The Executive Officer (EO) is the chief operating officer of the ASR. S/he is responsible for "managing the affairs of the Association between meetings of the Executive Council" and is responsible solely to the Executive Council. S/he annually reports both to Council and to the Business Meeting on the affairs of the organization as a whole, with special attention to membership, library subscriptions, and finances. S/he is both secretary and treasurer of the Association. S/he may appoint a Business Manager, with the approval of Council. (That is, the Council would approve both the person and his/her remuneration.) The EO is also the President pro tem at Council or Association meetings in the absence of both the President and President-elect. S/he is a nonvoting member of Council.

The duties of the EO (including those which may be, but are not now, designated to a Business Manager) currently include: keeping the accounts of the Association, receiving and disbursing funds, supervising the Association's investments, maintaining membership and subscription records, editing and producing the Association's quarterly newsletter (News & Announcements), conducting the annual election of officers, interfacing with other Association officers (most particularly the Program Chair, Editor, President, and President-elect) and committees, editing and producing the annual meeting program, conducting annual meeting registration, securing and contracting hotels for the Association's annual meeting, interfacing with other professional organizations, monitoring the Association's Web site, managing new member and new subscriber recruitment mailings, negotiating the business aspects of the journal (including advertizing, copyright and royalty contracts, co-publication contracts, permissions, mailings and mailing lists), and responding on behalf of the Association to inquiries from a variety of quarters on topics relating to the sociology of religion.

The term of the EO's service is 4 years, renewable. In recent decades, EOs have served more than the minimum term. S/he is elected by the membership. Normally only one candidate is offered on the ballot (see Nominating Committee), due to the extensive preliminary negotiations associated with the position's work load.

In recent years it has been the practice of the EO to report to the three presidents and the editor quarterly on the financial status of the Association. This is simply informational and is not a requirement of the position. These officers are not "supervisors" of the EO.