IJA eNewsletter – March 2022

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www.juggle.org

   IJA eNewsletter   

   March 2022

Editors: Don Lewis & Martin Frost
(ijanews@juggle.org)

CONTENTS

  • 2022 IJA Festival, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, July 11-17
  • Looking for a new IJA Membership Director
  • 2023 IJA Festival Director – Call for letters of interest for the 76th annual fest
  • IJA Board nominations are still open
  • Change to IJA website login
  • 2022 IJA World Joggling Championships (virtual via video submission)
  • Concentrate on the fun!
  • Latest articles in eJuggle (find a few that interest you and check them out)

2022 IJA Festival, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, July 11-17  by Festival Director Afton Benson

Hello everyone!

I just got back from the final site visit for the 2022 IJA Festival in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and we are going to have the most memorable festival yet! Have you registered yet? Time is running out to pre-register.  To get the best deal and ensure you can see all the shows at the stunning Paramount Theatre, register today!

You can now make festival hotel reservations at the special IJA room rate.

The Festival Scholarship Application has been extended! The new deadline to apply is April 17th.  Apply today if you need some financial assistance, and make sure you share about the Scholarship with the newest juggler in your club.  Shout out to all the jugglers who have donated to the Festival Scholarship fund, and a special extra thanks to Unna Med for their support.  Want to donate to the Festival Scholarship fund? You can do that here!

Registration is open for Joggling! For 2022 we are going to continue Joggling online.  We will be organizing some space for jogglers who would like to record at the IJA Festival and submit their times.  Go sign up today to participate in the first, second, or both heats!

IJA Juggling Championships registration is open for Individuals, Teams, and Juniors.  Check out the rules and register today.  The IJA draws jugglers from around the globe to compete in the Championships at the festival.  Don’t miss your opportunity to shine!  Deadline to submit your application, video, and fee is May 15.

Are you looking to volunteer at the IJA? Contact Sofia Noethe at volunteers2022@juggle.org.  Some volunteer positions could be: picking special guests up from the airport, teaching visitors to juggle, helping with registration, etc.

Want to teach a workshop? We want you! Contact Emily Brancel at workshops2022@juggle.org.  Have a quirky idea? Want to teach a knitting workshop? Have a signature trick you love to share? All workshop ideas are welcomed!

We’ll be announcing special guests in the next week.  Keep your eyes peeled on social media and on the fest website for those announcements.

See you in Cedar Rapids!

Afton

 

 

Looking for a new IJA Membership Director

The IJA is seeking a new Membership Director.

The Membership Director handles the IJA’s membership database via an online AMS system and should have strong attention to detail.  An excellent Membership Director should also be an outstanding communicator with a talent for building strong relationships between members and the organization.

Much of the year, the role involves about an hour of work per month:

  • Responding to membership inquiries from members or potential members
  • Occasionally updating member profiles
  • Running reports for the Board
  • Verifying membership for buyers of performers’ liability insurance

Before the festival, the work increases some to process youth group registrations and to confirm all registered jugglers have a current membership.  The number of member inquiries also increases a bit during this period, especially before the end of early-bird pricing.

At the festival, processing on-site memberships before the election takes a few hours.

This is a great role for someone looking to get more involved in the juggling community.

If you are interested in this role, please send IJA Operations Officer Scott Steiskal a statement of intent, what you bring to the role, and any other relevant information.

Membership Director applications are due by May 1.

 

76th Annual Festival South Bend, Indiana, July 17-23, 2023

 2023 IJA Festival Director – Call for letters of interest for the 76th annual fest

The 2023 IJA festival will be held July 17-23, in South Bend, Indiana (USA).  The IJA would like to hear from individuals who are interested in taking on the role of Festival Director for the South Bend fest.

The Festival Director works with the venue and the IJA staff and volunteers to create a fabulous week of juggling.  Volunteers help with most aspects of running the festival.  Previous festival directors are available to mentor you through the process.  Some aspects of the festival repeat consistently from year to year, such as the competitions and shows.  There is always room to try new things and put your personal stamp on the experience.

If you are interested in the position or just want to learn more about the job, please contact IJA Operations Officer Scott Steiskal.

 

 

IJA Board nominations are still open  by Martin Frost

Nomination are open for members of the IJA Board of Directors.

Many of you are probably thinking about how you can best serve the IJA and make it better.  The IJA needs interested Board members to lead it through the challenges ahead.

Nominate someone, including maybe yourself.  That’s right, it is perfectly acceptable to nominate yourself.

The IJA maintains Director and Officer insurance coverage to protect our decision makers.  Directors are considered to have a fiduciary duty to the IJA.  Fiduciary simply means managing in the best interests of the association, much as you might administer the affairs of a minor person that can’t make legal decisions.

Information about the nomination process is available at juggle.org/business/nominations.

The nomination deadline is 11:59pm PDT on May 15, 2022.  Participate!

