MINUTES OF MEETING OF 4S COUNCIL
March 25th/26th 2026
Agenda March 25th 2026, @ midday BST
Wen-Hua Kuo called the meeting to order at 12:06 AM BST
ITEM 1 Greetings 12:00-12:05 (5mins)
In attendance: Amanda Windle (ex-officio), (1) Noela Invernizzi (Secretary), (2) Wen-Hua Kuo (President-Elect), (3) Rohit Negi, (4) Amit Prasad (Treasurer), (5) Yichen Rao, (6) Cathy Herbrand, (7) Shiv Issar, (8) Grant Jun Otuski, (9) Melissa McCreary, (10) Dana Powell, (11) Sonja Van Wichelen, (12) Martín Pérez Comisso, and Vivian Giang (non-voting). Sergio Sismondo (Local Organising Co-Chair) arrived for items 4 and 5, and Nicole Nelson (Publications Chair) arrived for item 8.
Vote by Proxy
(13) Sonja Van Wichelen will be voting by proxy due to the time zone being inhumane.
Apologies
Upali Bhattacharya, Zhaopeng Li, Monamie Bhadra Haines, and Thao Phan sent apologies in advance. Cathy Herbrand left at the end of agenda item 8, after updates from the Global STS Outreach committee; and Melissa Creary left at the end of updates from the Future Meetings committee.
ITEM 2 Presidential Updates
President, Wen-Hua Kuo welcomed to everyone in the year of the horse.
ITEM 3 Approval of December Minutes
The minutes were reviewed by Council members, including any outstanding actions. Recommendation: Martín Pérez Comisso and Shiv Issar to conduct an analysis on M&D films. Recommendation: Review the possibility of a film program to be discussed in the June Council meeting. VOTE: The motion to approve the December minutes was moved by Amit and seconded by Cathy, and approved unanimously by (13*) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried. *Includes one proxy vote.
*Sergio Sismondo arrived for items 4 and 5.
ITEM 4 Toronto Meeting Updates
Items 4 and 5 were discussed together. Local organizer Sergio Sismondo co-chair presented on behalf of all co-chairs including Alison Harvey and Kean Birch. He expressed thanks to Wes King on behalf of all Program Committee co-chairs including Melissa Adler and Negin Dahya, for doing an amazing job of the program reviewing this year. Thanks were also expressed to Amanda Windle (Executive Director) and Amit Prasad (Treasurer) for revisions to the venue contract for 4SToronto26 conference. Sismondo acknowledged the excellent room rates at the Sheraton ($329 CAD) which are much higher booking outside of the room cap, upwards of $500 CAD, while also acknowledging that this the rate doesn’t affect people evenly across the globe. Sismondo took a recent trip to the Sheraton hotel to look at the rooms to get an idea of the advantages and disadvantages, this follows Kean Birch’s tour (with Windle, virtually in autumn 2025). Sismondo noted that Making & Doing is not really getting going as of yet, but an enthusiastic team of people are organising and are at the ready for the proposals coming in. They include Yelena Gluzman, Gabir Schaffzin, and Sibo Chen. Sismondo confirmed that the numbers of open panel submissions are up on 4SSeattle25, which isn’t a surprise given the growth of 4S each year and that the conference is not in the US at this time. Windle provided the conference open panel numbers as follows for comparison with last year—
2026
Received: 265
Accept: 244
Reject: 16
Withdrawn 7 (2 test submissions / 5 otherwise, i.e. incomplete submissions)
2025
Accept: 210
Reject: 24 (includes withdrawn, test submissions and incomplete submissions)
ITEM 5 50th Anniversary
Kuo chaired the 50th anniversary updates. All of the Council’s ideas were aggregated into a shared document with the local organizer co-chairs with the plan to open a call for submissions for video shorts (1minute videos) with abstract which could become a permanent record. Sismondo discussed the idea of a plenary with 5 panellists, one person per decade to give responses, with one panel idea considering reflexive talks involving elders of the Society. There will also be the themed Presidential plenary on the theme of technopower and technoscientific futures. Amit Prasad asked if the plenaries would work similarly to past years? Sismondo is taking some of the lead on a plenary/panel engaging past-presidents which could utilise