Present: D'Antonio, Roof, Capps, Wallace, Richardson, Pruyser, Maloney, Spilka, Newman, Wuthnow, Hoge, McGuire, Brewer, Knudsen, Hammond, Crumrine, Neal.

1. The meeting called to order at 7:30 by President William V. D'Antonio .

2. Advertising: Harve Horowitz reported on the advertising and exhibits of SSSR/RRA. Publishers are reducing budgets and the task of maintaining revenue from exhibits is increasingly difficult, making author involvement essential. Discussion which followed focused upon means of obtaining member activities in obtaining publisher participation.

3. Minutes: Minutes of 1978 Council Meeting were approved as distributed.

4. Announcements: Persons participating for the last year were recognized: Paul Pruyser, Dean Hoge, Bryan Wilson, Russell Dynes, Dean Knudsen. New members of council were announced: Ben Johnson, President; Sister Marie Augusta Neal, Vice-President; N. Ross Crumrine, Secretary; Ruth Wallace, Treasurer; Meredith McGuire and Earl Brewer, Council-at-Large.

5. Obituaries: Deaths of Allan Eister, Benjamin Nelson, Talcott Parsons and Louis Schneider were noted, and that the 1979 Program had been dedicated to their memory.

6. Executive Secretary: Clark Roof reported that SSSR membership is stable, that the Journal and Monograph series are making progress, and that financial standing of the Society is sound. The 1980 meeting will be in Cincinnati, Ohio, with John Seidler as Program Chairman. Relationships with other societies are improving, though still limited. The arrangement of the separation of executive secretary and business offices has worked well, and prospects for the future of the society are good. Discussion followed concerning membership and program issues.

7. Treasurer's Report: Ruth Wallace reported for Russell Dynes. The fiscal position of SSSR is currently good, and it is anticipated that the 1979-80 year will show a balanced budget.

8. 1979 Program Chair: The program includes 214 participants and 157 presentations. New program feature this year were the three-hour seminars. Costs for developing the program greatly exceeded the estimate, and some policies should be reconsidered in future years. An outside speaker has been obtained for the Saturday Plenary Session, through the discretionary fund created by the Council last year. Discussion of the issue of discretionary funds followed.

9. Journal: During 1978-79, 149 articles have been submitted, with 26 (17%) accepted. The issue of submission fees for nonmembers to eliminate the inappropriate articles was discussed, with final resolution left for later.

10. Book Reviews: Efforts will be made to maintain an 800 word limit in order to increase the number of reviews.

11. Monographs: Approximately 500 copies of Volume 1 have been sold and Volume 2 has been published.

12. Publications Committee: Several recommendations. a. That funds be budgeted to continue monograph series for two years. Moved and seconded that monograph series be continued for 2 years. Passed. b. Moved and seconded that Bill Newman be appointed to serve for 2 more years as Monograph series editor. Passed. c. Proposal that a 20 year index of Journal SSSR be published as part of December 1981 issue of JSSR. Moved and seconded that council authorize a 20 year index in the December 1981 issue of JSSR. Passed. d. Hammond reported that contact had been made with AAR regarding a reciprocal arrangement between SSSR and AAR for journal price reduction and he proposed that SSSR investigate a reduced journal rate for AAR members. Moved that a journal subscription rate be made available to CSR members at a rate of at least 75%: and no more than 90% of the regular subscription rates, the actual rates to be decided after assessing the degree of overlapping memberships of SSSR and CSR by the President, Treasurer, and Executive Secretary of SSSR. Seconded. Passed. e. Recommendation that SSSR Council permit publication of an experimental newsletter to be edited by the Executive Secretary at a cost not to exceed $500 per year. Moved that such a newsletter be initiated. Seconded. Passed. f. Recommendation that up to 24 additional pages in the Journal may be authorized by the Executive Secretary upon request of the SSSR editor. Moved and seconded. Passed.

13. 1980 Program Chair: SSSR Theme: "Religion and Human Rights -Past and Present". Dates: March 1, 1980 submission of papers; June 30,1980 for final preliminary program.

14. Future Meeting Sites: 1980 - Cincinnati, Netherland-Hilton. Discussion followed concerning possible sites. Moved and seconded that 1981 meetings be held in Baltimore, contingent upon adequacy of accommodations for SSSR meeting requirements, with Philadelphia as possible substitute. Passed. Suggestions for later sites include Providence, Philadelphia, or a Conference Center. Clark Roof will perhaps poll membership to ascertain interest in conference center settings as a possibility for the annual meeting.

15. Nominations: D'Antonio will chair the committee for 1980-81 nominations.

16. Affiliations: Don Ploch discussed relationships with AAAS. AAAS will meet January 3-8, 1980 in San Francisco and in 1981 in Toronto. Concerns were expressed about failure of SSSR programs to be included in AAAS. The continued relationship of SSSR and program involvement in AAAS was discussed. Possible involvement in Chautaqua Short Courses of AAAS by SSSR members was suggested.

17. Budget: Moved and seconded that a budget of $67,825 plus $665 for a 10% increase in Executive Secretary, JSSR Editor, and Book Review Editor be approved for 1979-80. Discussion. Motion was amended to add $225 to newsletter budget for a total budget of $68,715. Seconded. Passed.

18. Program for 1981: Issue of honoraria and discretionary funds for program development was discussed. Moved that SSSR allow use of discretionary funds by program chair in consultation with president and executive secretary. Seconded. Passed.

19. Other Business :The possibility of a processing fee for the Journal was discussed, but a final decision was deferred to a later time.

20. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned.