The Association of Theological Schools

Financial Officers

The Chief Financial Officers Society (CFOS) meets annually and has an emerging curricular focus on defining the CFO's role and vocation, understanding financial issues in theological education, budget planning, investment policies, liability and legal issues, personnel and human resources issues, professional ethics, and identifying best practices in a wide range of areas from overseeing construction projects to tax-exempt bond financing.

Its annual event features preconference seminars, eight skills/best practice workshops offered multiple times to fit your schedule, and plenary presentations. A steering committee of representatives plans and evaluates the annual conferences. The three-day conference is held in late fall in diverse geographic locations, and attendance ranges from 100 to 120.

Financial Officers' Conference

November 13 - 16, 2013 Orlando, FL

Contact: Linda Giehll

By registration; limited to the first 100 participants. The conference will focus on the theme, Stewarding Today’s Resources for Tomorrow’s Ministries. Plenaries and workshops will provide tools and peer learning to enhance the financial officer’s skills. Topics will include a decennial research study on financing theological education, budgets and modeling techniques, faculty and staff compensation strategies, financial dashboards and ratios, investment spending rates, and HR compliance issues. This year we are also adding a full day preconference to introduce the newly revised Strategic Information Report for the financial officer’s institution. Hosted by the Chief Financial Officer's Society (CFOS) of ATS.

ATS/COA Biennial Meeting

June 25 - 27, 2014 Pittsburgh, PA

Contact: Mary McMillan

As changes transform the world that theological schools and their graduates serve, schools are rethinking how theological education is designed and delivered. The 2014 Biennial Meeting invites the leaders of member schools and related organizations to grapple with these changes and to think critically about how in the future their institutions will resource theological education in the most effective ways possible—ways that respond to the changing world, embrace innovation, promote collaboration, and offer truly sustainable solutions. Participants will share the time and the tools to think in new ways about new directions for their own institutions and about the resources—financial and otherwise—they might bring to the enterprise.

Papers and Presentations

Orientation