ABSTRACT
As president, I was concerned with science policy. It seemed to me that the presence of two mathematical organizations, the Association (the MAA) and the Society (the AMS), tended to divide the interests of mathematicians. So I asked, “Why not combine the two organizations?” I failed in this proposal-there was too much inertia present in continuing their separate activities in research and in teaching. Failing in combining them, I suggested a common organization active in science policy for mathematics. This, I argued, could be done by the establishment of a Joint Projects Board in Mathematics combining the interests of the Society, the Association, and SIAM (the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics).
