Board Meeting – May 4, 2014

Agenda 5/4/2014

Planning Board Meeting May 4, 2013
5:30pm Pacific Time
Call In Information:
Toll-Free Dial-In Number: 1.800.977.8002
Participant Conference Code: 189209#

1. Call to Order

Chair, Erin Stephens, called the meeting to order at  5:32pm PST.

2. Discussions

  • Lloyd brought up that we need to make sure that we replace Holly’s position.
  • Sustainability of board chair and board members and volunteers.
  • Membership Promotion Planning
    • Affiliates Program Update (Noel and Lloyd)
      • Discussion: First getting a map of the affiliates. Draft e-mail and touch base with current programs.
    • Huge online community – how do we turn online support into membership?
      • Facebook posts about supporting the IJA
      • Advertising membership on eJuggle
      • Youtube (Tricks of the Month – with “Join the IJA Today”?)
      • Members Only content needs Hype!
      • Noel brings up a point that we may want to offer more diverse member only content videos from some of the best of jugglers, street performers, etc.  Nathan’s point is that if we do something like that we need to make sure we hype it well enough.
    • Cross-selling things in store?
      • Increased merch  vs. less merch
        • Nathan thinks it could add more value to our store if there are more items.  Kyle is for that too.  Noel thinks that the IJA needs to rebrand itself especially with the logo prior to doing well with marketing
    • Flow and Fire Community – No input.
    • IJA awareness – merchandise donation to festivals.
      • Included fliers sent to each festival.
      • Can check into current distributor to see if that’s a possibility.
    • Latin-America – Strategies for increasing membership with these jugglers
      • Member Only Content
      • Spanish eJuggle Content Nathan is working on this with Scott.
    • PayPal Issue
      • Paypal is currently the only way people can join the IJA.  One major problem with that is that there are a number of countries where you are unable to use paypal.
      • Scott asked if there are other programs similar to PayPal that do work in these regions of the world.
    • YJA Program
      • Prizes for YEP kids.
      • Scott asks whether there is any content on the website geared towards kids, and whether the IJA content is family friendly enough.
      • Idea to reduce IJA membership rate for YJA participants.
    • Direct-mail campaign?  – Nathan talked about the idea of sending a direct mailing to clubs letting them know about the IJA, about the affiliates program, and offering a discount or special free gift to their club members that sign up for IJA memberships.  Lloyd discussed that this would be good to happen – after the affiliates program has already takes several steps.  To juggling clubs, universities with juggling clubs, offering discounts on memberships if people join.
      • Join today and get a free gift.
        • Buttons, stickers, Iron-ons?  Erin likes buttons, stickers, and iron ons.
    • Membership drive last year on World Juggling Day.
      • 34 new members in one day.
      • One membership drive/year and one donation drive/year.
      • Donations could be in Nov/Dec.
        • Lloyd looked at the last time we did a donation drive.  He said that it could be really easy to do it now that we can do it on email and we can explain that the money will go to fund all of the great programs that the IJA funds.  Lloyd thinks it wouldn’t take much work to get the word out.  Nathan says that this could be a great idea.  Jared also thinks this is a great idea.
        • Scott says that he thinks it is a great idea but that he doesn’t have the timeto do that.  Jared agrees with Scott.
      • Member outreach priorities:
        • Monthly FB promotion of IJA membership
        • 1st steps of Affiliates program
        • Diversify member only content.  Nathan will talk to Scott to brainstorm diversifying member only content.  Erin will brainstorm potential member only content contributors in Latin America.
        • Continue to move forward with options for Spanish translation for eJuggle.
        • Research other merchandise options – Nathan
        • Continue to strategize for doing bigger hype on eJuggle content – especially members only content.
        • Get festival promo material to our merch distributor to send out with all IJA merch shipments.
        • Talk to Ellen about idea of lowering IJA membership rate for YJA participants.  Brainstorm YJA member attractions.
  • Website Update – Donor!
    • There is an annonymous donor willing to pays for the first 3 years of an AMS for the IJA, with potential to go longer.
  • Amazon Smile Program Promotion Plan
    • Scott told us again about the amazon program and how the IJA is signed up for it.  We need to make sure that we promote this.  Also, we especially need to promote this during the holiday season.  Scott emailed us about this as well with all the details.

3. Confirm May 18, 5:30pm PST for next board meeting.

4. Adjourn

Motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:35 pm PST.
Motion: Lloyd
Discussion:  Noel suggested that we perhaps devote an entire planning meeting to the topic that Jared brought up (reducing the things the IJA does and offers, etc).
Vote:  Unanimous