 www.juggle.org |
IJA eNewsletter October 2022Editors: Don Lewis & Martin Frost (ijanews@juggle.org) |
CONTENTS
- 2023 IJA Festival, July 17-23
- Vendor discounts for IJA members
- IJA Board meetings
- Amazon donates to the IJA when you buy something
- Take the time to teach
- Latest articles in eJuggle
2023 IJA Festival, July 17-23 by Festival Director Exuro Piechocki
If you’re anything like me, then you too might catch yourself daydreaming about being at the IJA Festival. Summer 2023 brings us to South Bend, Indiana, and I’m excited for everyone that we’ll once again be able to celebrate our collective love of juggling and the comradery of those who share that love.
A small team of volunteers are already hard at work putting together one heckuva event for next year, but we could use some more helping hands! If you have ever wanted to get involved with the festival, whether your dreams be big or small, I would love to have you get involved. If you’ve thought to yourself, “The IJA Festival could really use ______!”, then I want to invite you to make that a reality. Drop us a line at festival2023@juggle.org to throw your hat (or clubs, balls, etc.) in the ring!
Want to get involved but aren’t sure what role you want to take on? Reach out to us anyway! Some of our most experienced organizers are looking to mentor new volunteers in the ways of their roles, so this is a great opportunity to learn and grow your own organizational skill set while helping us to do something great for our fellow IJA members.
I know it’s still over 250 days away, but I’m feeling invigorated and excited about building something great with our team for 500 (or 1000??) of our closest friends to enjoy together.
Vendor discounts for IJA members by Martin Frost
Are you in the market for some new props, for yourself or as a gift perhaps? Check out the discounts available to all IJA members for various kinds of props offered through the IJA Vendor Discount Program (VDP). Most discounts are around 10-15%.
To see the discounts available, go to the IJA website:
Membership => Vendor Discount Program
To order online with a prop maker’s IJA discount, click on “IJA members: Claim VDP Discounts” near the top of the above page. If you’re already logged in on the website, that will take you to a page with instructions for ordering from each prop maker. If you’re not logged in, you’ll be instructed to click on SIGN IN at the top; after logging in, again go to the above URL and click “Claim VDP Discounts” to see the instructions for each prop maker.
Here are the vendors offering discounts to IJA members through the VDP:
Vendors: Learn about the IJA Vendor Discount Program
IJA Board meetings by Aslynne Howes, IJA Board Chair
Reminder: IJA Board meetings are open to all members of our organization. The meetings are hosted on Zoom and can be joined via computer, smartphone or telephone call.
The Board holds two meetings each month: a Vision meeting at which future ideas and plans are discussed, and a Business meeting at which official business is handled and any motions are voted on.
The Vision meeting will be held on Sunday, November 6, 2022, at 6:30pm ET. The Business meeting will be on Sunday, November 20, 2022, at 6:30pm ET.
If you want to attend a Board meeting, please email ija.chair@juggle.org and state which meeting you’re interested in. You’ll be provided with information for joining the meeting.
Amazon donates to the IJA when you buy something by Martin Frost
If you shop at Amazon, you can help the IJA by making your purchases at Amazon Smile so that, at no cost to you, Amazon will donate a small percentage of your price to the IJA.
Just select the International Jugglers’ Association as your charity the first time you go to smile.amazon.com.
After that, when you start at that URL, the IJA gets a small donation from Amazon if you purchase something. Again it won’t cost you anything and the IJA comes out ahead.
If you have saved bookmark(s) pointing to Amazon, just change www.amazon.com to smile.amazon.com in the bookmarks (or any URL) and you’ll see the same products at the same prices but with the IJA benefiting if you make a purchase. Thanks for helping the IJA!
Take the time to teach by Don Lewis
I was juggling in the park last weekend with a bunch of other jugglers. Club passing always seems to attract a bit of notice, and people wandering through the park often stop and watch for a moment. Looking around, sometimes I will see new jugglers standing off to the side, watching, but too shy to approach the “real” jugglers. During breaks in club passing, I like to try to pick these shy jugglers out of the passing crowd and encourage them to try. Often they have brought along their own balls and can be coaxed to show what they can do. Depending on where they are at in their juggling evolution, it is usually fun to spend a few minutes straightening out their cascade, or demonstrating some simple tricks.
Inevitably their curiosity leads them to start asking questions about clubs. Are they heavy? Is it hard to learn? Are they expensive? If they have watched you passing clubs, they are probably very curious, assuming that they’ve mustered the courage to talk to you at all.
No, the clubs are not very heavy. It isn’t that hard to learn, especially if you can do a cascade with balls. And yes, they can be quite expensive, but they don’t have to be.
Probably the most intimidating part is the price of a good set of clubs. For a non-club juggler, that will often be the end of their interest right there. There are cheap clubs out there, but they are often very hard on the hands when caught poorly. You really want to encourage them to buy clubs with a soft or flexible handle. The Green Club Project is a set of plans for clubs made out of re-cycled materials. They are well balanced, have flexible handles, and are nearly indestructible. Anyone can make a set quite cheaply. The plans are available for free on the IJA website in English, French and Spanish.
While their interest is high, get them to try throwing a club. They will almost certainly throw it out in front of themselves and flinch as the club rotates way too fast in front of their face. Show them how a good throw is carried from side to side and then thrown up so that it lands in the other hand. They generally get solid side to side cascade throws with one club pretty quickly. Things start to fall apart with two clubs. They may get a good throw with the first club, and probably a very rushed throw into the center with the second club, with both clubs winding up on the ground. Make sure their throws go high enough so that there is plenty of time for the hand to make a catch. Sometimes I tell them to forget about catching the first club, but make sure to get a good second throw and catch.
Try to make sure they have a good first experience, even if it is with just one club. They’ll come back.
With a bit of initial patience, that shy ball juggler will be asking for club passing lessons in short order.
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