============================================================ THE DSA NEWSCAST http://www.dozenal.org ============================================================ The Dozenal Society of America Vol. 1, Iss. 5 Official Newsletter 1 July 11E9 ============================================================ ============================================================ = CONTENTS = ============================================================ 1. Dues Notice 2. Dozenal News -Website Improvements -Anki Deck for Basic Dozenal Facts -ASEE Conference 3. Society Business -Welcome, New Member -Annual Meeting -Annual Award to Jen Seron -Tax-Exempt Status -Bulletin Publication 4. Poetical Diversion 5. Dozenal Thoght of the Month 6. Backmatter ============================================================ = DUES NOTICE = ============================================================ Members! Important news from the annual meeting of 11E9 as regards dues. The Board of Directors has determined that, in the interests of making the DSA more accessible to the public, and to remove any remaining stumbling blocks to the recruitment of new members, dues will no longer be required for membership in the DSA as of 1 January 11EX (2014.). A fee of $10; ($12.) will procure Subscription membership, and entitles the payer to receive both a digital and a paper copy of the _Bulletin_ if requested. Other members will receive only a digital copy. Members who have already paid their dues this year will be entitled to a paper subscription if requested; if you have done so, and would like to invoke this, please notify the Editor of the Bulletin, Mike deVlieger, at mdevlieger@dozenal.org Although we no longer require dues, please remember that we are a volunteer organization which pays no salaries. As such, the generosity of our membership is necessary to continue pursuing our mission. Donations of any amount are therefore necessary and appreciated. So please consider donating online. In the left sidebar of the new website, you will find a "Support the DSA" block, with a link to our donation page. This will allow you to donate via Paypal. It may be worth considering a monthly donation; say, $3, or $6, or whatever seems reasonable to you. This can be set up quite easily with Paypal. Of course, if you prefer to donate by check, you may send them to our worthy Treasurer, Jay Schiffman, payable to the Dozenal Society of America, at: Jay Schiffman 604-36 South Washington Square, #815 Philadelphia, PA 19106-4115 As noted above, we pay no salaries, so every penny you donate goes entirely to the furtherance of the DSA's mission. ----------------------Member Benefits----------------------- Chief among the benefits of membership, aside from the knowledge of supporting the DSA's mission, is receipt of _The Duodecimal Bulletin_. In addition, however, members also receive (digitally) a membership card containing their vital member information and a monthly calendar with dozenal numbers, containing suitable and educational dozenal quotations and graphics, laid out for wall display. To receive these, please notify us that you'd like to receive them: Contact@dozenal.org ============================================================ = DOZENAL NEWS = ============================================================ --------------------Website Improvements-------------------- We've been able to implement the member-site feature which will give a user his member information---member type, membership number, name, and so forth---when he goes to the members-only section. Of course, this is only available for members who create an account at the website, a quick process which can be started here: http://www.dozenal.org/drupal/user/login We're planning further improvements as time goes on. Please consider taking advantage of this service for members! Further improvements include the final mothballing of our original, blue-themed website. A website visitor pointed out that this original site, which our last president, Michael deVlieger, replaced several years ago, was still up and functioning, though throwing some PHP errors. These pages are now redirected to their appropriate equivalents on our new site. As a result of this, we noticed that we had not provided a new version of our mascot, the panda, webpage; so we've posted a brief page about that mascot on our new site, as well: http://www.dozenal.org/drupal/content/our-mascot-panda Charismatic megafauna are always great publicity! -------------Anki Deck for Basic Dozenal Facts-------------- If you're having trouble remembering basic dozenal facts, or just haven't had the time or energy to finally commit those multiplication tables to memory, there's a resource available to help: http://www.dozenal.org/drupal/content/dozenal-basics-anki-deck-flash-cards Anki is a free program for your desktop or smartphone which manages decks of flash cards for you. This deck for Anki allows you to review your dozenal facts for just a few