```suggestion Exceptions to annual elections and term lengths will be made for the initial election of the Board and in case a Board member resigns. ```

```suggestion The Board holds regular, virtual, or in-person meetings, e.g. approximately every three months. As schedules and funding permit, the Board meets in person at least once per year. For every meeting, an agenda shall be published online prior to the meeting and minutes of the meeting shall be provided in a timely manner following the meeting. Depending on the availability of funding, the members of the Board may be refunded travel costs for this meeting. ```

```suggestion The administrative chair takes responsibility for calling Board meetings. The designated Host Institution Board members act as _liaison_ with the host organizations. Moreover, the chair of the Board is the main representative of the whole MEI Community and thus has representational functions and obligations and may act on behalf of the whole MEI community on such occasions. (N.B. the above is not to say that the chair of the Board has more influence and decision competence than any other member of the Board. The chair of the Board is simply “first among equals.”) ```

```suggestion * accommodates the encoding of the intellectual and physical characteristics of music notation documents, primarily focusing on, but not being limited to, Common Western Music Notation (CWMN); ```

"Exception**s** "

comma after "virtual"?

The final sentence is not correct. It should probably read "The chair of the Board is simply "first among equals.""

The capitalization of "administrative chair" does not match that of "Technical Co-chairs" and "Elections Officers"

punctuation: "...primarily focusing on, but not being limited to, Common Western..."

```suggestion All open board seats shall be contested by all candidates in one election. There is no minimum voter turnout requirement. Ballots shall allow ranked voting. The winners shall be determined by a counting method suitable for electing a group of candidates, e.g. the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method. The election rules, including the voting method, shall be chosen and publicly declared prior to the start of the nomination phase. ```

Based on past experience in running elections: If there is a desire to be vague about the specific method chosen (to allow for this to change in the future without changing the by-laws), there should at least be a requirement in the by-laws that says that the method will be chosen **and publicly declared** prior to the election. (In the past we have had requests to change the specific counting methodology after an election has started, which I don't think is fair. By making it a requirement to select and declare the methodology prior to the election starting it means we can keep it fair for the current election, while maintaining the flexibility to change it to other methods in subsequent elections.)

```suggestion All open board seats shall be contested by all candidates in one election. There is no minimum voter turnout requirement. Ballots shall allow ranked voting. The winners shall be determined by a counting method suitable for electing a group of candidates, e.g. the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method. ```

```suggestion In order to determine a range of candidates, a two-week nomination phase will precede the elections, in which self-nominations are permitted. Individuals will be informed of their nomination and asked to confirm their willingness to serve on the Board determined. Elections will be held in a timely manner after determination of a final list of candidates. Elections shall be open for at least two weeks. Elections shall close before the start of the terms of office of the elected candidates. ```

```suggestion The two Elections Officers will take care of running the yearly MEI elections. The Elections Officers are appointed by the Board from amongst the MEI community and shall not be running for election themselves. ```

"should" is an appropriate word here, because this sentence really is a suggestion, not a command.

Maybe use "shall" instead of "should" in two places in this paragraph. "Should" is a suggestion word. "Shall" is a command word. Do you want to give the Elections Officers and Board the flexibility to have shorter election times, or elections after the start of terms of office? Or do you want them to always have two+ week times, closed before the start of the terms of office? It is a policy choice.

Suggest changing "should" to "shall". Better yet, suggest changing "should not be running for election themselves" to "shall not be candidates in the election themselves". "Should" is a suggestion word. "Shall" is a command word. It seems like a good idea to say it is forbidden, not just suggested, for the Elections Officers to be candidates in the election they run. I will note other places in these By-laws where it might be better to replace the word "should" with something stricter.

Suggest changing "A ranked voting system without minimum voter turnout will be applied." to "All open board seats shall be contested by all candidates in one election. There is no minimum voter turnout requirement. Ballots shall allow ranked voting. The winners shall be determined by a Single Transferable Vote (STV) system. The Elections Officers shall specify detailed procedures for each election, subject to consent by the Board." This new wording codifies existing practice, but makes it explicit. The phrase "a ranked voting system" is quite vague. It is like saying, "the staff has two flats" instead of "the key is B♭ major". The vague statement doesn't prevent the right outcome, but it doesn't require it either. A different and worse election structure, like a separate vote for each open seat, or a clumsier counting method than STV, still complies with the vague wording. I think the MEI practice of a single election for all candidates to fill all board seats, with ranked ballots counted by STV, is a very good choice for an organisation like MEI. Since we are modifying this part of the by-laws, let's clarify this part also.