1. Call to Order
Afton Benson, Treasurer , called the meeting to order at: 6:03 pm Eastern
2. Roll:
Present: Jonathan Perry, Jake, Mike Sullivan, Afton Benson, Sofia Noethe, Niels Duinker, Noel Yee, Kaylin Meyer, Eric Shibuya, Martin Frost, Jess, Luther Bangert
Absent: Benjamin Domask-Ruh, Aslynne Howes
Recorder: Niels Duinker
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Jonathan
Second by: Sofia
Discussion:
Vote: Passes unanimously
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (LINK)
Motion: Sofia
Second: Noel
Discussion: None
Vote: Passes unanimously
5. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
Luther Joined 6:06 PM EST
2025 Festival Report (Jess)
Discussion:
January Festival Progress Report (Site Visit Recap)
Mostly everything is in the report above.
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion: Afton is working on sending 1099, and donation thank you notes.
Future Festival Site Report (Mike and Jake)
Discussion:
Last contact received by Anne Ozbun from University of Minnesota was Dec. 16th. I emailed her 1-15-25 to check in, no response yet
South Bend 2028
Spoke with Sam Erickson of the Aloft Hotel. Was able to slightly increase their overall offer of rooms to 360; while lowering the nightly rate from $139-$129. Was also able to negotiate Free Parking, and a 15% Dining credit, that can be used at either their breakfast or dinner service. Comp rate of 1:50
Brande @ DoubleTree Currently offered 1,008 room nights, but at a FAR worse than 2023 concessions rate. (Doubling their business (from 541), but getting less in return). Spoke with her today, nothing really accomplished. Sent an email laying out our requests for the last attempt to her, her boss and the folks at the convention bureau…waiting for an answer. Rate of $125
Courtyard offer of 628 room nights @ $139 still active. Comp Rate of 1:40
Other Areas: Investigated Bellingham, Washington area for possible festival site location. After some research, determined that it was probably not viable, From life member and IJA past 10-year president Bill Barr, who has lived in western WA his whole life…“As much as I would like a Festival in Washington, That is not a location for us. Too remote. Seattle would be the only place for us, access SeaTac, and it is usually full in July with tourists.” That being said, we have not ruled it out completely. We are still trying to get a hold of reps. from the local convention bureau.
Lastly, Mike & I signed up (and were approved for) the SMMC Conference (Small Market Meetings Conference | Think small for big results!!), to be held in Buffalo, NY in September. No travel arrangements made yet, as we will wait and see if our attendance is needed. Also, Looking at attending Connect Marketplace (focused on sporting venues), in Miami in August.
Mike & Jake Depart 6:48 PM ET
eJuggle Report (Eric Shibuya)
Discussion: The entire editorial team now receives emails addressed to ejuggle@juggle.org. Emails just to me go to ejuggleeditor@juggle.org.
Esteban Velez, longtime writer, is now also the Spanish language editor for eJuggle. (FYI: not on the eJuggle email). He is already soliciting articles. I have also received some letters of interest to join the editorial team. While I am not currently looking to increase the team, I have kept in contact with them and encouraged them to submit articles for eJuggle.
My solicitation for insights from long-standing juggling clubs on the IJA FB page caused a flurry. I am talking to many who responded and am busily transcribing their thoughts. This may become an occasional series.
At the moment, the team could use more to do, so please reach out to folks who are interested in writing. We are looking for new voices and new perspectives.
Martin: Possibly an idea to have a summary/article of all the new articles for the IJA newsletter.
Eric: We’re also planning an article series about how to run a juggling festival.
Benjamin Response: I think it would be lovely to start drafting out some potential templates/possible layouts for the monthly ‘publication’ (using that term loosely for now!) Anecdotally, was driving in a car with some jugglers here in Madison for Madfest and the desire for something more ‘digestible’ was discussed in terms of eJuggle! So people are interested and excited by this prospect.
Some possible topic/areas to start sending editors/writers out to gather:
- Interviews with working/professional jugglers
- Smaller festival reviews from around the world
- Science of juggling
- New methods of juggling education (children/adult)
- Prop reviews, book reviews, lesson reviews
- Profiles on longstanding juggling clubs
- Juggling fiction/poetry
- [ADD MORE HERE]
Eric Depart 6:54 PM ET
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion: none
Marketing Report (Lisa and Kenzey)
Discussion: none
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
There are no new updates since the December meeting.
Discussion: none
YJA Report (Benjamin Domask-Ruh)
Discussion:
Please review this ‘call for chapters’ draft and add comments to the SHORT version:
This will go out for the short version for the education guide.
OpsO Report (Ross Berenson)
Discussion:
- Festival Director call was posted on socials
- Did some backend wordpress updates on juggle.org
- Set up the base for the Festival site. Still waiting on more content.
- Festival recap videos have been uploaded to Vimeo, Eric has scheduled posts for them. I believe one has already been posted.(Perhaps we should get Eric in touch with marketing for “bigger” posts, especially some member only content)
- Festival teaser videos are also online but the text is for 2024. However maybe marketing can take snippets of the video to use on socials.
6. Motions for Consideration
- Motion to raise eJuggle budget to $11200
Author: Eric Shibuya
Motion: Niels
Second: Jonathan
Discussion
Eric’s notes: The current eJuggle budget is $10200 ($850/month), of which $840+ is committed to current creators. Jorge (Tricks of the Month) was in prior negotiations to increase his compensation and I have inherited those discussions. I would like to increase his monthly payments from $100 to $150. TOTM is a long-standing part of eJuggle and is consistently one of our most popular features. That would be an extra $600 committed in the budget.
My intention for the extra $400 is to compensate other writers. I do not expect to use the entire $400 my first year, but I would like to have this in reserve to incentivize and attract new writers and (in the future) commission some special features. (When I say “have in reserve” I mean for the year. I recognize there is no “carryover” from year to year, but the budget does reset).
- Benjamin (not in attendance) supports this motion!
Vote: Passes unanimously
7. Varia:
Martin: Sadly longtime IJA Honorary Life member Mary Wilkins passed away. There will be an eNewsletter article.
8. Confirm Next Meeting
Next meetings will take place on…
3 February 2025 at 6PM EST for the next vision meeting
17 February 2025 at 6PM EST for the next business meeting
9. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 7:02 pm Eastern.