minutes each day, at your own pace, and review those facts which are harder for you more often than those which are easier for you. It's surprising how quickly you'll learn what you want to know. Once you know these basic dozenal facts (the times tables; basic dozenal fractions, such as 5 / 14 = 0;39; and the basic divisibility tests), you'll be able to take much better advantage of the superior dozenal system. You may even find yourself dreading having to use decimal. ----------------------ASEE Conference----------------------- As noted, the DSA was privileged to be able to to present a workshop at the annual conference of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in Atlanta, GA, this June. This was a lengthy and difficult process which involved developing a program proposal for the ASEE conference maintainers; and, when the proposal was accepted, developing the program and the materials necessary to present it. The vast bulk of this work was done by our own Jen Seron, which, along with her other many good deeds for the Society, rightfully earned her the recognition recounted below. Even after the program was accepted, we were faced with many challenges, not least of which was that the ASEE put us across from a program presented by Dassault Systemes, which was giving away some rather expensive software to those attending their workshop. Despite this, our workshop attracted a small but engaged group of lower-elementary teachers (mostly K-6). This group learned the basics of alternate bases; some of the more prominent uses of alternate bases (binary, octal, and hexadecimal primarily); and, of course, they learned about a proposed base for human use, dozenal. Board member Dan Simon also spoke about the Mayan base-twenty system and the Babylonian base-sixty system which gave us a goodly portion of our system of temporal and angular measurement. After thus covering the basics, we were able to treat the participants as if they themselves were members of an elementary classroom. They designed symbols for ten and eleven, with some interesting results, and discussed the design principles which could lead to various symbolic forms. They asked questions about good strategies for teaching bases to students, particularly younger students, and suggested some good strategies of their own. We were also able to discuss the challenges of teaching bases to anyone, particularly the young. The materials were prepared primarily by board member Dan Simon and Secretary Jen Seron, and are all available on our website: http://www.dozenal.org/drupal/content/educational-materials If you happen to be speaking to an educator, or anyone who works with students or children, who is wondering how to make math interesting, be sure to suggest working with alternative bases, and to refer them to these educational materials. They include material tailored to all pre-collegiate math levels, and will surely be helpful. All in all, the workshop was an unquestionable success. Though small, we were able to hand out a significant body of literature and contact information to non-participants, and made many people aware of the subject of alternate bases in general, and dozenal in particular, who would otherwise likely never have heard of it. We made some good contacts and produced some good publicity. Many thanks to Jen Seron for making it possible. ============================================================ = SOCIETY BUSINESS = ============================================================ --------------------Welcome, New Member--------------------- Welcome to our newest member, #3X9, Jose Reyes of Penuelas, Puerto Rico! Mr. Reyes is a student in Puerto Rico, and his primary interests are developing suitable dozenal linguistic constructs for his native language, Spanish. Feel free to contact him if you're interested in helping; he can be found on the DozensOnline forum. -----------------------Annual Meeting----------------------- The Dozenal Society of America held its annual meeting for 11E9 at the Couryard by Marriott in downtown Atlanta on 19; June 11E9. Present were board members Gene Zirkel; Jay Schiffman; John Impagliazzo; Jen Seron, Dan Simon; and Don Goodman. They were later joined by member Patricia Zirkel. The meeting was extremely productive; indeed, the board was hard-pressed to finish it within a reasonable time. As always, official minutes will be available to members of the Society at the members-only section of this site. In lieu of their preparation, however, a summary of the highlights of the meeting will be presented here. The Society's membership system has been extensively revamped. Until recently, dues were payable as of the first of January each year. However, having had some membership applications stymied by an inability to pay dues, and the difficulty and expense of collecting dues each year, the Board determined that the requirement of dues was doing more harm than good, and did away with it. As of 1 