MINUTES OF MEETING OF 4S COUNCIL
March 18th/19th 2024
Agenda March 18th/19th 2024 @ 14:00-16:00 UTC
Anne Pollock called the meeting to order at 14:00 PM UTC.
ITEM 1 Greetings
In attendance: Anne Pollock, Amanda Windle, Amit Prasad, Marko Monteiro, Pouya Sepehr, Barkha Kagliwal, Teun Zuiderent-Jerak (guest, local co-organiser), Canay Özden-Schilling, Michal Nahman, Rohit Negi, Yelena Gluzman, Melissa Creary, Zhaopeng Li, Monamie Bhadra Haines, Eugene Richardson, Lucy van de Wiel.
Chris Kelty (Chair of the Publications Committee) arrived for item 11, and Teun Zuiderent-Jerak (Co-Chair for the Amsterdam local organising committee) arrived for item 3.
Apologies
Zheng (Vincent) Li will arrive late and Vivian Choi sent their apologies.
ITEM 2 Review Actions Table
Anne Pollock reviewed the actions table with Council.
ITEM 3 Update from Amsterdam joint conference* Pollock welcomed Teun Zuiderent-Jerak (Co-Chair for the Amsterdam local organising committee) to give an update on the conference. Zuiderent-Jerak noted the popularity of the Amsterdam meeting, and how the city is very accessible for the first joint post-Covid-19 meeting for 4S with EASST. 5,000+ abstracts have been submitted which is a huge logistical challenge raising questions such as: what does the conference then become at this size, and how can it become a meaningful experience? Rejection rates of abstracts has been necessary because of the capacity of the venue: it is an infrastructure problem i.e. elevators, coffees etc. Organisers are trying to find a reception that might need to be outside, or even two spaces. The forest event will replace the banquet. Pollock shared thanks for the organising team’s work noting the need for balance between increasing event size and keeping the conference inclusive. Recommendation: Zuiderent-Jerak noted: discussions about what the community has become needs to be discussed at the conference.
*Zheng (Vincent) Li arrived mid-way through this agenda item.
Zuiderent-Jerak with Barkha Kagliwal confirmed that 6S and EASST activities are coming together with an initial meeting planned for March 19. Yelena Gluzman asked logistical questions on Making and Doing, and Lucy van de Wiel asked be further Meet-Ups could be accommodated? Zuiderent-Jerak noted that Meet-Ups do not add additional people (beyond capacity), and so very happy to facilitate further requests.
ITEM 4 Ethics Update*
Zuiderent-Jerak outlined an ethics issue related to the Amsterdam conference which is requiring some support in relation to moderation. Action: Pollock and Windle to meet with Choi (Chair of Ethics Committee) to look at how 4S can proactively help to facilitate at both the in-person event, but also in the lead-up. *Zuiderent-Jerak left at the end of this agenda item.
ITEM 7 Honolulu Report
A short (for public) and long report (for future co-organisers) has been sent to Council in advance of this Council meeting. The reports were gratefully received with no further questions.
ITEM 8 Executive Committee
Amanda Windle presented a summary of executive committee actions, with Amit Prasad and Pollock contextualising the exec report.
ITEM 9 Finance update
Windle and Prasad presented the final 2023 budget and the recent budget estimates for 2024 in relation to the income and expenses for the Amsterdam Conference.
Van de Wiel asked to: reflect on the revenue split between EASST and 4S for the joint conference in 2024 and beyond, and further asked if there is anything to be learned for future years with joint conferences? Pollock replied that it is very different to consider the relations between ESOCITE and 4S with the view that it is important to support societies that are subject to vulnerabilities, however, EASST is not. Van de Wiel asked if subsidising the 4S/EASST conference is a trend for this year, or also going forward adding; and if it is for more than one year, then it is important to do this is in an appropriate way. Pollock reminded council of how the annual rhythms of 4S’s joint conferences having changed in the past decade, and noted that, that stakes are high if 4S were not to partner with EASST. Prasad added that what is beneficial for both organisations is not to sever the relationship with EASST, but that Council could look at the STS country-wide organisations in Italy and Switzerland, to support those organisations instead? Recommendation: Windle and Pollock to talk with EASST/organisers about future joint meetings.
