Business Board Meeting 7/16/2026 6:00 pm Eastern Time
1. Call to Order
Chair, Benjamin Domask-Ruh, called the meeting to order at: 6:03pm EST
- Roll:
Present: Afton Benson, Ross Berenson, Mike Sullivan, Jonathan Perry, Bill ‘Biz’ Olbrisch, Thayer Slichter, Martin Frost, David Wilkins, Gabriel P, Jeffrey McLean
Absent: Noel Yee, Michael Karas, Kaylin Meyer, Sofia Noethe
Recorder: Jonathan
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Jonathan
Second by: Biz
Discussion:
Vote: Passes unanimously
Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (Business Meeting Agenda – 6/18/2026)
Motion: Jonathan
Second: Biz
Discussion:
Vote: Passes unanimously
5. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
2026 Festival Report (Noel Yee)
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
- Money from Tshirt site update? (Benjamin)
- No news, they say they can’t expedite it and that there’s nothing to do but wait. I’ve closed our entire account you can’t buy stuff from them. I’ll connect with Thayer after the festival to set up a new site. Un real.
Future Festival Site Report (Nick Hanson)
eJuggle Report (Eric Shibuya)
eJuggle is currently on track to spend somewhere between $10-11K this year. (Current projection is $10,970, though whether a couple of articles do arrive this year is up in the air). That amount includes $160 in show tickets for the 2026 festival, to maintain accounting from one IJA program to another. Several new writers have been compensated also with IJA memberships, and a few have simply donated their time and effort.
This year turned out to be very productive in terms of finding new writers. Javier Bernal’s new series on juggling and exercise has been well received, and works on the science of juggling and skill improvement have been a gap in eJuggle topics. I do not know if there will be regular contributions on science/juggling, but that is an area we want to keep momentum on.
We did come close to spending our entire budget, though spending was up and down with new writers at different times. I will send a motion to the new Board to increase the eJuggle budget a nominal monthly amount to make accounting slightly easier, even if we do not spend it all (the current budget breaks down monthly to an unwieldy $933 and change).
There have been some brainstorming sessions of developing a print on demand work for next year (IJA 80th, eJuggle’s 15th anniversary), but I am no longer sure how attractive that actually is, and how we curate what goes into such a piece. Perhaps a survey of the membership, though I do not want that to lead to another (unrealistic) discussion of reviving a magazine.
I am developing a much larger eJuggle report for the festival AGM. That will be forthcoming to you all in the next week or so. I will be expanding on a few of the issues above along with perhaps some considerations for the next Board.
- Thank you so much for all of this! 😀 – Benjamin
Membership and Volunteers (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion: Membership drive in upcoming year?
Marketing Report (Lisa Ellipse)IJA social media requests
Loads of festival posts have been going out. We found we got some great results from posting individual performers (in the style of reposts)
We still have Callum and Nick keeping up with reposts on the socials which has gotten great engagement and balances the page a bit more .
Lots of focus on posts reminding people about the festival, building hype and counting down.
Exciting!
Graphic Design Report (Thayer Slichter)
- MVP advert proof sent to Ross and Biz, got revision requests will finish before the weekend
- started postcard for the 80th, will talk with Ross about seeing if we can get them in time for the fest this year to pass out
- YJA signage started (almost done, will print signs myself)
- Stickers (YJA), pins (fest), and badges (fest) are all accounted for and have arrived in physical form, Afton has them all. Thanks Afton!
- Posters approved and in the drive ready to print
- Two social media graphics made for the fest and sent to the social media team
- flash tattoo sheet started (will finish soon, other IJA requests took priority)
- Google Drive storage getting full, could I possibly get an IJA graphics email to set up that we can pass on to whoever takes the mantle after me?
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
YJA Report (Benjamin Domask-Ruh)
- Planting Juggling Seed Emcees set up!
- Just had a wonderful planning meeting with them today. Cassandra of FlowFest and a scholarship awardee named Quinn of Queen City Circus!
- https://acpl.libnet.info/event/15862917 <- Library listing
- Club YJA is under control!
- Working on a few more teaching artists
- Education book hopefully having a preview copy at the festival
- YJA Badge Books possible to set up at the front tables again?
IJA Honorary Awards (Thom Wall)
OpsO Report (Ross Berenson)
Discussion: Roll out timeline still loose… Q/A in Fall 2026.
IJA | Officers and Positions (Current 2026 – 2027)
- I did things. Life is a blur.
- Built out a number of new pages for the website. Added interactive elements to the championships page and festival page. Slowly but surely, we’re getting there
- All email accounts have been created. There are no more personal forwards. IF people do that on their own, that’s on them. Obviously we’re trying to avoid people from communicating IJA related things through their personal email accounts. If we notice this happening a lot, we can disable the option of forwards.
- My time this month was spent handling hotel logistics and website things, so not much outside of that.
6. Motions for Consideration
- Motion to approve holding the 5th annual IRC Sudamérica 2026 – Chile at the CIMAC Convention on October 23rd in Valparaíso, Chile.
IRC Proposal
Budget:
Author: Erin
Motion: Biz
Second: Jonathan
Discussion: Why director payment change? (Was $500 admin/$500 onsite)
– Erin: This will be the 5th consecutive year that CIMAC has hosted the IRC. They have the show production and finals organization down solid. They have also found a donor who will cover the prize and video editing expenses. The only expenses for the IJA will be an $800 IRC Director payment (lowered from $1,000) – and $100 to Kelly Cal for her work with the marketing of the IRC.
Vote: No vote – Tabling motion for more clarity
Motion to table the IRC Vote
Move: Biz
Second: Benjamin
Vote – passes unanimously
7. Varia:
- Group Photo: No structure, will have a photographer on site. If someone wants to onsite, they can use a workshop room after 5pm.
8. Confirm Next Meeting
Next meetings will take place on…
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING July 30th, 2026, at 1:30pm CT at the Annual Festival
After AGM Board Meeting after voting finishes and tallied to welcome new board members, potentially say goodbye to old, and vote in officers and board chair.
August 6th, 2026 at 6PM ET for the next vision meeting (VIZ)
August 20th, 2026 at 6PM ET next business meeting (BIZ)
9. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 7:03 pm ET