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, Jim Maxwell
Present: Nathan, Louie, Ian, Shivella, Scott, Afton, Jim, Martin, Mike
Absent: Noel, Marvin, Erin, Dan
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Scott
Second by: Shivella
Discussion: Nil
Vote: Unanimously Approved
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting February 27th, 2017.
Motion: Ian
Second: Shivella
Discussion: Nil
Vote: Unanimously Approved
5. Reports (Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival and future festival discussion)
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion:
Final Festival 2016 Numbers **See the link below under the motion**
We paid Jim for his hard work and the final total ended at $12,874.
At this very moment I don’t have year end numbers yet, I’ll keep you all posted on that front.
Not too much happening. Items are wrapping up well. Payments are coming through for early registration.
Final 2016 Festival Report (Jim Maxwell)
Discussion: Jim is on the Call. Paused in motion – Made it through most of the post festival survey and Jim will compile it. Most everybody rated the festival pretty high. Heat and isolation were the sore spots. Festival overall had pretty high remarks. The festival went well and was profitable – only because of the grant from the city of El Paso. Grant was also spent to ‘add too’ the festival and we spent some with regulated advertising. Jim will get a report soon to the board and will join us on another call if needed.
Question: Brunch and money and how we went over in spending. Hard to hit that target of money. ($25,000) Until we went through it, did not know some things – like charged by ‘plate’. Difficult to estimate the cost and the amount of people that show up at the brunch. Do you set a number of plates max? Decided to use the grant to cover any ‘extra’ and it was a decision made during the process. Overall – hard target to hit. – Grant over coverage – about $3000. A bunch of ‘add ons’ nickel and dime actions – many of these things start to add up ‘almost hidden’. Historically it is usually always the case like this at convention centers.
Question: Data on how many brunches were purchased and eaten each day of the festival? Yes – these are broken up possibly in our invoices in el paso?? – Just a dollar figure period… Need to check on this more… (Jim will look) Used this data (Mike) for calculating in Cedar Rapids.
28, 407.68 – total bill – some details were lost and control.
Brunch was the most popular thing – sit and visit – community – and the quality of food was good. Better than expected. $25,000 of brunch was ‘better received’ than the ‘fun fund’ Better than convention food. It was a big hit.
Question: Rigging situation and cost. And Incurred cost remaining?? Thought it was $4000? – not just for rigging – the lighting and tech for the whole weeks worth of shows too. (Check – okay – clumped up info – need to break it out from venue for the future.) Not just a static tapeeze rigging cost. Old guy / New guy situation – they went out of their way to set up the rigging. Not to satisfaction of the artist. (scrapped routine) Bonus Tuey. We did loose some $ / man hours on that rigging because of all that.
Question: What would you do differently? Keep a tighter control over the entertainment budget. Rooms and dollars – ended up going over budget. Many little things like that. Jim will keep thinking about it and get it in a report.
Didn’t see coming. Handle differently. In a report later.
Question: How could the IJA have done to help you more, how could we have made it easier? Excellent question – in the report. Does not begrudge oversight. Will put it in the report.
( Exit Jim )
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Question for Mike / Dan: Festival Budget back into drive please. Would like to see that database in motion. Need performer contracts. (folder is there) Mike – doing it in apple numbers – can publish snapshots or share with people. XLS file straight into drive. Snap Shots every week or ten days.
Dan needs to send the performer contracts – board should impress this upon him. No signed contracts in hand of the board.
Get a list of questions and concerns from the board. To be sent to Dan after this meeting.
(Exit Afton)
2017 Festival Report (Dan Holzman)
30% above on people and revenue. -heading to five year average would be great.
Pass along from Dan – everything is goin well. Marvin Oong will not be performing, will not be at the festival.
Dan needs to notify us when people will not be there. Impress upon him the importance of notifying the web team.
Questions for Dan
Festival Budget live to Afton – so she can see it in real time.
Contacts of Performers (get them to us)
Needs to communicate with website team about any changes. Additions or reductions.
If he has contacted Honorary Awards recipients.
Are we clear on the:
Individual Prop Competition.