hybridity for those who do not travel to Toronto. Powell what was powerful in the keynote in 4SSeattle25 was a looking forward between indigenous studies and STS. We might be able to pick up some of those threads in the keynote for Toronto for the 50th anniversary, which is still in the preliminary stage. Kuo, this will be a busy conference, and we have extra rooms to accommodate them, but we do not have a lot of space to design lots of discussions in the schedule. Conference Coordinator Noah Kahn is working on the space allocation document now that we signed the final contract with room amends (for panellists), yesterday. Recommendation: Martín Perez-Comisso asked if M&D organizers can be invited to the Council in due time. Windle noted that the full organizing team attend Tuesday drop-in sessions with the conference team with herself and Ben Bengtson, 4S Digital Website Coordinator weekly to bridge time between conference meetings. Invernizzi reminded Council that during 4SSeattle25 we didn’t reach the number of guest bedrooms (due to attendee cancellations), to receive the discount rates for panel rooms on the legacy Sheraton contract (costing the Society $52k) due to room cancellations by attendees. Sismondo and Conference Coordinator Meghana Sharma had negotiated slightly cheaper room rates which are $20 CAD cheaper than the Sheraton, but they are a step down in quality and less convenient. Sismondo was confident that we should fill the rooms because of the preferential rates from the legacy contract. Windle added that the dates for the accommodation pick-up rates had also been spread over more days because we had Council members who could pick-up rooms on other days. Grant Jun Otsuki noted that the low-cost hotels were out of reach and wondered if like there was for 4SSydney18 there was a shared faculty with the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence. Is there any possibility to find something similar? Sismondo noted that all university rooms are full at that time of the conference, so that option isn’t available. Action: Sismondo and Sharma to review low-cost accommodations. Windle asked if we were recommending Airbnb? Dana Powell shared concern about this and appreciated the work of Sismondo and Sharma on the economic vantage point, that this is very high for someone coming from Taipei. Action: Council to forward any good options to Sismondo by mid-April. Kuo reiterated that we want to make sure that the information we can provide is on the website for all. Windle presented a brief update on visa letters—which are in discussion with our lawyer—which will be added to our “Travel To” webpage in the next 48 hours. Kuo concluded this agenda item by enthusiastically recapping on the creative ideas from Council like the treasure hunt, dress code for the banquet, and a time capsule to name a few. Pérez Comisso wondered if the collage of publications could include a collection of winning books, and their histories on use. Kuo noted that we still need an artistic director for this activity and urged Shiv Issar (on account of coming up with many ideas) to consider this role. Action: To secure an artistic director / lead for the activities.
*Sismondo left at the end of item 5.
ITEM 6 Ratify the Digital Vote on Membership
This vote helps to confirm, validate and seal the results of a—unanimously voted and 100% agreed— electronic vote, so that it can be legally binding. No further discussion was necessary given that no new information had come to light. A report was presented to Council on comparable memberships across the US, prepared by Windle with the executive committee. VOTE: Ratify the motion to approve membership increase (change category to “Student & Postdocs (Reduced) but keep rate the same as $25; increase “Professional” to $60, and increase “Sustaining" to $120) was moved by Noela and seconded by Martin, and approved by (unanimous 13) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
*Items 8 and 9 were agreed to be moved up the agenda from item 7—given the agenda was running late—and Chair Nicole Nelson had arrived on time to present the Publication Committee Updates.
