This year, I organized a meeting for people interested in mathematics education at the University of Toronto.
It was a tri-campus event and we even invited a few friends from York University1.
The computer science teaching faculty have had an annual meeting for ages.
Last year, Mike Pawliuk ran a tri-campus meeting at UTM.
In this note, I collect up a couple insights I had while organizing.
Overall, organizing is quite simple.
It’s probably five hours or so spread out over the term.
Don’t let the organization intimidate you.
Ask for people’s availability early.
Consider asking in February. Academics need tonnes of notice.
Collect up a list of e-mails by browsing the departmental websites.
“If you can’t make it work, or are not interested, could you suggest some people to invite?”
Consider inviting: UTStG, UTM, UTSC, OISE, York, TMU.
Try to get new CLTAs, LTAs, and teaching post-docs out so that they can meet their crews.
Propose a few dates and have people pick from those dates.
If you know people personally, e-mail them personally.
“Hey! We haven’t talked in forever. I’m organizing this thing, and I would love to see you there. How are the chinchillas?”
Avoid major mathematics education conferences: CMS and CMESG.
April and May are write-offs due to exams and post-semester decompression. August is a write-off because of pre-term ramp up and travel.
Be courteous to your guests.
Ask, in advance, for people willing to introduce their departments.
Follow up by e-mail to remind the introducers that they’ll be introducing.
“Thanks for offering to introduce your department. This isn’t a big task: just talk about the department, what’s novel, what’s challenging, and where y’all are headed next year.”
Follow up by e-mail with people who offer to give talks.
“Thank you for offering to give a short talk. We’ve put it in the schedule. Do you have any tech needs?”
On the day of, remind people that they’ll be introducing and giving talks.
Get information about parking at the venue as some people will drive in.
If you’re running short talks (10, 15, 20 minutes) then be firm with the time.
Your departmental administrative staff can work wonders.
They booked the rooms.
They got coffee, cookies, fruit trays, and meals.
Be sure to ask for chilled water.
Either do a buffet style lunch where everyone gets the same options,
or put everyone’s lunch in a separate labelled box.
They can make a nice poster and way-finding signs for you.
Post little signs telling people where to go. This campus might be new to them.
The event requires almost no supplies.
Whiteboard, podium computer, and projector.
Tape dispenser.
Markers.
Name tags. (“Hello, my name is…”)
Chart paper.
Letter paper.
The schedule doesn’t need to be complicated.
Gather and welcome.
Campus walk.
Introduce everyone.
Updates from the departments.
Lunch.
Short talks (15~20 minutes each).
Plan the next session.
Group photo.
Getting webspace continues to be problematic.
UToronto webspace is tied to UTorIDs.
Want multiple people to be able to access and edit the page.
Setup a wiki? Get Wordpress site?
Most people, even professors, are not technical wizards.
In the long run, I would like to make this a “Pan Toronto” event. ↩︎
Published: Jun 26, 2025 @ 14:45. Last Modified: Jun 27, 2025 @ 15:29.