Are we getting the best candidates for the board of directors and running the IJA? Here’s what happened at the election last summer in Madison. At the urging of several members, I ran for the board last year along with Don Lewis and Paul Richmond. (Paul was appointed to board for the unexpired term of a resigned board member and was thus running for re-election to that position.) The IJA set a closing date for submitting statements of candidacy to be published in JUGGLE magazine. As of that closing date, Don, Paul and I were the only candidates running for the election. Then Paul Richmond called several of his well-known juggling friends and convinced them to run for the board. Their statements also appeared in the magazine even though they were clearly submitted after the closing date. The rules were ignored in order to allow additional candidates who were hand-chosen by the chairman of the board. I asked if we could place a picture of each candidate on the IJA web site along with their statement. I was told no. I asked if we could add a URL to a web page with additional information. I was again told no. None of the candidates were allowed to use the IJA web site to provide any information about themselves beyond the 100-word statement. At the convention all the candidates were asked to each speak for a few minutes about themselves and their ideas for the IJA at the business meeting/forum. Paul, Don and I gave our short speeches. Paul's two hand-picked candidates did NOT even show up at the meeting. Paul Richmond’s two hand-picked candidates were long-time IJA members and very popular jugglers. They got elected. I watched the ballots being tallied. The absentee ballots were greatly skewed in the direction of the two jugglers who were better known but didn’t come to the business meeting. Is this sour grapes? Heck no. I dodged lots of work by not being elected to the board. It’s a time-consuming job with very little benefits and lots of criticism. Don and I congratulated each other after the election last year for not getting elected and joked that we could now go back to the gym and juggle without sitting in board meetings the rest of the festival. We would have been happy to serve on the board but we weren’t surprised at the outcome. It just seemed sad to me that the IJA members elected two board members who didn’t even bother to show up at the annual business meeting/forum. I do not believe that creating an elections committee made up of the candidates for the current election is a good idea (that was suggested recently here on the forum). Any policies suggested by that committee would be subject to screams of conflict of interest. I volunteer to be on an elections committee but only when it is properly formed and its purpose clearly stated. I think we need a nominations committee that finds qualified candidates and helps to promote them. Where do we get the members of this committee? There are many possibilities. Retiring board members could be members. Perhaps get presidents/organizers of some of the active affiliate juggling clubs to serve on this committee. They know the people in their respective clubs. We’ve been searching for ways to involve the affiliates more in the IJA. I believe we need more information about the candidates available to the members. We could offer each candidate the web space for a page of information and a picture. We could ask each candidate to respond to a set of questions about running the IJA. I’ll volunteer my time and knowledge of creating web sites to all candidates and send Martin the pages to post on the IJA web site. We are a large group of members spread all over the world. It’s impossible to know every candidate personally so we need to find better ways to get information to the members. What about absentee ballots? Robert Puhalla says that they aren’t recommended. I know they can change the results of an election dramatically. I don’t think it’s fair to only count votes of the members attending the festival, but we need to find better ways to select an effective board than a popularity contest. It’s impossible to expect the members to learn enough to elect qualified board members based on a 100-word statement and short speech at the forum. The election process needs to be studied by an elections committee and suggestions made to the board and members. A nominations committee and some changes in the election process could help get qualified candidates for the board and get them elected.