January 11EX (2014), dues will no longer be required for membership. Members will continue to be entitled to the usual benefits of membership; however, delivery of The Duodecimal Bulletin will be digital only. Those members desiring a paper copy can receive one upon payment of $10; ($12.) and notification of the Editor. Those members who have paid their dues for 11E9 (2013.) are also entitled to a paper copy this year, upon notification of the Editor, whose email can be found on our officers page. Secretary Jen Seron, of the Oureach and Education Committee, had some great ideas for furthering our formal outreach programs. Board member Gene Zirkel, for dozens of years a mathematics educator, will be probing some contacts in an attempt to get further programs, or even a full tract, at a few mathematics conference next year. Jen will be researching the possibility of preparing physical exhibits regarding dozenal and other alternative bases, including traveling math displays as are often displayed at universities and museums, and the possibility of acquiring grants for their preparation and production. There is great potential here. The year 1200; (2016.) is approaching; this also happens to be the 60th (72.nd) anniversary of the incorporation of the Dozenal Society of America. Naturally, this is a big year for us in more ways than one. In honor of this event, the DSA is calling for bids for the production of an anniversary volume, which will include selected articles from our six dozen years of operation. This will also include a great deal of the "fillers"---the Arithmetrix, the mathematical cryptograms, and similar puzzles---which have always given a certain character to the Bulletin. All with the necessary talent are encouraged to submit a bid; if you know anyone who does this sort of work, please encourage them to do so. http://www.dozenal.org/drupal/content/book-designer-needed-call-bids Both the Editor of the Bulletin, Michael deVlieger, and the Vice-President of the Society, Graham Steele, were unable to attend our annual meeting this year, largely because of distance. This sad circumstance led to the determination that more regular means of digital participation should be explored. Board member John Impagliazzo will be exploring some options for this, so that more members and officers can participate in our meetings, and possibly to enable more frequent meetings in the future. At least an interim solution will be available in the coming months. Our worthy Treasurer and Chairman of the Board, Prof. Jay Schiffman of Rowan University, gave a presentation on dozenal integer sequences, which was interesting and well-received by all. Noting that the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences has developed into an immense and extremely useful resource, Prof. Schiffman suggested that dozenalists could produce a similar database of such sequences in our own preferred base, and presented substantial progress in that regard. Board member Dan Simon was able to correct a few minor errors in Prof. Schiffman's figures off the cuff, which impressed all present. President Don Goodman gave a presentation on Systematic Dozenal Nomenclature, a coherent system for referring to dozenal numbers developed on the DozensOnline forum and fast becoming, if it has not already become, a sort of lingua franca there. The system was well thought of by all, and should be published in detail in the Bulletin, WN X1. Those wishing more information now can look on the forum or explore a set of Don Goodman's private SDN pages on the subject: http://gorpub.freeshell.org/dozenal/blosxom.cgi/dozapp.html#sdn All in all, the Society made great progress at the Annual Meeting of 11E9, and the future holds great potential for us, the study of number bases in general, and the progress of dozenal in particular. Thanks to all our membership for your support throughout the year, and we hope you'll continue to support us as we further the goals of the Society in the coming year. ------------------------Annual Award------------------------ The Ralph Beard Memorial Award for 11E9 was presented to our worthy Secretary, Jen Seron, for her efforts in securing and managing our workshop presentation at the American Society for Engineering Education conference in Atlanta this year, and for her other contributions. For this effort, and for her other efforts, Jen is most deserving of the Award, and we are all grateful for her contributions. Such formal educational outreach has not been done by the Society for some time, and Jen deserves a dozen Annual Awards for making it happen. Congratulations, Jen, and thank you. ---------------------Tax-Exempt Status---------------------- As many of you know, due to a change in IRS regulations the DSA lost its tax-exempt status. This was largely an issue with a small part of our Articles of Incorporation. In the process of fixing this issue, we were able to do a good deal of housecleaning of our