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<span style="text-transform: none;">Dear MEI Community,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The MEI Board would like to revive institutional sponsorship to help sustain the work of the MEI community and has created a detailed description of
<a href="https://music-encoding.org/community/institutional-sponsorship.html" data-outlook-id="2ae26c5e-9918-4961-94fa-67f533db96f7" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
sponsorship levels</a>. We are proposing revised language for section 3.1.2 Institutional Membership in the MEI By-laws that complement the sponsorship level description (see table below). The revision will primarily do the following:</span></p>
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<span style="text-transform: none;">remove exact monetary amounts from the by-laws</span></p>
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<span style="text-transform: none;">provide clearer language about sponsor logo placement</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.666667px;">make</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;"> minor adjustments to language for clarity</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 700;">Timeline:</span></p>
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-transform: none;"><b>By February 9, 2026:</b> Submit your comments about the proposed language to the MEI Board via email at
</span><span style="color: rgb(113, 79, 188); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-transform: none;"><a href="mailto:mei-board@lists.uni-paderborn.de" class="ms-outlook-linkify" data-outlook-id="01b59821-bb37-401d-b183-257dfb456ea2" style="color: rgb(113, 79, 188); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">mei-board@lists.uni-paderborn.de</a></span></p>
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-transform: none;"><b>By February 13, 2026:</b> MEI Board will review comments and vote on final language</span></p>
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-transform: none;"><b>February 16 - March 6, 2026:</b> Voting will open via form shared on the MEI-L</span></p>
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-transform: none;"><b>March 10, 2026:
</b>Outcome will be announced at Community Forum</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 700;">Current language in 3.1.2 Institutional Membership in MEI By-Laws</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 700;">Proposed language for 3.1.2 Institutional Membership in MEI By-Laws</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Institutional Membership in MEI is available for any form of organization, project or company. Any of the above wishing to become an Institutional Member of MEI may apply by submitting
an application, in a form prescribed by the Board, to any elected member of the Board.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">There are three levels of Institutional Membership: An institution that sponsors MEI with an annual contribution of $500, $2000, or $5000 or more will be designated a regular, patron,
or sustaining MEI Institutional Member, respectively. Other forms of in-kind commitment with the same value as the annual fees above, such as staff time or administrative support, may substitute for monetary contributions.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The logos of sponsoring organizations will appear on publications by the
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);"><a href="https://music-encoding.org/community/mei-board.html" title="https://music-encoding.org/community/mei-board.html" data-outlook-id="6f3c3c04-a959-4cac-9632-fa4dc6ce7bc1" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">MEI
Board</a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> (e.g. conference proceedings, guidelines) and on
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);"><a href="https://www.music-encoding.org/" title="https://www.music-encoding.org/" data-outlook-id="848287b0-5922-4dff-810c-6b46473696f1" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">https://www.music-encoding.org</a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">.
While the logos of sustaining Institutional Members will appear on title pages and on the welcome page of the website, those of patron and regular Institutional Members will appear in a dedicated section.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">All Institutional members in good standing have the right to display the MEI logo on any MEI-related publications or products they create or distribute that conform to the license under
which MEI is distributed.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Institutional Membership in MEI is available for any form of organization, project or company. Any of the above wishing to become an Institutional Member of MEI may apply by submitting
an application, in a form prescribed by the Board, to any elected member of the Board.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">There are three levels of
<a href="https://music-encoding.org/community/institutional-sponsorship.html" data-outlook-id="035ecb65-6401-4a15-8d6b-6d2da6fe8c21" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
Institutional Membership: Regular, Patron, and Sustaining</a>. <s>An institution that sponsors MEI with an annual contribution of $500, $2000, or $5000 or more will be designated a regular, patron, or sustaining MEI Institutional Member, respectively</s>.
<s>Other forms of</s> In-kind commitments <s>with the same value as the annual fees above</s>, such as staff time or administrative support that correspond to the annual contribution rate, may substitute for monetary contributions.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The logos of sponsoring organizations will appear on publications by the
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);"><a href="https://music-encoding.org/community/mei-board.html" title="https://music-encoding.org/community/mei-board.html" data-outlook-id="ab00b588-7e5d-4206-84a1-631ec00e5894" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">MEI
Board</a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> (e.g. conference proceedings, guidelines) and on a sponsors page on the
<a href="https://www.music-encoding.org/" title="https://www.music-encoding.org/" data-outlook-id="77877c21-fc32-41b5-a8ea-1d20cb1e2439" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
MEI website</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);"><s><a href="https://www.music-encoding.org/" title="https://www.music-encoding.org/" data-outlook-id="7e9a2692-0e05-449a-bfd1-7c3737124642" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">https://www.music-encoding.org</a></s></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">.
<s>While the logos of sustaining Institutional Members will appear on title pages and on the welcome page of the website, those of patron and regular Institutional Members will appear in a dedicated section.</s> Logos of Patron members will additionally appear
on the <a href="https://www.music-encoding.org/" title="https://www.music-encoding.org/" data-outlook-id="d84f62a0-5439-4d10-97cb-74d970a349fb" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
MEI website</a> homepage, and logos of Sustaining members will have prominent placement in the footer of each page on the
<a href="https://www.music-encoding.org/" title="https://www.music-encoding.org/" data-outlook-id="a4ea984e-04a0-4a1e-bfbe-605aa9840839" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
MEI website</a>.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">All Institutional members in good standing have the right to display the MEI logo on any MEI-related publications or products they create or distribute that conform to the license under
which MEI is distributed.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">According to the MEI By-laws, proposed amendments will be published on the MEI mailing list (MEI-L) and the MEI website. After a minimum 10-day comment period, the Board will discuss
comments on the proposed amendments received from the MEI membership and incorporate changes agreed to by a simple majority of the Board. The agreed upon version of the amended by-laws will be presented to the MEI membership for voting over a minimum 7-day
period. The amended version of the by-laws must pass with a two-thirds (2/3) majority of votes in order to become effective.</span></p>
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</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Please reach out to me or the MEI Board members with any questions.</span></div>
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Best,</div>
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Anna</div>
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<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: black;">Anna E. Kijas</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: black;">Assistant Director, Digital Scholarship & Lilly Music Library</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: black;">Tisch Library | Tufts University</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: black;">Pronouns: she, her, hers</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left; margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://tischlibrary.tufts.edu/get-help/help/digital-scholarship" data-outlook-id="ff9b3800-9150-4770-9167-a4c6ea48364e" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Get
help with Digital Scholarship at Tisch Library</a></span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><u><a href="https://tufts.libcal.com/appointments/kijas/lilly" title="https://tufts.libcal.com/appointments/kijas/lilly" data-outlook-id="776f3d28-fcff-4542-aefb-59b75e2e75c2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Book
an appointment</a></u></span><span style="color: black;"> | (617) 627-2846</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">Co-founder of
</span><span style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><u><a href="http://sucho.org/" data-outlook-id="274165e0-da01-427c-b217-103ea0d2e647" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO)</a></u></span></div>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black;">Administrative Chair,
</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><u><a href="https://music-encoding.org/community/mei-board.html" data-outlook-id="ea9c1d7f-0979-476f-b875-5345b64cf38e" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Music Encoding Initiative</a></u></span></p>
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