1. Call to Order
Chair, Benjamin Domask-Ruh, called the meeting to order at: 6:01 ET
2. Roll:
Present: Afton Benson, Benjamin Domask-Ruh, Michael Karas, Jonathan Perry, Sofia, Jeffrey McLean, Jeffrey McLean, Noel Yee, Martin Frost
Absent: Biz,
Recorder: Sofia
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Jonathan Perry
Second by: Michael Karas
Discussion:
Vote: Passes
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (Business Meeting Agenda – 4/16/2026)
Motion: Sofia Noethe
Second: Noel Yee
Discussion:
Vote: Jonathan Perry Abstains, Passes
5. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
2026 Festival Report (Noel Yee)
Registration is low. Registration will be open later than usual – people may be waiting to register. State of the economy may be a factor. We are okay with the Hilton – need 9 more room nights. We are seeing many people arriving on the Tuesday of the festival week so may need to adjust strategy on the Hampton. This time last year we were sold out of queen rooms at the Doubletree and 50% sold out king, around 70% sold in May when reg closed in early June last year, currently we’re at about 60% booked with reg closing later June and hotels book until early July. Potential 45k liability IF hotel booking holds to current rate. Considering reaching out to Bethany to see if we can drop some room nights. Let’s hype hotel rooms in the newsletter to book ASAP. Martin suggests an early/standalone email for Festival hype – champs, reg, hotels. Afton will check in with Bethany for a vibe check and to see if we release rooms and they get booked if they are able to book those rooms themselves.
Virtual mini-fest this weekend! Sofia will make and send a code to allow earlybird pricing to mini-fest attendees.
Kaylin joins at 6:08 ET
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion: Investment account got dividends!
Future Festival Site Report (Nick Hanson)
- Hotel Pickup: Mike’s email reminder to do another blast for reserving hotel rooms
- Discussed above
- 80th Festival team visited Cedar Rapids! Tons of stuff right across the river, places open a bit later, more food options. Program manager at the library is well connected and happy to assist with hype set up.
eJuggle Report (Eric Shibuya)
Membership and Volunteers (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion:
Marketing Report (Lisa Ellipse)IJA social media requests
Discussion:
Callum & Nick joined the social media team specifically focussing on reposting. They have been sharing some really cool stuff and getting great results too. (100-200k views)
Biz sent over the Article 13 video to encourage people to take part in world juggling day compilation for the IJA. I’ve suggested a posting strategy for it which they have agreed to – full clip. 2 x cut down clips, and a still image. I’ve created and scheduled them up to remind people throughout now and 18th June
Virtual mini fest promo has gone out and event is going on this weekend. Again I suggested a posting strategy and that provides people with reminders rather than a one off post, with one more reminder going out tomorrow.
Festival posting – we are focussing on reels and/or consistent branding with logos/fonts to keep everything clean and recognisable for the festival. This is having some really good results: 10k views on posts.
We’re also working hard to ensure the page isn’t full of just advertising for the festival, so coordinating reposts and tricks of the month to go out in between
Great stuff, Lisa! – Ross
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
The IRC México has been announced and is in full promotion. I just received photos of the three ring circus tent where it will be held, and it’s gorgeous. The International Méxican Circus Convention run by Circo Pa’l Barrio has added a “Special Prize” of choosing an act to be an invited guest to perform at their convention, including travel, housing and meals as part of their prize.
We will soon be launching the first of several videos aimed at celebrating this IRC as the 15 year anniversary and 50th IRC Worldwide. It is a video featuring photos of the medalists of all 49 IRC, and is pretty awesome to watch and see just how far this program has developed.
We have a team of 3 Méxicans and myself who are working on creating the documentaries. I’ve been making progress with getting photos and videos transferred to our IJA Drive, but it is a very time consuming project as 49 IRC and all the media that accompany them – is really quite a lot! We will also be collaborating with the account “Historico Circo” to do a series of 3 videos documenting highlights from the 3 5-year intervals of the IRC and discussing the historical evolution of the program.
IRC Sudamérica 2026 – Argentina will be announced just after IRC México and we are simultaneously building out the marketing materials and website, so all will be ready to launch.
CIMAC in Chile is working to find the resources to hold the IRC in Chile and continue their now annual tradition for 4 consecutive years. The juggling prop company Cabeza de Martillo has offered to pay the prize money and necessary expenses to make it happen. The only expense that the IJA would be responsible for is the IJA director payment and they would take charge of the rest. They will submit an official proposition assuming all is confirmed.
Guetecirko festival in Guatemala has reached out about hosting the IRC Centroamérica 2027 next March.
Unna Med has confirmed an annual donation of $5,000 this year and each year for the IRC.
Questions
– If the local team is taking over the execution, does that affect our current IRC director payment model?
– Ways to work with local teams to brainstorm ways for attendees to IRCs to support the IRCs financial through the IJA (via membership or donations or etc.)
Michael Karas leaves 6:47pm
YJA Report (Benjamin Domask-Ruh)
- Starting plans for Club YJA, Performers for Planting the Juggling Seed, and Teaching the curriculum class, again.
IJA Honorary Awards (Thom Wall)
This year, we will continue with award verbiage as is. After this year, award wording will be updated/clarified.
Graphic Design (Thayer Slichter)
- Theatre graphics for the fest are done and most are in the drive! (Having trouble with getting the 960×786 ratio files uploaded but all of the 1080×1080 and 1920×1080 files are uploaded.)
- Talked more with Ross about graphics for the 80th
- shirt design officially complete, waiting to hear back about what file type the printer wants so I can upload the design
- gathering assets to send off to Mike for the programs, will do asap
OpsO Report (Ross Berenson)
Discussion:
- Departments planning in-progress. Fully thinking it out, starting to create ‘calls’ for various positions that might be needed
- Plan on testing Google Meet for vision and board meetings then cancel zoom, save some money
- @juggle email reminder. Make sure you have your account working. Forwards will be removed in two more weeks.
- Martin – People don’t all know that email forwarding is going away
- Website content help still needed. Please reach out. (Biz, I know you said after the weekend)
- Also please send this link in an email 🙂
- If you feel like, hmm, what could I do? Please check out ClickUp to see existing To-Dos, there are a lot. Reach out and I’ll explain some in more detail, if needed.
- Send this link in an email to everyone, please! 🙂
6. Motions for Consideration
- Motion to Approve holding the IRC México 2026 at the Ensenada International Circus Festival on June 20th in Ensenada, México.
Author: Benjamin Domask-Ruh
Motion: Jonathan Perry
Second: Noel Yee
Discussion:
Discussed in email and approved
IJA Mexico!
Vote: Approved unanimously
7. Varia:
Internationaljugglersassociationdiana
Written by the board and members one word at a time: Hey Biz, happy Biz happy Flowdown you poi-spinning!
8. Confirm Next Meeting
Next meetings will take place on…
June 4th 2026 for the next vision meeting (VIZ)
June 18th 2026 next business meeting (BIZ)
9. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm ET