American Society of Missiology
Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors
Techny Towers, Techny, Illinois
3:00 p.m., Friday, June 18, 2010
Miriam Adeney, Presiding
Opening: The President, Miriam Adeney, convened the meeting at 3:10 p.m. with prayer.
Calling of the Roll: The Secretary-Treasurer, Arun Jones, called the roll and determined the presence of a quorum, with the following in attendance:
Officers and members of the Board: Miriam Adeney (President), Robert Gallagher (1st Vice-President), Roger Schroeder (2nd Vice President), Arun Jones (Secretary-Treasurer), Janet Carroll, Madge Karecki, Gregory Leffel, Rudi Maier, Robert Priest, Charles Van Engen.
Guests: Gary Simpson (Chair of the Nominating Committee), Phillip Huber (Chair of the Board of Publications), Joshua Lomelino (Anomaly Studios), Bill Burrows (Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee), Darrell Whiteman (ASM Publisher), George Hunsberger (Chair of Secretary-Treasurer Search Committee), Nelson Jennings (Editor of Missiology), Jay Moon (Secretary-Treasurer nominee), Jean-Paul Heldt.
Noting of the Minutes of June 19, 2009: The minutes were distributed and noted, having been approved by Secretary-Treasurer Arun Jones and 2009 President Bill Burrows.
Nominating Committee: Miriam Adeney introduced Gary Simpson, who is chair of the Nominating Committee for 2009-10. He explained the new process for nominating officers this year, which began with an announcement in Missiology, soliciting nominations. This yielded only one nomination. So an e-mail soliciting nominations went out to about 400 people, which yielded about 10 nominations. The Nominating Committee, which consisted of Gary Simpson, Bill Gregory, Scott Hagley and Ben Hartley, selected the following slate: Robert Gallagher, President; Roger Schroeder, First Vice President; Craig Van Gelder, Second Vice-President; Paul Kollman (Roman Catholic), Joon-Sik Park (Conciliar Protestant), Arthur McPhee (Independent) for the Board of Directors; Colleen Mallon (Roman Catholic) and Paul Hertig (Conciliar) for the Board of Publications. The Independent Protestant nominee for the Board of Publications was not selected because of a proposed change, to be introduced by the Strategic Planning Committee, in the structure of the Board of Publications.
Miriam Adeney introduced George Hunsberger, chair of a committee to nominate a new Secretary-Treasurer for the Society. George Hunsberger informed the Board that Arun Jones had tendered his resignation as Secretary-Treasurer effective July 31. Miriam Adeney had appointed former Secretary-Treasurers George Hunsberger, Wilbert Shenk and Darrell Guder as a committee to nominate a successor. The committee drew up a position description, which is attached. W. Jay Moon of Sioux Falls Seminary was asked to be the next Secretary-Treasurer, and has agreed to serve in that capacity. It was noted that in addition to the duties listed in the position description, one of the duties of the Secretary-Treasurer is to hold the institution's memory, as new decisions are made. It was also noted that the secretariat works best when the Secretary-Treasurer has good secretarial help.
The Board agreed that the position description was very helpful, and it was moved and seconded that the description be included in the by-laws. An amendment was offered and seconded that the document be reconciled with the Secretary-Treasurer's position description in the Society's by-laws, and be placed alongside the by-laws. The amended motion carried.
There was a request that the full chart of officers be made available for the upcoming ASM business meeting.
Miriam Adeney appointed Greg Leffel as chair of the nominating committee for next year's officers.
There was a request for an explanation regarding the proposed new structure for the Board of Publications. Bill Burrows presented the proposal from the Strategic Planning Committee. The Committee agreed that the Board of Publications was too large and unwieldy, with several people being nominated for the Board who did not really participate in its activities. Moreover, with a dearth of Roman Catholic members in the Society (about 7% to 10% according to statistics gathered by Arun Jones and Robert Priest), it was getting harder to fill the positions slated for Roman Catholics.
It was moved, seconded, and carried to change the Society's by-laws to read as follows (changes are underlined):
"Article VI - Board of Publications and Standing Committees
Section 1: Board of Publications
The board of publications shall consist of nine (9) members who shall serve a term of three years."
It was agreed that there would be no additions to the Board of Publications this year, in order to help in the transition of the Board from 16 members to 9 members.
It was noted that the Board of Publications can ask persons with special expertise who are not on the Board to assist it in its work.
Treasurer's Report: Arun Jones presented and explained the compilation of the Society's financial transactions. In general, the Society is in financially healthy.
It was moved, seconded and carried to receive the Treasurer's report.
Secretary's Report: Arun Jones reported that he had resigned his position because he was moving to a new teaching job, and new responsibilities made it difficult for him to carry on his work as Secretary-Treasurer.
One of the major tasks of his office over the past year was sending out the membership/constituency questionnaire, and receiving and processing the responses to these questionnaires. A student has been collecting and organizing the responses into an excel spread sheet. There have been some difficulties with this process, but it seems to be working now.
This year there are some new groups meeting in conjunction with the ASM annual meeting. This has been a good experience for all involved. However, the organization of the meetings has become more intricate and complicated. One of the consequences of having more groups meeting at the same time is that the meetings will be more bureaucratized, and less informal.
