a. Decodings:

Regularly 62
Occasionally 20
Never 0
Very useful 24
Somewhat useful 39
Not very useful 5
Prefer the print version Y 13, N 15

• Least expensive
• Need less expensive format
• Doesn't matter
• Whatever is cheaper/easier

b. Litsci-l

Regularly 7
Occasionally 25
Never 38
Very useful 6
Somewhat useful 15
Not very useful 18

• Didn't let me in
• Hard time subscribing
• Perhaps I missed some postings, but I've not received much distributed to the list

c. SLS Website Litsci-l

Regularly 3
Occasionally 32
Never 35
Very useful 4
Somewhat useful 28
Not very useful 11

• Usually out of date

2. Favor Electronic transmission of Decodings and other messages?

Instead of mailed a hard copy 37
In addition to a mailed hard copy 26
Via an email list 17
Posted on the website 1
Both 24

• I would favor whatever method is cheapest for our use; the least energy-moving paper might not be such a good idea

3. Would an improved Website be OK as the sole means of communication?

Y 23
N 51

• Need email notification
• Unless email reminders went out when new info was posted
• Only if email notification of new material on the website was sent to all

4. What features would you like to see on an improved Website?

(some examples offered: links to member's websites, descriptions of member's interests, abstracts of work in progress, contributed book reviews, previous meeting programs)

• Meeting programs, conference listings, links to L and S pertinent sites, abstracts of works in progress
• All above mentioned examples, I'd like to see an actively edited website as the central information exchange medium of the organization
• All of those mentioned above
• Links to relevant works, sites, texts
• Previous meeting programs with abstracts, contributed book reviews
• Links to member's sites, previous meeting program
• Consolidated bibliography
• I would suggest you read EJY (pronounced edgy and meaning electronic journal)
• Yes, all of above
• Links to member's sites, previous meeting programs
• All of the above sounds good, the deciding factor would be the willingness of whomever maintained the list
• Yes, all of the above
• Abstracts from program, links to configuration information, newsletters, perhaps book reviews
• Yes!
• Abstracts of work, past and present programs
• All
• Calls for papers, membership directory
• I would like to see a general, permanent SLS website with links to member's sites. Sometimes I have tried to send people to our site and have been able to reach sites only specific to old conferences
• Chat room or bulletin board for posting queries conferences/CFPs/fellowships, jobs, plus all of the above
• CFP's, syllabi exchange
• At least the abstracts of SLS conference papers since the abstract program book is defunct
• The website could function as an all-year meeting, with comments-rather like a chat room plus book reminders and descriptions of member's interest
• All of above
• Resources for study of literature and sciences including some of the above suggested
• Links, contributed book reviews, member's interests
• All of the above and links to useful websites: lit and science or STS organizations
• All of the above plus its own URL domain name, bibliography should be reachable online rather then through configurations
• Previous meeting programs, SLS needs an outreach mechanism that gets out the word to prospective members
• All of the above plus bulletin board for organizing sessions at meeting, suggestion box, membership directory
• Images, all of the above
• All of the above, especially abstracts, descriptions of member's interests
• Better speed, looking at it today has been difficult; links to related organizations such as ASLE (Association for Study of Lit and Environment) as well as publishing Configurations opportunities would be nice
• All above, pluc links to compatible organizations/sites
• Abstracts, book reviews, previous meetings, future relevant meeting news and/or call for papers
• Links to member sites and/or description of member interest (would be a big help in organizing conf/panels)
• Abstracts from previous conferences
• Links to related sites
• Members' interests and works in progress, links to resources, including conferences, exhibitions, teaching materials, etc. book reviews
• Members' interests, book reviews
• All of above also links to social studies sites, links to current and future SLS meeting sites, Configurations guidelines for authors, editorial information etc, up-to-date and accurate lists of officers, editors, current and future meetings, etc.

