What should the mission of the DMAPT be?

Near the end of the summer some of the current and past officers of the DMAPT met to lay out plans for the coming school year. One of the questions that came up was what is the role of the DMAPT? Why do we exist as an organization?

Jim DeHaan, our current treasurer, asked me to add a couple of related questions to ponder. He asked me to forward them on to the group so that people could think about this before our first meeting (date not set yet):
______________________
After hearing recent stories from elementary school teachers of frustration with curriculum and isolation in the teaching community, even in their own school, I have two questions.

1. The DMAPT is to high school physics instruction as _____________ is to elementary education.
2. We always say that there is a known disconnect between high school teachers and elementary and middle school teachers. What is the DMAPT’s roll in bridging the gap?

Thanks for your time,

Jim