 As a member of ATM, you gain access to a wealth of support, information and ideas. There are many reasons to join ATM, and here are just a few. What I've gained from my ATM membership is a way of life really, a professional way of life. I think the most useful resource are the other members of the association. The ATM membership has brought me a community of colleagues who have a similar passion for mathematics. I gain a sense of community, a sense of being with like-minded people who are interested in the same subject. Just acknowledging that you need support and you need a network and you need connections and ATM is an absolutely fantastic way of achieving that. You can feel very isolated in schools with the views you hold on how children learn mathematics and it's lovely to be part of a community. Access to lots of really good resources, publications. The most useful membership resource is probably access to the journals on the website. There's lots of resources available and if you search around for different topics there's always new lesson ideas. And I've been on a wonderful conference every year and always come back feeling really inspired with lots of things to do in the classroom. And you care about being a professional teacher of mathematics then you need to be part of a community that values that too and is absolutely passionate about everyone having a great experience of learning mathematics. It's really important, particularly in teaching, to know that you're not alone. There are people out there who share the same views about mathematics as you do and they might not be in your school or your department but to know that you've got opportunities to meet up with them and talk to them is at your local branch meetings and at conference. It can be a real lifesaver I think and reinvigorate you as a teacher. My favourite maths joke, there are three kinds of people in the world those who can count and those who can't. First of all there's the shepherd who's sent out his dog to bring in his 37 sheep and when the dog came back the shepherd said how many sheep were there and he said 40. He said there should be 37, the dog said no I rounded them up. Bw, bw!