.

Present: Hans Baer, Eileen Barker, C. Daniel Batson, David Bromley, Donald Capps, James D. Davidson, Stan Gaede, Janet Jacobs, Armand Mauss, Meredith McGuire, Romney Moseley, Thomas Robbins, Richard Schoenherr, William Silverman, Ellen Umansky, and Stuart Wright.

CALL TO ORDER: President Donald Capps called the meeting to order at 8:15 a.m., November 8, 1990 at the Virginia Beach Resort and Conference Center. The agenda which was circulated before the meeting was approved. The minutes of the October 29, 1989 Council meeting were approved as circulated. (One typographical error on page two of the minutes should be corrected: the third line from the bottom of the page should read "to be different with" not "to be different will".) President Capps welcomed new and old members, of the Council.

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY - INFORMATION AND EVALUATION ITEMS: Executive Secretary Davidson distributed a five page written report to the Council. Highlights of this report were discussed. The Society continues to be in very good shape. After the year's membership drives we now have 1610 members and 123 library subscribers. This is about the same as the 1616 members and 1231 subscribers we had at this time in 1989.

Grateful thanks were offered to people who are completing terms of office: Peter Benson and Dan Batson, Council members; Janet Jacobs, 1990 program chair; and Stan Gaede' editor of the monograph series. The new monograph series editor is Katherine Meyer (Ohio State). The 1991 program chair will be Bradley Hertel (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). Thanks also to Virginia Wesleyan College for providing van service between the airport and the hotel. Thanks to Regent University for providing box lunches to people on the tour to the 700 Club.

Several innovations have been introduced at this year's meeting. A room has been set aside as "A gathering place" where Thursday arrivals may meet each other from 8:00 to 12:00 p.m. 330 people preregistered for the meeting. 35 or 36 people signed up for a bus tour to Colonial Williamsburg on Thursday morning. When people cancel their reservations at the last minute the Society may not refund their money if it cannot get people to replace them on the bus or if it cannot get refunds from the bus company.

BOOK EXHIBIT: This year, for the first time, an award will be presented to the publisher who has been most supportive of our book display. Our goal in doing this is to make the book exhibit more attractive to publishers. Three members of the Council (Hans Baer ,Romney Moseley, and Ellen Umansky) volunteered to help Harve Horowitz select the most supportive publisher.

SOCIETY FOR THE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF MORMON LIFE: The SSSML is interested in exploring a long term relationship with the SSSR under which it would meet annually at our annual meeting. The relationship would be comparable to our current relationship with the RRA. A motion was made and approved to authorize Davidson to explore an on-going relationship with the SSSML and to invite them to join us at our annual meeting.

Schoenherr suggested that we explore the possibility of the Association for the Sociology of Religion meeting jointly with the SSSR. But McGuire noted that they have decided to remain separate. Barker proposed that some mechanism be arranged through which international members could join SSSR and ASR at one time through some central clearinghouse.

HOTEL ARRANGEMENTS IN 1990: A month ago Davidson found out that the hotel had overbooked meeting rooms. After vigorous complaints they acknowledged their error and restored meeting rooms to our use. The hotel will provide van service to the airport if four or more people will go at the same time Cost will be five dollars per person. We have filled up the block of sleeping rooms which were reserved for our use at the Resort and Conference Center. The block was about 245 rooms.

Some people who were unable to get rooms in the convention hotel will be placed in other hotels nearby: the Ramada and the Econo Lodge. Shuttle service will be provided between the convention hotel and these places. Some people have been asked to leave their rooms at the convention hotel for alternative housing on Saturday night. Robbins suggests that in the future the Society should favor convention sites in downtown areas where there are hotels nearby which are able to accommodate reservation overflows. He thinks that it is preferable for overflow hotels to be located within easy walking distance of the convention hotel without the need for a bus ride.

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY -- ACTION ITEMS.

STUDENT PAPERS: This year a small number of papers were submitted to the student paper award competition. Davidson proposes that additional publicity be given to the availability of student paper awards. A motion was made and passed to authorize Davidson to prepare a one page announcement about the student paper award and send it to every new student member at the time they join the Society.

Umansky suggested that this announcement should list some past recipients and the titles of their papers. McGuire suggested that the student paper competition should be mentioned in the call for papers. Bromley suggested that the competition could be mentioned In ASA Footnotes and in a please post" announcement sent to SSSR members.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM: There are several ways that computerized preparation, printing, and mailing of the preliminary program could be simplified and made more efficient. A motion was made and passed to authorize the executive secretary to explore these possibilities and make changes in program preparation for the 1991 meeting.

