<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New';">**Pre-announcement of new social online vehicle: SMT-Discuss**<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New';"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">SMT Talk was established almost a quarter century ago. This email
list</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">remains</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">remarkably resilient, with much of the discussion on a high level.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">Yet as with</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">all e-lists, SMT Talk is not without its problems.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New';"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">An advantage of an email list is that it allows you to send
minimally vetted</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">posts to everybody on the list. But this also means that if
you belong to an</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">e-list you must be willing to receive minimally vetted posts from
everybody</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">who subscribes. This gives an e-list a "one-size-fits-all" character:
to</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">belong to the list, you must be willing to have all posts on every subject</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">from every subscriber sent to your email inbox—-there is no middle course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New';"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">This contrasts with more modern social online vehicles, which
allow</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">subscribers greater choice. Wouldn't it be great if there could be an online</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">forum for music theory discussions where you could follow only those threads
that interest you, not get daily updates from threads that don't interest</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">you,
and have some control over whose postings may be sent to your email</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">inbox?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New';"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">Online lists currently can be set up so to allow subscribers more
control</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">over what postings they receive, and in about a month SMT is about to launch</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">its own version of such a list, known as "SMT-Discuss." Each new thread
on SMT-Discuss will be announced on SMT-Talk, and then you can choose to have
all or</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">some or none of the subsequent postings from that thread sent to your
email</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">inbox. Or you can skip SMT-Talk entirely, and have an RSS-feed alert you
when</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">a new SMT-Discuss thread is initiated. If a particular discussion thread
does</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">not interest you (or if it interests you at first, but you then</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">tire of it
and choose to stop receiving email posts from the thread), you can </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">s</font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">till be
sent notifications of other new threads that you might find to be</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">more
compelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New';"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">We hope to launch SMT-Discuss by late August. Meanwhile, you can
learn a bit </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">m</font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">ore about it on my blog (</span><a href="http://president72.wix.com/smt-president-blog" target="_blank" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:blue">http://president72.wix.com/smt-president-blog</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">). If</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 10pt;">you have questions or
concerns, please feel free to contact me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New';"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New';">Poundie Burstein<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New';">President, Society for Music Theory<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="mailto:president@societymusictheory.org"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue">president@societymusictheory.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Courier New';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</font>