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, Louie, Ian, Shivella, Scott, Afton, Martin, Noel(late)
Absent: Marvin, Mike, Erin, Dan
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Ian
Second by: Louie
Discussion: Nil
Vote: Approved
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting January 23rd, 2017.
Motion: Scott
Second: Shivella
Discussion: Nil
Vote: Approved
5. Reports (Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival and future festival discussion)
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion: 2016 Festival P&L (Nearly Complete!) El Paso came in with a final of $16,094 for the bottom line, I would like to highlight that had we not received the $45,000 grant the festival would have lost around $21,906…which is significant. The final number is not fully there because we need to calculate for Jim Maxwell’s bonus, his contract states if the festival brings in more than $10,000 in profit he’d receive a 20% bonus. This was written before we knew the best practices for paying a bonus for fundraising style items. Which the only reason the festival was profitable was the grant, and it is a best practice to not pay people a fee based on the grant. According to the contract:
Jim Maxwell 20% of the festival profit $3218.18
Thus leaving the festival with a very close est profit of $12,876
Dennis will have the final festival P&L and Year End by March once the board approves the amount for Jim.
Largest Festival loss if not for the Grant. Didn’t set a cap – had about $7000 in tax fees. They didn’t send invoices. Had to call and break it down with El Paso.
Things should be all done up in March.
Discussion:
Suggestion for future years: 20% – badly written contract. If the profit had been 9999.99 he would have gotten zero bonus. That means that last penny cost us $2000.
Should be written: Festival Director – gets 20% of profit over the first $10,000. In the future a bonus should not be written into the contract. This is not best practices going forward.
Paying off Jim and El Paso. Possible Jim on the call to present the final report after Afton and Dennis get the final pieces together.
2017 Festival Report (Dan Holzman)
Discussion: Dan not on the meeting. Paul Ponce. Registration is open. 10 event packages sold so far today.
You have to be a member to register and sign up. Some people are having trouble getting in with their passwords. At least four to 15 people could not log in and renew. Looking into it with the YM folks.
Was logged in with a code in the email. But couldn’t change email – details needed. Trying to figure out the renewals. Others have had a problem. Member-site, could not login, – the member-site had a double login. ?? But there are issues with this being easy.
Should we hold on a hard social media push until we get this resolved. Yes, we need to hold for a little bit. Need to contact GSG…
Grants in for Dan and Shivella. They did touch base and start that process. Need to go with Afton too so she can be in the loop on that.
Directors Handbook or manual – no directors handbook. Medals – where do we order them? Is there something like this? Do we have a mold for our medals? Mary thought there was a manual or handbook passed down festival director to festival director.
Back on the old website, we had a board plus wiki with some of this information.
Yes – definitely need a board, chair and festival director handbook.
Future Festival Planning (Mike Sullivan)
Discussion: Fort Wayne Indiana, and Peoria, Illinois – the top two right now.
Need to review proposals in depth on our own and give some direction on these.
2018 is Springfield MA
Peoria – huge scene – near big cities – nearish – > St. Louis , Chicago, Cedar Rapids – middle of the country again after the east coast action next year.
Try and get a festival director for 2018 before the 2017 festival. Start to put out feelers for the festival director for Springfield.
eJuggle Report (Scott Seltzer)
Discussion: Asking for a budget increase – $200 – not in the cards right now.
Do a survey with our members – how many people read our newsletter and our ezine?
What are the numbers. Can we have widgets or actions to see how many people interact with our ezine and content and videos etc?
Ask what type of content do the members want to see?
ACTION ITEM: Nathan to message Scott about a Poll and Numbers. Maybe install a new widget about what content is being read. And Martin can be using that and working up a poll to figure out more of what our members want.
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Discussion: Numbers Declining.
Marketing (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: Nil
IRC (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: Nil
6. Motions for Consideration
A. Motion to approve the 2017 IJA Honorary Award Committee’s selections.
Motion: Louie
Second: Shivella
Discussion: These passed via straw poll two weeks ago. Alan Howard sent along bios. Keep in mind how this selection went about this year – for the record these are the committee’s selections.
Outcome: Approved
B. Motion to approve the following Championships Rule Changes for 2017.
Champs Rules Changes
Motion: Scott
Second: Louie
Discussion: Straw Poll – passed – formal vote
Outcome: Approved
C. Motion to approve the rule changes for the 2017 Numbers Competition.
Numbers Rules Changes
Motion: Ian
Second: Shivella
Discussion: Straw Poll – passed to moves things on for administration. Timing of 2 2 minute blocks – made it a one 4 minute block. Will hopefully save a lot of time in running the competition. Last year like 30 competitors.
Outcome: Approved
D. Motion to appoint the following individuals as the 2017 IJA Awesomeness Fund Committee: Will Murray (Chair), Bill Olbrisch, Matt Wise, Chris Jost, Sam Malcolm.
Motion: Louie
Second: Shivella
Discussion: All these people are likable. $4000 to this committee right now. Final Deadline in beginning of May.
Outcome: Approved
E. Motion to approve the JUGGLE magazine Lybrary.com digital distribution deal
Contract.
Motion: Scott
Second: Louie
Discussion: Looks good on our end and their end. A small not labor intensive trickle of money and archives these magazines and gets them out there.
Outcome: Approved
F. Motion to approve the 2017 IJA Operating Budget.
Budget
Motion: Shivella
Second: Noel
Outcome: Approved
7. Varia:
(Killing it tonight with these motions)(ES)
IJA Regional Reps – we have regional reps – it has been difficult to define the role. Define scope as someone who promotes in an area of the world instead of just ‘country’ based. In writing define the expectations of this goal.
ACTION ITEM: Louie get with Erin to write this up some. Talk about IJA at tables and to others in their areas. Expectations and Description. What do they get from the IJA for that. Went to EJC and set up some things. What exactly do they do and what do they get from us. Come up with the title ‘International Representative’.
“Dangerous” Juggling Competition – make a trophy and give away some of their goods. Presentation of Danger – not just crazy tricks – more of an X Juggling thing. Can we help get this off the ground? Feedback: Fire – our insurance would not budge on that at all. The blades where fine. (that we know of?) Hmmmm… we’re not short on danger but it is cool. Probably a no go on the Danger Competition. ((no fire in 2017 event))
IJA Postcards – for booths and tables – keep momentum going. Make the postcards not mention the festival. So we can use them for a couple years. Back of postcards – list of benefits and how to join. And a list of our programs. YJA, IRC, Ejuggle, props to you.
ACTION ITEM: Louie – email board about moving forward with postcard and brochure – what do we have on it?
ACTION ITEM: logo and branding of the festival – get it to the t-shirts and all other areas – message Dan again – mention the board says the branding needs to be in more places. (on all items)
8. Set March Meetings
Next Vision Planning Meeting – March 13th, 2017 at 7:30 ET
Next Business Board Meeting – March 27th, 2017 at 7:30 ET.
9. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn: Ian
Discussion: Nil
Voting: Approved
Meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm ET.