VOTE: The motion to Vote ratifies the motion for 4S to continue its investment strategy and invest $250,000 in two CDs (one for 9-months and one for 2-months, both of equal amount) in February 2024 it was moved by Lucy van de Wiel and seconded by Amit Prasad and approved with 15 votes, with zero 0 against, and 0 abstention. The motion was carried.
ITEM 5 & 6 Approval of November Minutes
Pollock presented the November and Business meeting minutes for Council approval.
VOTE: The motion to approve the November minutes was moved by Yelena Gluzman and seconded by Marko Monteiro, and approved by 15 votes, with zero 0 against, and 0 abstention. The motion was carried.
VOTE: The motion to approve the November Business Meeting minutes was moved by Monamie Bhadra Haines and seconded by Melissa Creary, and approved by 14 votes, with zero 0 against, and 1 abstention (Rohit Negi). The motion was carried.
ITEM 10 Publications Committee Update
Chris Kelty presented on the renewal of the Backchannels team (Joseph Satish will be stepping down as Coordinator, a new coordinator will join, and Aaron Gregory has also joined the team, with further editorial recruitment from Africa underway), gave updates on the ST&HV and ESTS journals’ good progress and on the STS Handbook initiative. *Lucy van de Wiel left the meeting for a short time and did not vote on the following two motions.
VOTE*: The motion to approve the ST&HV English language budget move of 5k USD for extra copyediting was moved by Amit Prasad and seconded by Marko Monteiro and approved by 14 votes, with 0 against, and 0 abstention. The motion was carried.
VOTE*: The motion to approve the editorship of ST&HV for another 3 years was moved by Amit Prasad and seconded by Marko Monteiro and approved by 14 votes, with zero 0 against, and 0 abstention. The motion was carried.
ESTS is also doing well, and it is time for 4S to think about the next editorial collective over the next 1–2 years. An open call is not the best way to recruit and not feasible. It could be that there is a whole new collective or an overlapping collective. ESTS Editorships generally need to be pre-formed and so— Recommendation: The publications committee will make a recommendation by the meeting in the summer, to move forward on this ESTS editorship.
The small steering group (Chris Kelty, David Ribes, Nicole Nelson) involved in the STS Handbook have had a couple of meetings in Cholula and Honolulu who are going to put together a phase 1 proposal of the handbook with MIT Press. Recommendation: Phase 1—proposal of the STS handbook—should be ready for voting at July Council meeting. Action: Put the STS Handbook phase 1-2 on the July agenda. Kelty expressed his interest in the STS handbook idea as proposed but not interested in supporting a 5th handbook as they have been in the past. Phase 1 would be involved in collecting up the editors for this, but this is the people involved in this. Pollock is happy to be collaborative on this budget piece too, and we do have money in the bank for things that are of high priority, and this is one of them. Recommendation: It could be that the STS handbook also becomes a broad donation call across the society.
ITEM 12 6S Updates
Barkha Kagliwal gave an update on 6S activity including the Sketch group (peer-to-peer mentoring) which had less attendance, having dropped throughout the year. Kagliwal reflected that people really want to connect and gain contact, but participate in something with low-stakes (i.e. not a written submission to gain mentorship, or a social event that has to be attended). 6S and EASST students and ECR reps are putting something together for a pre-conference event that leads into a social gathering; thinking collectively to plan a pre-conference event enabling conference-buddies. Pollock and Gluzman liked this idea! Kagliwal we lead a survey to look at further activities beyond 2024. Action: Kagliwal will meet with EASST local organisers about a joint budget for approval for 2024 6S activities if over $3k USD which can be taken as a digital vote before the next Council meeting in July.
