Those poor, deprived souls who have never attended any mathscamps will most probably be unable to understand most of what is on these pages. These people, upon hearing about these "mathscamps", will no doubt conjure up some image of hordes of nerds attending tediously monotonous classes and studying continuously during what spare hours they have. The satisfaction and fulfilment derived from the very creative process of discovering elegant proofs would be a completely alien concept to them; as would the appreciation for the beauty of many aspects of mathematics. Our very idiosyncratic conversations, hopelessly confusing riddles and exhiliratingly complex games would be far beyond them. They would probably sneer in derision upon hearing our various maths jokes, never comprehending that we laughed at them not because of any pathetic humour they had, but because of the utter ridiculous of playing up to the geeky stereotype, which we were all too conscious of surrounding us "mathscampers". So I hope it is clear to you why I must now warn you that if, indeed, you are one of these deprived people, this section of my homepage is perhaps not the place for you.
However, for those of you who have shared in the ebullient experience, I welcome you! I'm sure you have as many fond memories of the camps as I do. However, memories have an annoying tendency to fade away, and so I created these pages as a lasting record of everything we loved (and hated) about the mathscamps. But such a task is too huge for me to tackle on my own, and thus I must request your assistance.
All I ask is that you all help in contributing to this database. Take a few minutes (or hours!) to think back on the good old days, and send in your memories. And whenever you happen to recall an incident from a mathscamp, make a note of it and send it in next time you're online. If you have a large number of memories to contribute, then you can do so via e-mail to me at ghan@health.on.net; alternatively you can use the handy form provided at the bottom of this page and every mathscamp page. I will be very much grateful for anything at all you send in.
As I have only just begun to construct these pages, many of the pages are empty and most of the others are close to it. YOU can help rectify this situation! Send in your memories now!