There have been requests for travel pool money from international members, and at least one member living in Hawaii. Currently the travel pool rules only subsidize travel expenses for members traveling from within the 48 continental states and Canada. The Secretary-Treasurer suggested that instead of a geographic restriction on travel pool funds, there be a maximum monetary subsidy of $400 or $500 for any ASM member, without regard to the place from which he or she travels.
It was moved, seconded and carried that travel pool for members not be restricted to those traveling within the continental U.S. and Canada, but be open to all members; that there be a maximum of $400 disbursed to any one member from the travel pool; and that the total money available for the travel pool be $4000 in any given year.
There was a question whether there was a budget for the Secretary-Treasurer's office and other expenses. Arun Jones replied that there was a budget for the Missiology office, for the annual meeting program, and for special expenditures such as the development of the website, but not for the Secretary-Treasurer's office which spends money on an as-needed basis. Moreover, money can be requested by any ASM member or group during the year and the executive committee can vote electronically to appropriate ASM funds at any time.
Board of Publications Report: Phil Huber reported from the Board of Publications. He reported on new business that came up at the Board of Publications meeting, especially the new website. The report on the website is attached. The new website will make it possible for the journal Missiology to be available online.
He introduced new rates for membership and Missiology subscriptions. It was moved, seconded and carried that the new subscription rates be presented to the Society at its annual business meeting the next day for approval.
The idea of a new electronic journal dealing with mission within the United States was discussed.
Joshua Lomelino, developer of the new website, was introduced. Phil Huber and he demonstrated some features of the new website. Phil Huber asked for $12,400 for Phase II of the website development. It was moved, seconded and carried that up to $15,000 be allocated for Phase II of the website development program.
Membership Survey Report: Robert Priest reported that he was asked to survey the membership to help with strategic planning. He sent out a questionnaire to ASM and EMS (Evangelical Mission Society) members using the Survey Monkey. After dealing with a number of incorrect e-mail addresses, 820 e-mail questionnaires were sent out. He had a 75% response rate. He discussed survey results, which are attached.
Annual Meeting Date and Site (2012, 2013): The dates for upcoming annual meetings were fixed for June 17-19, 2011, June 15 - 17, 2012, and June 21 - 23, 2013. The meetings shall be held at Techny Towers, unless another venue is found in the future.
New Business:
Bill Burrows gave a report on the work of the Strategic Planning Committee. A group of 16 ASM members met Sunday and Monday after the ASM meeting last year, and are meeting for two days before and two days after the annual meeting this year. The Committee was charged to think about future of the Society. 5 task teams were formed after the meeting last year, and they have worked on various issues concerning the future of the Society.
One of the task teams recommends that that the Board of Directors meet more than once a year. Specifically, it was recommended that the Board meet once in between meetings, perhaps using video conferencing (such as Skype), and once after the annual meeting is over. The purpose of these extra meetings is to evaluate the annual meeting, identify strategic issues for the Society, engage in long-term planning for meetings, and make sure that the Board is remaining on task. The ASM does not need to have a sovereign president; themes for the annual meeting can be decided collegially, rather than by the president alone. The parallel sessions which have been introduced in this year's meeting have already opened up membership and participation.
Robert Priest had already reported on his team's work. Darrell Whiteman encouraged the Board to look at topics that are not high on the list of Robert Priest's list of most desirable ASM topics, but may be more attractive to younger people or mission executives, and not simply to mission professors.
The media committee had finished its report with the introduction of the website.
The report of Group #4 is attached. It recommends a 3-year process of discerning the ASM's identity. Discussion followed. It was suggested that perhaps the ASM has become what the APM was supposed to be: an academic society. Perhaps this is why many Roman Catholics do not come, because they are missionaries.
Greg Leffel, who worked in Group #5, noted that we have a dual identity, as a scholarly organization and as a professional organization. Generally, professional organizations credential their members, which ASM does not currently do. Also, people who are doing mission do not necessarily think of themselves as "missiologists." How can we get them into the Society? Moreover, the Society needs to ask how it can relate to other organizations that are missiologically oriented, such as IAMS, EMS, or Bread for the World. How can ASM branch out? The Society needs to think about this, and look at how other organizations do it.
It was suggested that meeting organizers look at the manner of presentation: reading a paper is geared to academics, and is generally not interesting to many people outside the academic world.
Group #4's proposal was presented for approval by Roger Schroeder. The proposal was seconded and carried.
Robert Gallagher, 1st Vice President, commended the Society for new ways of conducting the annual meeting, and for experimenting with new ways to organize itself.
There was a suggestion that the Society purchase liability insurance for the ASM Board of Directors. There was discussion on this suggestion. It was moved, seconded and carried that the Secretary Treasurer purchase liability insurance for the Society's directors.
Adjournment:
Miriam Adeney commented positively on the energy and competence of the people that are moving the Society in a new direction. At 6:07 p.m. it was moved, seconded and carried that the meeting be adjourned.
Respectfully submitted:
Arun W. Jones, Secretary-Treasurer
Authorized for Distribution:
Miriam Adeney, President
Robert Gallagher, 1st Vice President