1. Call to Order
Chair, Nathan Wakefield, called the meeting to order at: 7:35 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, Ian Michael Loughlin, Shivella Schwab, Scott Cain, Mike Sullivan, Afton Benson, Erin Stephens, Dan Holzman
Absent: Louie Skaradek, Noel Yee, Marvin Ong, Martin Frost
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Scott Cain
Second by: Shivella Schwab
Discussion: none
Vote: approved
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting November 28th, 2016
Motion: Ian Michael Loughlin
Second: Shivella Schwab
Discussion: none
Vote: approved
5. Reports (Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival and future festival discussion)
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Early 2016 P & L Draft
Discussion: El Paso numbers are nearing a close after an extremely long wait for venue totals.
If you’ve looked at the P&L please note the reason Dennis has the two columns is because of the funds being deposited in the past. Focus your attention on the LEFT column, this is the one with iiWii’s donations.
I don’t have all the specifics yet and we’ll have those soon. However, we are currently showing a fiscally successful festival with a net of $19,454 (this is after the final payment to Jim). Overall that’s amazing great work to the team in El Paso.
Without the last minute 45k grant for El Paso we would have ended up 20k in the hole. This 45k grant was last minute and was not planned ahead of time. It’s scary to think without it, why we would have ended up in the red. Some double checking must be done to ensure the numbers are right.
2017 Festival Report (Dan Holzman)
2017 Festival Pricing Proposal
Discussion:
There are some concerns that the budget for 2017 is too close to 2016 without accounting for the extra money in the 2016 budget such as the 45k grant & the extra prize money. We are expecting a small uptick in attendance & registration for 2017. 2017 will feature many extra shows. The costs for these shows should be covered by their ticket sales.
Prize money was not included on the budget for 2017
Couple things still missing, like buskerfest competition prize, and something need to be removed like water on mars show.
Good discussion, but not ready for approval yet.
Perhaps some more incentives are needed to encourage early registrations with a single price package. Even with a limited number of premium packages it may not be enough and we would end up the dark on attendance until end of registration period.
Future Festival Planning (Mike Sullivan)
As reported last month, Huntsville, AL was looking like my top prospect for 2019, but it washed out for numerous reasons I discovered during my site visit in September.
Since then, I have turned up the heat with several other prospects, and I have just booked site visits for two of them: Baton Rouge, LA and Ft. Wayne, IN. Of the two, it looks like Ft. Wayne is a stronger offer with better facilities in a most-hospitable climate for mid-July. I am visiting Baton Rouge January 19-20th, and Ft. Wayne Feb 1-3. I am also working on a potential site visit to Peoria, IL, which looks about as good as Ft. Wayne but a bit more affordable.
I have also reached out to El Paso and asked them to submit a preliminary proposal for 2020. They are working on it now, and they expect to again to be able to offer us the development grant that essentially paid all our facility expenses this year. If so, I believe El Paso will be a slam-dunk for a return in 2020.
Discussion: none
Marketing (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: We are “Killing it” on social media. All numbers are up across the board. Jugglers are more excited to participate in campaigns such as “tricks of the month” than ever before.
Website Report (Scott Reynolds)
Discussion: We’ve made lots of progress but are still facing many issues with log-ins, pages loading, speed, and functionality. It’s hard to say when it will be fixed but it is being worked on. This is not satisfactory nor what we expected from a 3rd party vendor we are paying. If a resolution is not made by Friday, swift action must be taken.
IRC (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: IRC medalist trick of the month series would help bring more attention to IRC
eJuggle Report (Scott Seltzer)
Discussion: none
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Discussion: some date missing, will follow up.
6. Motions for Consideration
A. Motion to approve the 2017 IJA Festival Budget.
2017 IJA Festival Budget
Motion: Ian Michael Loughlin
Second: Shivella Schwab
Discussion: motion to table the budget for now, Scott made the motion, Shivella seconds, no objections, motion is tabled.
We need to get the budget together a little more before approving it
B. Motion to hold the IRC Middle East 2017 at the Israeli Juggling Convention, April 12-16, with the IJA contributing up to $300 for prizes and marketing. Video from IRC Middle East 2016
Motion: Shivella Schwab
Second: Scott Cain
Discussion: None
Outcome: Motion Approved
C. Motion to hold the IRC Central America 2017 at Festival Guatecirko in Guatemala, March 30 – April 2, with the IJA contributing up to $300 for prizes and marketing. Video from Guatecirko 2016
Motion: Shivella Schwab
Second: Scott Cain
Discussion: none
Outcome: motion approved
7. Varia:
Lybrary.com / Juggle Magazine Deal – need cheap option, some conerns for material already online
Operating Budget
Awesomeness Committee
8. Set January Meetings
Next Vision Planning Meeting – January 9th, 2016 at 7:30 ET
Next Business Board Meeting – January 23rd, 2016 at 7:30 ET.
9. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn: Shivella
Discussion: none
Voting: passed
Meeting adjourned at 9:09 pm ET.