SITE SELECTION FOR 1993: Four locations in the Southeast we reexamined: Orlando, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Hilton Head Island. Orlando was rejected because no suitable hotel was found there. The Council viewed videos which touted the virtues of Raleigh, Hilton Head, and Charlotte.

Davidson asked that the Council improve his bargaining position with hotels by providing him with a ranked list of cities in order of preference. Instead of the previous procedure which required him to negotiate with hotels in only one city. After discussion of the alternatives the Council selected Raleigh as its first choice for a 1993 convention site, Charlotte as its second choice, and Hilton Head as its third choice.

SITE SELECTION FOR 1994: After considerable discussion the Council voted to have the executive secretary explore meeting sites in the Southwest and Midsection regions of the country. This includes, but is not limited to: Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Denver Colorado Springs, Tulsa, Minneapolis, Kansas City St. Louis, New Orleans, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio.

Mauss suggested that cities in the southern part of these regions be given preference in the ranking system for potential convention sites. In order to avoid places with cold or snowy weather in November or late October .

MAILINGS TO INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS: There are about 100 to 150 members who do not live in the United States, Canada, or Mexico. When preliminary programs, newsletters, election mailings, and special mailings are sent to them via bulk mail the mailings may arrive too late to be useful. Davidson invited the Council to think about ways to improve service to international members.

A motion was made and passed that membership mailings where timeliness is important shall be sent by air mail to international members during the next fiscal year. Davidson is asked to provide the Council with a report on the cost of this policy at the 1991 meeting.

Interpretations of the motion: This motion does not include sending the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion via air mail. No assessment of additional postage fees will be imposed on international members. The Council wishes to endorse the principle that it is important to provide good service to international members.

FINANCIAL PROBLEMS OF FOREIGN SCHOLARS: The Society has received a number of requests from foreign scholars who would like to join the Society but say, they can not afford it or that they have a hard time paying dues because of exchange rates and bank policies. An ad hoc committee was established to explore these matters and report to the Council next year on actions that could be taken. Committee members are Barker, Schoenherr, and Silverman.

During the Council's discussions of this issue several points were made which the ad hoc committee should consider: Do we want to establish a new membership category? Do we have the financial ability to provide subsidized memberships to certain categories of people? Is it possible to negotiate with banks in Indiana or Chicago for the processing of remittances of convertable currency sent by foreign members? Is it possible to negotiate with banks for the processing of remittances sent by foreigners in semi-convertable currencies from Asia, Africa, or Eastern Europe? Is it possible to arrange joint memberships with the SSSR and the ISR? With the SSSR and the ASR? Would it be useful to have correspondent members in Africa or elsewhere?

The larger issue which the committee should consider is international membership recruitment. The Society should facilitate international exchanges of information. Bromley noted that the resurgence of religion in Eastern Europe is producing a wave of new research on religion which is of interest to our members. Schoenherr urged that we should be a part of the increased international interest in religion.

SMOKING AT THE ANNUAL MEETING: Several members have complained about smoking in hallways between sessions. We can not police this activity; but we can state a recommendation. A motion was made and passed to ask people not to smoke in hallways as well as not smoking in sessions at the annual meeting. This policy will be brought to the attention of meeting attendees next year.

NEW APPROACHES TO MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGNS: Members will be invited to send in names of potential members. When a nominee joins, the name of the nominator will be recorded. At the annual meeting one name of a successful nominator will be drawn from a box and that person will be given a free airplane ticket to the annual meeting. The ticket will be one of the complementary tickets provided to the Society by the airline selected as official carrier for the meeting. Or, alternatively, the nominator who generated the most memberships will be given the ticket. A motion was made and passed to authorize Davidson to try this procedure next year and see how well it works.

Umansky suggested that the AAR membership list should be used in a future membership campaign. The letter sent to AAR members should emphasize the unique benefits of SSSR membership - interdisciplinary, small, friendly, easy to give papers.

GUIDELINES FOR PUTING ITEMS ON THE SSSR COUNCIL AGENDA: Last year the Council asked Davidson to prepare guidelines for processing items which are recommended for Council consideration. Proposed guidelines were circulated and discussed. One purpose of these guidelines is to set a procedure concerning how public policy issues are to be handled by the Council. It is necessary to avoid issues that eat up Council time because necessary information has not been assembled. A motion was made and passed to accept the guidelines proposed by Davidson. The text of these guidelines is as follows:

The SSSR Council is eager to consider issues which the members feel need to be addressed. Members should contact SSSR's Executive Secretary, who will decide how to handle proposed agenda items.

