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The following message was sent to the AATG Membership on Sunday, November 23 announcing changes to the AATG/ACTFL Convention.
The Board of Directors at the American Association of Teachers of German would like to inform you of a major change concerning the AATG/ACTFL annual conference for 2025 and 2026.
In May 2024, the board of ACTFL unilaterally implemented significant reductions in convention partnership agreements for the American Association of Teachers of German and its members. This action also affects all other partner organizations of ACTFL, such as AATI and AATJ, with whom we have been in discussions over the past several months. ACTFL did not consult or request input from partner organizations prior to making this decision.
Our analysis of their changes shows an untenable impact on the cost and quality of the convention partnership. AATG sees an overall reduction of German-specific sessions by 60% and convention related costs for the AATG and its members will increase by up to 40%.
Despite AATG's multi-decade relationship with the annual ACTFL convention, and after numerous discussions with ACTFL to try to understand this new strategic direction, we at the AATG no longer believe that the interests of German teachers will be adequately served by the ACTFL convention.
In 2026, ACTFL will no longer permit partner organizations to actively take part in the selection of papers to be presented for the languages they represent, effectively removing our voice as German educators from one of our most important professional development opportunities. The board looked carefully at AATG member feedback about the convention by analyzing concerns expressed by members through several years of convention survey results. The reduced number of German sessions offered at future ACTFL convention will no longer meet the needs of our German educators.
What this means for German Educators:
- Due to the fact that ACTFL is cutting German sessions again in 2025, AATG's presence at the ACTFL convention might be severely restricted. This will affect your ability to have papers accepted at the 2025 ACTFL convention and will affect the number of professional development sessions offered for German.
- AATG members are encouraged to actively consider state, regional conferences, and other professional development opportunities in your 2025 planning. Our new conference travel fund is just one step that we are already taking to increase benefits to German teachers.
- AATG will seek new convention / meeting opportunities to be offered in 2026 that will allow German teachers to have a greater say in how their professional development occurs.
The Board envisions many potential positive changes in organizing our own event starting in 2026! First, our centennial celebration deserves to put German teachers at the center of the planning. Additionally, we see the benefits of lowering costs for participants, adding more workshops, German-specific plenary and keynote speakers, as well as increased access to receptions and events. Most importantly, we will work to accommodate more sessions and can coordinate with regional conferences to increase access to professional development for German educators.
Any questions regarding this matter can be directed to any member of the AATG Board of Directors.
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