1. Call to Order
Acting Chair, Mike Moore, called the meeting to order at: 5:05 pm PST
(Dear Mike, don’t forget to start the recording. Sincerely, Mike)
2. Roll:
Present: Afton, Matan, Mike Moore, David, Krystin, Erin, Sofia, Mike Sullivan, Galen
Absent: Ian, Yuki, Exuro, Eric
Recorder: Matan
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Matan
Second by: Sofia
Discussion:
Vote: approved unanimously
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (12/18/18)
Motion: Sofia
Second: Matan
Discussion:
Vote: approved unanimously
5. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion: Nothing to report. Working on budget for 2019.
2019 Festival Report (David Cain)
Discussion:
-secured marketing director (Nathan Wakefield)
-marketing plan drafted
-secured graphics design director (Jason Horst) (designed Cedar Rapids t-shirt, well known in juggling community)
-working for free!
-items for challenge night obtained so we can create marketing material for challenge night
Erin: When are tickets on sale? David: As soon as site is up + tests, ideally by end of February. Will work with Ian on website.
-Mike Sullivan is working on hotel information, waiting for final brunch decision to finalize
-early bird dates decided within the next two days
-all contracts should go into a single folder in the IJA Google Drive Folder
Future Festival Site Report (Mike Sullivan)
As a result of recent outreach, I am receiving a flood of potential proposals from destinations for our next open festival date, in 2023.
Although qualification is continuing and my discussions with both destinations are very preliminary, I ask the Board to give their tentative opinion on the desirability of the cities of South Bend, Indiana and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada for our 2023 destination.
South Bend would be our third festival in Indiana in 9 years, and the second in four years. That has not been a disqualifier for past IJA festivals, as we repeated Winston-Salem three times in six years. If all other considerations are favorable, would an Indiana location for 2023 be acceptable to the Board? The prior destinations will be, in order, Fort Wayne this year, El Paso (2020), Wichita (2021), and Cedar Rapids (2022).
UPDATE TUESDAY MORNING: South Bend has turned in a preliminary proposal that looks very, very good for us, EXCEPT for the hotel room rate at their main Convention Center hotel, the Doubletree. They quoted us $139/night plus 14% tax, which includes a free hot breakfast for two and free parking. I told our contact at Visit South Bend Mishawaka that the Doubletree rate is not competitive and will not work with our group, as we already have a $115/night rate under contract for 2022 in Cedar Rapids at their sister property Doubletree there, and that I’d much rather see a much lower rate without breakfast and free parking for our group. We are waiting to hear preliminary rates for the other two downtown hotels (Aloft and Courtyard).
Halifax is the capital city of Nova Scotia and, having recently visited it on vacation, I can attest that it is a vibrant, beautiful and arts-friendly tourist destination in a small, compact and safe city. Endless natural beauty and numerous tourist attractions of all kinds would be available to our attendees before, during and after their festival experience, in the height of the region’s tourist season.
Halifax is, however, very remote and would require nearly all attendees to fly to the city, a factor that kept our attendance in Québec City in 2015 well below average. Even Canadians would be very unlikely drive to Halifax, as it is 1,200 miles by car from Toronto and 900 miles by car from New York City. Domestic airfare within Canada is very expensive, making flying a costly proposition even for Canadians. Current July round-trip airfare from Toronto for a 7-day trip is about US$380 / CA$504. No telling what it could be four years hence.
In addition, we would have the risk of exchange-rate fluctuations vs. the CA$ affecting our profit, which worked violently against us to wipe out our entire profit in 2015. I have been told that we COULD denominate ALL transactions, pre-fest and on-site, in US$ and remove that risk, but I will need to confirm that. On the plus side, I have been told that there is no bilingual requirement for events held in Nova Scotia as there was in Québec, which greatly complicated our 2015 festival there.
