This is the first business meeting for the newly formed and approved Jazz and Improvisation Study Group. As we welcome interested AMS members, we seek to establish a tone and environment that is both collaborative and inclusive, while also discussing the goals and intentions of this group. In order to build a sustainable model for this group's future longevity, we plan to discuss best practices for creating a more welcoming space for jazz studies that privileges the voices and perspectives of Black scholars, scholars of color, Indigenous scholars, LGBTQ+ scholars, women scholars, graduate students, early career professionals, contingent laborers, and practitioners. We hope that by doing so, we will set our study group on a trajectory which challenges the hegemony of white cisfemale and cismale scholarship in jazz studies. 

In practical terms, at this meeting we also plan to: elect a leadership team; determine programming for the 2022 Annual AMS Meeting; discuss potential collaboration with other study groups in AMS, SMT, and SEM; and explore the possibility of establishing a mentoring network to support graduate students and early-career scholars.