 Change to IJA website login  by Martin Frost

The IJA website has a newly improved and secure login process for IJA members.

To login from any www.juggle.org page, click “SIGN IN” at the very top to get to the new login page (see at left).  Enter your username and password and click “Sign In”.

You’ll next see a Welcome screen that asks you to allow www.juggle.org to access your “basic_profile” in order to finish logging you in (see at right).  Click “Submit” to gain member access (including to eJuggle videos, the Vendor Discount Program, and festival registration).  That will leave you logged in on the IJA home page.  (That “Submit” lets www.juggle.org access your account that’s on our membership site ym.juggle.org.)

(Don’t know your password?  After clicking “SIGN IN”, click “Forgot your password?” and follow the instructions on the resulting Reset Your Password page.)

If you happen to be on ym.juggle.org when you click “SIGN IN”, you’ll see the unchanged YM Member Login page.  Logging in there will leave you on your Manage Profile page as before.  You can get from there to www.juggle.org by clicking on the IJA logo.

The above login process logs you in to both www.juggle.org and ym.juggle.org.  If you want to log out (e.g., to let another IJA member log in), you’ll need to log out of both sites separately.  You can do that by clicking “SIGN OUT” from www.juggle.org as well as from ym.juggle.org.

2022 IJA World Joggling Championships (virtual via video submission)  by Sterling Franklin

IJA FestivalThe 2022 IJA World Joggling Championships will remain virtual this year via your very cool video submissions!  Even though there is a planned in-person IJA Festival this year, we’ve opted to wait a little bit longer on bringing joggling back to an in-person track meet since there is much greater potential for close contact, especially if held indoors.  This virtual event will take place in two different Blocks — the first from April 1 through May 15, and the second from June 1 through July 15.

Five Official Events will be held in each Block (not including Extra Events).

IJA World Joggling Championships, Block 1

Time Range: April 1 – May 15 (submission deadline at 11:59pm GMT on May 15)

  • 3-ball 100m
  • 3-ball 400m
  • 3-ball 1600m
  • 4-ball 400m
  • 5-ball 100m

IJA World Joggling Championships, Block 2

Time Range: June 1 – July 15 (submission deadline at 11:59pm GMT on July 15)

  • 3-ball 200m
  • 3-ball 800m
  • 4-ball 100m
  • 5-ball 200m
  • 7-ball 100m

(Note: Any prop with the correct quantity for the event can be used — clubs, rings, footballs, etc.)

Two Registration Options:

(1) Competitive: BLOCK 1: $15, BLOCK 2: $15, or BOTH BLOCKS: $25 – Eligible for medals in the official events and official IJA recognition in cases of World/IJA Records or Top 10 All-Time performances. Full video submission is REQUIRED in the Competitive Division — the video must show the clear continuation of a juggling pattern while running (whether with a wearable camera and mount or with another person filming the run clearly and reliably — please keep responsible with COVID and trespassing restrictions where applicable!).  The video needs to show both the run and the final time at the end, and preferably should identify the joggler and the date of the attempt as well.  If done on road, measurement verification must be done (by Measuring Wheel on video or by confirmation by USATF/WMA official), and road runs must not be done on a net-negative vertical gain (i.e., road runs need to be done on a flat [net-zero] or uphill [net-positive] route).  Tracks of 400m are usually best and simplest for these competitive runs.  In the case of drops, the joggler must be shown on video retreating to the point of drop before continuing the juggling pattern from that spot — basically, no forward progress should be made in the case of the joggler losing control of the pattern or dropping, and props can’t be launched meters away in order to gain distance.  Patterns should aim to be one throw per step or as close as possible.  For recording questions and rules in specific circumstances, feel free to contact Sterling Franklin or Emily Moore at joggling2022@juggle.org.

(2) Fun Run: Free, Optional Donation to IJA – Basically the informal division of the event.  Any distance can be run, and Certificates of Completion will be sent via email for those who confirm legitimate completion of the distance (optional video submission in this division, and suggested if you want to be part of a montage of the jogglers this year), but no time validation or record consideration will be done in the Fun Run division.  If you have a really innovative pattern to try out or just want to run for fun and try something new without any pressure, this is a great division!

Entries in the Competitive Division also allow for One (1) Optional ‘Extra Event’ not on the Official List for Validation/Possible Medals — if there’s one event that you want to run that isn’t on the official list and has a valid Indoor/Outdoor/XC distance that is regularly run (e.g., 300m, 1000m, 5K, etc.), you can get one of those ‘extra events’ validated for no extra cost.  Even more, if you can get three runners in your specific division to enter with valid runs (e.g., Boys 13-17), that event/division will be eligible for medals as well.  The first ‘extra’ distance is included in the entry fee for Competitive — for every extra event that isn’t on the official list that you want to submit, it will cost $3 extra. (So if you want to run a 3b300m, 5b400m, and 7b5K [ouch], the first one would be free, and the other two would cost $3 extra each for verification — and each extra division is only eligible for medals if three people or more are competing in your stratified division.  We do request that events are at longest 10K and preferably shorter due to verification requirements and volunteer sanity!).

