Board Meeting – November 28th, 2016

1. Call to Order
Chair, Nathan Wakefield, called the meeting to order at: 7:36 pm EDT

2. Roll: Nathan Wakefield, Louie Skaradek, Ian Michael Loughlin, Noel Yee, Marvin Ong, Shivella Schwab, Scott Cain, Mike Sullivan, Afton Benson, Erin Stephens, Martin Frost, Dan Holzman

Present: Nathan Wakefield, Louie Skaradek, Ian Michael Loughin, Shivella Schwab, Scott Cain, Dan Holzman, Martin Frost, Erin Stephens

Absent: Noel Yee, Marvin Ong, Mike Sullivan, Afton Benson,

3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Shivella
Second by: Louie
Discussion:
Vote:

4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting October 24th, 2016
Motion: Scott
Second: Louie
Discussion:
Vote:

5. Reports (Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival and future festival discussion)
2017 Festival Report (Dan Holzman)
Discussion:
*Monday Free,
*Tues Comedy Variety Extravaganza (public draw), Theater space at the juggling site with rare and historical tricks $10 (an extra ticket not part of the package. It will be part of the VIP and proceeds will go to the historical museum)
David and Eric will have historical juggling performance
*Wed 1750 Juniors Competition
11pm show will be a shoebox tour ($10) proceeds will bring Jay from
*Thurs- seniors competition $7K prize pool distributed between seniors and teams
11pm Flow and glow show (Kevin Axtell, Marvin Ong,
*Friday- Theater is closed. Dan is trying to arrange a performance with the Cedar Rapids JC’s (uptown market) with a fire jam after (9-11) 20 min walk on the river.
4pm swing show. Peter Davidson Show
*Saturday 11pm Renegade and Pizza Party
*Saturday- Buskers competition at the farmers market 10k guests. Joggling, Cascade of Stars.

Special Guests tentatively Gina Schwarzman, Paul Ponce, Ofec*, Anderson DeSilva, along with confirmed Jay, Eric and Peter. Renegade with Pizza

Scott- when is numbers? Dan – Friday or Saturday

Scott- we have run over 3 hours so we may need to shorten. The time is dependent on who signs up Dan had 1-4. Martin- Where is peter davidson show. Dan the juggling space has extra ballrooms and the theater space is 5-7 min walk. Everything is very close.

Dan- Above the gym is the extra shows. Saturday night there will be a wedding so the last show will be Friday night
Brunch 10-12ish.
Vip pricing $75 extra shows/laminate Wed night VIP reception(perhaps polo rather than regular shirt)
Coaching Lounge with video feedback on form
All workshops will be free
Tues-Sat brunch
Once planning is over promotion will begin.

Nathan- update board on workshops

Dan-3 workshop spaces with the special guests. Eric is also doing 3 history lectures. There will not be as much focus on smaller workshops, so that special guest will be more engaged and more focus will be on the special guests.
Still looking for a production crew for the theater room. And for the late night show. Keith Nelson and crash for that space, also production for the lectures.

Future Festival Planning (Mike Sullivan)
November update: I have received a very promising proposal package from Fort Wayne, Indiana. It looks to be a setup VERY similar to both El Paso and Cedar Rapids — a gorgeous Vaudeville-era theater adjacent to a convention center and attached hotel in a small, walkable, safe, vibrant downtown.
Proposed pricing is amazing — less than $10k for our week’s rental of the Center (half of our usual budget); Theater pricing is a bit of an issue, but we can negotiate. The theater is also about 3x the size we need, but with the balcony closed off, it may look as intimate as next year’s Paramount will, and it’s a similar size.
I’m uploading the Fort Wayne proposal to this month’s Board Reports folder of GDocs for anyone who’d like to review it. I am working on scheduling a site visit to Fort Wayne in early February, the first date they and I will likely be available.
Right now, Fort Wayne is my only and best prospect for 2019; I am hoping El Paso proposes again, as I have asked. I’m also hoping to get a proposal from Baton Rouge, LA, but I doubt they can offer us what we have seen so far from Fort Wayne.
Discussion:

Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion: we are still waiting on the final numbers, we did get the grant check, we are only waiting to pay the venues, but it is looking very promising.

Marketing (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: Looking for JPEG of our INC. Louie will assist. Looking for the email password for Instagram.

IRC (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: Erin: Starting to have a worldwide impact. Colombia had some of the most famous jugglers in Latin America. Chile has a lot of great jugglers and it is great to have the IJA to be able to promote them since they are lesser known. There was a tragic accident following the IRC competition which involved a bus rolling and injuring several and killing one passenger..The benefit to the IJA is even in times like these we are able to offer our condolences and support. 2017 a big fundraising with direct contact Dec and crowdsourcing in January.

