1. Call to Order
Chair, Benjamin Domask-Ruh, called the meeting to order at: 6:01pm
2. Roll:
Present: Afton Benson, Michael Karas, David Wilkins, Biz Olbrisch, Martin Frost, Thayer Slichter, Jonathan Perry, Nick Hanson, Thom Wall, Kaylin Meyers, Jake Darrow, Gabe
Absent: Noel Yee, Sofia Noethe
Recorder: Michael Karas
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Biz
Second by: Jonathan Perry
Discussion: Board will be voting on Albany contracts tonight as outlined currently. Straightening out some access issues with documents.
Vote: Passes unanimously
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (Business Meeting Agenda – 2/19/2026)
Motion: Jonathan Perry
Second: Biz
Discussion: N/A
Vote: Passes unanimously
5. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
2026 Festival Report (Noel Yee)
Discussion: Approx. 136 attendees. Slammin’ Andy is making sure people running events are all squared away. Amy is sending out contracts. DJ Craig running A/V and sound. 88 posts regarding attending sent out to multiple social media groups. Some people are booking hotels before they register (normal). Goal: 100 extra registrations in the next two months.
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion: N/A
Future Festival Site Report (Nick Hanson)
Discussion: Albany contracts (with signing extensions) are ready to go.
Rochester MN Summary of Concerns/Pros/Cons & Comparison 2011
Discussion of Rochester, MN: Flights on average are about $50 more expensive than flying into Fort Wayne. Shuttles run up to 18 hours a day, shuttling folks from MSP to the convention center. 358 attended the 2011 Rochester festival. Afton presented her 2030 mock-up budget for a potential Rochester, MN fest. Afton outlines pros and cons of this location, including covering concerns submitted by folks in the last 48 hours. The marketing money ($20,000) from Rochester can be used to promote our festivals in Cedar Rapids, Albany, etc.
Good discussion on the difficulties of booking coastal cities due to lack of membership/hotel room requirements. What are members most valuing in location selection? Is it changing? Robust conversation about future sites in general. Great questions from everyone.
eJuggle Report (Eric Shibuya)
New works by Steve Rawlings and Billy Prudhomme published/publishing soon. Very happy with these new articles that fall into the “rendering assistance” mission (I should add Jonathan Perry’s article on Jay Ko as well). To that end, Ross designed a graphic for the featured image for eJuggle for these kinds of articles. We won’t use it all the time, if the author has their own image that is well known or something, but it will be nice to have a general image to use.
Javier’s articles will start publishing in April on a biweekly basis.
Discussion:
What’s the board’s vision for eJuggle moving forwards? Thom mentioned trying to funnel interested writers towards writing for eJuggle. A reminder to think about who could steer eJuggle in the future when Eric steps down.
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion: Line charts!
Marketing Report (Lisa Ellipse)IJA social media requests
Discussion: Great video by Kaylin – thank you!
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
We are close to ready to launching the promotion if the IRC Peru. There are 10 finalists from Peru, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. The tickets have been purchased for the IRC Reps from Chile and all the elements are coming together.
Unfortunately the IRC UK & Ireland did not get enough entries to hold the competition.
With this, and the complications for the video entries a month in advance of the finals for Peru and Nicaragua this year – there is an overall feeling that the model of prelim videos is becoming challenging – often due to the fact that people cannot commit to attending an event far in advance due to the current expensive costs of traveling.
It has brought up the discussion among the IRC Team if we should begin revisioning the preliminary model.
The other two IRC foreseen for this year are in Mexico and Argentina. The Argentina proposal is in tonight’s motions.
Discussion: Discussion about funding, sustainability, and converting IRC participants to IJA members. Let’s talk more about IRC at the next vision meeting.
YJA Report (Benjamin Domask-Ruh)
Discussion: Thom and Benjamin discuss details regarding manuscript.
Education book entering copy-editing phases
Gearing up for March Newsletter call for Planting the juggling seed and Club YJA Assistance
Graphic Design (Thayer Slichter)
-finished IJA advert and handed off to Afton
-created two new repeatable patterns for the website for Ross
-finished google form (going to get feedback from some folks before I send it out!)
-WJD shirt sketch done (not taking feedback from folks except from Biz at this time!)
-talked with Chloe Duarcan about social media timing
-concise YJA activity book outline finished (will review with the team before finalizing)
Discussion: Pirates and treasure chests and stuff. Arrrrrr.
OpsO Report (Ross Berenson)
Discussion: We will need content checkers for the new website. We will also have people archiving old copy into an index that can then be used for new copy.
- More progress on Website. 11 components left to build!
- Making an index of all current pages – in progress
“You’re doing great!” – Kaylin
6. Motions for Consideration
- Motion to Approve Katie Histed as the 2026 IJA Flamingo Club Awardee
Author: Afton Benson
Motion: Kaylin
Second: Jonathan
Discussion:
The Flamingo Club met on March 10th to go over the people nominated and discuss who should be the 2026 awardee. The group unanimously selected Katie Histed. Katie was nominated by three separate people, who highlighted her goal of teaching 5,000 people to juggle. She teaches in schools, local parks across the country. “Katie teaches children how to juggle in the hopes that it will create a lifelong joy for the skill.” Which is why Katie is a great fit for the 2026 Flaming Club Award.
Vote: Passes unanimously
- Motion to Approve holding the IRC Sudamérica 2026 – Argentina at the 15th ENCUENTRO DE CIRCO ARTES ESCENICAS Y DE CALLE in Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 6.
PROPOSAL
Budget:
Author: Erin Stephens
Motion: Biz
Second: Kaylin
Discussion:
Erin: For many years the jugglers of Argentina have requested hosting an IRC. This year this event holding its 15th annual circus gathering approached us about at last hosting the IRC in Argentina. They have a great location, a circus tent for the event with all technical requirements, and have guaranteed that they will provide all requirements to host an IRC. The IRC representatives from Chile will be attending to organize the IRC:
Vote: Passes unanimously
- Motion to Approve Albany as IJA Festival site for 2029
Author: Benjamin Domask-Ruh
Motion: Jonathan
Second: Michael
Discussion: Contracts
Discussion of security guards, custodial staff. “Green M&M” clause? Projection system was taken out of the theater contract.
Vote: Passes unanimously
7. Varia:
- We were granted $2,500 for seed the flow arts! Hooray and thank you to Amy and Afton for making that grant application happen!
- Biz – Updates coming to the World Juggling Day website
8. Confirm Next Meeting
Next meetings will take place on…
April 2nd, 2026 at 6:00pm ET for the next vision meeting (VIZ)
April 16, 2026 at 6:00pm ET next business meeting (BIZ)
9. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 7:47 Pm ET