Society for the History of Technology

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

SHOT serves members and others interested in the history of technology, broadly defined. We support new graduate students, junior scholars, and established scholars from across the globe. Our members include academics, public historians, museum professionals, archivists, independent scholars, engineers, and many other professionals.

How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees, Suggestion box/email,

How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,

What significant change resulted from feedback?

SHOT continually works to expand professional development for graduate students and scholars from underrepresented groups. In recent years, SHOT has encouraged and supported formation of our "Early Career Interest Group (ECIG)" which supports such individuals in building stronger networks. In response to calls for supporting discussions of diversity, equity and inclusion, SHOT recently funded an online graduate workshop offering professional advice by mentors. SHOT also keeps working to expand our program of grants to help overseas scholars join our meetings, in response to concerns about rising costs of travel. Finally, SHOT recently surveyed members about environmental concerns and then used poll results to restructure elements of our meetings to improve sustainability.

With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

The people we serve, Our staff, Our board,

How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?

A few years ago, SHOT officers paid specific attention to feedback indicating that graduate students would like more direct involvement with society affairs. Accordingly, SHOT added a graduate-student representative's seat to our Executive Council. That inclusion ensures that these constituents will always have a formal voice in decisions and a permanent route for providing feedback to SHOT leadership. Through Council actions, graduate students are kept informed of SHOT decisions about annual meetings, our publications, financial and other resources, and long-range planning.

Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback,

What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, It is difficult to identify actionable feedback,