Fall may not be the time of year that the public thinks about as characterized by renewal but for our mathematics education community, fall represents new possibilities. A new academic year begins, with hopes and aspirations for students, teachers, and teacher educators to come together in new and exciting ways around the teaching and learning of mathematics. It’s my hope that the dawn of fall for you represents the culmination of a summer balanced with both learning and renewal. Fall is also an important time for AMTE, as it is the point in our organization’s year when we look to renew our wellspring of service and leadership for our organization. I wanted to take some time in this column to write about those opportunities from a variety of standpoints.

As those of you who have engaged with our organization’s emails have noticed, we are in the process of soliciting interest in a number of positions within the AMTE leadership structure. Since our organizational restructuring in 2017, a number of the positions and roles have changed both in name and function. I wanted to take a moment in this column to describe the opportunities to serve AMTE and increase the transparency as to how individuals come to serve the organization. The table shown below summarizes the roles of those who serve AMTE, how people come to be named to those roles, and when those roles change.

Type of position	How do people become eligible?	What’s the process after nomination?	How often do these positions change?
Committee members	Indicating their interest on the volunteer form	VPs and AVP get recommendations from the committee, look over the volunteer form, and make decisions at the Fall Board retreat in October and approved by the Board	Nearly every committee has two openings per year for a three-year term
Associate Vice Presidents (AVP) committee chairs	Most often, these are people who are currently serving on the committee and understand its work	Committees discuss succession and AVPs and VPs make recommendations, with decisions made at the Fall Board retreat in October and approved by the Board	These positions can change annually, but the same person can be asked to serve multiple terms
Divisional Vice Presidents appointed positions	Open calls for nominations during the summer	A small team (the presidents, executive director, and current VP) interview candidates.  They forward a recommendation for appointment to the Board.	1 or 2 annually for a three-year appointed term
Board Members president, secretary, treasurer, members-at-large	Open calls for nominations during the summer	The Nominations and Elections Committee reviews applications and forwards a slate recommendation (2 people per position) for Board approval. The election is conducted during November.	3 board members annually for a three-year elected term

If you are interested in serving AMTE, we want to hear from you! If you’re new to AMTE service, the volunteer form is an excellent starting point to communicate with us about your interests. (This includes graduate students and other mathematics educators in non-faculty roles.) If you’re interested in AVP, VP, or board positions, I’d encourage you to reach out to myself, Tim, Randy, or the current position holder to talk about the role and responsibilities of the job. We are also always happy to write letters of thanks to those who serve to support the ongoing faculty merit review process at your institution. AMTE is only as strong as those who step up to serve our membership; so, please consider serving on an AMTE committee or as an appointed or elected leader.

I have one last call to service for our membership. Many of you may know that two mathematics education scholars were once again attacked in the press for scholarly work related to race and mathematics education. We stand with Naomi Jessup and Cathery Yeh and recognize that their work and research interests make an important contribution to mathematics teacher education. I stumbled upon this particular incident this summer a few days after it happened, quite by chance in browsing social media. When members of our community are attacked for their legitimate research and interests, AMTE has and will continue to stand with them to defend the importance of their work and their rights as members of our community. My ask to our AMTE membership is this: if you come across such an attack on the work of a mathematics teacher educator online and/or in the press, please reach out to AMTE and bring the situation to our attention. You can email myself (president@amte.net), the board (amteboard@amte.net), or the emerging issues committee (current AVP: Zandra de Araujo) with that information. We stand strongest when we stand together, and we appreciate your vigilance in helping us support all of our AMTE members and the important work that they do.

Yours in service,

Mike