North Central Sociological Association

NCSA all started over in December, 1924, at (ASS) the Sociological Society summit in Chicago, as per Dennis Terzola (1969). His short article in Sociological Focus, Vol. 2, No. 3, Spring, 1969 is a good source of information. That meeting directed to the founding of OSS (the Ohio Sociological Society) which held its first meeting on April 4, 1927, at Ohio State University. The Ohio Sociologist was the first “bulletin”, published from 1927 to 1938, when it became The Ohio Valley Sociologist. That change in title happened along with two other organizational changes. Despite some conflict over the conceivable loss of “the delightful fellowship and personal contact” associated with OSS, in 1937 it became the Ohio Valley Sociological Society, together with the states of Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. In addition, in 1938, it became acknowledged as a regional affiliate of ASS.

Only 1 meeting was held during World War II, in 1944, in part due to loss of participants for the duration, and restrictions on travel. But it was rejuvenated, gradually. In 1968, after considerable conversation a special committee recommended that OVSS should incorporate, which became official on April 3, 1968. And in 1969, after long discussion, the first joint meeting with the Midwest Sociological Society was held. Teaching began to obtain attention on the Program in the late 1980s. There were occasional Didactic Seminars earlier to that. By 1987 there was a Teaching Committee, represented on Council, and teaching related sessions were on the program for the Annual Summit. In addition workshops for high school teachers were held in combining with annual meetings.

Finances have been a major issue most of the time. This has been a low budget organization. In the earlier years Departments assisted defray many of the costs, such as with editing and publishing Soc Focus. And as we grew in quantity, the program propagated from 7 sessions in 1959 to 10 times that or more today the costs increased significantly. We need 8 to 10 meeting rooms to cover all of the concurrent sessions. There were only 22 presentations in 1959, adding the President’s address and the Business meeting.