1. Call to Order
Chair, Aslynne Howes, called the meeting to order at 7:03 pm Eastern
2. Roll:
Present: Amy Wieliczka, Sofia Noethe, Benjamin Domask-Ruh, Noel Yee, Ross Berenson, Afton Benson, Martin Frost, Aslynne Howes
Absent: Niels Duinker
Recorder: Amy
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Benjamin
Second by: Noel
Discussion:
Vote: Approved
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (LINK)
Motion: Ross
Second: Benjamin
Discussion:
Vote: Approved
5. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
2023 Festival Report (Exuro Piechocki)
Discussion:
Noel: Please supply the dates of our board meetings to Exuro.
Aslynne: He’s added to boardplus as of a few days ago; emails with board meeting times will go out on the 1st to boardplus.
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion:
Afton: Nothing yet. Fest is over, everything’s almost paid for. A few people haven’t accepted payment from PayPal.
Future Festival Site Report (Craig Lewis)
Discussion:
Noel: 2026 location is undetermined – is that true?
Martin: Is that true?
Afton: 2023 is in South Bend, 2024 is in Green Bay, 2025 is in Evansville
Noel: Has had conversations with Jorge and Fernanda about possible locations in Mexico for 2026 and it seems viable.
Aslynne: Asking us to consider Gatlinburg Tennessee – forwarded to Mike and Craig.
Martin: Site locations are listed online under About > History (including future history).
eJuggle Report (Scott Seltzer)
Discussion:
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion:
Aslynne: Last updated July 14, small increase in memberships. We’ll be voting on a new membership director soon.
Marketing Report (Matan Presberg)
Discussion:
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
Discussion:
Aslynne: Erin contacted via voicemail – Indian Juggling Federation wants to potentially be affiliates; perhaps the Hong Kong and Singapore Juggling Federations might be interested in this as well. Do we have an affiliate process? Erin is looking into the benefits, prices, structure, how it would be managed. How to implement and manage. The reason this came up with the IJF is it would help them get funding and legitimize the organization.
Martin: We technically have the old affiliates program but it’s defunct. It doesn’t mean a whole lot, but if it helps them get funding or something, we could have them join under the old affiliate rules: $<X> and <Y> number members.
Afton: We don’t really have one, but enter Afton’s prior proposal on Organizational Memberships of the IJA. It passed, but there were some tax liability things to tweak. “We’ll market your group” is different from “We’ll put your logo on our site”. You pay every year just like you do an IJA member. Potential ways for juggling clubs to be a part of IJA in a bigger way and help support it.
Martin: Juggling clubs helping the IJA and vice versa is the original idea of the affiliates program. Allowing organizations to become members – don’t remember that passing, but remember the discussion. There are bylaw implications there, we’re an organization of individuals, not an organization of organizations. Can organizations vote?
Aslynne: For the sake of time, moving discussion outside the call to look at what we did and didn’t approve re: organizational memberships. Afton, have you talked to Sam Malcom recently? He has marketing ideas including stuff related to that.
YJA Report (Benjamin Domask-Ruh)
Discussion:
Noel: What are protocols on these missing reports? Are giving reports a requirement? Is it loose?
Aslynne: Generally there should be a report every month but it doesn’t always happen. We can always follow up with the program or officers individually. Some we don’t ever expect to show up – Scott Seltzer for example – due to time differences.
Noel: It would be helpful to see a report. Could these be aggregated prior to the meetings?
Afton: A lot of this stuff stopped for nearly 2 years. Prior to the pandemic, people at least let people know “no report” or “not coming.” We should definitely let people know that we’re moving again and there is an expectation for a report.
Aslynne: They really should be sending their reports and adding them here on a monthly basis. Even if they can’t make the meeting.
Noel: Your presence in the meeting /or/ have something written down. Documentation is better, both are ideal. Maybe the week prior to every board meeting, comment and assign to everyone’s email.
Niels joins 7:32pm Eastern
Martin: The YJA logo is too similar to the IJA logo. Needs to be a bit more distinct. Likes the idea of similar logos, to draw attention to the fact that the YJA is part of the IJA.
Noel: Extend the world of juggling beyond clubs and rings, maybe something could express more achievements.
Amy: Kerning nitpick about the distance between Y of Youth and y of Academy and the circle.
Benjamin: Agrees with all these ideas
OpsO Report (Scott Steiskal)
Discussion:
Aslynne: Marketing and OpsO haven’t typically been written because they’ve been on the board up until very recently and have just given them in person. We’ll need to message them to write reports.
6. Motions for Consideration
- Motion to approve up to $300 for the Instagram Filter Creation project.
Author: Ross Berenson
Motion: Benjamin
Second: Amy
Discussion:
Ross: The creator of the filter would like $300. If I handle some asset design, we could probably get it down a bit. If this is approved, I’ll manage the project.
Local juggler makes IG filters, made one for the flow community that was pretty fun. Same concept but with site swaps. Filter in selfie mode with a box at the top of your head. Flow version says “What prop should I juggle?” Same concept but with siteswap “what siteswap should I juggle?” Cool outreach social media. No ROI on this filter except reach. Brand with IJA colors fonts possibly have a frame with IJA logo.
Noel: 3 ball, 4 ball, 5? Mix. More than half fairly easy and the intermediate and advanced included as well.
Niels: How is our marketing budget? Are we short or do we have money?
Afton: We don’t typically have a marketing budget, this would come out of the general operating budget. We were down last year, this year still sorting it.
Niels: This is great but only if we have “spare money”
Afton: I’d say we have money for this, if there’s other stuff you’re worried about us paying for, let me know? We’re good, we have money in the bank.
Vote:
Approve: Unanimous
Abstain:
Object:
- Motion to host board meetings via Zoom.
Author: Aslynne Howes
Motion: Niels
Second: Amy
Discussion:
Noel: I assume the IJA has a paid account for Zoom?
Aslynne: We don’t, but I have a paid account
Noel: Okay so there’s an ability for us to go beyond the hour recorded?
Aslynne: Yup. It does have a call-in option so it’s accessible to people unless their technology is restricted from using Zoom.
Vote:
Approve: Unanimous
Abstain:
Object:
7. Varia:
Martin: We should be sure to include last names in the notes at least once. Added them in the roll call.
Martin: Amy, are you available to work on GSuite (now called Google Workspace)?
Amy: Not until October.
Aslynne: Can we meet before or at the Vision Meeting in October?
Amy: Sure, we can connect the first week of October.
8. Confirm Next Meeting
Next meetings will take place on…
for the next vision meeting September 4th, 2022 at 7:00 EST
for the next business meeting September 18th, 2022 at 7:00 EST
9. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 7:59 pm Eastern.