2022 MINUTES OF MEETING OF 4S COUNCIL
6th December 2022
Agenda December 6th 2022, 9am-1pm CST.
Emma Kowal called the meeting to order at 9.20AM CST.
ITEM 1 Greetings
In attendance:
In-person: Emma Kowal, Amanda Windle, Aneesh Aneesh, Misria Shaik Ali, Vivian Choi, Angela Okune, Duygu Kaşdoğan, Canay Özden-Schilling, Maka Suarez, Vivette García-Deister, Tim Neale, Pablo Kreimer, Lucy van de Wiel.
Virtually: Barkha Kagliwal, Zheng-Li, Michal Nahman, Pouyar Sephr, Bryn Seabrook, Eugene Richardson.
ITEM 1 Apologies
Chris Kelty and Yelena Gluzman will arrive late and, Chihyung Jeon also sent their apologies.
ITEM 2 Introductions and review of the actions table.
Emma Kowal gave an update and new council members (Yelena Gluzman, Zheng-Li, Michal Nahman, Pouyar Sephr and Eugene Richardson) were welcomed to the meeting. Council members rotating off council were thanked for their work: Angela Okune, Duygu Kaşdoğan, Tim Neale, and Pablo Kreimer.
ITEM 3A Approval of September Minutes
Bryn left the meeting before the vote.
VOTE: The motion to approve the September minutes was moved by Vivette García-Deister and seconded by Vivian Choi and approved by (11 in-person [all online are not yet voting]) votes, with zero (0) against, and (1) abstention for their absence for the Sept’ meeting. The motion was carried.
ITEM 4 President’s report: including incorporation & charter changes
There was an update from 6S— the sketch programme was not to be a vertical one-off meeting but have meetings build over time. Also, engagement liaisons are further engagement beyond the reps. Kowal and Choi noted that the society is still waiting for the 4S NSF grant update. 4S has however been approved to the next step on ACLS, (which takes place in March 2023).
Action: Kowal and Amanda Windle to consolidate the Web and Social Media committees on the website.
Action: Windle to check on nominations on the 15th December, to see if we need to extend the deadline.
Action: All chairs of prize committees to write-up the annual prize process and create updates for the next prize committee chairs. For instance, effective working on hard and digital copies, and the commendation and short list that Duygu Kaşdoğan introduced. Angela Okune brought up the differentiation of the distinction between the Fleck and the Carson. Misria Shaik Ali and Pablo Kreimer agreed for the Fleck and Carson prize committees to have a meeting between both committees in the future. Maka Suarez, it would be good for people that are nominated to know what happens on the selection process between the two prizes. Kaşdoğan wanted to make the processes smoother for Chairs and to establish the protocols. It is at the start of the nomination process that changes would be beneficial. Kreimer discussed the amount of books required to read for judging the Fleck and creating a long list and then a short list.
Action: Okune and Kaşdoğan will get a new form as a draft by the end of this week. The form will be for 2024.
Action: For 2023, Suarez will Chair the Carson Prize Committee, and Misria will be on either the Carson or Fleck committees.
Action: Chairs of Fleck and Carson to meet in January 2023 and get the books ready to process.
Action: Windle to collate a timeline for the deadlines of when the prize committees will make the decision for 2023.
Action: To check on incorporation progress and volunteers included in incorporation.
ITEM 5 MemberLeap Also included MemberLeap migration.
Kowal noted that the MemberLeap digital infrastructure migration is on track, with a pause for the current conference. The aim is to transfer to the new system in the spring of 2023.
ITEM 3B Approval of September Special Business Meeting Minutes
Kowal presented the process of the Special Business meeting. Tim Neale said that the minutes are a fair account of the zoom meeting.
VOTE: The motion to approve the September minutes was moved by Duygu Kaşdoğan and seconded by Tim Neale and approved by (9) in-person all online are not yet voting) votes, with zero (0) against, and (3) abstention for absence for the meeting. The motion was carried.
BREAK
ITEM 8 Publications Update – meet up for discussion on next Handbook Friday 11am-1pm
Chris Kelty presented on a number of ongoing projects. Three items were discussed – status and success of ESTS and ST&HV (annual reports) and the STS handbook. The latter also related to the recent join finance and publications committee meeting: to review the financial stability going forward, the relationship of the financial model between the two journals, and how membership money supports the publications programme. How we can 4S, as a goal support publications ongoing was postulated by Kelty, and should be on every council member’s agenda. It is not just for the journal editors but the society to figure out these questions with the aim to help on the long-term prospects of the publications report. Kowal opened questions. Neale discussed the support on English language proficiency for ST&HV—that it is not a reason to reject and article, but a need for support. ST&HV had two candidates with the journal needing this help at the Revise & Resubmit stage. Neale noted that ST&HV editors were targeting scholars from low-and-middle countries. Suarez thanked the journal for doing this work. García-Deister asked for the distribution of the budget. Neale confirmed it was $1k (USD) per paper. So, ten papers would be an amazing return on investment, noted Kowal.
ITEM 6 Finance report – 2022 and 2023 Budget * Yelena Gluzman joined council at this point.
Windle gave a presentation of state of play and Aneesh Aneesh gave an update on investment plans, with a meeting with Chase forthcoming this month with the plan to explore CTs (short-term investment for a year), and a quarter of our reserves for an ETF investment.
Action: Aneesh to meet with Chase bank on CTs / investment portfolio for 4S.
ITEM 7 Hawaii 2023 update * Grant Otsuki arrived for item 7.
Otsuki reported on Honolulu 2024 conference progress as Co-chair, passing on pointers from co-chair Aya Kimura. Joan Fujimura is working as local organising chair. Shaik Ali, what are you doing about travelling to Hawaii; we should consider where are we having 6S mixers for 2024; can the plenary discussion relate to this? Otsuki reported that Kimura was working on current contamination issues. Okune also asked if there are concerns on cost for this year? Choi discussed how conferences can be extractive.
Kowal noted that EASST will be at Amsterdam, 2026 Is Toronto, and Taiwan in 2027, and 2028 back in Europe but there is a possibility of this potentially being online if EASST and 4S both want this.
ITEM 9 Report on Ethics and Code of Conduct and Event Ethics Committee
Choi noted that the progress on training and next steps on reporting.
ITEM 10 Committee membership 2023 & documenting committee process
Discussed above in relation to item 4.
ITEM 11 Business meeting Saturday 11am-1pm
Kowal noted the forthcoming Business meeting dates and times.
ITEM 12 Any Other Business
No AOB.
Kowal brought the meeting to a close at 12.37pm CST.