At its November 21, 2021 meeting in Chicago the ASOR Board of Trustees unanimously approved the adoption of a strategic plan for 2021-2025. Periodic strategic planning is a valuable exercise that promotes reflection on and reevaluation of an organization’s goals and priorities. Until this year ASOR had been working successfully under a 2016-2020 strategic plan crafted in a committee led by former President Susan Ackerman.  The new plan represents a revision of that plan and a rebalance of our priorities in light of changing circumstances. At its center is a recommitment to ASOR’s core missions “to initiate, encourage, and support research into, and public understanding of, the history and cultures of the Near East and wider Mediterranean from the earliest times…”, with an expansion of our areas of research to “Western Asia and the wider Mediterranean”.

The plan has been under development since January of 2020 under the supervision of the current President, Sharon Herbert. All ASOR’s standing committees contributed to the new plan, and it was discussed and revised by the Chairs Coordinating Committee under the leadership of Vice President Chuck Jones from the summer of 2020 through fall 2021, when it was approved by them in October. The version voted on by the Board also profited from discussion in the Executive Committee.

This new plan focuses on six areas of ASOR’s activities: Area 1: The Annual Meeting; Area 2: Cultural Heritage; Area 3: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Area 4: Publications; Area 5: Public Outreach; Area 6: Supporting the Work of Our Members. It also considers how ASOR’s new offices at the James Strange Center in Alexandria, VA can be best used to to facilitate the sorts of community engagements and interactions with governmental agencies and other relevant agencies and organizations that we foresaw at the time we purchased the building.

This plan is the result of careful thought and input from all areas of the ASOR community. Although we will certainly face unpredictable changes, challenges, and opportunities in the coming years, we are confident that it will prove an inspiring road map for progress.

Read the full text of the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan.