Committees are set up by the Executive Board and can be of two types: Board-level or general. Board-level committees are led by a member of the Board and are delegated with decision-making powers that can be linked to the operational budget. General committees have advisory functions and do not require the chair to be a member of the Board. Members of a Committee must be members of ASOF.
This Committee is charged with organizing the 2025 ASOF annual conference
The Assessment Committee (AC) is to provide expert analysis, become the memory and the learning centre of ASOF. It will start its work by evaluating three decades of education development projects that external actors attempted to realize in Armenia, their failures and successes, and conclude by lessons learned. The second source for AC is the state of the art in international education development based as practiced by international development agencies, NGO’s and other specialized centers. A third source of field of activity of the AC is the changing political, cultural and social conditions in Armenia itself: how does an external initiative interact with the current reforms within the education sector in Armenia, for example.
In short, AC will produce specialized studies to inform ASOF of past lessons and the best practices in the field of international development, and specifically concerning past and present conditions of education development in Armenia.
The function of the AC is to inform and consult the board of ASOF. AC has no executive or decision-making prerogatives. Its own studies are expert opinions, and its reports will reflect it. In case of disagreement within the AC, different opinions and their reasons might be included in the same report, as well as consequences of different choices.
The AC is composed by members of the ASOF. It is headed by a member of ASOF board. AC might call for the expertise of external consultants, if such expertise is needed and lacking within the ranks of ASOF.
Currently, AC has established two sub-committees, one on higher-education and the other on primary-secondary education.
In January 2024, ASOF will form a new committee names “Council for Cultural Heritage Preservation”. The group will involve about 20 prominent Armenian and non-Armenian scholars in the Arts and Humanities, led by Nina Hovnanian from the ASOF Board. The group will use its international visibility to coordinate projects relating to cultural heritage in a manner to project effective Armenian soft power internationally. For the first year, the Frankfurt international book fair will be used for visibility and focal point of operations in partnership with ARI Literature Foundation led by Arevik Ashkharoyan. The initiative is targeting an annual budget of $500,000 for initiating 3-4 projects every year. For example, projects under consideration for 2024 include: a Master’s program for cultural monument renovation at NUACA through partnership with the renovation of the Ererouyk cathedral, a program for writers and translators to engage in systematic efforts for translating from and to Armenian, a center for scoring international films with the help of the Yerevan philharmonic, a research and book project on cataloguing the cultural monuments of Artsakh, and an effort to preserve local intangible culture from Artsakh through research and interviews with refugees.
The Executive Committee of the Patrons leads ASOF's fundraising efforts through a network of individuals with the interest and means to fund project proposals developed by ASOF scholars.
The Membership and Nominations Committee is charged with soliciting and collecting nominations for new members. The Committee then presents its recommendations to the Board for a vote. New members need to receive a vote of two-thirds of the Executive Board to become a Fellow of the Society, and a vote of one half of the Executive Board to become a Friend of the Society.
The Chair of the Membership & Nominations Committee cannot nominate new members to the Society.
The Membership and Nominations Committee is also delegated with devising and administering the election of new Board members.
Ad hoc committee set up to organize the conference on national identity in 2025.
This group combines expertise in engineering and architecture, focused on helping Armenia develop policy and protocols with respect to seismic safety in construction.
