REPORT FROM THE NOVEMBER EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE & BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETINGS
SUSAN ACKERMAN, ASOR PRESIDENT
For ASOR members, the heart and soul of the Annual Meeting is surely its intellectual content: the papers delivered in academic sessions, the “Posters on Parade” presentations, and the conversations fostered in interactive workshops. But a lot of business gets done at the ASOR Annual Meeting as well: all of ASOR’s Standing Committees meet to discuss those aspects of ASOR’s work for which they are responsible, and the ASOR Executive Committee and Board of Trustees meet to engage in discussions and undertake items of business that concern the organization as a whole. Here, I am pleased, on behalf of the Executive Committee and the Board, to present ASOR members with a summary of these two bodies’ San Antonio deliberations.
1. ASOR’s Brand. At its November 2015 meeting, the ASOR Board of Trustees charged the ASOR Strategic Planning Task Force – because the Task Force was already deeply engaged in thinking about ASOR’s work and identity – with working first with a branding consultant and then a web designer to develop a new ASOR website, as well as updated versions of other public presentations of ASOR’s “image” (business cards, stationery, etc.). That Task Force began meeting in January 2016, and its members were very proud to present the initial results of their work to the Board – and, indeed, to the entire ASOR membership – at the 2016 Annual Meeting. Most important, at the Annual Meeting, we debuted our new ASOR logo, and we were deeply gratified by the overwhelmingly positive responses we received.
The Task Force was also able to present to the Board its proposals for a new website design, which the Board unanimously approved. We have a contractor at work building the site now, and we hope to launch it within a couple of months. In the meantime, ASOR members will see a new look for ASOR in other media: on our Facebook page, our Twitter feed, and in our print and electronic publications (including this very issue of News@ASOR!).
2. The Treasurer’s Report. A major item of business for both the Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees at each of its meetings is to hear a report on the financial health of ASOR. The news is very good. ASOR yet again ran a balanced budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2016 (FY 16), just as we have run a balanced budget every year since 2007 (except for the year we sustained a loss due to the 2008-2009 financial crisis). Moreover, we ended FY 16 with a $134,259 surplus. ASOR is also in an excellent financial position in other respects, as the total value of all our financial accounts for FY 16 was $2,300,448. Just three years ago, in FY 13, that total was only $1,776,422.
3. New Governance Policies for ASOR. In addition to its by-laws, which govern the organization as a whole, ASOR has in place numerous policies that address specific governance issues: for example, a Records Retention Policy, a Whistleblower Policy, etc. (see https://www.asor.org/about/facts-figures.html). But guided by our new Board Chair, Richard Coffman, we have come to recognize that several of these policies need to be updated, while other policies need to be developed. The Executive Committee and the Board began this process at their November meetings by approving a new Travel and Entertainment Policy, which defines allowable travel and entertainment expenses for all ASOR employees (whose number has increased in the past couple of years, because of hires we have made in conjunction with our cooperative agreement with the US Department of State to document, protect, and preserve the cultural heritage of Syria and northern Iraq).
The Executive Committee and Board also reviewed an initial draft of a Gift Acceptance Policy for ASOR, which will govern ASOR’s gift solicitation programs and the acceptance of gifts, in order to insure the financial stability of the organization in a manner that is consistent with, and supports, ASOR’s Bylaws, Policies, Policy on Professional Conduct, Mission, Programs, and Strategic Plan. I anticipate that the Board will adopt a final version of this policy at its meetings in April 2017.
4. The ASOR Levantine Ceramics Project. ASOR Board members also had the opportunity in San Antonio to learn more about the Levantine Ceramics Project (LCP) — http://www.levantineceramics.org/ — which is a project run by our colleague Professor Andrea Berlin, currently through Boston University. However, ASOR has now agreed to become the hosting organization for this project. Hosting the LCP is an important way ASOR can further its mission to initiate, encourage, and support research into, and public understanding of, the history and cultures of the Near East and wider Mediterranean. Moreover, hosting the LCP — which is an open, crowdsourced tool — will allow ASOR to expand its outreach to colleagues beyond our current members and so will enhance ASOR’s international visibility and stature. Hosting the LCP also speaks to ASOR’s commitment, articulated in our recently adopted Strategic Plan, to enhance the digital resources we make available to our members and through our outreach efforts.