Divisions (same as prior years):

  • Boys 12-and-Under
  • Girls 12-and-Under
  • Boys 13-17
  • Girls 13-17
  • Men’s Open (18-39)
  • Women’s Open (18-39)
  • Men’s Masters (40+)
  • Women’s Masters (40+)

Note: Age determination for divisions will be as of the end date of each deadline (May 15 or July 15, respectively).

Awards

Medals: Competitive Division only.  Top 3 verified finishers in each division will be awarded 3D-printed resin medals per official event.

Certificates of Completion: Fun Run Division competitors who have sent in completions (stated/preferably documented or filmed) but don’t want time validation.

Submitting Videos for the Competitive Division

Videos can be sent to joggling2022@juggle.org for official events (or optional extra events) in their respective blocks and time ranges.  You can send a YouTube link, a Google Drive/Box/Dropbox link, or whatever way we can access it with ease!  Rules for video submissions are mentioned above under Registration Options.

Registration for Joggling is available via the IJA Online Store.  Registration for each Block and completion of the participation waiver must be completed before its respective submission deadline.  Newcomers who aren’t part of the IJA are welcome to register as well, though of course IJA membership is definitely encouraged for all!  Spread the word, and we hope to see you joggling with us soon!

 

Concentrate on the fun!   by Don Lewis

I recently watched a webinar that talked about two different styles of “energy” healing (for lack of a better term).  For most people this stuff is out on the woo-hoo fringe of reality.  And yet some people seem to get good results, even if they have no idea why.  One of the presenters was William Bengston, a sociologist who has experimented with therapeutic touch.  Bengston self describes as a skeptic.  He also feels that certainty is a dead end in research.  A fixed belief system simply gets in the way when you are trying to understand how a thing works.  I’ll put a link to the webinar at the end of the article for those that find this sort of thing interesting.

As I listened to this discussion, I found that the theme resonated strongly with my experience teaching juggling.  And what, you say, does energy healing have to do with learning juggling?  Physically, probably not that much.  Mentally, possibly quite a bit.

In the before times, back before Covid, I used to juggle outside in a park from time to time, usually with other jugglers.  People would stop and watch and then move on.  I would take a break from club passing and sometimes interact with the watchers that seemed most interested.  I’d usually offer a free five minute lesson.  Free, because why not? And five minutes because that fits into most people’s attention span, and they’re out for a walk in the park and watching jugglers, not rushing off somewhere.  You can do a lot in five minutes – one-on-one.  The absolute most frequent response I got was “I could never learn to do that!” In any language!  It is like that specific phrase is deeply buried in human DNA.

That certainty is death to learning.  Even if they agree to try, a lot of people are so heavily invested in their belief that they can’t learn to juggle that subconsciously they actively work against it.  I’ve seen people manage to get three balls in motion almost by accident and they go away furious.  They usually think I played a trick on them.  Their carefully nurtured self image just got damaged, and that must be my fault somehow. 

It seems better to approach an experiment as as skeptic.  You don’t know that you can’t do something unless you try.  Bengston suggests that people who find ways to have fun with a thing will almost certainly get better outcomes.

Jugglers tend to be pretty optimistic about learning new tricks.  Once you’ve mastered a three ball cascade, adding tricks is a matter of understanding how and putting in the practice.  That doesn’t mean that we’re all going to win prizes and perform on stage if we try hard enough.  There is probably an advanced stage where going further simply isn’t fun or joyful for most of us.  Which is fine.  Even a basic juggler like me can have a huge amount of fun sharing the joy of juggling.

The important thing is to find the fun in discovering, learning and doing.  Otherwise it is just work.

As for where this rant came from, read on if you are interested in the topic of energy healing.

Regular readers will know that I have an interest in Homeopathy.  Yes, I know that it has been thoroughly debunked.  And yet, it works when used correctly.  No-one knows why or how.  It just does.  It is presumed by some that some kind of energy persists when the homeopathic remedies are serially diluted way beyond the point where any of the original substance remains.   I could go on, but this isn’t the place.

The Canadian Academy of Homeopath (CAH) recently sponsored a webinar with William Bengston, a sociologist who has done research into therapeutic touch.  The goal was to see if there were similarities in the way that these healing “energies” help the body to cure itself.

André Saine is head of the CAH.  He teaches around the world and is involved in research.  He talks to Bill Bengston while they try to understand each other’s specialties.  Parts of the webinar clearly presume some knowledge of homeopathy, but it is mostly about finding out more about what is known about therapeutic touch.  Follow the links below to learn more:

new.homeopathy.ca/homeopathy-and-hands-on-and-distant-healing-similarities-and-differences/

bengstonresearch.com

 

 

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