Business Board Meeting June 15, 2021

1. Call to Order

Mike Moore, called the meeting to order at: 9:10 pm EST



2. Roll

Present: Erin Stephens, Afton Benson, Matan Presberg, Chris Garcia, Scott Steiskal, Eric Shibuya, Mike Moore, Martin Frost at 9:17 pm EST, Aslynne Howes at 9:22 EST, Amy Wieliczka at 9:37 EST

Absent: 

Recorder: Eric

 

3. Approval of Agenda

Motion: Scott

Second by: Eric

Discussion: 

Vote: Passes unanimously


4. Approval of Minutes: 

Business Board Meeting (LINK)

Motion: Matan

Second: Eric

Discussion: 

Vote: Passes unanimously

 

5. Reports 

Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.

 

2021 e-Festival Report (Ross Berenson)

Discussion: 

Eric: Raffle update: I will set the raffle “live” the last week of June and send the link to the Board, Fest Team, and (likely) the vendors for them to check for any errors. (Last year, some vendors wanted some things changed). I will announce the raffle going live the first week of July. I will post publicly on Facebook and Instagram as well, so please share or push those posts!

Matan: Pushing event to FB event page and Instagram, mostly juggling championships and trying to push outside FB and Instagram (open to ideas on the latter information distribution). (Mike: Reddit? Matan: Will push to subreddits that are okay with advertisements/promotions)

Erin: Met with Kevin Axtell, got good advertisements by joining groups (Group pages can now join groups on FB) 

Matan: Reminder to engage/like/react to posts to push visibility

Afton: Parliamentarian lined up (same one from last year), cannot find updated bylaws, please send link. Bylaws we used with parliamentarian last year had changes that had not been voted on. (Mike: Current bylaws say last change June 2020. Martin: Bylaws aren’t posted online unless they have been approved by Board, so these–unless we missed it–should be the most current one. Mike:  Parliamentarian may have seen earlier draft?)

[Aslynne Howes joins call and takes over chairing at 9:22 EST]

Erin: Workshop form currently in English and Japanese, looking to get a Spanish version (Matan: Believes Spanish version is being created, will confirm)

Afton: Championship prizes are festival packages for next in-person festival

Martin: Newsletter needs information for workshop applications

Chris: Looking for volunteers for Hangout moderation after the fest events. Can start the hangout, but probably cannot stay to moderate the event

Aslynne: Hangouts have generally been lowkey. 

 

Financial Report (Afton Benson)

Discussion: Dennis is working on finalizing the 990 and getting updated financials. 

 

Future Festival Site Report (Mike Sullivan)

Discussion: 

 

Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data

Discussion: 

 

Marketing Report (Erin Stephens/Matan Presberg)

Discussion: 

 

IRC Report (Erin Stephens)

Discussion: Security issues have led to cancellation of (at least, no international guests) of IRC event in Afghanistan. Figuring out how to continue an event there, perhaps for local Afghans only, or any online event (sidenote: Chile is interested in an online IRC event also)

 

YJA Report (Galen Harp)

Discussion:  

 

OpsO Report (Scott Steiskal)

Discussion:  

We have sold 10 WJD t shirts so far. There’s 125 and change in profit but also an IJA shirt so let’s call it 115 in WJD. I plan to keep them up through the IJA fest to see if we can sell more with fest shirts. Thought festival shirts will become featured.

Continuing work on a graphic spec sheet. Also Afton I think we should start having contracts for any graphic artists we hire (format, pixels, and rights for use for specified period of time)

Working with graphics: Most notable thing: Make sure it is a transparent background for any image

[Amy joins call 9:37pm EST]

Tee Spring Site: https://ija-store.creator-spring.com/

 

Mike:  How are we doing with the investments?

 

Scott: Hoping to select one of the previously mentioned investments soon.  Will look at getting it done within the next few days and voted on via straw poll so we can deal with it as the current board.

 

6. Motions for Consideration

A: Motion to proceed with the juggling master class project: create the position for master class coordinator and begin searching for someone to fill that position.

Author : Mike Moore
Motion : Eric
Second : Matan

Discussion : 

Previously distributed document for master class outline.

Description of the master class coordinator role (please feel free to leave comments in your meeting preparation there so I can make revisions as necessary before the meeting).

Afton: requirements for MC Coordinator need some clarification. Mike: Success of MC project determined by next Board. High quality, unique content 

Afton: Is this about finding a coordinator, or the MC project itself? 

Mike: Both, but in the long run about finding a coordinator

Aslynne: Any ideas of who would be good for this? Mike: not yet.

All new members coming in during the year would be considered under this program

Mike: really attractive point to this program is to put out content for audiences in other languages

 

Vote :
In favour:
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result : Passes unanimously

 

B: Motion to partner with the ISJF (International Sport Juggling Federation) as an IJA project.

Author : Mike Moore
Motion :Matan
Second : Eric

Discussion : 

See notes in the open forum last meeting for a summary of the preliminary discussion that took place. This includes extending our 501(c)(3) status.

Update from Albert: He’s been working to establish partnerships with circus schools across the world (he said that he’s at about 30 countries right now, IIRC). He also has said that he has a sponsorship “ready to go” from Adidas.

Afton: Does he want us to act as a fiscal sponsor, or is he (as an IJA Officer) proposing a program? One allows him to get donations for his own organization (asking us to be his fiscal sponsor), and if that is the case, we NEED a contract in place, because the IJA would be fiscally responsible for the donations he receives. We would need verification that the funds we send to the ISJF (in the fiscal sponsor case) is being used for the purposes stated. 

Martin: Is the ISJF just Albert? (Mike: not technically, there is a “president” but seems in name only). 

