1. Call to Order
Chair, Benjamin Domask-Ruh, called the meeting to order at: 6:02 pm Eastern
2. Roll:
Present: Afton Benson, Ross Berenson, Nick Hanson, David Wilkins, Jonathan Perry, Jake Darrow, Kaylin Meyers, Benjamin Domask-Ruh, Michael Karas, Gabe Peguero, Noel Yee, Sofia!, Martin Frost
Absent:
Recorder: Kaylin Meyers
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Jonathan Perry
Second by: Sofia Noethe
Discussion:
Vote: Passes unanimously
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (Business Meeting Agenda – 11/20/2025 )
Motion: Kaylin Meyers
Second: Michael Karas
Discussion:
Vote: Passes 5/6
Biz joins at 6:09pm ET
5. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
2026 Festival Report (Noel Yee)
Discussion:
Get your newsletter updates in by Dec 23rd! (Early reg closes)
Is vendor reg open yet? (Not yet!)
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion:
IJA Profit & Loss through 10/2025
Here’s the most current P&L through October 2025 – Unnamed’s donation came in November so the loss at the moment is around $20,000. As I’ve stressed before the festival is our primary source of income in addition to our membership dues. Since the festival broke basically even, it’s not surprising we’re looking at a loss this year.
I’ve talked to Dennis and will be getting the funds moved from the iiWii and Savings into the investment accounts and have emailed Richard about that.
Giving Tuesday – We exceeded our goal! Our total donations came to $4,370!
Some data:
- Around 40 people donated
- 7 of them were not IJA members
- $80 was donated to the Scholarship fund and $10 to IRCs with the rest being towards the General Fund.
Future discussion of Board joining Afton in writing thank you notes in the future!
Thank you’s to Afton for handwritten thank you notes to donors
Thayer Joins at 6:32 PM ET
Future Festival Site Report (Jake Darrow) (EXTRA cookies for Afton!)
Discussion: Albany Contracts are available. They were sent to the board via e-mail 12/18/25 along with my final recommendations and thoughts about Albany vs. other options.
Other options include, an offer in hand for Green Bay, and an offer, but no contracts yet from Rochester, MN.
Future Areas we have been in talks for 2030…Albuquerque, NM…Berkeley, CA…Rochester, NY and others.
Discussion:
- Michael feels strongly on listening to the members and taking the risk to bring the festival to the east coast
- Noel agrees with Michael
- Jonathan Perry: Repeat from members of complaints of festival being in the midwest
- Jake explains ability to fill first two hotels with attrition rate then having extra hotel for overflow (reducing the financial risk)
- Martin agrees with Albany
- Biz agrees.
- Kaylin agrees
- Noel: Potential for local team to help with the festival and get involved
- Everyone is in agreement for Albany
eJuggle Report (Eric Shibuya)
No significant events to report. We wrap up our first full year of eJuggle. We’ve had some new writers (JoAnn Ireland, Steve Ward, Katie Histed, Donnell Griffith). I am pretty pleased with the new writers (as well as our mainstays) and working with getting even more writers to come.
Discussion:
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion:
Marketing Report (Lisa Ellipse)IJA social media requests
Discussion:
- Two new members helping with marketing reposts!
- Chloe and Noel met over festival reporting
- Afton and Lisa will work together making an SOP for people with access/posting on the IJA social media account
- Seeing some admin issues with marketing team members using the social media for personal use.
- Clarifying the roles and abilities and ethics of having access on paper for future team members.
- In the new year: Let’s set up a whole team marketing meeting with the board and clarify needs/roles.
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
Discussion:
The 2025 IRC have come to a close, though I still have some videos to post. It was a very successful and inspiring year – that also taught me a lot about what’s needed for the program to grow into the future. The IRC started in 2011 – and fact is, the juggling community and the world in general have changed a lot since then – and in part due to the amazing results of the IRC of sharing the international juggling talents of the world. Juggling communities that were new and blossoming are now well established and professional. The IJA international participation was once new and exciting, now it is old, established and expected. $300 was a lot of money in some regions of the world, post COVID it is very little in most regions of the world. A foreigner coming in to organize an IJA program was exciting, and now the idea of local teams organizing such programs and being considered part of the IJA, is more exciting. I once had a lot of time, and now I do not.
So, with all of these reflections also comes some important discussions and shifts in how the IRC model moves forward. It is now our challenge, much like with the IJA social media, to be able to change and adapt to continue being important, relevant and serving the international juggling community in the best and most effective way possible.
The IRC now has a large and growing organizational team – with 8 members from Latin America (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Guatemala). We will be meeting after Christmas to discuss ideas and strategy for the coming year and for the long term. Already we have 1 IRC confirmed for Nicaragua in January, with 2 proposals for the UK & Ireland and Peru for April on tonight’s agenda.
