: The IJA is made up of LOTS of different people. Many have families
: along and we have to service them too.
My point is quite simple: you should service the jugglers first and foremost! It should be a convention that focuses on bringing together jugglers -- LOTS of different jugglers. It shouldn't be set up as a summer vacation retreat for the more financially well off jugglers and their families.
: I wonder if you've really talked to people at the fest.
Steve, I wonder if you have really talked to people at the fest. Since you just recently posted a message to the rec.juggling newsgroup wherein you whine about all the time you have to spend in meetings at the IJA fest and how you have little time for anything else, I'm wondering how it is that you've found any time to really talk to people at the fest. But as for me... One of the things that has come up in my conversations with jugglers at the fest is the state of the IJA and the state of it's summer festival (nee convention). A surprising number of these jugglers tell me that they are unhappy with the current state of affairs and would like to see a significant reduction in the costs associated with the fest, particularly with regard to the various fees that the IJA charges. Many of them feel that they are getting ripped-off by the IJA. And I say a "surprising" number of jugglers at the fest feel that way because it is very surprising when you consider that the jugglers who are most adversely affected by the high priced IJA fest can't even afford to be there and be heard. So even among this smaller subset of active jugglers -- the ones that can afford to pay the big bucks -- there is much unhappiness with the current state of affairs. I have also spent a lot of time in recent years communicating with jugglers who are not members of the IJA, and with jugglers who are members, but who don't attend the annual festival. I think it is important to listen to these jugglers too, since they constitute the vast majority of active jugglers. Amongst these jugglers the negative feelings towards the expensive IJA fests run even stronger. Time and time and time again jugglers tell me that they would like to attend the IJA festival, but that they can't afford to do it at the prices that the IJA charges. : Many of those I've spoken with take a day or two to see the sights. Yeah, sometimes I do that myself, but so what? A casual day or two that I might spend outside the festival has little bearing on whether or not I attend the event, and I think you'll find that there are a lot more jugglers who feel the way that I do than who don't. [See above for information on how I've come to this conclusion.] The IJA needs to be relevant to jugglers, not to the families of jugglers, and its festival site selection process needs be focused on making the event affordable for most jugglers, not just for those few who have lots of spare change. If the Board continues to push the IJA away from this core focus, the organization will continue to stagnate as it has for the past six or seven years, and no amount of post-festival sightseeing will be able to compensate for that. --Michael Ferguson (a.k.a. Fergie)
Yes, I do really talk to people at the fest -- LOTS of different people, most of whom happen to be jugglers. As a prop vendor at the IJA fest, I have the opportunity to meet LOTS of different jugglers and I take full advantage of that opportunity to talk with them and find out what their interests are and what they think about a variety of things related to juggling. And then when I'm done vending (and when I've gotten in my own healthy dose of juggling) I mingle and talk to even more jugglers.