ITEM 8 Committee Updates
Global STS Committee: Noela Invernizzi (Chair) presented on the committee’s recent report for Council with the recommendation for a small budget item ready for approval by Council vote (see item 7 for the vote). Building on the affiliations work from the past ten years and increasing the Society’s global reach, the small budget would allocate funding across three themed tracks: Track 1: Research on the Genealogies or Global Dimensions of STS ($5,000). Track 2: Supporting STS Emerging Leadership ($5,000). Track 3: Organization of a STS Workshop ($5,000). Invernizzi opened to questions and contributions to help construct this Global STS Outreach committee, which is now chaired by Invernizzi with Rohit Negi, Grant Jun Otsuki, Duygu Kaşdoğan and Amanda Windle (non-voting, ex-officio). Kuo supported this proposal as an investment in the future of STS—and a way to streamline the actors— to begin with this as a test. Issar supported the idea and vision of the committee but had some reservations along budgetary concerns and accountability. Can we justify launching a new global initiative during a projected deficit year? Amit there is a concern that we’re subsidising activities, but the argument can be the reverse. How are we going to deal with the growing international members? This is only really adding $6k extra on other tasks. Pérez Comisso extremely supported the global STS committee and wondered how to bring the future meetings and the global STS together, to have less committees with fewer responsibilities? Invernizzi noted that the two committees are separate. The former is a standing committee and the latter an ad hoc committee (a standing committee cannot exceed its defined remit from the Society’s by-laws, to do so would require a vote to change the by-laws).
*Cathy left at the end of this committee update.
Future Meetings Committee: Grant Jun Otsuki (Chair) began his chairing role by asking—how far does this committee reach and what does it do? Otsuki recapitulated the governance reasons that there is a difference between ad hoc and standing committees, and how these limits could require governance changes. The future meetings committee should be focused on the future meetings of 2027–2029, making sure a line-up of conference locations for these years are prepared for Council vote. The process is already in place (see existing policy and process published on the future meetings webpage). There is a need to coordinate with the global STS outreach committee to make sure that short-to-medium term goals align with the future meetings committee’s remit, and the medium-to-long goals align with the global STS outreach committee’s remit. Progress to date consists of reviewing viability of a 2028 meeting in Europe with a proposal coming through from Greece. Kuo noted that the 2027 Taipei meeting site is going well, but for 2028 there are tricky things there too. Prasad added that the future meetings committee should get options other than for Europe in 2028. The possibility of Chile for 2028 was opened up for discussion.
*Melissa left at this end of the future meetings update.
Elections / Nominations Committee: On behalf of Sonja van Wichelen (Chair) Windle presented a summary of the work that had been in implementing the new nominations criteria (agreed in principle at the last Council meeting). Prasad promoted to Council the need to find a Treasurer for 2026 as his tenure coming to an end this year.
VOTE: The motion to endorse the revised elections dates criteria was moved by Amit Prasad and seconded by Yichen Rao, and unanimously approved by (11) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
VOTE: The motion to the revised elections criteria was moved by Prasad and seconded by Pérez Comisso, and unanimously approved by (11) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
Prize Committees: Windle noted that all prizes had convened their committees except for the Edge Prize, which will meet in the coming week. The nominations were across two Society systems in this interim stage of moving the infrastructure platforms. The new form build in Survey Monkey has revealed multiple presses are nominating without membership which, should have been automatically picked up on our legacy system but wasn’t in fact working. Same form, on new system has helped to defang this issue that had been raised last year by Anne Pollock, Chair of the Bernal Prize.
Publications Committee: Nicole Nelson (Chair) presented updates to the Society’s publications portfolio. The ESTS collective has begun their tenure and were transition successfully. They are in the process of hiring and are ready to make an offer to a website editor. The roles are different in their skills base and that is reflected in the budget changes. Discussions about the time limitation of the ESTS tenure was raised at the executive committee and discussed with Nelson noting that the team would prefer a 5-years non-renewable time limit, with a 6-months transitional period of the last year. Action: The Publications Committee would need to do the search in year 4, in 2029.
