Business Board Meeting October 29th, 2019
1. Call to Order
Chair, Mike Moore, called the meeting to order at: 8:04 pm EST
2. Roll:
Present: Scott Steiskal, Afton Benson, Mike Sullivan, Galen Harp, Amy Wieliczka, Matan Presberg, Mike Moore, Eric Shibuya
Absent:
Recorder: Matan Presberg
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Eric Shibuya
Second by: Amy Wieliczka
Discussion:
Vote: passes unanimously
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (LINK)
Motion: Eric Shibuya
Second: Scott Steiskal
Discussion:
Vote: passes unanimously
5. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
2020 Festival Report (Noel Yee)
Discussion:
Afton:
-most roles lightly confirmed (if X goes, they will run Y)
-Ross working on website layout
-budget draft in Financial Report
-Noel planning to work with Mike Sullivan to arrange site visit
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion:
[Exuro joins the call at 8:09pm]
-discussion of price tiers, should we include a ‘gym pass + shows” pass at the festival? Currently on the budget, not a final decision
-budget created with ‘low attendance’ and ‘high cost’ in an attempt to have conservative budget
Review the Draft 2020 IJA Festival Budget
Future Festival Site Report (Mike Sullivan)
Craig and I are working several active leads for our 2024 destination.
- We pre-qualified Green Bay, Wisconsin during our visit there in September for the Small Market Meetings Conference, and tomorrow, Wednesday, two IJA members (Mark Hayward & Melonhead) will be touring the downtown area and walking the event space with the CVB rep and Hyatt/Center salesperson. After hearing back from them on their experience, we expect to move to a final proposal from Green Bay for 2024.
- We have received a very attractive offer from Fort Smith, Arkansas. They have a convention complex that meets all our needs under one roof, with a Doubletree Hotel, a convention center and a 1,100-seat performance theater, all at our kind of prices. I’ve reached out to two IJA members (Jim Maxwell & Galen Harp) who lived in Fort Smith or have visited it often, and got their feedback on the idea of an IJA festival in the city. Discussions will continue and potentially lead to a site visit soon.
- We’re still expecting initial proposals from Spartanburg, SC, Springfield, IL and Evansville, IN.
- We have eliminated from consideration these leads we developed at SMMC and Connect Marketplace since August: Joplin, MO; Ogden, UT; Iowa City, IA; Sparks (Nugget Hotel), NV; and Sioux Falls, SD.
Craig and I urge the board to authorize the Chair to sign the excellent contracts we have in hand for South Bend 2023.
I’m waiting to hear from Noel when he’d like to schedule the pre-con site visit to El Paso, which hopefully be in December.
Discussion:
-As the new future festival site coordinator, Craig will be joining board meetings starting next month
eJuggle Report (Scott Seltzer)
Discussion:
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion:
-dip from August to September, probably not concerning and not a trend yet
Marketing Report (Erin Stephens/Matan Presberg)
Discussion:
Mike: want to comment on the Juggling World Cup?
Matan: Rules outlined on the post, the post seemed to garner lots of interest and questions
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
Discussion:
YJA Report (Galen Harp)
Discussion:
-buttons went over well at Australian Juggling Convention, excited to have more buttons in more places to offset shipping costs
-sent out 5 or 6 button orders in the past month
-working on marketing campaign for teaching juggling, planning on having resources to show benefits of teaching juggling as well as materials for teaching
6. Motions for Consideration
A. Motion to approve the 2020 IJA Awards Committee: David Cain (Chair), Bob Neuman, and Alan Howard.
Author : Nathan Wakefield
Motion : Matan Presberg
Second : Exuro Piechocki
Discussion :
-mostly the same committee as in the past, without Jay Gilligan this year
Eric: can we look into having younger, more gender and racially diverse committees?
-Eric is willing to look into finding people to improve diversity
[Exuro Piechocki moves to table this motion]
Eric Shibuya seconds the motion to table.
Vote: passes unanimously
Vote :
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result :
B. Motion to revise the past year’s minutes to include last names consistently
Author : Mike Moore
Motion : Matan Presberg
Second : Scott Steiskal
Discussion :
- Inspired by Martin Frost’s concern
- Extra tricky with multiple “Mike”s
-Exuro volunteers to do the editing.
Vote :
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result : passes unanimously
C. Motion to approve the 2019 Festival Profit and Loss Statement
Author : Afton Benson
Motion : Exuro Piechocki
Second : Scott Steiskal
Discussion :
Vote :
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result : passes unanimously
D. Motion to approve the 2018 990 tax report
Author : Afton Benson
Motion : Amy Wieliczka
Second : Scott Steiskal
Discussion :
-recap of what happened during fiscal year
-how we use “officer” is not the legal definition, only Chairman and Treasurer are legally officers
Vote : Exuro Piechoki, Scott Steiskal, Matan Presberg, Eric Shibuya, Amy Wieliczka, Mike Moore vote in favor
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result : passes unanimously
E: Motion to approve the contracts for our 2023 destination, South Bend, IN in this folder.
Author : Mike Sullivan
Motion : Scott Steiskal
Second : Exuro Piechocki
Discussion :
-seems like a good deal
-some comments about having IJA in this region very often, could use more variety
Vote :
In favour: Eric Shibuya, Amy Wielicza, Exuro Piechocki, Matan Presberg, Scott Steiskal, Mike Moore
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result : passes unanimously
F: Motion to approve the IRC Oceania 2020 to be held at the New Zealand Juggling Convention in Tauranga, Aotearoa, New Zealand on January 30th as described in this proposal.
Author : Erin Stephens
Motion : Matan Presberg
Second : Amy Wieliczka
Discussion :
-winner of this event will qualify for 2021 JWC
-organizers are excited about the idea of hosting an IRC
Vote :
In favour:
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result : passes unanimously
G: Motion to approve the IRC Middle East 2020 to be held at the Israeli Juggling Convention at Gan Hashlosha National Park on April 14th as described in this proposal.
Author : Erin Stephens
Motion : Eric Shibuya
Second : Scott Steiskal
Discussion :
Vote :
In favour:
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result : passes unanimously
7. Varia:
Scott: Research on payment processing
-has looked at 18 vendors, will provide complete list
-has a recommendation of Paypal and Stripe as best 2
-may add a few more vendors
-ruling out anyone who can’t take international payments
-hoping to bring top 3 recommendations to next Vision Meeting, hoping to have motion in the next few months
-Afton asks that we consider fiscal year calendar if we’re switching
Eric: Looking for other people for awards committee
-Taylor Glenn and Sky King are Eric’s initial recommendations
-open to any suggestions
8. Confirm Next Meeting
Next meetings will take place on…
for the next vision meeting – November 5th, 2019
for the next business meeting – November 26th, 2019
9. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn : Eric Shibuya
Discussion :
-fastest board meeting ever! -Afton
Voting : passes unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 9:02 pm EST.