By all measures, our 75th annual meeting this year in New York City was a great success. Prior to the meeting, the program committee was concerned that attendance at the various sessions might drop because of our decision to have as many as six sessions in the same time slot, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. We found the sessions to be well attended, and we heard some great reactions to most of the presentations. Highlights of this year’s meeting included Fred Kniss’ Presidential Address, “Against the Flow: Learning from New, Emergent, and Peripheral Religious Currents,” Nancy Ammerman’s Furfey Lecture, “Finding Religion in Everyday Life,” and a special Presidential Panel in which some of ASR’s past presidents reflected on the past, present, and future of the Association. The annual meeting also featured a review panel to accompany the release of the latest volume of our Religion and the Social Order series: Testing Pluralism: Glabalizing Belief, Localizing Gods (vol. 23), edited by Giuseppe Giordan and William H. Swatos, Jr. As a way of celebrating our 75th Anniversary, we acknowledged the contributions of not only the many past presidents who were in attendance at the Presidential Panel, but also the three previous Executive Officers of the Association – Ted Long, Barbara Denison, and William H. Swatos, Jr. – who dedicated years of their lives to strengthening the financial security and intellectual reach of ASR.

The results of ASR’s 2013 election were also announced at this year’s meeting. Every year we elect a President-elect and three Council members from our membership. Melissa Wilde was elected to the position of President-elect, which means that she will succeed ASR’s current incoming president, Christopher Ellison. Serving on Council for three year terms will be Christopher Bader, Evelyn Bush, and Michael Emerson. (Continuing on Council are Amy Adamczyk, Jerome Baggett, Kelly Chong, Kevin Dougherty, Rebecca Kim, and Prema Kurien.) Congratulations to all those elected, and thanks to all of the nominees for their willingness to let their names go forward in the election. Fred Kniss, our past-president, will be the Nominations Chair for our next election.

Next year’s meeting will be in San Francisco at the JW Marriott Union Square Hotel from August 13-15. The details of the meeting and the Call for Papers can be viewed on the ASR website. Please mark these dates on your calendar and plan to attend!