All Catholic Congregations convene general assemblies, on a more or less regular basis, to evaluate their life and mission and to make decisions for the future and elect leaders to implement them. This is a General Chapter.

The Assumptionists gather every six years. The one being held in May of 2011 will be the 32nd General Chapter of the Congregation since its foundation more than 160 years ago.

The General Chapter is thus the highest authority in the Congregation for making decisions that promote the unity and the mission of the Assumption.

To be more precise, the main responsibilities of the General Chapter are:
- To hear the reports of the outgoing General government, as well as those of the various regional Superiors ("Provincials");
- To define the apostolic orientations of the Congregation;
- To review, if necessary, the governmental structures that serve the animation of the Congregation;
- To elect the Superior General, as well as his Assistants and immediate collaborators.

At the last General Chapter, the Assumptionists
- Defined three fundamental orientations for the Congregation: solidarity with the poor in a world marked by exclusion; the proclamation of Jesus Christ in a world that would prefer to live without God; the service of unity in a world and a Church marked by divisions.
- Chose three apostolic priorities: their Mission in Eastern Europe and the Near East, the foundations in Asia, their presence among young people and vocation ministry.
- Launched the Lay-Religious Alliance.

Since 2005, the Congregation consequently founded communities in places where it had not been before (Vietnam, the Philippines, Togo) and returned to places where it had been in the past (Bucharest), but also invested in new areas, such as durable development (Saint-Lambert-des-Bois, in France) or in the welcoming of young people (in the "Auberge de Jeunesse chrétienne," called "Adveniat," in Paris).