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The Past, Present,
and Future of Association of Mathematics Teachers of New Jersey (AMTNJ)
By Willard H.
Blaskopf, Jr.
Last
year, I gave my wife Fran a necklace with three very
small diamonds and she asked me if I knew what they meant. I
said no, after which she told me that they stood for The Past, The
Present, and The Future. Now, as I become President of AMTNJ, I can
think of nothing more appropriate than to have us reflect on our Past,
Present, and Future as an organization.
The Past
In
the Past, AMTNJ has had many good people. They worked hard for the
organization and they worked together. They communicated and talked
with each other. They saw AMTNJ as more of a family than an
organization and everyone worked for the betterment of AMTNJ and teacher
education within the state. They helped each other grow as teachers, by
running workshops and conferences.
The Present
In
very recent years, there have been disagreements amongst the leaders of
AMTNJ. People have allowed differences in opinion and ideas to
partially fracture us. Personality conflicts have eroded our
cohesiveness. I do believe that much of this conflict has been caused
by leaders who only wanted the best for AMTNJ. They worked hard for
AMTNJ and wanted us to be better. But, because of these conflicts,
several important people have decided to stop volunteering and
contributing to AMTNJ. These people will be missed and must be
replaced.
We
need to return to our past attitudes. We need to work together, we need
to support each other, and we need to help mathematics education within
New Jersey grow. We need to put aside egos and simple differences on
opinions.
The
current Leadership Ladder has agreed to work together. Towards that
end, we have already met several times, and discussed the changes and
concerns that we have about the future.
The Future
We
need to strengthen our financial situation. We will be hosting a NCTM
Regional in October 2006 in Atlantic City. This hosting of a regional
is a feather in the cap of AMTNJ as it shows us as a leader in
mathematics education within the United States and particularly the
Northeast. In hosting a NCTM regional we do not receive all the monies,
which we would normally receive from our own Two-Day Conventions. This
directly impacts our ability to run certain programs over the ensuing
year(s). Also, because we cannot require AMTNJ membership to attend a
regional, our membership ranks always suffer.
The
Leadership Ladder and the Executive Council will be addressing these
concerns over our upcoming meetings. We will be looking for ways to
maintain membership and build up a financial buffer in order to
withstand the projected lows. I believe that these goals can indeed be
accomplished while still providing quality workshops and conferences. I
would encourage everyone to share any ideas they might have with any
member of our Executive Council.
As
President, I look forward to these challenges and know with the support
of the Leadership Ladder, the Executive Council, and the many volunteers
who feel that AMTNJ is where they want to spend their energies that we
can be a healthy thriving organization for years to come.
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