ITEM 12 Elections Schedule
Canay Özden-Schilling presented the roster for Council. The number of nominations for President (1), Secretary (1), 6S (3), and for general Council (6) are all of high quality. Özden-Schilling reflected on her experience as chair from last year, noting how difficult it is for people to volunteer for high workload elements. Council further discussed the need to have a choice of 2 candidates for President. Pollock and Prasad had already reached-out to further candidates but had found that the timing was not good for them. Van de Wiel asked if Council could move the election forward in time.
VOTE: The motion to endorse the elections roster with the aim to garner an additional Presidential role in the next two weeks or so, was moved by Canay Özden-Schilling and seconded by Yelena Gluzman and approved by 15 votes, with zero 0 against, and 0 abstention. The motion was carried.
ITEM 13 Prize Committee Update
Pollock chaired prize committee updates. Michal Nahman (Fleck Prize Chair) noted 54 books were received but less time this year to review—but despite that, the committee was on track—with final results by mid-April 2024. Marko Monteiro (Carson Prize Chair) noted 45 books nominated for the Carson Prize and had already garnered an incredible shortlist, with results in April. Lucy van de Wiel (Edge Prize Chair) noted that the committee would also go to the first round soon, with selection towards the end of April. Eugene Richardson (Mullins Prize Chair) had 10 articles to read and were meeting next week. If the committee reached a consensus the decision would be made by the end of next week. The Infrastructure Award (Chair, Vincent Li) had already been decided and the winner was Engaging Science, Technology, and Society (ESTS) journal! Pollock noted that the Bernal prize will decide a winner by March-end. There were no new nominations for the Mentoring Prize, but this would be good for infrastructure awards in the future. Recommendation: Pollock added that it would be good to have a prize for edited collections that would be a real service to the field.
ITEM 14 War and Genocide Forum Update
Nahman gave updates on progress since the first call for contributions was made in December 2024 and they had received 8 manuscripts, which have been collected via a Google space. Small edits were currently underway ahead of publishing. Nahman, Choi and Windle had met to talk about the submenu on the 4S website and then for further call outs via the Technoscience newsletter. Prasad discussed his involvement with reaching out for contributions. Pollock noted that this has been a slow process because of the need to work out the infrastructure for this forum, and thanked Council members and Lucy Suchman for bringing this together. Council discussed whether this is a forum for peace rather than Palestine? There were several comments from council noting that there was a need for something urgent on Palestine, and it would be odd to not comment on it given all the posts are on Palestine. A decision was then made to title and subhead the manuscripts highlighting the global topic and the specific collection, i.e. Palestine Forum within War on Genocide. These titles could change over time. While Council liked the idea of engaging with peace, STS knows much more about war, i.e. how weapons are being made, and taken advantage of, than what it takes to create peace. Pollock noted that it would be great for STS to move in that direction for peace, while noting the current crisis.
ITEM 15 Future Meetings Update
Pollock noted a need for the Future Meetings Committee.
VOTE: The motion to approve to the Future Meetings Committee was moved by Amit Prasad and seconded by Barkha Kagliwal and was approved by 15 votes, with zero 0 against, and 0 abstention. The motion was carried.
ITEM Any Other Business
A second call for AOB was given, as there was time in the agenda to do so. Melissa Creary asked if Council had plans to spotlights some conference panels within Technoscience? Windle noted that the prize panels (author-meets-critic) and presidential plenaries were usually highlighted, but also recommended Backchannels as a venue to curate highlighted content. Prasad asked whether 4S could develop ways to build community, noting that the ASA does this, i.e. how a group is advertised as community. Pollock noted the need for further discussion. Action: Agenda item for July: Council to consider as society grows how to help people find and/or spotlight panels.
Anne Pollock brought the meeting to a close at 16:08.