Vice President’s Report to ASOR Members

September 2026

Dear ASOR Friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful summer, perhaps having had the opportunity to get into the field, and hopefully some kind of relaxing break. As many of us gear up to return to school (and some in the United States already have), I have been filling out various “Doodle Polls” and setting up meetings with various committees leading up to the Annual Meeting in November.

One of my roles, as Vice-President of ASOR, is to lead the Chair Coordinating Council (CCC), which is explicitly charged with “monitoring the activities” of ASOR’s standing committees. While this is technically true, I prefer to think of the CCC as a means of facilitating conversations between the different committees, and an opportunity for each committee chair to share the exciting and important work that ASOR members are doing. It is a real privilege to chair the CCC, and I have a difficult time limiting our monthly meetings to just the one hour I promise everyone. The reports and discussions are so interesting and there is just so much good work that goes on.

Volunteering through one of the eight standing committees is one of major ways that ASOR members can play a role in the organization. In thinking about my own participation in ASOR, I remembered how I had been encouraged by other members throughout my career. As an undergraduate, David Hopkins and Larry Herr asked me to compile an index for Biblical Archaeologist, Tim Harrison suggested that I become more involved in ASOR Canada, Jeff Blakeley reached out to me to become a monographs editor, and Chuck Jones nudged me to take over as chair of the Publications Committee and then follow after him as Vice President. I am not sure that it ever would have occurred to me to volunteer for any of this work without having been explicitly asked by another member. So, I thought I would write to all of you, to give all of you a nudge to consider volunteering for one of the standing committees.

The committees really do very different kinds of work, and it may not be clear to all ASOR members what that work is, or even that these committees exist. More information about these committees, including current chairs and members, can be found on the ASOR website. Beyond these standing committees, ASOR also benefits from the work of affiliated research centers, our overseas committees, ASOR Canada, boards of our various publications, and ad hoc committees that are established by the President to achieve specific goals.

If you read ASOR’s newsletters (and if you are reading this, you probably do), or follow our social media, you’ll notice periodic requests for volunteers for these committees. If service on any of these sounds interesting to you, please answer those calls. But you also don’t have to wait for such a call. If you want to get more involved with ASOR, please reach out to any of the committee chairs, or to me as Vice President, either over email or in person at the Annual Meeting. Different bylaws and mandates govern the committees, some of which also include instructions on membership. Reaching out directly is really helpful, since even if there isn’t room on a committee at the moment you express interest, there likely will be soon.

I hope that you will consider participating in one of these committees. We are always looking for people with different kinds of experiences, backgrounds, and specialization. Regardless, I look forward to seeing you all at the Annual Meeting in Chicago this November.

With best wishes,

Kevin McGeough
Vice President