Relatively routine matters not requiring much prior investigation or review by Council members can be added to the agenda within a week of the Council meeting.

Less routine matters requiring more thorough review and/or more careful deliberation by Council members should be submitted at least 30 days prior to the Council meeting so the Executive Secretary can assign the matter to a subcommittee for review. That subcommittee will make a recommendation to the Council at its next meeting.

EXTENSION OF TERM OF EXECUTIVE SECRETARY: A committee was set up to evaluate the work of the executive secretary and to consider extending his term for two years. Members of the committee were Barker, Capps and Umansky. The committee reported that it thinks that Davidson has done a terrific job as executive secretary. It recommends that the Council extend his term to 1993, through the end of Eileen Barker's term as president. A motion was made and passed to accept the report of the committee and extend Davidson's term until 1993.

Next year it will be necessary to set up a committee to begin the search for an executive officer to succeed Davidson after 1993. This is necessary because much lead time is needed to allow executive secretary candidates to determine whether they are able to accept the job.

REPORT OF THE 1990 PROGRAM CHAIR: Janet Jacobs reported that she is happy with the way the program developed. The program was designed to be broad based and inclusive. She is particularly pleased with the distinguished plenary speakers who accepted our invitations.

One of the most time consuming responsibilities of the program chair is to put RRA and other group sessions into the larger program. The program chair must deal with time schedules and liaison. It should be made clear to future program chairs that this is one of their responsibilities. If some of this work could be moved from the program chair to become a responsibility of the executive office it would greatly reduce the volume of work associated with being program chair.

When Jacobs sent out acceptance letters to program participants she included a statement about the use of gender inclusive language in presentations. She wants the Council to know that she did this on her own responsibility. Perhaps the Council will vote on a statement about the use of gender inclusive language at some time in the future. In the absence of the text of that statement the Council did not vote on this matter at the present meeting.

Barker- initiated a discussion of which sorts of papers should be accepted or rejected for presentation at the annual meeting. What are the appropriate boundaries? One paper in a session in which she is a discussant is a testimony about the author's theology. It has nothing to do with what people do, it is about what god is saying. Papers should deal with the social scientific study of religion. Perhaps the Council should write a formal statement about what the Society means by the social scientific study of religion to guide program chairs in their selection of papers.

Robbins commented that we should not set such narrow limits that papers would be excluded. Umansky, drawing on her experiences as a program chair, argued that it should be left to the program chair to decide what to exclude. Mauss commented that we should be sure that the program chair knows that he or she can reject papers. And the program chair can request a full paper if the abstract is questionable. Wright offered a Durkheimian interpretation of the situation described by Barker. Perhaps such deviant papers create a sense of boundaries for participants at the meeting.

STUDENT PAPER AWARD: The 1990 committee for this award had three members: Janet Jacobs, chair; Razelle Frankl; and Marion Goldman. This year the committee received only two papers and decided not to give an award.

JSSR EDITOR'S REPORT: Armand Mauss circulated a written report. Submissions to the journal are down in the last years. This is probably a temporary random fluctuation. The acceptance rate is about 25%.Members who receive damaged copies of the Journal should write for a replacement copy to the business office.

BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S REPORT: Hans Baer distributed a written report. The work of the book review editors proceeds normally.

MONOGRAPH SERIES: Stan Gaede distributed a written report. The monograph by Stuart A. Wright, Leaving Cults, is now sold out. A motion was made and passed to have 400 copies of the Wright monograph reprinted if the printing can be done by January 1991 It might be desirable to increase the price of the reprinted monograph if this does not create excessive administrative problems for the business office.

The new monograph series editor, Katherine Meyer, will begin her term of office in 1991. Negotiations continue with Yale University Press concerning possible cooperation between the Press and the SSSR on publication of an English translation of the collected writings by Georg Simmel on the sociology of religion. Translated and with an introduction by Horst Helle. Yale University Press has not yet made a final decision on this project. Such a decision will not be made until they have a final draft of the book. Nor is the royalty arrangement between the Press and the SSSR set. The SSSR will spend up to $ 8,000 on this monograph. When a final agreement with Yale University Press is negotiated it will be presented to the Council for final approval.

The meeting was adjourned for a lunch break at 12:40 p.m.

The meeting resumed at 1:30 p.m. Janet Jacobs did not return to the meeting for the afternoon session. James Richardson and Jeffrey K. Hadden joined the Council for the afternoon session.

RESEARCH AWARDS: Members of the 1990 research awards committee are Barker (chair), James Beckford, and Bryan Wilson. Only five applications were received. The committee recommends that additional efforts be made to publicize the availability of research awards. Perhaps a separate sheet could be sent to members in an appropriate mailing in addition to mentioning the awards in the newsletter. Perhaps "please post" notices could be sent out. Davidson will explore ways to provide additional publicity.

Four awards totaling $ 5,100 were given this year. Recipients are: Madeleine Adriance ($ 800 ), Mark Chaves (400), John Jarvis (2,000), and Edward Lehman (1,900).

Some past research awards have not been claimed. A motion was made and passed that awardees who have not spent their research awards will be notified that unless they claim it by a certain time the account will be closed.

Under a recent policy change research awards may be used as stipends. (See page 5 of the minutes of the October 26, 1989 Council meeting.) The Society will ask recipients of stipend awards to send in a statement of what they did with the money.

BOOK AWARD: Committee members for the 1988 -1989 distinguished book award are: James Hunter (chair), Benton Johnson, Stan Gaede, and Stephen Ainlay. The winning book is Communities of Discourse by Robert Wuthnow, Harvard University Press, l990. The other books that were considered are Donald Kraybill, The Riddle of Amish Culture , 1988; Margaret Poloma, The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads, 1989; Robert Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion , 1988; George Thomas, Revivalism and Cultural Change, 1989; and Antonio M. Stevens-Arroyo, Cave of the Jagua, 1989.

Hunter suggested that the Society adopt a new name for the award to add "panache". One possibility is "The Benjamin Nelson Prize". In its discussion of this proposal the Council displayed no great enthusiasm for changing the name of the book award.

PUBLICITY COMMITTEE: Wright presented a written report. Two mailings were sent to religious news reporters about the SSSR meeting in Virginia Beach in order to increase attendance by reporters. Wright is now being telephoned as a news source by reporters.

This year an effort was made to encourage authors to write press releases about articles published in JSSR and RRR. So far this effort has not been successful. Mauss commented that asking authors to seek advice about preparation of a useful press release from the press office on their campus may be asking too much of them. This year authors will be sent a sample of a good press release which they may use as a model for a press release about their own article. The editor of the JSSR will include this in the letters that go out to authors. This will be tried for a year to see if additional publicity is generated by this procedure.

The committee is exploring possibilities of establishing a news media service that would operate as a clearinghouse for information on new religions. No final proposal for such a news service is yet ready for presentation to the Council.

AAAS REPORT: Nelsen submitted a written report. A session has been organized for the 1991 meeting of the AAAS. Nelsen,-,invites ideas for a session at the 1992 meeting. Next year the Council will need to select a replacement for Nelsen as representative to the AAAS because he intends to retire from the position.

PROPOSAL FOR AN AWARD FOR THE BEST ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION: Mauss presented a draft proposal for such an award. One reason for setting up an award for articles is to provide recognition to people and to academic disciplines where articles are the major mode of publication. Bromley commented that excellent articles deserve as much attention as the books which get the SSSR book award. McGuire noted that it might be desirable to make career awards. The majority of Council members voted that an article award be established, starting as early as next year, if feasible. In a series of votes the Council made some fundamental choices among the alternatives outlined in Mauss's proposal. Remaining choices will be made by the first award committee. They will be reported to the Council next year for approval.

The Council agreed on the following aspects of the articles award proposal:

ELIGIBILITY: Any article published during the preceding two calendar years in a refereed journal of the social sciences (including, but not limited to, journals in the disciplines of psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science economics, history, and religious studies), as long as the principal focus of the article is on a religious topic.

NOMINATIONS: Articles published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion will automatically be considered for the award. Articles from other journals may be nominated by any members of the Society, including the authors themselves.

AWARD COMMITTEE: Composition of the committee -- The award committee will be a standing committee of three SSSR members appointed by the SSSR president, who also designates the chairperson among the three. The editor of the JSSR and current editors of other related and eligible journals will not be members of the award committee. Committee members will include scholars active in a variety of research methodologies. Committee members shall serve for three years in staggered terms, such that a third of the committee will be replaced each year.