Articles and our paperwork with the IRS; for example, the DSA actually had not one, but *two* equally valid IRS identification numbers! The problem with our Articles is resolved, and we have submitted all the necessary paperwork and fees for restoring our tax-exempt status. While we are not yet officially tax-exempt again, we are well on our way, and will hopefully have this issue behind us before the end of the year. --------------------Bulletin Publication-------------------- Many of you have undoubtedly noticed that our Bulletin has not been published since 11E6 (2010.). After some conversation with our Editor, we have decided that we are able to resume publication very shortly. Expect two issues this year, and at least two next year. We apologize for this delay. ============================================================ = POETICAL DIVERSION = ============================================================ Thus far our Poetical Diversions have mostly been larks, ham-fisted, tongue-in-cheek redoes of famous poems and structures. For example, we've seen a dozenal Shakespearean sonnet (Newscast 01:02), a dozenal version of Le Marseillaise (Newscast 01:03), and a dozenal version of Walt Whitman's elegy for Abraham Lincoln, "O Captain! My Captain!" (Newscast 01:04). These are diverting at best, little use beyond entertainment. However, it seems useful to reform some of our current poems and rhymes dealing with decimal numbers to be useful for dozenal, or even to compose new ones; we've done that with one simple rhyme this month. Readers are encouraged to provide us with more; or, indeed, anything they would like fellow DSA members to see. This is intended to be useful for elementary-age children learning the basics of arithmetic. They won't understand everything about it (the cubes and squares, likely), but it will serve them well in remembering the traits of the single digits, and will be useful to them as they advance. Of course, adults may find it helpful, as well. THE NUMBER RHYME One is the first; it's a single straight line; Two is a couple, the sole even prime; Three is a few, and a quarter of twelve; Four is a third, and twice two if you delve; Five is the fifth, 'tween a third and a half; Six's a half-dozen! We're well on our path! Seven's just less than two-thirds, through the door; Eight is two-thirds and two cubed and twice four; Nine is three-quarters, three threes, and three squared; Ten is twice five; nearly through have we dared! Eleven is prime, and it's one less than done; Then twelve, unqua, dozen, as bright as as the sun! Twice six, three fours, four threes, and six twos, A dozen has factors that we all can use; The lowest abundant, the dozen's so grand, Let everyone learn it, throughout all the land! This rhyme is available as a typeset pdf on our website: http://www.dozenal.org/drupal/content/number-rhyme ============================================================ = DOZENAL THOUGHT OF THE MONTH = ============================================================ When discussing the purpose of our Society at our annual meeting, it was brought up that studying number bases, including dozenal, isn't just for the nerdy pleasure of it all (though there's plenty of that), nor for the dozenal evangelism (though there's good room for that, too). It's also immensely helpful for just understanding *what number is* and *how number works*. Too often, we learn about writing numbers and doing arithmetic on them as a set of magical incantations to be cast at scrawls of smudged pencil on college-ruled paper torn out of spiral notebooks---or as simply buttons to be pressed on the inscrutable black boxes that do most of our number-crunching these days. But why our numbers mean what they do, why our arithmetical algorithms produce the right answers; these are questions that deserve to be answered, and that should be well understood in a really numerate society. They are also questions that only studying alternate bases can effectively answer. So the next time someone asks you why you're so interested in such a geeky subject, if you're like many of us, you can tell them the truth: you didn't really understand numbers until you learned about other bases. And when you did learn about other bases, and you did start to really understand numbers, math was no longer a boring topic. It might help others to understand. EACH ONE, TEACH ONE ============================================================ = BACKMATTER = ============================================================ _The DSA Newscast_ is a production of the Dozenal Society of America. If you have received this publication in error, or otherwise do not wish to receive it anymore, please unsubscribe by mailing a message containing the string "UNSUBSCRIBE DSA NEWSCAST", exactly as typed, in its body, to the Reply-To address of this message. For questions, comments, submissions, or other communication with the _Newscast_, please write to: newscast@dozenal.org