The IJA board met via conference call on Wednesday evening,
Dec. 3. We spent three hours discussing this and that.
Primarily we discussed working to draft a contract with
Stan Allan & Associates to publish a new IJA magazine
that would be called "Juggle" as the successor to
"Juggler's World." It would appear six/year, and SA&A
would also publish our annual Roster. The mag would
be 48 pages, including four full color. The plan would be
to make it available at retail outlets where SA&A
currently sells its "Magic" magazine, and eventually
expand to newsstand sales. It would be a joint business
venture, with both parties accepting risk and reaping
rewards if things work out as hoped. The Roster would be
available only to IJA members, and IJA members would
also receive four insert pages of association-related
features/news/information.
That's it in a quick nutshell. Of course, this description
will only raise a zillion questions, but I and
other board members see the deal as an exciting way of
getting our publications train back on track and expanding
membership by enlisting a professional editor/publisher as
a partner. Stan has a full-time staff of five working on
"Magic," and wants to expand his publishing business with
another title. We believe full-time attention to the IJA
magazine will get things done on time and with care, and
give us a chance to reach more jugglers than ever through
expanded sales outlets. The next move is to draft a
mutually acceptable contract, and we are working on that.
The board will then look at that and hopefully seal the
deal.
In other business, Bud Markowitz revealed a project he's
been spearheading to supply juggling balls and teach
juggling to athletes at Special Olympics events. He hopes
to develop it into a more formal relationship between
Special Olympics and the IJA, and promised to keep
the board informed of developments.
Ginny Rose said she has heard from a bunch of members
with suggestions for 1999 festival sites, and is actively
investigating 13 cities. The board agreed it
would be OK to say which cities they are, but I haven't
had a chance to talk to Ginny since the call to get the
list. She also said that Tim Roberts (who presented
the European Showcase in Pittsburgh) has agreed to
emcee the public show at Primm, and that he will feature
European performers. Craig Barnes, former IJA
championships director, has agreed to be championships
director again for the '98 fest.
I raised the matter of appointing a committee to help
with the selection of festival sites, but there was no
general support for it and no action was taken.
The board did pass a motion I made to the effect
that board
members could receive on request a copy on disk of the
IJA's Filemaker Pro membership data base to be used in
their work on behalf of the association.
There was some discussion of issues I raised about our
current IJA election procedure, but no decisions were made
pending further refinement of the ideas into a motion and
research into the election process used by other similar
groups.
I raised the question of disclosure of financial information
to members and we discussed that for a while. No decision
was made pending a query to a consultant to non-profit
organizations about what we are legally required to
reveal, what good business practices dictate that we
reveal, and what we should "morally" reveal. The board
agreed to take up the question again once we hear from
the consultant.
We discussed reservations about acts on this year's Club
Renegade stage that at least some of us viewed as
either/or dangerous from a liability standpoint
and crude, and board chair Sam
Kilbourn agreed to try to find a resolution of
the issue.
We discussed the IJA's advisory role, through Steve
Salberg, to the Guinness book, and decided we weren't
comfortable making world record rulings on evidence
that came to
us via video. There was some support for the notion of
expanding our role in helping folks establish records,
but agreement that it would need to be done in person
under controlled conditions similar to our current
numbers championships.
There was discussion about the problem of reserving
seats at IJA shows for Life Members, but because changes
to a reserved house system would be more expensive and
in many ways more administratively difficult, no change
in the current system
was made. It was hoped, however, that a better system
could still be found.
Well, that's about it. Three hours edited to a few lines.
Please note that the above in no way reflects the
thoughts/opinions/recollections of any other board
member, nor is this intended to be an official
communication on behalf of the board. I
just figured members would like to know some of the
things that were discussed in the meeting and wanted
to report on it.
If you have questions about any of the above, or
other IJA matters, please feel free to contact me
at any time. Thanks!