 Members receive copies of SEM publications, such as the Newsletter and Journal, gain voting rights, can submit papers for meetings and conferences, can access a members-only section of the website, and receive discounts for certain databases, such as JSTOR.The first official SEM meeting was September 2–9, 1956, and since then, the Society of Ethnomusicology has continued to host annual conferences throughout the country and occasionally abroad.Locations for these large-scale gatherings require a host university with a strong ethnomusicology department, hotels that can house the huge number of attendees ranging, which ranges from 800-1000 people, at an affordable price, and has access to air travel.