Minutes of the General Assembly of the ISSR
Conference Day 4: 15th July 2021
1pm-2pm
The President welcomes the audience, reflecting on the outcomes of the digital conference. The agenda is accepted. The minutes of the previous General Assembly (Barcelona, 2019) are accepted.
Report of the President of the ISSR: I. Furseth notes all Council and Executive meetings have been online. The most important issue relates to the transformation of our conference into a digital one, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the work on the digital conference has been done by the Gen. Sec. and a team: Colin Stewart, Enqi Weng, Berenice Goffin and Astrid Baudine, Martial Vildard, and Cecilia Bastos. The President formed a working group to work on evaluate current relationships between Social Compass and the ISSR to pursue Jorg Stolz’ and Olivier Servais’ report (2019); this group is composed of Lori Beaman, Yannick Fer, and Line Nyhagen and will submit a report by the end of 2021.
Report of the General Secretary: V. Altglas underscores the development of the website with the webmaster, especially on the submission of conference sessions and papers, with the next phase focused on the making of the conference program. The organisation of the conference has been particularly challenging, in terms of technology and time zones, but also in relation to volatile behaviours from some participants, defying all attempts of planning.
Report of the Treasurer: The ISSR assets and accounts are presented as well as the work of the treasury team in relation to legal and accounting matters. O. Servais lists 3 ideas submitted to the 1st Council meeting. 1. To improve discipline around deadlines due to the difficulties of membership and conference fees payment, which are recurrent and increasingly problematic, and generate a huge amount of work and stress for the Treasury and the Gen. Sec. teams 2. He points out the diminution of ISSR assets, demanding a new financial strategy that will be sustainable. 3. The ISSR legal address to be located at the Royal Academic of Belgium. with someone accountable legally in Belgium. Inger thanks Olivier for his work as treasurer for 11 years and welcome Sabrina Pastorelli as new treasurer.
The Society’s Awards are presented by Yannick Fer and Mary-Jo Neitz. The Best book award went to Marian Burchardt, for Regulating Difference: Religious Diversity and Nationhood in the Secular West. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2020. Prizes were given for the ISSR best article:
Daniel Olson, Jong Hyun Jung, Joey Marshall and David Voas (2020), « Sacred Canopies or Religious Markets? The Effect of County-level Religious Diversity on Later Changes in Religious Involvement ». Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 59: 227-246; in ex-aequo with an article of:
Andrea Rota (2019), « Religion, Media, and Joint Commitment Jehovah’s Witnesses as a ‘Plural Subject’ ». Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, The Dynamics of Religion, Media, and Community, Vol. 14.
The ISSR Conference in 2023 is maintained in Taiwan and as such was presented in Barcelona (2019), as the vice-president recalls..
Any other business: Véronique underscores the election results to the Council this year : Olga Odgers (Mexico) ; Mar Griera (Iberic Peninsula) ; Marian Burchardt (Germany); Ingrid Storm (United Kingdom) and notes the feminization of the Council, with for the first time an entirely feminine ISSR Executive.
