PRESENT: Bibby, Capps, D'Antonio, Davidson, Gaede, Hadden, Hammond, McGuire, Mauss, Nelsen, Poloma, Robertson, Roozen, Shupe, Tipton, Umansky, Wuthnow

1. CALL TO ORDER. President Hammond called the council meeting to order at 7:30 p.m., October 29.

2. REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE. Nominating committee chair Jeffrey Hadden reported the election of Donald Capps as president-elect. Daniel Batson and Mary Jo Meadow were recently elected to council. Hadden noted the committee's attempt to select nominees that reflect the interdisciplinary nature of SSSR.

3. WELCOME TO NEW COUNCIL MEMBERS. Anson Shupe and Steven Tipton were welcomed as members of the Class of 1989. A welcome was also extended to those just elected who begin their terms in 1988 and who are members of the Class of 1990.

4. MINUTES. Mauss moved the acceptance of the Minutes of the 1986 Board Meeting. Reginald Bibby noted that he was present for the meetings but his name was not listed. Minutes were seconded and approved.

5. EXECUTIVE SECRETARY'S REPORT. Hart Nelsen reported that 240 persons pre-registered for this year's meeting in Louisville.

The 1988 meetings will be held in Chicago at the Bismarck, October 28-30, with Madeleine Adriance as Program Chair. The 1989 meeting is scheduled at the Marriott in Salt Lake City, October 27-29.

Ellen Umansky was commended for the fine job she did in organizing a stimulating program for this year. One hitch noted was the high cost of the pre-program (a cost overrun of nearly $2000) due to the copy-service's failure to use the cheapest reproduction methods.

Don Capps' and Bob Wuthnow's terms as editor and book review editor, respectively, end with the publication of the last issue of the JSSR in 1988. Announcements calling for new editors appeared in the JSSR and the Newsletter produced candidates. Selection will be made at this business meeting.

The transition of the editor of the monograph series from Jim Wood to Stan Gaede went smoothly. This year saw the publication of Stuart W. Wright's Leaving Cults: The Dynamics of Defection, the focus of one of the "Author Meets Critics" sessions at this meeting.

Although we had adopted a budget with a small deficit, Nelsen concluded that we operated this year with $900 or $1,000 surplus. This assumed the expenditure of $8,000 for the research grants and $5,000 for the Gallup project. The budget to be introduced later in the meeting will call for some small increases in various categories, including an increase in salary and benefits for our business manager.

The budget for 1986-87 included monies for SSSR representatives to travel to Princeton for consultation for the Gallup Project. Two representatives were named--Wade Clark Roof and K. Jill Kiecolt (the latter has a book on secondary analysis, published by Sage). These two persons or others in the Society can apply for as much as $3500 to include extra questions in the Gallup survey.

Nelsen reported a continued increase in SSSR membership. At the end of 1987 we had 1512 members, compared to 1475 at the end of 1986, 1398 in 1985, 1397 in 1984, 1321 in 1983, and 1277 in 1982. Nelsen emphasized the necessity of continued solicitation of new members, a task requiring much hard work that is best engaged in by the executive secretary's office. There is a normal turnover of membership each year of about 15%.

Nelsen reported his pleasure in serving as Executive Secretary for the past four years, but that he would be replaced at this meeting of Council. His words of advice include (1) careful attention being given to membership figures; (2) maintaining a balanced budget; (3) keeping travel subvention costs down for Council members and officers attending the annual meeting; (4) exploring with the Lilly Endowment whether there is a non-profit professional service for managing our stocks and bonds (to remove the daily management of this from the executive secretary); (5) with an eye to keeping a balanced budget; (6) with the change of JSSR editorship soliciting bids from Mennonite Press as well as the current publisher; and (7) using well the members of Council, especially those who are not sociologists, in membership solicitation.

Nelsen expressed his thanks for having had the opportunity to serve the Society, to Clark Roof for his help and encouragement as the previous executive secretary, and to Lorraine D'Antonio for her help and dedication to the Society.

6. PASSING OF PAUL PRUYSER. A past SSSR President, Paul Pruyser, Henry March Pfeiffer Professor of Research and Education in Psychiatry Emeritus at the Menninger Foundation died April 9, 1987 in Topeka. President Hammond acknowledged his passing by circulating an obituary as a commemoration.

7. LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS. Larry McSwain was unable to be present at the Council meeting. A motion was made by Nelsen and seconded thanking McSwain for the excellent job he did as local arrangements chair.

8. PROGRAM CHAIR. Ellen Umansky noted her attempt to provide interdisciplinary sessions. To minimize the number of sessions lacking a specific focus, latecomers requesting a spot on the program were included only if their proposal fit into the developing program. All attempts were made to include proposals submitted by the deadline date.

