The 2025 mid-year AdCom general meeting was held virtually on Saturday, June 21^st. The Finance and Communications virtual meetings were held in advance on Wednesday June 19^th and Friday June 20^th respectively.  Total attendance at the general meeting was 39 individuals, including 17 voting members. Total AdCom member attendance was around 57%.

NPSS President, Sara Pozzi, kicked off the meeting with her report emphasizing 2025-26 priorities. This includes increasing the reach and impact of NPSS through multiple avenues; enhancing conferences, journals and educational activities. In addition, we should seek to strengthen ties with IEEE, the Technical Activities Board (TAB) as well as other IEEE societies. Engaging students and young professionals through more learning and growth opportunities will help to support the standing and long-term stability of NPSS in our technical communities.

One of the primary outcomes from the AdCom Retreat in March was the formation of three task force groups. The task force on Affinity Groups will be headed by Vesna Sossi. Projects and Initiatives will  be organized by Giulia Hull and the task force on SMRs and Nuclear Reactor Technology lead is Cinzia Da Via. The three new task force chairs gave brief status reports at the general meeting as they ramp up their activities. Society members are encouraged to contact them if you have comments, questions, or ideas.

In the Treasurer’s report, Ralf Engels noted that for 2024 only around 65% of funds allocated for approved Project/Initiatives were actually spent. This resulted in the remaining funds being transferred into NPSS reserves. We are significantly limited by IEEE in future use of funds that go into our reserves. In a related topic from FinCom, co-chair John Verboncoeur proposed, given IEEE’s new annual budget model, to shift the current Project approval timelines until the October/November timeframe. It is hoped this will allow better continuity between Project approval and availability of funds at the start of the new year in January.

In other news from the general meeting,  Sara and Vesna, along with Peter Clout and John Verboncoeur, were scheduled to attend the IEEE TAB meeting during the last week in June. Vesna, as Nominations chair, noted that there was difficulty finding enough candidates for all elected AdCom positions for terms starting in 2026. One of the PAST elected positions will be extended for one year. Finally, IEEE USA liaison, Brendan Godfrey, gave a sobering report on the constantly changing status of funding freezes, overhead caps, and visa cancellations, as well as future budgets coming from the current administration in Washington. IEEE USA is actively lobbying Congress, and there are ways to get more involved on the website. It was noted that calling your representative in Congress is the more effective way to get your message heard (letters mostly get ignored).

The next AdCom meetings will be in-person at the NSS/MIC/RTSD conference in Yokohama, Japan on November 7th and 8th in the conference center.

Actions taken at the June 21, 2025 AdCom general meeting

Actions from Technical Committees:

• 11.1.1  The PPST technical committee submitted a motion for AdCom to approve Constitution and Bylaw changes. Results were  16 approve, 0 opposed, 0 abstain. The motion passed.
• 11.1.2  The PSAC technical committee submitted a motion for AdCom to approve technical co-sponsorship of the Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma and Terahertz Science (ARCOPTS) in 2026. Results were  14 approve, 0 opposed, 1 abstain. The motion passed.

Actions from Functional Committees:

• 11.2.1  – FinCom moves that AdCom approve a transfer of up to $200k from 2025 NPSS operations surplus to the NPSS Foundation Fund. Results were  16 approve, 0 opposed, 0 abstain. The motion passed.

David Abbott, NPSS Secretary, can be reached at [email protected].