The Asociación Mexicana de Maestros de Inglés, MEXTESOL, has been involved in multiple projects during the last several months and has expanded its outreach efforts significantly. We have accepted invitations to participate in the projects of other organizations, which are good opportunities for MEXTESOL and therefore good opportunities to help improve English language teaching and learning in Mexico, our mission.

There has been a concerted multisector initiative of different stakeholders in Mexican society to meet and promote a national plan for English in Mexico, which will be presented to the President of Mexico this spring. This plan, or movement, is called the Inglés para la Competitividad y la Movilidad Social [English for Competitiveness and Social Mobility]. Businesses, private and public universities, the educational branches of the Embassies of English speaking countries, not-for-profit foundations, and civil associations like MEXTESOL have joined in the effort to present a position paper to the Mexican government. On 21 November 2014, this initiative held an open Foro Internacional in Mexico City, in which TESOL International’s Executive Director Rosa Aronson gave an inspiring presentation on the role of teachers’ associations in teachers’ professional development programs.

MEXTESOL appears to be getting stronger than ever, at least as far as attendance at our annual convention is concerned. This year in Puebla, Puebla in October, we had hoped and prepared for up to 3,000 attendees, but were overwhelmed by a few hundred extra on-site registrations. We like to think that this speaks well of what we have to offer: a solid, jam-packed, stellar academic program from which attendees can pick and choose sessions given by veteran and novice presenters in a wide variety of academic presentation types; and an attractive exhibition area and a varied offering of presentations by our commercial partners and by the special services providers of like-missioned organizations. But quantity does not necessarily imply quality, and although we are not perfect and can’t please everyone all of the time, the results of our overall convention evaluations and of the individual academic session evaluations are encouraging and valuable feedback we try to incorporate into our following convention academic program and services.

At this 41st annual convention in 2014, special recognition was given to Professor Bertha Gomez Maqueo, a founding member of MEXTESOL and dedicated educator who had just passed away a few weeks before her 100th birthday. The convention was dedicated to her, and a special tribute to her was held during the opening ceremony, including a message sent by TESOL International. Also recognized for their outstanding contribution to MEXTESOL conventions’ academic programs of the last 13 years were Dr. Connie Rae Johnson of the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla and Dr. Louisa Greathouse Amador of the Benemerita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP). Both have now retired from the academic committee of MEXTESOL. The new academic team will be headed by Araceli Salas, also from the BUAP. To see some snippets of our 41st convention, you can check out a video of the event on our website.

As new beginnings for the New Year and as part of our schedule of exciting activities, MEXTESOL is gearing up for our 42nd annual convention in Cancun, Mexico, 5–8 November 2015. The deadline for academic proposals is 15 May 2015, and the Call for Participation is available on our website. The theme of the convention is “Building the Future Today: English Language Teaching and Learning Breakthroughs.” We are particularly excited about this year’s convention because it will immediately follow and be an academic extension of the TESOL International Symposium “Innovations and Breakthroughs in English Language Teaching,” which will be held on Wednesday, 4 November 2015, at the Cancun Convention Center. This is only the second time in the 49-year history of TESOL and the 42-year history of MEXTESOL that a TESOL event has been held in Mexico. The first event was TESOL’s 12th international convention back in 1978. Indeed, Professor Bertha Gomez Maqueo was a local co-chair of that event, and president of MEXTESOL at that time.

The success of our participation in the now discontinued series of Franklin SpellEvents (2009–2012) in partnership with TESOL International has motivated us to reactivate MEXTESOL’s commitment to a national spelling bee, and, although we anticipate small beginnings, we hope interest and participation in this MEXTESOL National Spelling Bee will grow from its debut competition in April 2015. This spelling bee for primary and secondary EFL students is being organized in partnership with Merriam-Webster, and we will report on the results in the next issue of the TESOL Affiliate News.

Last, but not least, MEXTESOL was pleased to once again be a part of the Central American and Caribbean Basin (CA&CB) TESOL Affiliate Regional conference held in Panama City, 20–21 September 2014, in conjunction with Panama TESOL’s annual convention. Panama TESOL was a great host, and it was gratifying to see that representatives from 12 countries from the region were able to attend the event through generous sponsorship of the U.S. RELO Office for Mexico and Central America in Mexico City. It was an enlightening conference, and it was rewarding to have the opportunity to be with our regional colleagues to share our teaching concerns and experiences. We are already looking forward to the 13th CA&CB conference, which will be hosted by NicaTESOL in Managua, Nicaragua in 2016.

Ulrich (Uli) Schrader is the MEXTESOL-TESOL liaison.