5. Moving House. In January 2016, Boston University announced that the university planned to sell a block of buildings in Kenmore Square, including the building – 656 Beacon Street – where the ASOR offices are housed. On August 12, 2016, we learned that the buildings have, in fact, been sold. We have been told nothing else officially, but we anticipate we will need to make arrangements for new ASOR office space by March 2018 or so. The Board thus formed a committee during our San Antonio meetings to investigate new “digs” for ASOR: this committee is chaired by our Board Chair, Richard Coffman, and it member include Board members Michael Hasel, Randy Helm, Joe Greene, Sue Laden, and B. W. Ruffner. They are already hard at work and will report to the Board in April 2017.
6. The Ad Hoc Annual Meeting Committee. At the San Antonio Members’ Meeting, ASOR members had the opportunity to hear a brief report from Gary Arbino, the chair of the Ad Hoc Annual Meeting Committee, regarding its work to evaluate the setting and timing of the ASOR Annual Meeting. As Gary explained, ASOR needs to reevaluate the timing and location of our Annual Meeting, given the reunification of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), and the consequence—ASOR’s increasing inability to access hotel space reasonably close to the AAR/SBL meeting.
This committee is currently in the process of seeking member input about this issue, with the goal of reporting to the Board at the Board’s April 2017 meeting.
7. The Overseas Research Centers. At its meeting, the Board was
pleased to hear reports, as it always does, from the various overseas research centers: the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI); the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem; and the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman. Sadly, though, we said goodbye to Andrew McCarthy, the Executive Director of CAARI, whose tenure at CAARI ends in June 2017. Andrew will be replaced by Dr. Lindy Crewe, of the University of Manchester, and we look forward to welcoming her to ASOR and to the meetings of the ASOR Board.
8. Welcomes and Farewells. Speaking of welcomes and farewells, another item of business that the Board of Trustees regularly takes up in November is to say goodbye to Board members whose term of service has ended. This year, these Board members include ASOR Past President Larry Geraty, and the Board chose to make special note of the end of Larry’s term by extending to him a lifetime appointment as an ASOR Honorary Trustee.
Other Board members whose terms ended in 2016 include individual member Rachel Hallote; institutional member Steve Ortiz; and Board-designated trustee Robert A. Oden. All of these individuals have rendered tremendous services to the Board: by giving generously of their expertise and wisdom; through their work on various Board committees; through magnanimous donations and other gifts in kind; and because of their friendship and good cheer.
We will miss them all, even as we welcome new colleagues to the Board. These include Heather Dana Davis Parker, who joins the Board as a new individual trustee, and Debra Foran, who joins the Board as a new institutional trustee. Moreover, Individual Trustee Hanan Charaf was elected to another term on the Board, as was Institutional Trustee Michael Hasel. ASOR also has two new Board-designated trustees, Elizabeth Macauley-Lewis and Jeanne Marie Teutonico. In addition, Sheila Bishop and Vivian Bull were both re-elected to serve as Board-designated trustees.
I believe this is the first time — at least in the current system of Board elections — that the slate for ASOR’s four Board-designated trustees was comprised of four women: surely a milestone for ASOR! We also celebrated this year the second year of online voting for individual trustees (elected by the entire membership) and institutional trustees (elected by the representatives of ASOR’s institutional members) and the increased enfranchisement that this online voting made possible. However, only about 20% of our individual members and 40% of our institutional members voted, so we are looking for greater enfranchisement still. Thus next year, I encourage all ASOR members to vote!
Also next year: we’ll look forward to seeing you all in Boston!
