Dear BSHS member,

I write with news of BSHS’s latest activities, and to report back on Council’s most recent meeting, held just over a week ago.

Our postgraduate conference, held in Virtual-Leeds, was a rip-roaring success and on behalf of us all I extend congratulations to the organisers, Rachel Garratt and Sarah Murphy-Young. Exciting plans are shaping up for this summer’s virtual conference, too. We are aiming to retain some of the open feel of last year’s festival, whilst adding a much-needed opportunity for more academic presentations – the call for papers will be open until 3rd May, so do please pitch in with your latest or unfolding research.

Council welcomed three new participants. Zoe Screti (University of Birmingham) joined us as postgraduate rep, and has already started plans on a wonderful new BSHS podcast series. Alexander Stöger (Leiden University) joins us as communications officer with special responsibility for our website; he will be working closely with our new communications officer focusing on social media and new members, Francis Newman (shortly to be at Harvard University). Alexander and Francis have made a flying start keeping BSHS up to date in the ever-changing online world. It’s also particularly pleasing to see the international nature of BSHS reflected in these three appointments.

The Outreach and Education Committee has been as busy as ever; they received a record-breaking number of applications for this year’s Engagement Fellowships and, after a difficult process of selection, awarded fellowships at UK Antarctic Heritage, the Framework Knitters Museum (Nottingham), and the Old Operating Theatre (London). Meanwhile, their Feb 2021 Project Grant was awarded to Tenner Films to support a school outreach programme connected to the documentary The Atom: A Love Affair.

In response to the growing interest in and uptake for BSHS’s support for all kinds of projects and grants – research and outreach – Council agreed to trial a new membership package for those who can afford, and would like, to support more of our work. The new supporters’ rate will be £100 per year; it offers no special perks (no texts to our Treasurer…) and there is no roll of honour (all our members are equally honourable!). It’s purely a quiet way of doing that little bit more for the history of science, technology and medicine.

In response to our recent survey about digital membership, about half the replies were enthusiastic, and we will be rolling out the option as memberships are renewed over the coming year (the default will be to retain paper access). I’d like to reassure those who expressed concern about being forced onto on-screen reading that there are absolutely no plans to withdraw the paper option, nor to change journal editorial policy. There will be a slight differential between the membership rates to reflect the saving on postage for digital-only access. However, we took very seriously the comment that we should not discriminate against those whose eyesight needs mean they require a paper format and I would encourage you, if you need paper access and feel strongly about the additional cost, to take up concessionary membership.

Finally, Council spent some time discussing all the other results from the survey – and expressed gratitude to all who responded. It gave us a much better sense of the demographics and wishes of our members and will inform many discussions over the coming months.

Looking forward to those discussions and the plans that result –

Charlotte