1. Call to Order
Chair, Nathan Wakefield, called the meeting to order at: 7:41 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, Noel Yee, Louie Skaradek, Scott Cain, Mike Sullivan, Erin Stephens, Martin Frost, Scott Reynolds (Get Smart Group)
Absent: Marvin Ong, Shivella Schwab, Afton Benson, Dan Holzman
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Louie Skaradek
Second by: Scott Cain
Discussion:
Vote: approved
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting August 22nd, 2016
Motion: Scott Cain
Second: Noel Yee
Discussion:
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: Financial report from 2016 IJA not ready yet, should be available for October
2017 Festival Report (Dan Holzman)
Discussion: (Dan not present, Mike filling in) Cedar Rapids is preparing for more floods, almost as bad as the 2008. Depending on how much the water level rises, we could be facing some obstacles for the 2017 IJA festival. We might have to change cities. We will be watching closely.
Future Festival Planning (Mike Sullivan)
Discussion: Good lead in Huntsville, AL. Turned out to be not so good. Mike traveled there to check it out and “we would not have a good time.” Hotel & convention center are adjacent, but anything else would be a 5-10 minute uphill walk in July heat. Theatre is ⅓ larger than we need, also plain/industrial looking, not attractive. No good renegade option. They are building a new city center in 2017 and might be a future option.
Rooming policies for colleges is a concern, specifically Adults & minors rooming together. This coupled with other reasons, has made college campuses less appealing for future festival sites.
El Paso would love to have us back in 2019 or the future. Not a great option for a backup for 2017, but in the future would be good. The city should have more improvements by then.
Marketing (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: Social media posts have been going great! Better than expected. One video got 1,100 likes. IG taking off. Youtube doing well with tricks of the month. IRC promotions well received. Mind Blown video released, also well received. Lots of likes & shares!
We should keep promoting for Cedar Rapids but keep in mind we might be changing locations and to be prepared if we do. How long until we decide? We’re not sure but we are going to watch closely, hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. We have to wait to see how bad the flooding is. Specifically which buildings are damaged and how badly. By next meeting we should have a plan. Noel strongly suggests Massachusetts for the 70th IJA if we need to move from Cedar Rapids.
IRC (Erin Stephens)
Released the promotion for south America and it has been very well received. Things are going great! Looking good.
Discussion: Promotion is live on juggle.org
Nathan asked about the new logo. There was an issue between converting the medal into PDF, but nothing major.
YJA (Ellen Winters)
Discussion: We have not heard from Ellen in a while. Erin reports Ellen & Galen are interested in switching positions.
Website Report (Erin Stephens)
Discussion: Some issues are still pending but some have been resolved.
eJuggle Report (Scott Seltzer)
Discussion: Previous attempts to transfer the ejuggle content have failed. Progress is being made. We are very close to the finish, Scott encourages us all to go check out the site.
We’re several months behind on the project so some of us are nervous. It hasn’t been easy especially with the trouble transferring the ejuggle content. The trouble was not foreseen.
We need the board to go poke around the site to help test it. Fill out forms, register for events, and if you get an error please report (page, message, etc).
Once all issues are resolved, and you can click around (error free), it should be fairly easy to switch over to the new site. We will have to fix some links but it shouldn’t take long.
Anything that requires a payment will still go through ym.juggle.org. That will pretty much be the only time anyone has to go through that URL. If there are any other pages found that need to be moved from ym to the new site, we can fix them as we find them.
The “My Account” button will log you in simultaneously to both the new WordPress site and the background ym site.
Please don’t share links to the new site with anyone not on the team or involved with the project.
eJuggle will be synced at the last minute when the change-over is ready.
All board members should test the new set and get ready to make an approval on it, or any changes that need be.
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Discussion: no discussion
6. Motions for Consideration
A. Motion to appoint the following people to the 2017 Festival’s Honorary Awards Committee: Alan Howard (Chair), Bob Neuman, Jay Gilligan.
Motion: Noel Yee
Second: Louie Skaradek
Discussion: Same committee as last year, we are getting it together a little earlier than last year. Should the deadline be Nov 30th for accepting nominations? We are gonna shoot for end of year, but it’s flexible so we will see.
Vote: Motion passes.
B. Motion to renew Dennis Morrison’s Bookkeeper Contract for another year.
Bookkeeper Contract
Motion: Louie Skaradek
Second: Ian Michael Loughlin
Discussion: We have been very happy with Dennis so far.
Vote: Motion passes
C. Motion to appoint the following people for the following Officer Positions for the 2016-2017 term:
Martin Frost – Communications Director & eNewsletter Editor
David Landowne – Webmaster
Erin Stephens – IRC Director, Marketing Director & WJD Coordinator
Scott Seltzer – eJuggle Editor in Chief
Mike Moore – Canadian Representative
Marilyn Sullivan – Membership Director & Chief Teller
Don Lewis – eNewsletter Editor
Heather Marriott – Store Manager
Nathan Wakefield – Video Coordinator
Mike Sullivan – Future Festivals Site Coordinator
Louie Skaradek – Graphic Designer
Jim Maxwell – Affiliates Director
Alan Howard – Archives Director
Thom Wall – Video Tutorial Contest Director
Motion: Scott Cain
Second: Louie Skaradek
Discussion:
Vote: Motion Passes
7. Varia:
2016 Video Tutorial Contest
Event Insurance Update
Forum Usage
8. Set October Meetings
Next Vision Planning Meeting – October 17, 2016 at 7:30 ET
Next Business Board Meeting – October 24, 2016 at 7:30 ET.
9. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn: Noel Yee
Discussion:
Voting: Meeting Adjourned
Meeting adjourned at 9:21 pm ET.