Lou, Michael, Please be patient because I have to do everything in Word on the Mac and then upload to VM, since I cannot cope with the VM editor and emulation for anything longer than 10 lines. I do not have Lou's latest draft of the affiliated projects document downloaded, so I will make comments which you can incorporate as approproate, rather than making changes directly. I think we are moving close to soemthing that will work, but there are a couple of things I think should be changed: 1. Under "Process of Affiliation," change the sentence beginning "Regrettably..." to something like "The TEI will review the project description to determine that the aims and scope of the project are appropriate to lead to a mutually beneficial relationship." WeJwant to protect ourselves from including just anybody who wants to join the bandwagon, which is I think the intent behind the original statement, but it isn't really true that resources may limit us in the number of affiliated projects we can accept (unless the unforeseen hoardes descend on us, but I doubt it). 2. Under "Project documents", start with "Once an agreement for affiliation has been reached between the TEI and a project, the project will provide the TEI with details..." In other words, let them know we want the stuff at the outset. 3. "Discussion and exchange of expertise" needs a bit of work to give the flavor of what we want the situation to be. How about this: "The purpose of affilation of encoding projects is to enable these projects to utilize TEI tag sets as they are being developed, as well as to provide the TEI with a source of feedback on the guidelines. To serve these ends, members of affiliated projects will be able to call upon the expertise of committee heads, committee members, sub- committees, and others working within the TEI as they need to for guidance and explanation. Similarly, the TEI hopes to benefit from the experience and expertise of those working within the affiliated projects as the guidelines are being developed, and therefore members of affiliated projects are expected to contribute to the development of the guidelines as well by providing feedback. The mechanisms for communication between those working within the TEI and members of affiliated projects will vary depending upon the nature of the endoding the affiliated projects undertake; members of affiliated projects may be in direct communication, via e-mail or other means, with appropriate committee heads, committee members, or sub-sommittee members, depending on their needs and interests, and they can utilize the general discussion list TEI-L at UICVM (bitnet) for more general inquiries. The project editors can also be consulted for information and direction. The TEI urges interested members of affiliated projects to attend meetings, exchange informal notes, and generally participate in the work of the TEI committees. Regrettably, no funds are available to assist in the exchange of information between affiliated proejcxts and the TEI during the first phase of the project, although funds will be sought for the second phase during which testing and validation of the Guidelines will be intensive and the Affiliated Projects can play a significant role (see "Testing and Validation" below)." 4. Now, we need a section outlining the formalities of providing feedback. I do not think we want to require reports every 6 months or whatever, since when it is feasible for them to give us feedback will depend highly on how quickly we get drafts out, whether there is one draft or many, and what the scope of the affiliated project is. But I feel strongly that we want to say clearly that we expect, at some point or points, written and formal feedback. Shall we say after major drafts? As requested? We can simply say that we expect formal feedback in written form, as appropriate depending... 5. All of what has been covered to this point in the agreement is phase one stuff, or rather, development stuff. The next section, which needs a new name like "Testing and Valdiation", needs to be clearly identified as something very different. It is different because (a) it is testing that is done after something is in near- final form; (b) the testing is very formal and precise; (c) not all affiliated projects will necessarily be involved, both because they might not want to be and because we might not want them to be or they may not be appropriate; and (d) this will we hope be funded and thus the relation is much more clearly defined and formal, with clear guidelines and expectations, schedules, etc. Thus begin with something like "In the second phase of the TEI (beginning June 1990), when draft DTDs have been developed, testing and validation of these DTDs will be necessary. The TEI hopes to involve Affiliated Projects, as appropriate, in this process by engaging them in formal procedures for testing the DTDs. The TEI is currently seeking funds to support testing and validation of this kind. In general, the testing and validation will entail..." <<> this is all for now. In general I think this should be cast in language such that it can function as an agreement between us and them, to be signed like the memoranda of understanding. --Nancy