This year, it is essential that I add two key organizers to the IRC internal management in order to remain mentally sane – an administrative person who will assist with things like email communications, website editing, organization of photos and videos, etc. (Matan has expressed interest) – and a marketing assistant who will take on the marketing side of the IRC including promotion of the IRC, announcements of the Finalists, hype of the Livestreams of the IRC, and the follow up posts of the IRC medalists (I’ve talked to Lisa about approaching Kaylin about this, and she agrees this is a good option if Kaylin is interested).
The IRC have a lot of energy behind them and a lot of potential to grow. Figuring out how to manage that growth – time wise, direction wise and financially – are the keys to this program continuing to thrive into the future.
YJA Report (Benjamin Domask-Ruh)
Discussion:
Met to discuss the 2026 year for YJA
- Planning Planting the juggling seed this year
- Discussion on the Benefit Show/PTJS future
- Figuring out a split for Club YJA at the festival (Kiddos vs. teens)
- All meet in the room at the beginning, split into the ‘workshops’ of the day. This way we don’t lose intergenerational learning but allow young people to choose what they are curious about!
- Bringing in more people to help coordinate Club YJA
- Start writing a ‘guide’ for how to run youth programming at your festival
- Thayer’s Juggling Activity book. – Let’s be hyped about this idea!
- Future of YJA (Benjamin’s administrative abilities stretched thin with Board Chair role. Happy to stay in the role but starting the process to transition to a new YJA leader in the next few years after we accomplish this iteration of the program 🙂 )
- Jonathan: Philly festival wanting to include youth programing at their festival and asking about co-branding
- Coordinator position for festival
OpsO Report (Ross Berenson)
Discussion:
- Website Theme build about 25% complete.
- Google workspace transfer status check-in – no update
- Virtual Workshop status check-in. – Virtual Workshops pre-Festival
- IJA Virtual Workshops
- Benjamin going to chat with Stacey on her deciding if instructor payment or not. And if she decides instructors should be compensated that she should come to us with a budget and board will vote.
- Teen Team co-lead?
6. Motions for Consideration
Motion to approve IJA membership renewal for eJuggle Editor-in-Chief Eric Shibuya
Motion: Sofia Noethe
Second: Biz Olbrisch
Discussion:
(From Eric): I have submitted in the December report IJA renewals for the editorial team (Naomi, Donnell, and Christian) as well as Bailey for her work on the 441. I consider authorizing that compensation within the authority of the eJuggle EIC.
However, I do not think it is within my power to authorize my own renewal as compensation, hence entering this motion here. If the Board wishes to simply authorize this as base compensation, rather than having to make this motion every year, that would be wonderful. Thank you for your consideration.
Approval: Passes unanimously
Motion to approve hosting an IRC UK & Ireland 2026 at the British Juggling Convention (BJC) in Preston, England on April 7, 2026
Proposal: IRC UK & Ireland 2026
Budget:
Motion: Jonathan Perry
Second:Biz Olbrisch
Discussion: (Erin) This is a first time proposal from the BJC to host the IRC – though an IRC was previously held in the UK as part of the EJC. The organizers have decided it is best to specifically focus on the inclusion of jugglers from the UK and Ireland regions. They have agreed to provide the prize money and to all other requirements for the IRC. I will be attending to organize this first time event – with the plan of training a local team member to be able to organize future events. They will also be inviting Jorge Vilchis as a performer, so there will be two IRC Representatives present for the organization, which is always helpful.
Note: Let’s place the proposal/discussion in vision meetings in the future to allow board to discuss and then make the voting more streamlined during the business meeting.
Approval: Passes Unanimously
Motion to approve hosting an IRC Sudamérira 2026 – Peru at the 4th Convención Peruana de Circo y Artes de la Lleca in Ventanilla, Callao, Peru on April 3, 2026
Proposal: IRC Sudaméria 2026 – Péru
Budget:
Motion: Kaylin Meyers
Second: Biz Olbrisch
Discussion: (Erin) I am very excited that Peru has reached out to host another IRC. The first and only IRC in Peru was in 2015, so it will have been 11 years. There has been a high amount of juggling activity going on in Peru in the last 5 years and I’ve noticed a huge community igniting there. It feels like this is the perfect time for the IRC to be added to what they are already doing to inspire the advancement of the juggling community. The convention has agreed to all the requirements of hosting the IRC and the event will be held in a circus tent. The IRC representatives from Chile, Wladimir and Javier, will be organizing this event – and simultaneously training a local to organize future events. Branco Ballarte will be the local IRC coordinator and he has had a lot of experience in participating in and attending other IRC.
Approval: Passed unanimously
7. Varia:
8. Confirm Next Meeting
Next meetings will take place on…
Wed, Jan 7th 6pm ET for the next vision meeting
Jan 22nd for the next business meeting
9. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 7:36pm Eastern.