The Religious Research Association

President's Reports

1984

April 5, 1984
October 25 - 28, 1984

President's Report
April 5, 1984


I'm happy to be able to report that the Religious Research Association is in excellent health. We had a fine Annual Meeting in Knoxville and look ahead to this year's meeting with the prospects of an outstanding program and what may be record attendance. The Review continues to be of excellent quality and is "surviving" a smooth transition. I expect that we will hear encouraging reports at this meetings about our financial health.

In the absence of a crisis, as I reported to the full membership a few months ago, the President of the RRA has a relatively easy job. To be sure, problems do arise but they are minor and as a result of the good work of our officers and business manager are more than manageable.

I am very enthusiastic about the program for the Fall meeting. Mike Welch and Dean Hoge have established a good working relationship and the plenary speakers promise to be unusually provocative and controversial. I especially look forward to two special features of this meeting: a proposed Thursday session on the use of census data by religious groups coordinated by Ken Weissman of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Saturday morning's poster session and "fair" designed to give practitioners a chance to share their work with colleagues.

Over the years I have become convinced that "good times" give us a unique opportunity to reflect on where we have been and where we are going as researchers. I tried to encourage that sort of reflection in my recent President's letter and hope we might have time at our meeting to think together about the direction of religious research and the RRA's role in it.

William McKinney



President's Report
October 25-28, 1984

In the past year I have come to appreciate the wisdom of the RRA Board when it extended the term of the president from one to two years. One year is not enough time to help lead a volunteer-based organization like this one in new directions. I'm happy to be the last of the one-year presidents of the Religious Association!

The past year has been a good one. You will hear details in other reports, but I would call particular attention to the Association's very positive financial health. It is not many years ago that we lacked the funds to pay our printing bills and today we have reserves adequate to cover a year's operations. Getting to this point has not been easy: dues have risen and we may well be asking too much of our officers and business manager. Nonetheless, we have a freedom to look at new directions that we lacked in our leaner days.

I'm encouraged by the positive relations we have achieved with our "sister" societies, the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Our three organizations have a great deal in common in terms of subject matter and membership. At the same time, we have distinctive purposes. There is room for three independent societies! There is also room for further sharing. Already, the three societies share the business office at Storrs, Connecticut and we hold our annual meeting together with SSSR. Recently we have begun conversations about other kinds of cooperation that can result in savings and greater efficiencies for all three groups.

A year ago I mentioned that one of my goals for the year would be to have the Board of Directors and the members think together about the shape and direction of the religious research enterprise. In my President's Letter last winter I tried to address some of the substantive issues facing religious organizations in the U.S. The response from Board members and others who received the letter was encouraging, as was a brief discussion of these issues in our meeting this spring in Washington. To continue this discussion and to take it one step forward, Dean Yoshio Fukuyama of Chicago Theological Seminary will be meeting with the Board during this meeting to talk about his review of the state of religious research in denominations and in ecumenical agencies. If I have one word of encouragement to the continuing and new officers it is to encourage consideration not only of the business of the RRA but also the substance of our common work.

This is a good time to express appreciation to the many persons who serve the Religious Research Association in so many ways. Thanks go to many people, but I single out Lorraine D' Antonio, our business manager, and Everett Perry, our outgoing treasurer, who together are in many ways responsible for our current financial health. I want to say a special word of thanks to Everett, who has for many years been one of the mainstays of this organization. I hope I speak for all the members of the Association in wishing Everett and Margaret Perry a healthy and productive retirement.

William McKinney
President