AMS, NCME to Merge

Details in Hands of Task Force

The boards of the American Montessori (AMS) and the National Center for Montessori Education (NCME) with come together.

The following statement was prepared by the executive directors of the two organizations: Richard Ungerer of AMS and Karen Lecy of NCME.

The AMS and NCME boards have approved combining the two organizations.

A combined organization will strengthen the Montessori teacher education community as we pursue our common commitment to quality, integrity, diversity and inclusiveness.

Combining our organizations will eliminate duplication of efforts being, resulting in a cost savings that can be achieved based on greater efficiencies and economies of scale. These changes will help us to provide our members with a broader array of services.

Each organization has established an Integration Team to work out the details.

AMS: Rich Ungerer, Judi Bauerlein and Amy Henderson

NCME: Karen Lecy, LoAnn Jundt and Muriel Owens.

Some of the areas that the teams are addressing in great detail are: teacher education and certification, school accreditation, databases, conferences, magazines, websites, legal, governance, finance.

The goal is to complete the details and achieve integration of the two organizations by June 30, 2006.