Event Webinar by Mike to find 2023 prospective sites:
| International Jugglers’ Association — Event Webinar |
NASC
Join Mike Sullivan, Future Festival Site Coordinator of International Jugglers’ Association on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019 at 2 p.m. ET as he discusses what it takes to land one of their events. Does your destination have what it takes to hold a week-long, 24-hour-a-day international festival for jugglers and variety performers from all over the world? The IJA is now qualifying destinations for their 2023 festival, and Future Festival Site Coordinator Mike Sullivan will host a half-hour NASC webinar to tell you all about it: the key requirements, success factors, pricing needs and more. Plus, there’s a full RFP and event history available. Qualified destinations will be considered for the 2023 dates and beyond. Register today and hear all about what it takes to bring a week of incredible people and amazing fun to your city! Register now.
Discussion: None, thanks for doing this, Mike!
eJuggle Report (Scott Seltzer)
Discussion: No report present
Concerns about editing things like reviews (i.e. for shifting of content, rather than understandability)
David: articles that come in often require a lot of editing.
Reports of asking that reviews be less critical and more critical. Good to keep monitoring to make sure reviews are not ads (positive or negative)
David will be trying to balance content towards current events recognizing that he is the main contributor and has always focused on history.
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion: Looks promising when considering January trends
Marketing Report (Erin Stephens/Matan Presberg)
Discussion:
MIke: What fraction of TotM applications were accepted? -about half
-Ian Michaels joined the call
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
Discussion:
YJA Report (Galen Harp)
Discussion: 1. YJA Logo design feedback 2. Initiative to promote juggling in physical education.
-Galen will run a YJA table at Madfest this weekend
-YJA logo uploaded to drive, looking for feedback/specific criticism
6. Motions for Consideration
A. To remove Nathan Wakefield from the IJA’s Bank of America account(s).
Motion: Ian
Second: Sofia
Discussion:
Vote:
Oppose : none
Abstain : none
Result: vote passes unanimously
B. To add Exuro Piechocki to the IJA’s Bank of America account(s).
Motion: Matan
Second: Ian
Discussion:
Vote:
Oppose : none
Abstain : none
Result: vote passes unanimously
To hold the IRC Mexico 2019 at the 11th Cirkonvencion Mexicana, during the dates of April 17-21. See Proposal
Motion: Matan
Second: Ian
Discussion: cool special guests at the fest!
Vote:
Oppose : none
Abstain : none
Result: vote passes unanimously
D. To approve the 2018 festival P&L statement https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3zyOVbXczLYX1JGNmNrX2x6VFdwRHcwMlBvNmdVaW9mdHgw/view?usp=drivesdk
Motion:Ian
Second: Sofia
Discussion:
(Mike Sullivan) I am still wondering about the huge variance in the official P&L vs. what we know we collected on-site at the IJA reg desk using Square Register.
I mentioned this issue when the draft P&L was first published back in November, and it looks like none of the figures on the draft P&L have been changed since then, so they still seem wildly at odds with the on-site data.
If those figures are off by over ten thousand dollars for a single item alone, how are we to trust all the other figures on the P&L?
My original note to Afton and Exuro about this on November 27, 2018 is reproduced here.
Is there urgency to publish this?
– Not exactly, but we do need to get this done for tax reasons by April (for normal submissions) or summer (for extended – typically we do this anyway)
Vote:
Oppose : Sofia, Ian, Mike
Abstain : Matan
Result: Motion fails
E. To approve the 2019 festival budget https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3zyOVbXczLYNmVucWEzUVNRelhKX0dOeHJSY0RObHl4UW9n/view?usp=drivesdk
Motion: Sofia
Second: Matan
Discussion:
Typo in juniors
Extra pages at end
Occasional minor typos elsewhere
Budget looks pretty conservative
Vote:
In favour : Matan, Sofia, Ian, Mike Moore
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result: motion passes unanimously
7. Varia:
–
8. Confirm Next Meetings
Vision Meeting Tuesday February 5, 2019 at 5pm PST.
Board Meeting Tuesday February 19, 2019 at 5pm PST.
Exuro is not available Feb12th
9. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn: Ian
Discussion:
Voting: motion passes unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 6:11 pm PST.