Meeting Report

Following are the minutes of the 2016 ASM annual business meeting:

American Society of Missiology

Annual Business Meeting of the Society

Saturday, June 18, 2016, University of Northwestern, St. Paul

The meeting was called to order by President Greg Leffel at 4:18 PM

The proposed agenda was accepted without modifications.

The minutes of 2015 were approved without modification.

Secretary’s Report – Allan talked about some of the web site upgrades that were done and the effort to fix the problem with online access to Missiology through the ASM portal. He reported that the conference attendance was 198 in 2015 and 194 in 2016 (but this number may still be higher). Membership stats:

2013 = 371

2014 = 401

2015 = 252

2016 = 241 (but may still go higher after data from this year’s conference is entered)

The management of our ListServe is being improved to ensure that all members receive the Call for Papers and information about the annual meetings.

Treasurer’s Report – Robbie distributed a report and the auditor’s report and emphasized that our financial condition is healthy. 

Board of Publications Report – Bill Gregory reviewed the four publications managed by the Board: Working Papers, Scholarly Monographs, Book Series and Missiology. A representative gave a brief overview of the focus of each of these.

President’s Report – Greg Leffel made mention of the excellent support we received from the conference staffing of UNWSP. Greg informed the members of some of the challenges with renewing our contract with UNWSP and that we have signed a contract to hold our meetings at Wheaton College in 2017, with the possibility of also holding meetings there in 2018. A search committee has been struck to determine a future location.

Elections – George Hunsberger, chair of the nominating committee presented the election ballot.  All of those on the table below were voted in unanimously

President: Paul Kollman (Roman Catholic)

First Vice President: Bonnie Sue Lewis (Conciliar)

Second Vice President: Al Tizon (Independent)

Secretary: Allan Effa (currently serving a three year term – 2018)

Treasurer: Robert Danielson (Three year term – 2019)

Board of Directors

Class of 2019: 

Hunter Farrell (Conciliar Protestant), Mike Haasl (Roman Catholic), Ruth Padilla DeBoerst (Independent)

Board of Publications

Frances Adeney (Conciliar Protestant), Bill Burrows (Roman Catholic), Jamie Ross (Independent)

Future Meeting Dates:

June 15-18, 2017 Wheaton College

June 14-17, 2018 Wheaton College (?)

June 13-16, 2019 Location to be determined

Charles Fensham offered a motion of thanks for the work of the board this past year. This produced an enthusiastic applause.

Announcements:

The 2017 annual meeting will be chaired by our new president, Paul Kollman. The proposed theme is “Missiology’s Dialogue Partners: Practitioners and Scholars Conversing about the Future of Mission.”

The IAMS assembly will meet August 11-17 in Seoul, S. Korea.

The annual meeting for the Midwest Mission Studies Fellowship is November 5, 2016 at Notre Dame.

The annual meeting for the Eastern Fellowship of the ASM will be October 20 – 21, 2016 at Maryknoll Sisters, Ossining, NY.

Paul Kollman, our incoming president, expressed thanks to Greg Leffel for his leadership and adjourned our meeting at 5:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted:

Allan Effa, secretary

Authorized for Distribution:

Greg Leffel, President

Paul Kollman, 1^st Vice President