MathSoc Meeting — Minutes of Meeting
Date: 4 October 2026, 20:24 – ~21:36
Author: Rehan, assisted via Muse agent
Venue: But First Chai (recorded)
Attendees: Sahil, Fahad, Rehan, Soumya, Manorath
1. Purpose
Decide MathSoc’s identity and operating model (club vs home-team), competition focus, training/session plan, outreach/induction, and approval route before next semester.
2. Discussions
A. Current work & competition portfolio
- Work currently concentrated between 2-3 people; agreed it must be distributed to other existing members.
- Current focus: Madhava and SMMC. Plan to add ICPC/IICPC-type participation from next year.
- This year ICPC prelims: ~15 registrations → ~10 teams turned up (vs 5 → 4 last year). Hope for 2 teams to regionals. Results delayed to 7 Oct. Cheating controversy and college-level proctoring noted.
B. Training model — home-team culture
- Proposal: function like a home team, not just a club — regular collaborative problem-solving sittings, 2×/week (some argued 2–3×/week, 2–3 hrs each), open to all, no rigid syllabus.
- Use previous-year / Olympiad problems; sit together, discuss, solve. Not faculty-taught — agreed faculty cannot solve Olympiad-depth problems; self-help model.
- ISI Kolkata / Ramanujan club, MIT Putnam training cited as culture models. Starting too intense will scare newcomers — start with bi-weekly / 1–2×/week.
- Do NOT start self-made weekly maths contests yet (effort + setter calibre). Limit to one mid-level event per semester, if at all.
C. Club vs home-team — approval route
- Lean toward club (easier to expand, conduct events, get participants) while keeping home-team training culture.
- Admin blocker: earlier told “CM already exists”. CM and Sigma Forum described as inactive for competitions.
- Route agreed: Abhay sir → HOD Maths → DSW, let DSW advise club vs team. CSE affiliation (via Murali sir) as backup. Need to secure a regular room (Maths dept or CSE classroom).
- Sponsorship idea: institute sponsors top 4 for Madhava travel; others self-funded.
D. Vision / objectives draft (not final)
Three-pillar draft agreed:
- Participate in specific prestige competitions (Madhava, SMMC — not random tech-fest events).
- Bi-weekly discussion sessions on Olympiad-level problem solving + self-improvement.
- Organize in-house competitions + collaborative learning / knowledge-sharing (rotating “I read something interesting” shares, like research groups).
- Explicit: draft only, multiple iterations allowed. Must outlive current members. Start small or nobody will join.
E. Outreach, inductions, sessions
- Sessions open to everyone; only core management committee needs to be closed/selective.
- Target B26 (esp CSE/EC, investigate MNC) via faculty recommendations from Math 1–4 toppers, SMC performance pool (blocked — scores not released), and engaging social media (fun reels, not bland posts). Merchandise deferred until achievements. Small pizza/goodies sponsor suggested for initial pull.
- Timeline pressure: start sessions by beginning of next semester, ideally earlier. Vacation timing makes formal induction hard — consider online assessment + offline interviews later, or skip formal induction for open sessions.
F. Other clubs / context
- EP association (dead, 2 meets), Sigma Forum (ex-Karthi/Krishnan Parma sir, one Pi-Day meet, now talent-less), GDSC/CP Hub (declined after Vineet left) discussed as cautionary tales.
G. Additional note — Soumya’s Citadel interview experience (shared separately)
- Soumya reached the HR round of Citadel’s interview; 2 other candidates in that round, both from IITB CSE.
- Citadel scored candidates on an internal metric (“cit-score”): Soumya scored ~800/1000 vs ~845/1000 needed for final offer.
- Rejection reason given by recruiter (on follow-up): communication skills. Further rounds were still pending after the HR round.
- Earlier rounds: reading a research quant paper and discussing it; asked to implement his own model / improvement on top of it during the interview.
3. Decisions
- Operate as club with home-team training culture; confirm via HOD/DSW.
- Adopt three-pillar draft objectives above; refine before inductions.
- Sessions open, core closed. Frequency: bi-weekly / 1–2× per week, 2–3 hrs, collaborative problem-solving.
- Prioritize Madhava + SMMC; no new self-set weekly contests for now.
- Outreach via faculty recs + social media; no merch yet.
- Approach Abhay sir → HOD → DSW before next meet; explore CSC backup.
4. Action Items
- Distribute work beyond current 2–3 leads
- Draft objectives document (v1)
- Meet Abhay sir, then HOD, then DSW on club vs team + room + support
- Explore CSE route + room booking (CSE classrooms)
- Start social media handle with engaging content; assign handler
- Identify small sponsor for pizza/goodies/prize money
- Plan B26 outreach (CSE/EC/MNC)
- Secure regular 2–3×/week room
5. Next Meeting
Tentatively 21 October 2026 (~2 weeks, after Tatva + holidays of 19–20 Oct)