Coaching Lounge. —> sign up sheet, just make sure he is in communication
Busking Competition. —> send a message to Dan, 4 finalists in the busking… need more… and the judging mechanics.
Awards from who? (Physical awards and who is responsible for them)
Amron rosethal – workshop on magnetic clubs – write up on what people need to bring… and what to expect. Get info on that.
Jayco is going to be doing videography?
Kimbal Photography? Henry Benson – Check on him too. (Comps?)
Parliamentarian arranged – responsibility of the board – gonna find one in Cedar Rapids.
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Add item in newsletter about the show prices and package price differences. Anything you want in the newsletter – last chance now ish. Sooner the better.
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Marvin is listed under the flow show and go section…. Remove Marvin from there.
Will the show tickets be sold at registration? People can buy them during the day.
Only available for onsite purchase at the festival. Or at the door.
2017 Fest Revenue Update 3/23/17 – Mike Sullivan, Festival Registrar:
Now that Early Bird registration has closed, we have flash revenue figures vs. budget for Early Bird registrations. We are 61 regs, $11,939 and 34.3% ahead of budget.
Early Bird registration orders alone got us 64.7% toward our total pre-reg revenue budget, and we have had more regs since then at full pre-reg pricing. In addition, we expect to have between 22 and 36 youth group regs come in before pre-reg ends, as well as a half-dozen or more vendor add-on event packages.
If we sell only 78 more Adult packages during pre-reg, 20 more Youth packages during pre-reg, and 24 Youth Group packages during pre-reg, we will attain our total Pre-Reg revenue budget of $72,390.
These figures are well within reach: last year, with record low attendance, we sold 70 Adult, 7 Youth and 11 Youth Group during the Regular pricing window.
Discussion:
Future Festival Planning (Mike Sullivan)
My report and recommendation for Fort Wayne 2019 still stands.
However, late last week, I received a letter from Peoria, Illinois offering us financial assistance of $28,000 toward facility expenses if we decide to bring our festival there (copy placed in this month’s Board Meetings folder). This would essentially cover all our usual rental, labor and staging expenses for holding the festival. Even so, I still feel Fort Wayne is a superior choice.
The theater in Peoria is far, far too large for our needs, and there are no other theaters in the downtown core. There are fewer and less desirable food and drink outlets in Peoria, and we found nothing suitable for a Renegade site. In addition, the proposed juggling space is at the far end of a much larger Center, with workshops a level below, making it all less convenient for our jugglers.
I disqualified Huntsville, AL as a good candidate site for many of the same reasons, and they also offered us more than $20,000 in incentives to bring our festival to their city. I believe that our jugglers deserve the best festival experience we can find, within our budget, and that Peoria’s offer of a free festival doesn’t outweigh the substantial deficiencies in their offering.
Discussion: What is the likely hood of Peoria at a later date. Will get that assistance in the future? Yes – Likely.
Strong bid from El Paso for 2020 festival – they liked us there.
eJuggle Report (Scott Seltzer)
Discussion: Nil
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Discussion: Email to drum up former members. What are next steps. Waiting to get to the top of Que. (next couple weeks out)
Marketing (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: Nil
IRC (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: Nil
6. Motions for Consideration
A. Motion to accept the final 2016 festival Profit & Loss Statement.
Motion: Shivella
Second: Scott
Discussion: Nil (talked about alot in the past meetings)
Outcome: Unanimously Approved
B. Motion to approve Mike Sullivan to proceed with contract negotiations with Fort Wayne, Indiana, as the site for the potential 2019 IJA Festival.
Motion: Nathan
Second: Scott
Discussion: Nil
Outcome: Unanimously Approved
7. Varia:
IJA Brochures – proceed with more on the Boardplus Forum
Possible stickers like the EJC stickers in the PX4 order from Italy.
8. Set April Meetings
Next Vision Planning Meeting – April10th, 2017 at 7:30 ET
Next Business Board Meeting – April 24th, 2017 at 7:30 ET.
9. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn: Ian
Discussion: Nil
Voting: Unanimously Approved
Meeting adjourned at 8:47 pm ET.