This communication with other academy alumni and faculty has contributed almost monthly to my efforts as a classroom teacher in high school mathematics. Our academy participants have little in common. The faculty must acknowledge that it is a mixed adult audience who share only a dedication to teaching and a reasonable level of intelligence. Not an easy task, and even then we have had two who could not deal effectively with this audience. Nobody is going to get tenured or promoted or a raise because they put effort into a project like this one.
Professors can afford little distraction from their mainline research and teaching activities.
Then we explore what sort of activity they might contribute that would fit with the rest of the program and would fit in the amount of time they feel they can allot. The emphasis is on finding the right folks and making it possible for them to participate.