Website Report (Erin Stephens)
Discussion:

Nathan:BCC Nathan on all updates on the launch since it has been drawn out and delayed. Concerned by report that this is the 2nd time the group has said that the delay has been the employees working on the site. Can there be a hard deadline.

Martin- Since all payments have been done we have no leverage as the client

Erin- Happy to have Nathan as a person to hold Get Smart accountable

Nathan- would like to know the why and next prediction.

Martin- we are waiting on a set of tutorials from Get Smart to work the site and we do not have a webmaster. David will be managing the back end

Louie- more of a content master than webmaster.

Erin- will update the pages on the sections/pages that she is involved in.

Martin- the new site will be more manageable than the old site, especially with more people. We don’t have an overall design of how the future will be, but we do have

Nathan- Have a content administrator.

Erin- if anyone would like to send a request it is recommended.

****Nathan- **Email Get smart Scott**Copy Erin and Martin re; update on deliverables, tutorials, style guide and up to date

2pm meeting tomorrow.

eJuggle Report (Scott Seltzer)
Discussion:

Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Discussion: Scott C- Some members only content is about to be launched on e-juggle (David, and Scott Seltzer)

6. Motions for Consideration

A. Motion to approve Erin Stephens as the paid IRC Coordinator based on the following Proposal Plan.

Proposal
Budget

Motion: Ian
Second: Scott
Discussion:

Martin- Independent contract? Would the amount of the contract be based on the donations. Erin- the money she is paid is from the donations. Louie- right now there is about $6K for next year and there is a. Nathan- Payout frequency? Erin- possibly quarterly.

Nathan- self sustaining endeavor is what is attractive about this proposal.
If this comes through how would it change the duties/tasks/ of IRC

Louie- goals list

Erin-Post vote job description that would outline responsibilities and goals. Grow program, better ways to bring money into the IJA and to these programs.

Nathan- the next board meeting would be contract, description, duties, timeline. A motion to approve this to happen, but not happening until we decide. One thing that Nathan would like this to ultimately have this turn into membership for IJA for these international folks.

Erin-The membership model is on its way out. Which is why a program like this helps bring in income and still fulfil its programming. Also the new website will help with strong membership hub.

Louie- another program of the IJA can take on this same model if it is successful.
Have a donation drive instead of membership

Martin-for Nathan it should be motion to create a contract for someone to run the IRC (IRC Director) not to include the appointment to Erin. There is no need for the wording the way it is.

***ACTION: Erin what terms would be good in a contract like setting. Payment/role and responsibility. The board will add goals and come up with the terms of the contract

Louie- look to the festival director contract and the bookkeeper contract
The board is for this it will be put to vote next month. As it is worded

***Nathan- touch base with Dennis re: Can a independent contractor be hired as a percentage based. Is there some forms or rules that need to be followed in a situation where pay is based by percentage***

Vote: FULL OPPOSITION FAILED MOTION

7. Varia:

A. Noah Langholz Remembrance Package

-Have a committee
-How to choose and not have bias from those in power
-Have affiliate nominations
-Nominate those who have never gone/been to a festival
-will it be recurring

****Nathan proposal ideas Board and cc Martin to develop plan for feasibility reach out to Brian for additional feedback***

(Kim had a jugglership a few years back)

B. Renegade Stage Award
Mark Hayward approached Nathan re the renegade folks who have made history to have something to recognize and memorialize the people who have made contributions

-historically based
-renegade committee chosen
-annual or not?
-Hall of fame
-would it be its own category or the special awards
-please not another Lucas cup.

Louie- not a bad idea but if folks would like to put together or present an award the renegade is loosely affiliated with IJA but this does not need to be IJA sanctioned.

Nathan- We can list it on the website as we do the Flamingo award.

****Nathan reach out to Mark and we will put winner on the website if they want to manage this award process****

C. Juggle Magazine Digitization

Alan Howard correspondence- digitizing the old magazine Inquiry offering to buy digital prints of juggle magazine and selling them.

-we would greenlight our back issues be purchased on Lybrary.com which would be the distribution center of our magazine.
-Alan, Stan, and the Board on usage for the last 13 years (IJA Juggle magazine)

-**Questions for them( Alan and Chris) ***How much are they charging, fees for us up front, how much do they want to give us. Discount for IJA members?

-Pros – it could be managed by them

D. DVD Trailers
20 14-15-16 are done. Do we want trailers?
-Do contracts require trailers?
-Besides 2016 not to worry about trailer.
-Don’t know if it is worth the time

*****Reach out to Alan Plotkin re:no trailer for vids****

8. Set December Meetings
Next Vision Planning Meeting – December 12th, 2016 at 7:30 ET
Next Business Board Meeting – December 19th, 2016 at 7:30 ET.

9. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn: Ian
Discussion:
Voting:
Meeting adjourned at 9:44 pm ET.