds.

He was a great defender
Of education for the masses
With his dedication and his humor
How could anyone skip his classes?

We found Jim Ham in Chicago
His session impressed us a lot
We asked if he would come to Dakota
He surprised us by saying, “Why not?”

We couldn’t understand why his card tricks worked
And to many it was an annoyance
But to most of us it was easy to see
We chalked to up to clairvoyance.

Most of us do assessment
To satisfy the beauacracy
But he showed that we could use it
To lift us out of mediocrity.

There are many reforms in mathematics
But how long will they last?
Lyle Anderson took a look at the future
With one eye on the past.

He showed us how in any course
We can all use the internet
To obtain more real-life data
In establishing a new problem set.

The conferences were not all work
We had time for fun, too
With a pool table waiting in the bar
There was always something else to do.

NDSU beat the JC’s
For at least three years in a row.
We had a sneaking suspicion
That Mohamed was a pro.

So when an opening came up
Art Rude was job hunting, too.
He was a former pool hall owner
Who chalked a mean pool cue.

BSC received a bonus
When they found that he could teach
A win over NDSU
Was now within our reach.

Those NDSU professors
Must never teach a class
For even with Art on board
They still just kicked our _____
(We still ran out of gas.)

Mike gets us up in the morning
Even though we would like to sleep late
We don’t just walk around Carrington
We circumambulate.

We walked the streets of Carrington
Before the rooster began to cackle
And paid homage at the football field
Where Jim Kleinsauser learned to tackle.

If Jim had been a quarterback
Before the rooster began to crow
We could have walked past the football field
Where Jimmy learned to throw.

We’ve had ten years of learning
Of food, fellowship, and fun
And I hope these yearly meetings
Have only just begun.

So I’ll be back in 2015
With one more last sick poem
If only I can get one of you
To check me out of the HOME.

But if the count is 24
And I am no longer alive
Dig me up and pay my fee
For its free pie with 25!