5. Any other comments about communications?

• Website and email communication should become the center for information exchange media
• The official SLS site is ok. The conference websites, however, have often been unreliable (not updated enough). This is important for overseas members.
• Printed Decodings is valuable because it is an easy reference
• An email alert to news
• The ASLE site is well organized and might serve as a useful model: www.umn.edu
• I would encourage the SLS to reach out to other societies with an interest in science and culture, like the science and society folks or the tech writing societies. (ATTW, STC)
• 4s provides a hardcopy of newsletter only to members who do not want to receive it electronically. SLS could save a lot of money doing the same

II. Meetings

A. Timing and Location

1. The above schedule 40 (given as an annual US meeting in early fall & planning to have a second meeting overseas in spring every other year)

No meeting in a year with an overseas meeting 18
Moving the US meeting to another time of year Midfall 5
Spring 6
Summer 2

• Please don't cancel US meetings in the years with overseas meetings. Those with a heavy teaching schedule and /or limited travel funds can't afford to go to international meetings but wouldn't want to miss the annual national one
• What about local/state meetings? Is the society large enough?
• All meetings in the fall alternately lead to conflicts
• And shorter oversees commitments (not a week's commitment)
• Late November works for those in Australia.

2. Type of site

Urban environment 27
University environment 23
No preference 29

• Easier to get to universities (i.e. land grant universities)
• Preferably universities in cities
• Food terrible at university

3. Consideration for choosing site

Hotel room costs 25
Availability of cheap airfares 33
Setting 34

• Balanced cost with desirability
• I have fixed money for reimbursement room cost, but lowest airfare available gets full reimbursement
• Not interested in paying for choice locations, conferences should allow for full range of accommodation prices

4. Highest room rate (double occupancy)

$150-200, acceptable to 15 people
$100-149, acceptable to 38
$60-99, acceptable to 6

5. How to cover hi-tech AV costs?

Increase registration fees

Y 14
$20:2
$10:3
$100: 2
$50:2
$75: 1

Charging equipment users

Y 37
$10-15: 10
$25: 7
$50: 5

6. Any other comments on timing or location, or suggestions for future sites

• European meetings should be moved to the East European countries once in a while, provided the chosen location provides cheap accommodation and convenient air travel accessibility. There are conferences more accessible to everyone
• Easy availability of good food (i.e. within walking distance) is important for those who don't drive to the conference-Good in Atlanta, not good in Gainesville
• Europe
• U of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill or Duke, MIT, UC San Diego, UT Austin, U of Washington, Seattle
• Somewhat later in October
• I went to a conference in Brussels once where people were allowed to set up tents and trailers on a grassy section of the campus. That was the best accommodations I've ever experienced. It was fun
• Reasonable walking distance from restaurants, museums, bookstores (isolated to enforce panel attendance)
• Yes. Try to be more balanced in choosing a conference site, e.g. West Coast, Midwest, East coast. It's nearly always on the east coast
• Re: Atlanta, how about places with public transportation?
• Keep doing the best you can-the various factors have different weights in different places
• Bloomington Indiana-there were five of us at the last conference
• Western New England or Eastern NY state
• The Pasadena location is a good idea-it's the first SLS meeting I can remember on the west coast

B. Organization

1. Structure

This structure 35
Having one or more plenary sessions during the day 27

• I would like to suggest in Decodings of having just one plenary, preferably one night. With just one plenary, we might relieve pressure by holding some sessions in the evenings
• Either, but papers for competing panels should be one the web
• But more general (less intellectually specific) plenaries at night. The plenaries in Atlanta, except on Thursday evening, were terrible, dull, and over intellectualized

2. Which of the following:

Sessions through Sunday noon with typically 5-6 competing panels 48
Sessions through Saturday afternoon with typically 7-8 competing panels 21

• People don't stay for Sunday sessions
• The trouble with Sunday panels is that too many people leave to catch airplanes.

3. Would you be in favor of restricting the number of contributed papers/panels, if necessary, to permit scheduling more plenary sessions or other activities?

Y 32
N 38

4. Some of our recent meetings have had an overall theme, others not. Should they?

Y 31
N 29

Why or Why not?