FORM OF THE AWARD: No money will be given to the winner of the award.

RESOLUTION ON BRAINWASHING: James Richardson asked the Council to consider a resolution on brainwashing. An ad hoc committee composed of McGuire (chair) Batson, and Moseley examined the resolution and came to this meeting with a revised text of the resolution which is acceptable to Richardson. The SSSR Council passed the following resolution:

Introduction:

In the last few years, the SSSR has been asked to address, in response to problems in legal and scientific contexts, the issue of our scientific community's evaluation of processes, variously described as brainwashing, mind control, thought reform and coercive persuasion, which have sometimes been applied to participation in religious groups. Rather than continue to respond to the specific content of these debates on a case-by-case basis, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion makes the following general resolution.

Resolution:

This association considers that there is an absence of sufficient scientific research to permit informed, responsible scholars to reach a consensus on the nature and effects of nonphysical coercion or control. It further asserts that one cannot automatically equate the techniques involved in the process of physical coercion or control with those of nonphysical coercion or control. In addition to critical review of existing knowledge, further appropriately designed research is necessary to enable any scholarly consensus about these processes.

[At the annual business meeting of the Society on November 10, 1990 a revised version of the resolution was passed. See the minutes of that meeting for the revised text.]

PROPOSAL FOR A BOOK ABOUT SECTS AND CULTS: A fourteen page proposal by David G. Bromley and Jeffrey K. Hadden was circulated before the meeting. An ad hoc committee of Stan Gaede (chair) and Peter Benson was appointed to review the proposal. Gaede reported that the committee concluded that the SSSR should endorse the project. He asked whether we have the money to fund it. He noted that all SSSR members should know that they can present a project to the Council for possible funding. He reported that Benson thinks that the Lilly Endowment might be interested in contributing to this project Benson is willing to discuss this with Lilly.

In response to questions from Silverman, Hadden said that the $10,000 which is requested will be used exclusively to subsidize the publication costs of a publishing firm, not for editorial work. The sum of $ 10,000 (not 4,000; 8,000; 12,000; or some other number) emerged out of conversations with publishers about what amount would make the project attractive to them.

Baer suggested that a chapter about sects and cults among ethnic minorities be added. Schoenherr asked why a book of this sort can not stand on its own feet without a subsidy. Why is a subvention needed? Hadden answered that the book is very long. A subsidy would help keep the price low and could provide a discount price for SSSR members. It would also speed up the publication schedule. Batson asked if the book would be published even if the SSSR does not back it. Hadden replied that the project may go forward, but it could be delayed for three to four years. Davidson reminded the Council that the decision to reprint the Wright monograph plus the proposed Simmel translation plus this project would commit the Society to spending $ 21,000 on publications in the next one or two year period.

Several Council members were bothered by the appearance of conflict of interest and self dealing in the consideration of this project. Several Council members are contributors to the book. Moseley said that we ought to have a policy about doing these sorts of projects. Such a policy should deal with questions of equity, openness, and fairness in consideration of these sorts of proposals.

A motion was made to endorse the project in principle with subvention of $ 10,000 provided that the final contract with the publisher shows a reasonable chance of getting repayment of the SSSR contribution and provided that the Society can afford it. Before the vote was taken on this motion it was suggested that people with possible conflicts of interest abstain from voting. Other Council members rejected this suggestion on the grounds that people elected to the Council should vote on issues before the Council. The final vote on the motion: yes 4; No 6; abstain 4. The motion does not pass. Barker asked that the minutes record that she abstained in order to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest.

A motion was made and passed that the Council endorse the proposal for a book about cults and sects as a worthy proposal. The vote on this motion: Yes 7; No 1; abstain 3.

An ad hoc committee will be set up to propose a policy to deal with the way projects of this sort should be considered by the Council in the future.

TREASURER'S REPORT AND BUDGET: This year a deficit of $8,000 was projected. The actual deficit was $ 6,375. Increased member dues and a $ 10 increase in library subscriptions, which was passed last year, are expected to produce a balanced budget for the coming year.

Because of the Council decision to reprint the Wright monograph at a cost of $ 4,000 the total expenses in next year's budget will be changed to $ 122,890 and the expected surplus will be $ 2,710. A motion was made and passed to accept the budget with these two amendments.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
William Silverman, Secretary

APPENDIX TO COUNCIL MINUTES