Afton: Any 501(c)(3) can become a “fiscal sponsor.” As example, we are a fiscal sponsor for the MMC in Afghanistan. Any donations that come earmarked for the MMC we send to them (donor receives tax break in US), then IJA has to see/verify that the funds are going to where they are supposed to. 

If Albert, as an IJA Officer, wants to propose this, he can do so as a motion to set this up as an IJA program. Albert needs to know that if this is the case, that the IJA owns the program, to the point that the Board can remove him from the program. 

Martin: ISJF already exists, so this new program, if an IJA program, would not be the ISJF. Afton: That is correct, so we need greater clarification on this. 

Eric: We should not get this wrong, we need greater clarity

Mike: I’d like to get this done before I leave the Board

{Eric leaves call 10:23pm EDT}

Martin: let’s make it a suggestion to run it as a program instead of making it more open ended, decision to Albert

Mike: Afton, Aslynne, and Mike will discuss and send out with a 24 hour edits period.

 

Mike withdraws motion

 

Vote :
In favour:
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result :  Motion withdrawn

 

  1. Motion to ‘un-launch’ our IJA Patreon page.

Author : Matan Presberg
Motion : Amy
Second :  Mike

Discussion : 

Our Patreon page has been sitting for quite some time (last post February 9, 2019) with no activity from our end. Especially given the recent timing of getting back over our $100 a month milestone, we now have commitments to the page (a monthly tutorial), in addition to the other benefits that are not being upheld. I believe our best option is to pause this program, and notify our Patrons of the change. 

Information about un-launching the page can be found here. Another more temporary option would be to pause billing, but since it’s been so long that this has been sitting, I don’t see that changing in the short term. 

Aslynne:  We just received another donation Sunday June 13 for $1/month.

Matan: Since the temporary option is to pause billing and would require monthly pausing, I suggest the un-launching

Mike: Some people may thing TotM is Patreon -based

Matan: I also don’t have a good idea of what people think they’re getting by donating to the Patreon.  Have not considered making the Patreon a shell of what it originally was.

Mike: We have received around 3k over the past 3 years

Erin:  Patreon culture does find it acceptable to just cut it if necessary

Afton:  Maybe make the Patreon another way to donate without getting a membership

Amy: Have looked at two Patreons that are just set up to support what the person was already doing, not as added content.

Erin: Some Patreons are just for current content and some are for additional content.

Mike: at $50, we announced a $1,000 goal, the $100 goal was just for a tutorial.  We aren’t doing, but should change, we have that people can interact with David Cain’s history stream.  Patreon has no repercussions if the obligations are not met.

Matan: open to removing all promises as opposed to un-launching the Patreon

Mike: would be more in favor of changing the motion and discussing off-phone call

: could change it to be that the funds go to eJuggle instead of those additional items

Matan: I move to withdraw this motion

 

Vote :
In favour:
Oppose : 

 

  1. Motion to make budget excess policy standards explicit in future contracts.

Author : Aslynne Howes

Motion : Mike
Second :  Scott

Discussion : 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gyI6tnaq4o1puUYdGsDacaYEhezecMSBZMHl85nLrWs/edit?usp=sharing

Mike motions to amend the motion to reflect the updates in the supplementary document (immediately above).

Seconder: Matan

Result: amendment passes unanimously

Vote : passes unanimously
In favour:
Oppose : 

 

  1. Motion to make the Flamingo Club an official IJA program.

Author : Aslynne Howes

Motion : Mike
Second :  Scott

Discussion : 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EcLpV7JHeeNdvQS2F3EJKJCnoXLf3gJ6PEsKRiLLKMM/edit?usp=sharing

Mike: Sammie Vance, not Sammy

Amendment: Motion to make the Flamingo Club an official IJA program and its associated award an official IJA award. The award recipient would be selected by the Flamingo Club.

Mike Motions
Scott Seconds

Amendment vote: passes unanimously

 

Vote : passes unanimously
In favour:
Oppose : 

 

  1. Motion to approve the IRC Mexico 2021 Proposal (Added June 15)

Author: Erin Stephens

Motion : Mike
Second :  Amy

Discussion : IRC Mexico Budget

Vote : passes unanimously
In favour:
Oppose : 

 

  1. Motion to approve budget for IRC Show 2021, to come out of IRC Budget (Added June 15)

Author : Erin Stephens

Motion : Matan
Second :  Mike

Discussion : 

Erin: needs to clarify that the IRC show will be a fundraiser for the IRC program

Afton: missing an official 2021 IRC annual budget

Erin: Everything is so up in the air with COVID 

 

Vote :
In favour: passes unanimously
Oppose : 

 

7. Varia:

IJA Collab Video (Chris) [added Tuesday]

Exuro is mostly done with the video, he needs a similar outro video clip like how TOTM has. He was also wondering about the youtube cards at the end of the videos and who sets that up. The video will probably be done tonight, and then we need to upload and post on social media as well as pay Exuro.

 

Current collab WIP (updated after 4pm) 

https://youtu.be/CfH9zqBmS4g 

 

Matan (9:02pm): I now have the original after effects file with the outro for TOTM. Original for the logo intro is lost – but we have the video file itself that can be modified. Also, I can handle the youtube cards, I do that for TOTM.

 

Martin will be subbing for Marilyn as the teller for counting votes as Marilyn will be away.  Afton will be contacting Martin a few times during the week of the festival to confirm who is a current member.  Afton will email Martin with details required.

 

8. Confirm Next Meeting

Next meetings will take place on…

Tuesday June 29 9pm EDT for the next vision meeting

Sunday July 18th 5pm EDT for the next business meeting

 

9. Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 11:34pm EDT. 

 

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