VOTE: The motion to approve the time limitation of ESTS as: 5-year was moved by Amit Prasad and seconded by Martín Pérez Comisso, and unanimously approved by (11) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
VOTE: Council to approve the revised ESTS budget for 2026 totalling $65k was moved by Amit Prasad and seconded by Dana Powell and approved by (unanimously 10) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
Presently Nelson is working with the Backchannels teams for the Global South and north on role and budget allocation ($11k). Action: Nelson to determine how to divide the coordination honoraria ahead of reimbursement for 2025–2026. Nelson is presently talking to MIT on a book type series in relation to the STS Handbook, but there are a bunch of concerns about what infrastructures are available. Action: Nelson to consider these currently available resources for the STS Handbook, and to bring a proposal forward to Council. The ST&HV journal is ticking along and doing great, but there’s a need to think of a transition plan for the collective soon. Amit Prasad thanked Nelson for streamlining the process in regard to Backchannels.
6S Committee: Vivian Giang, new 6S rep led on progress in Zhaopeng Li’s and Upali Bhattacharya’s absence. There is lots going on with 6S working towards a 6S professionals’ event for 2026. Backchannels has also reached out to 6S in to how solicit for articles via 6S, going forward.
ITEM 7 Financial and Operational Updates
Prasad (Treasurer) presented on the budget rundown. The Seattle conference had a loss of $9,690.72 which was due to losing $52k of revenue on accommodation cancellations which meant we failed to receive the discounts for the Sheraton Grand’s venue hire. Additionally, a second venue was hired (Summit Convention Center) so as to fit the entire of the 4S community since the Society’s conference has grown (through hybridity). There was a necessity to increase the venue capacity due to working with a legacy 2019 contract. There were a lot of additional costs on WIFI costs and electricals. The Society was very, very close to breaking even by doing these additional measures and going into the conference had met its quote on accommodations, it was no-shows the reduced the number of guest rooms sold.
The new membership rates are now live for 2026, and a new budget overview document has been added by Prasad and Windle—to make the finances simpler for Council to digest. This follows practice from training held by the ACLS that Prasad and Windle attended. Pérez Comisso noted that this was very well organized.
Prasad noted that we need to think a hard together with the future meetings and the global STS outreach committees, as I was not initially in favour of the idea moving resources away.
VOTE: The motion to approve the budget for the 50th anniversary for 2026, totalling $5k.was moved by Rohit Negi and seconded by Dana Powell, and unanimously approved by (10) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
VOTE: The motion approve the budget for Zoom Coordination for 2026, totalling $5k was moved by Martín Pérez Comisso, and seconded by Grant Jun Otsuki, and unanimously approved by (10) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
VOTE: The motion approve the budget for the ad hoc Global STS Committee for 2026, totalling $15k was moved by Martín Pérez Comisso, and seconded by Yichen Rao, and unanimously approved by (10) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
VOTE: The motion to approve the Society’s budget for 2026 was moved by Grant Jun Otsuki and seconded by Martín Pérez Comisso, and unanimously approved by (10) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
ITEM 10 Taipei Meeting Updates
Kuo led an update on progress for the 4STaipei27. He had a meeting in late April to move towards a Memorandum of Understanding in the next month. The local team is still in construction, moving from a smaller to a bigger team for the annual meeting in 2027, involving the National Taiwan University and Taiwan STS Association. My personal idea is to follow the working model with local teams. I don’t think we need to introduce another model for this conference. The last Asian conference was held last in Japan more than 15 years ago, which was very different to now such as the many administrative things that 4S needs to do for the 4S Society. Otsuki volunteered to help on the 2027 conference preparations, and especially if the future meetings committee can do anything to help. Otsuki asked if there were dates planned? Kuo noted that the dates are towards the end of August 2027 at the venue is the NTU campus. Powell who is based in Taipei has also been persuaded to volunteer for 4STaipei27.
ITEM 11 Any Other Business
There was no time for any other business.
The meeting was drawn to a close by Kuo at 14:23 BST.