MINUTES OF MEETING OF 4S COUNCIL
December 16th /17th 2024
Anne Pollock, Chair called the meeting to order at 13:02 PM (GMT).
ITEM 1 Greetings
In attendance: Anne Pollock (President), Marko Monteiro, Amit Prasad (Treasurer), Zhaopeng Li, Pouya Sepehr (6S), Noela Invernizzi (Secretary), Cathy Hebrand, Melissa McCreary, Wen-hua Kuo (President-Elect), Vincent Li, Michal Nahman, Shiv Issar, Rohit Negi, and Amanda Windle (ex-officio).
Guests attending for specific agenda items included: Mel Armstrong, Digital Website Coordinator (Item 4); ST&HV Journal Editor, Kari Lancaster on behalf of Editor-in-Chief, Tim Neale, and Editor-in-Chief for ESTS, Aalok Khandekar (Item 6); and Teun Zuiderent-Jerak (Item 7).
Greeting and Apologies
Monamie Bhadra Haines sent her apologies for the first hour of the meeting, and Upali Bhattacharya (non-voting) and Thao Phan sent their apologies for the duration of the meeting. Yelena Gluzman arrived for agenda item 6 and remained until the meeting closed.
ITEM 2 Review Actions Table
The actions table was reviewed, and work reviewed to date.
ITEM 3 Approval of Oct Minutes
No changes to the minutes were received ahead or during the meeting with Council moving to vote.
VOTE: The motion to approve the October minutes was moved by Marko Monteiro and seconded by Noela Invernizzi, and approved by (13) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
ITEM 4 Finance and Operational Updates
Amanda Windle introduced the newly appointed Digital Website Coordinator, Mel Armstrong. Armstrong gave a short status report on the open panel paper submissions call about to go live along with the roundtables, meet-ups, Making & Doing and the Seattle-focused event of the Zine Festival. Melissa McCreary asked for points of clarification about the Carson and Fleck Prizes for 2024 and Anne Pollock reiterated the changes to the prizes now shown on the website. Action: Pollock to note the recommendations for Kari Lancaster and Helena Hansen to potentially participate in a session for the 2024 Carson Prize at the 2025 meeting.
Windle and Amit Prasad presented the budget for 2024 with year-to-date tracking, and an update on investing in CDs. Pollock noted an anticipated reduction in income from partnering with EASST for 2024, which is reflected in the budget with the finances lower for 2024. Income from registration fees will show at the end of December 2024 bank statements when payments from NomadIT had been completed.
ITEM 5 Committee Updates *Monamie Bhadra Haines attended from this agenda item forward.
Wen-hua Kuo presented the first report of the Fundraising Committee. The committee consists of—Wen-hua Kuo, Chair; Amit Prasad, Treasurer; Emma Kowal, Past-President; Anne Pollock, President; Noela Invernizzi, Secretary; Michal Nahman, Council; Vincent Li, and Amanda Windle (ex-officio). Kim Fortun will join the committee (ex-officio) in 2025. The purpose of the committee is: To look at diversification of income streams through fundraising. Pollock and Kuo both noted that diversification includes looking at what funds 4S, with a consideration of paywalls, as well as changing publishing practices affecting the Society's income streams; and to consider a long-term fundraising strategy going forward looking to build a culture of donating. Windle presented a short fundraising report (from November 2024) which summarised insights from an ACLS workshops and took on board foresights from CEO discussions over 2024. Highlights included the following long and short-term strategy items: creating a 15-year-in-the-society members list; focusing on 50th anniversary celebrations for 4S; finding the focus for donating, i.e. fund for what? (sustaining publications, society infrastructure, travel grants, writing workshops and so on); develop a campaign (a story to share on a new website, start a donations button (for donating discrete amounts— like 50, 500, 5000) and form (for receiving legacy and large gifts); and consider—internally, Council only—a long-term target for 5050 ($500, $1 million USD, etc.). In addition to these longer-term items, we also discussed the short-term aim of how-to bring together founders for an event dinner at 4S.