9. NEW EXECUTIVE SECRETARY. James Davidson was nominated to replace Hart Nelsen as Executive Secretary of the Society for a term beginning in January, 1988. Davidson was unanimously elected.

10. PUBLICITY AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PRESS. Roozen reported that after exceptional press coverage of the meetings in Washington (due to the Roman Catholic Bishops' meeting there the week before), press attendance at the Louisville meetings will be more typical.

At the request of President Hammond, Roozen put together a brief report about past efforts to relate to the press and what new efforts might be called for. Roozen suggested that members should be educated to promote their own works. A suggestion was made to send the JSSR to select reporters free of charge (although comments were made about both cost and actual interest of reporters in untranslated articles). Hammond suggested and Capps concurred that the promotion of journal articles may be selectively undertaken by the JSSR editor. Some discussion was held as to how interested members actually are in such promotion of their work.

11. SELECTION OF NEW JSSR EDITOR. Three excellent candidates emerged as potential JSSR editors: Mike Walsh (Notre Dame), Larry Ingram (University of Tennessee, Martin), and Armand Mauss (Washington State). The Committee unanimously recommended to Council that Armand Mauss be appointed as the new editor to replace Donald Capps.

During discussion of the motion to appoint Mauss as JSSR editor, it was suggested that a non-sociologist be selected to serve as book review editor to work with sociologist Mauss. Mauss was unanimously elected as the new JSSR editor.

Mauss, who will begin his term as editor in summer, 1988, noted that Washington State University has a prominent publicity department which he will use to promote select JSSR articles.

12. PRE-REGISTRATION. Lorraine D'Antonio reported 240 persons had pre-registered for the meetings, with 7 countries being represented. McGuire noted the work that had been done by herself and others to promote the meetings at CISR.

13. HONORS AND AWARDS. Hammond announced that the book award, outstanding student paper award, and new fellows would be announced at the SSSR Presidential Address and Awards session on Saturday evening.

The Book Award

Outstanding Student Paper

New Fellows

14. RESEARCH AWARDS. McGuire reported that the Committee had received 14 proposals, of which 1 was seriously incomplete and thus not considered. Of the 13 considered, 7 were from "junior" researchers. A total of seven applicants were funded in amounts ranging from $500 to $1500.

Awards went to. Robin D. Perrin (Washington State University) "Recruitment, Conversion and Commitment to Conservative Denominations" ($1500); Eileen Barker (London School of Economics) "Cultural Identity in Diaspora: The Armenians" ($1500); Merrill Singer (Hispanic Health Council) "Faith Healing in the Puerto Rican Community: A Study of the Client in Expiritism: ($1500); Nils Holm (Religionshistoriska Institutionen-Finland) "Longitudinal Study in Religious Development Psychology" ($1500); Shannon K. Andrews (University of Pittsburgh) "Bob Mozerl v. Hawkins County Public Schools: Congregational Response from Church Hill Protestant Fundamentalists" ($1000); Georgiana Flight (University of California-Santa Barbara) "Towards Understanding the Religious and Moral World of the Female Inmate" ($500); and Janet Jacobs (University of Colorado) "A Study of Sex Differences in Religious Beliefs and Spiritual Orientation" ($500).

There was some discussion of the fact that award recipients may be receiving funding from other sources, including RRA. It was agreed that the application should include a request for information about other funding received.

Awards now specify that all monies received must be used within three years. A letter will be sent to those early recipients who have not yet used their money despite the passage of three years time.

McGuire also noted that graduate students may not have out-of-pocket funds to disperse in advance. In such cases and with a detailed statement of the advance need for the funds, official cost estimate, etc., some payment of the award money may be made in advance of the actual expenditure.

15. 1988 PROGRAM CHAIR. McGuire reported the theme for next year's conference as "Religion and Social Conflict." The Program Chair will be Madeleine Adriance (Mount Ida College). There will be a continued attempt to attract international scholars as well as political scientists and anthropologists from the Chicago area.

16. MONOGRAPH SERIES. Stan Gaede reported on his efforts as the first full year of his term drew to a close. Stuart Wright's Leaving Cults, the series' seventh monograph has been recently released and is a subject of an "Authors Meet Critics" session at the meetings. For the first time a copy editor was used, with satisfactory results.

The discouraging news is that no monographs have been submitted within the past six months, with no works in the pipeline. In response to a call for suggestions, Mauss urged the placing of a notice to advisors in the next issue of the Newsletter, asking them to encourage the reworking of good doctoral dissertations for submission.

The discussion then turned to how well the Society promotes the monographs it has already published. Hammond suggested that Nelsen, Gaede, and Davidson come up with a plan to promote the monograph series.

