MINUTES OF MEETING OF 4S COUNCIL
October 29th/30th 2025
Agenda October 29th / 30th 2025 @ 10:03 BST
Wen-Hua Kuo called the meeting to order at 10:00 AM BST
Greetings
In attendance: Wen-Hua Kuo (President-Elect), Amanda Windle (ex-officio), Grant Jun Otuski, Amit Prasad (Treasurer), Noela Invernizzi (Secretary), Monamie Bhadra Haines, Thao Phan, Dana Powell, Rohit Negi, Martín Pérez Comisso, Shiv Issar, Sonja Van Wichelen, Yichen Rao, and Cathy Herbrand.
Apologies
Vivian Giang, Zhaopeng Li, and Upali Bhattacharya (non-voting), and Melissa McCreary sent apologies in advance due to the usual incompatible time-zones that occur in global scheduling.
ITEM 1 Presidential Updates
Wen-Hua Kuo welcomed everyone to the meeting.
ITEM 2 Approval of Sept Minutes
Wen-Hua Kuo asked if everyone had had enough time to read the minutes? There was consensus on the minutes with one edit, the track changed comments did not need to be included in the final minutes. VOTE: The motion to approve the Sept minutes was moved by Monamie Haines and seconded by Yichen Rao, and approved by (13) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
ITEM 3 Contract Renewal Updates
Kuo chaired this session with Windle giving context on the core business needed to be voted on this month. An October council meeting was arranged to enable contract renewals, notably the ESTS Managing Editor role and any budgetary / role items related the STS Handbook. Unfortunately, neither contractual / budgetary items have been able to be completed in time for this meeting. The meeting does however afford the Council time to reflect on several other budgetary issues.
There was however, several prior discussions around the roles of the more technical web aspects of the Managing Editor and Website Coordinator coming together (between Wen-Hua Kuo, Nicole Nelson, and also with Amanda Windle), but it was noted with Windle and Prasad giving further context from the Executive committee deliberation last week, that this isn’t desirable for two reasons: (1) while the skills sets are web-based one is more aligned to the publishing sector and the other to financial and membership management with a news/PR focus. To find someone with both of these skills sets at the current pay grades would be unlikely. Additionally, with these positions being short-term contractual, and turnover likely, losing two consultants at the same time, would bring both a burden and risk to the Society’s maintenance of core business. The contract hiring around the ESTS journal and the STS Handbook are scheduled for the next Council meeting, ideally in December 2025.
The contract and advert for the 4S Website Coordinator was reviewed, edited and updated by Mel Armstrong (currently Web Coordinator) and Windle, with Executive having reviewed this. Subsequently, during the Council meeting the role descriptors were further discussed. Otsuki, recommended that there should be a contract renewal added, with a possibility of 3-months before the end date? Shiv Issar commented on flexibility/fluctuation of hours; Thao Phan noted the specificity of the term consultant at the top of the advert; and Yichen Rao noted the need to make more explicit the technical ask; with Invernizzi added the specificity around STS and related fields (and Phan noting Windle’s mention of design skills being important). There was further discussion across Council of how the Web Coordinator role gives support at the registration desk in relation to the in relation to the financial system. VOTE: The motion to approve 4S Council vote on Web Coordinator role for 2025 was moved by Prasad and seconded by Otsuki, and approved by (13) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
Windle recused themselves from the meeting for further discussion around changes to their Managing Director role. The role title was proposed by Kuo to bring the role in-line with the ACLS CEO group. Advice from the CEO was sought for this aspect. Windle requested an inflationary increase to the role (the first since the initial contract was written and requested an extension of contract. Council were unanimously in favour of a change with attention paid to labor rights. VOTE: The motion to approve the Managing Director role title to Executive Director, and an inflationary pay increase $75k USD (from Jan 2026), and time extension of Dec 2028 was moved by Haines and seconded by Otsuki, and approved by (13) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
Windle rejoined the meeting for the next item.
ITEM 4 Finance and Operational Updates
CDs (3-month renewals)—Windle had shared the current September budget with the proviso that expenses are still wrapping up for the Seattle Conference, during the current tax season. There is still the flexibility to split a CD and take aside $50k for infrastructure costs, that is if the NSF draw down doesn’t resolve. This is partly dependent on the current US government shutdown ending. Action: Prasad recommended Windle to reach out to our NSF lead in the meantime.
X-CD website quote—Windle presented the website revised quote from X-CD with a new increase of fee, noting that annually what the Society is currently paying is $6,240 per annum, the one-off 10k payment to move the website will be offset within a few years if comparing to the existing system. The current errors of date order on the news and Backchannels aspects of the website remain unresolved despite requests since 2024 to fix this issue. The website will return to a Wordpress functionality, which will be easier to maintain. X-CD was asked to see if they could deliver and then quote on the Zoom aspect of the annual conference, but they can only continue to bring in the Zoom links so this year and not provide additional labor support. Otsuki shared his experiences of the membership software issues from 2023 and offered his full support for this change of system. There was a unanimous decision to approve the October 2025 revised X-CD quote, effective immediately. VOTE: The motion to approve on Website move with X-CD final costs ($10k development move, plus $3.5k hosting and services) was moved by Invernizzi and seconded by Otsuki, and approved by (13) votes, with zero (0) against, and (0) abstention. The motion was carried.
Fundraising—Kuo and Prasad discussed that while December 2025 is the optimal time when people make donations for tax purposes, this should not only guide us on our timings: with the finance committee and the fundraising committee meeting around the same time so that something can be started quickly, with different facets planned. Haines, recapped on the need for educational material on our website as an easy-to-read graphic, say for items like fundraising for travel grants in the future. Kuo noted these salient points noting the following—Action: fundraising committee would continue with furthering the existing documents.
Monamie Haines left at the end of this agenda item.
ITEM 5 Committee Updates
As stated in Item 4, the Finance Committee is scheduled to meet as soon as possible, ideally in November 2025, ahead of the 2026 budgetary preparations. Also noted in Item 4, the Publications Committee will meet at the next Council meeting, in December 2025. The annual refresh of committees by the President are currently in progress, and to be further announced in forthcoming Council meetings. There were no 6S updates to report for this meeting.
ITEM 6 Toronto Meeting Updates
Windle presented on behalf of the Local Organizer, Kean Birch the new logo and theme from Running House Graphics (Shannon Murray). Birch also sent to the President the current in-progress list of proposed people to serve on the Toronto’26 local organizing team. Action: next steps are for Kuo to review and complete this local organising team, with attention given to making sure as Invernizzi highlighted that the program committee is as broad, full, and representative selection of STS scholars. Action: Windle highlighted the need for the Conference Coordinator to be a dual role, with only one person presently on the list.
ITEM 7 Any Other Business
There was no other business.
Meeting was drawn to a close at 11:31 AM BST.