• Restrictive for range of members' interests
• To make for a necessary conference profile, if you're not interested in the theme you can skip the whole conference
• You provide a good shopping list
• Nice to have a theme organizing the plenaries (if not the papers) gives you a reason to go even if you're not presenting
• I like the focus, and it should lead to a larger group of contributions
• Themes are either too general to be meaningful, or too restrictive to be open to the membership at large
• I don't have a preference
• Doesn't make much of a difference
• It brings cohesion, but the theme should not be too narrow
• Gives more homogeneity to discussions, however a space for non-theme panels should stay open
• It contributes to focus
• Limits the paper topics that are relevant. Many panels end up being only tangentially related to the theme anyway. Conferences should invite full range of work that people are doing in the field
• Provides a common conversation running through a diverse meeting. The themes don't seem too limiting if they are broadly interprete
• Science and Literature is narrow enough
• Too restrictive and not fully helpful
• Themes have the potential of drawing people who might not otherwise think of attending
• Allows people to conceptualize new things and for new ideas to build
• Diverse interests
• Focuses intellectual discussion
• Allows for cohesive, focused conference
• The area is too broad
• The theme is okay, provided it does not result in exclusion of papers outside the theme coverage
• People stretch their own materials to fit the theme and once accepted, do their own topic anyway
• Some themes have been so voguish that I haven't understood what they were
• Gives sense of focus to SLS
• Some new members are always attracted by an interesting theme who might not otherwise go to SLS
• Everyone ignores theme-which speaks to the ungovernable quality that is SLS (happily)
• Sure, if the topic is timely (and not mandatory)
• Focuses discussions, forces a little more discipline on presenters
• Lit and Science is itself a theme. Themes often force the creation of panels/papers tenuously related to the theme
• Papers infrequently fit the theme, although the overall theme is useful for organizing plenaries
• People should be able to report on their work, whatever it is. Each session should have a theme
• Theme might exclude people working in different areas
• Focus
• Doesn't really matter, people ignore them anyway
• Helps decide whether to attend
• Too restrictive.

5. Is it important to have abstracts available in advance of the meeting?

Y 45
N 22

How far in advance to have available in advance?

1 wk acceptable to 2
2 wks to 21
3-4 wks to 2
1 mo to 10

6. Should abstracts be made available?

On the Website only 41
In a hard copy also 29

7. How much additional registration fee would you be willing to pay for abstracts in hard copy?

$10 15
$15 5
$20 9
none 13

8. How far in advance of the meeting date would you prefer the deadline for submissions to be?

2 months 9
4 months 30
6 months 16

9. Any other comments on meeting organization?

• It's worked out well in my experience
• In Atlanta there were too many concurrent sessions. I think we need only 1-2 plenaries, perhaps Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday evening dance. Papers should begin Thursday afternoon and go to Sunday midday. Perhaps conference wrap-up can happen over breakfast on Sunday
• Meetings in general have become too focused on celebrity academics. Bring the focus back down to the people
• No dull speeches after lunch

III. Configurations

1. Have you made use of electronic access to Configurations?

Y 18

How frequently?

Seldom 1
Often 3
Occasionally 4
No, but probably will 39
No, don't expect to 21
Have difficulties accessing 3

2. What is your opinion of the annual SLS Bibliography published in Configurations?

Very Useful 27
Somewhat useful 33
Not very useful 7

3. It's been proposed to move the Bibliography to the Web, to save print pages (and money) and also to make it a searchable file. Which is your preference?

Move to the Web 48
Put on Web but maintain print version 21

4. Some of the members help compile the bibliography by carrying out searches on topics or areas (e.g. art, biotech, etc); what topics would you be willing to search for us? (Unfortunately few people provided their names and addresses­Carol¹s note)

• 17th and 18th Century Literature
• Humor, Science and Literature
• Rhetoric of Science, Environmental/Nature Literature, Science Policy/Lit Connections
• Biotech, Social Theory, Marxism, Social Movements, Political Activism
• Cognitive Science
• Race and Technology
• Literature and Medicine
• Art and Technology
• Virtual Reality Art
• Drugs, Substance Abuse
• Environment, Ecology, Natural History
• History of Science
• Art, Architecture, Modernism
• History of Geology
• Romantic Science
• History of Medicine
• Genetics (Ethics, History, Lit)
• Latin America

5. Would you be willing to submit bibliographic references to a database compilation?

Y 17
Maybe occasionally 26
N 4

6. Any other comments on Configurations or the Bibliography?

• Don't use it much
• The bibliography is excellent, the articles so far haven't seemed close to my own methodology. Editorial needs more UK input
• There are lots of conferences in October but spring is always dicey. We should have a US conference every year though. It's very important
• Configurations doesn't have enough cultural studies in it and not a lot of stuff related to medicine and gender. It seems very limited. Occasionally, I seen an article I'm interested in, but not often. Seems a one-side perspective. Also, turn-around on articles is too long. I had to pull one under consideration once
• Add a letters to the editor section
• Why not have it indexed and abstracted in social science/sociology rate bases
• Could Configurations come to have some grittier articles on lit and science and downplay a little the emphasis on computers and the meta-abstract
• Could use more book reviews