17. JSSR EDITOR REPORT. Capps reported the receipt of 146 manuscripts between September 1, 1986 and October 15, 1987. As of this time, he has room for approximately 3 more articles in the December 1988 issue. After these have been accepted, he will send any clearly acceptable manuscripts to the new editor for his decision, with the authors free to withdraw their submission if they wish.

Book review editor Wuthnow suggested this was an appropriate time to review the policies in practice under his editorship (ones that were largely unchanged from those of his predecessor), General satisfaction was expressed with Wuthnow's handling of reviews.

18. TAX DEDUCTIONS BY AUTHORS. Tom Robbins alerted Hart Nelsen to the problem now impinging upon authors who take a tax deduction for out-of-pocket research and manuscript preparation expenses. Robbins' (letter requesting that information on the issue be put in the Newsletter and a resolution be passed by Council communicating to the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committee to express SSSR concern) was moved by Hammond, seconded by Hadden, and passed by Council.

19. AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF. Eileen Barker, Newton Malony, Dick Anthony, Jim Richardson, and Bill D'Antonio were present to speak on behalf of the Amicus Curiae brief in the appeal of George v. ISKCON, a draft of which had been submitted to Council. A straw vote revealed general support for the nature of the brief (10 for; 1 against; 1 abstention) but discussion revealed concern over wording and mechanism of control to oversee final draft. Discussion on the brief was to resume the next morning.

The meeting broke off at 11 p.m., October 29, and resumed the next morning, October 30, at 8:30 a.m.

PRESENT. Anthony, Barker, Bibby, Capps, Davidson, Gaede, Hadden, Hammond, McGuire, Malony, Mauss, Nelsen, Poloma, Richardson, Robertson, Roof, Shupe, Tipton, Umansky.

The discussion of the brief seemed centered on the research methodology of Dr. Margaret Singer, the scientific nature of which, it was concurred, is subject to serious doubt. The issue of Council concern and possible action is the admissibility of Singer-type evidence in a court of law.

A resolution was passed naming a three-person subcommittee of past presidents Hammond and Hadden together with Robertson to review the final draft of the brief. making it clear that the reason for an SSSR sponsorship was the nature of scholarly or scientific research, Council agreed to sponsor a revised version of the brief to be approved by the committee.

It was also resolved that a lawyer to be selected by the committee be consulted, with an upper limit of $1000 as a review fee.

The resolution calling for Council support of the brief, the appointment of a committee, and legal consultation passed unanimously.

20. FUTURE MEETING SITES. Nelsen provided information on several future meeting sites, including Virginia Beach, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Cincinnati. Virginia Beach was unanimously selected as the 1990 site, with Cincinnati as a backup choice.

21. CHINA TOUR. Clark Roof reported on the trip he is coordinating with William Powell (UCSB) to China. It was moved and seconded that the SSSR join RRA in sponsoring this educational tour, with the understanding that no financial liability is involved. Sponsorship of the tour and the printing of a flyer to be included in the next Newsletter was unanimously approved.

22. GALLUP OMNIBUS RELIGION SURVEY. Nelsen reported the selection of Kiekolt and Roof as SSSR representatives for the survey. They will be joined by SSSR members Wuthnow and Hadaway and RRA representatives Gorsuch and Poloma in a meeting to be held in Princeton in mid-December.

Monies have been budgeted for next year to buy additional questions ($3500) and for travel for SSSR representatives ($1500). It was suggested that Kiecolt rotate off as representative next year, leaving Roof to be joined by a new person still to be selected. Names of persons interested in the project will be secured at the round table to be held on the Survey at this meeting.

23. TREASURER'S REPORT. Despite the recent decline in the value of stocks, Mauss reported the Society to be in excellent financial condition. Some discussion was held about whether the SSSR should get out of stocks. Hadden moved, with Shupe seconding, that the SSSR liquidate all of its stocks within the next six weeks. The discussion of the motion seemed to indicate a feeling that there should be a review of the holdings by a committee with a greater concern for safety.

Mauss introduced a substitute motion, with Bibby seconding it, calling for a subcommittee to be appointed by the Executive Secretary to carefully review the SSSR investment package. The motion was passed, with 7 supporting and 3 negative votes. Hadden asked to be named as one of the negative votes.

The 1987-88 budget was presented as a balanced one. It was moved and seconded that the budget be approved with two changes. Given the poor quality of the abstracts, the $1500 it costs to print them does not seem to be a good use of money. Meeting abstracts will be discontinued, reducing this net expenditure of $900 ($1500 printing costs, offset by $600 from library purchase of abstracts). The second change is to add $1000 legal fee for reviewing the brief approved by Council earlier. The motion carried, with Shupe voting against it.

24. ADJOURNMENT. The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 on October 30.

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret M. Poloma

Secretary