As a gesture of continuity for Committee Membership, Pollock asked Chairs for all existing prize committees on Council if they wanted to remain in their existing committees, or if other council members would like to join committees. Windle gave an update on submissions numbers for each Prize committee: 1 Bernal, 51 Carson, 29 Edge, 42 Fleck, 9 Mullins, and 5 Infrastructure. Shiv Issar asked to join the Mullins Prize, followed by Monamie Bhadra Haines requesting to join the Carson Prize, and Michal Nahman to also join the Mullins. Pollock will chair the Fleck and Bernal Prizes. Noela Invernizzi volunteered for one of the smaller journal committees due to already heavy committee commitments. Prasad will do the same. Pouya Sepehr volunteered to join either of the book committees. To reiterate the last point from agenda item 4, Pollock will reach out to esteemed and shortlisted people from 2024 to join the prize committees for 2025. Vincent (Zheng) Li reaffirmed chairing the infrastructure prize again, and Zhaopeng Li renewed his work for the Edge committee.
Action: Committee discussions moved to the Ethics Committee and Events Ethics Committee update, with a new Chair (Noela Invernizzi) aiming to gather with the committee for the next meeting and review the policy in 2025.
The Affiliations Committee was the last committee business to be discussed in this agenda item. Pollock thanked Vincent (Zheng) Li for his work on the process of moving forward Memorandum of Understanding(s) (MOU), which had not been developed for considerable time. MOUs for President’s signing include associations in China, Japan, and Korea, and ESOCITE. Invernizzi has been facilitating an MOU in Spanish with ESOCITE, and Kuo with associations in Japan and Korea. Recommendations: Sepehr will reach out to German STSing, and Prasad will reach out to STS India too.
ITEM 6 Publications Committee Updates *Kari Lancaster, Aalok Khandekar, and Yelena Gluzman joined at this point in the meeting.
Pollock read Nicole Nelson’s update as the incoming Chair for the Publications Committee. The committee met to discuss three agenda items: (a) Recruiting of the new ESTS editorial team is a current priority for the committee, (b) a raise for the ST&HV Managing Editor (ME) was reviewed, in light of (c) the editors of ST&HV were asked to address clarity around the higher salary for the ME of ST&HV. The meeting was attended by Kari Lancaster, Amit Prasad, Noela Invernizzi, Knut Sorenson, Amanda Windle, Aalok Khandekar (with Vivette García-Deister arriving later in the meeting). The Managing Director shared with the committee chair the processes and procedures (documented in the minutes) for contracting and rehiring, editors and editorships for ST&HV and ESTS over the past five years. There was further discussion by the committee of models for the STS Handbook given the limitations of infrastructure of MIT at this time. Pollock encouraged everyone to share with people to come forward for the new editorship call for ESTS. Kari Lancaster noted that the contract for the ME is up for renewal and required renegotiation at the end of the contract (December 2024). The ME contract is tied to 4S journals beyond the life of its current editorship. Pollock asked for discussion with Prasad noting positively the work of ST&HV.
VOTE: The motion to approve the draft of the EOI for ESTS journal editorship Prasad and seconded by Monteiro, and approved by (15) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
VOTE: The motion to approve the renewal and pay increase of 5k for the ST&HV Managing Editor was moved by Prasad and seconded by Nahman, and approved by (15) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
ITEM 5 Event Ethics Update
This agenda item was taken earlier, along with the other committee updates (see item 5).
ITEM 6 Amsterdam Conference Organisers’ Follow-ups
Teun Zuiderent-Jerak (organiser of the joint EASST/4S conference) presented the conference report and answered any questions from Council, which included the late payment of the registration fees, with the hold-up being processes of the final invoice from VU University.
ITEM 7 Seattle Conference Organisers’ Updates
Given the time zone of the meeting, a written report was given from Daniela Rosner for the Seattle Conference. Most of this update will be published in the Technoscience newsletter for members.
ITEM 8 Future Meetings Update *This item was taken out of order and moved up the agenda to after item 5.
Pollock discussed the future meetings policy and process, and the future meetings document which was ready to vote. Monteiro presented the history and background of this document for new council members, and how it evolved out of a member survey in 2023. The document presents a way for people to send in proposals for conference sites and locations, and it includes a very broad criterion. The aim is to get people to send in proposal in 2026 for beyond 2028. Invernizzi, noted that the proposal might need something more detailed in relation to transport infrastructure (i.e. airports, international flight connections, visa requirements, and potential collaborations with universities and other associations, etc.). The decision moved from the macro to micro perspectives of what might be missing in the current document.
VOTE: The motion to approve the draft of the Future Meetings Policy for conferences beyond 2027 onwards (with one amend as stated by Invernizzi) was proposed by Monteiro and seconded by Kuo, and approved by (15) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
ITEM 9 6S Update
This agenda item was not discussed.
Any Other Business
There was no AOB proposed or requested ahead of the meeting.
Pollock brought the meeting to a close at 14:10 GMT.