IV. General

1. Any suggestions for improving recruitment/retention of SLS membership?

• More advertisement on campuses about what the society is and what it means to study lit and science (and how it relates to the broader themes of lit and science)
• More media and recent topics, less medicine and the likes (Also you can fit a medical ethics topic into a media topic, not vice versa)
• Lots of people who do poetry and science would be interested. Advertise in 'Poets and Writers' magazine and with the Academy of American Poets
• Get JHUP to send out general notices. I think my membership has expired
• I wish they didn't make it so difficult to continue being an SLS member
• SLS is a membership plus numerous transient conference participants. Closer integration of the two groups would help
• I would imagine that the cost of an on-campus site would be less and the conference could be a day longer, hence getting more people in
• Keep the conferences as inexpensive as possible; put calls for papers in Linuge Franca
• Make sure our meetings are consistently crosslisted in relevant publications (PMLA, SHOT, WASTS, technoscience, science, math, TCS groups, sound science groups)
• One can't avoid fashion, but one can avoid hyping fashionability. The topics of the last two conferences seemed to bear designer labels
• Use themes, push announcements for SLS meetings on the web
• Get the website looking more exacting and or more info. Then ask current members to advertise SLS to STS, HPS, etc. programs at their home institutions
• Make the CFP less jargony, so it will have broader appeal across disciplines. POS and CICP on the CFP listserv
• Presence at American Studies Association, HSS, AAHM, MLA
• First, find out why some are not returning, encourage grad student session
• Screen talks at conferences to improve quality
• Website visibility and usefulness. That should help spread the word and attract new members
• Publicizing plenary speakers more widely
• Have Configurations appear on schedule and shorten length of review time for submission

2. Any names of potentially interested/useful contacts in Europe and elsewhere for expanding our overseas membership/awareness?

• International Institution for Semiotics
• Vimala Herman, University of Nottingham
• Noelle Batt, University of Paris
• Professor Hans-Jorg Rheinberg, Prof. Lorraine Daston, Max Planck Institiute fur Wissenschaft
• Prof. Sign'd Weigel and Prof Bernhard Dotzier at Zentrum fur Literurforshung Berlin, Jagerstr. litera@zfl.gwz-berlin.de
• Roef Tarrach physicist in Barcelona, Spain
• Henri Gokfrim, physicist CNRS Grenoble, France
• Roy Ascott Calla STAR UK http://caria.star.newport.plymouth.ac.uk

3. Are there any other groups of societies with which you think the SLS should coordinate conferences? (or invite to have visiting society panels at our conference, ot to propose 'visiting' SLS panels as part of their conferences)?

• HSS - International Association for Semiotic Studies
• Modernist studies Association
• ELO Electronic Literature Organization and ASCI Art and Science Collaborations
• Humanities and Technology Association
• History of Science and Medicine groups
• 4S, MLA
• SSSS, Conference of Communication of Environment, Association for study of Literature and the Environment
• HSS
• I don't think SLS should join other conferences. It is unique
• MLA
• ASA, MLA
• HSS
• 4S
• ASLE, HSS

4. Which societies' websites should we provide links to on our websites, and ask to provide web links to our website?

• HSS/SHARP/NASSR
• SHCT, HSS, SSSS
• HSS, PSA
• 4S
• ZLF
• AAAS
• HSS, 4S
• HHS, AAAS. MSA

5. Anything else at all you like to comment on?

• I didn't realize what I was joining. You offered a book I wanted, so I spent the money. I'm not a college graduate, just an avid reader with varied interests, I do find articles in Configurations to be highly literate
• NO DANCE
• SLS is a great organization, but has lost its seem some constituents. There seems less feminist input, somehow--I remember some great panels years ago. But still, the conference is great. There is a problem with the panels though--they often get put together haphazardly. I've had some problems in that. Don't have a solution though
• You might try the science fiction writers of Ameria
• I think the society should change its name to SLTS (Society for Literature, Technology, and Science)
• Most papers printed in Configurations and at the meeting are by persons who seem to care more about the way they say things than what they say. Most don't interest me
• Great organization and great meetings
• My copies of Configurations and Decodings are frequently damaged. I recommend MIT press