1. Call to Order
Chair, Benjamin Domask-Ruh, called the meeting to order at: 6:03 pm Eastern
2. Roll:
Present: Afton Benson, Jonathan Perry, Ross Berenson, Biz, Kaylin Meyers, Martin Frost, Benjamin DOmask-Ruh, Nick Hanson, Michael Karas, Mike Sullivan, Noel Yee,
Absent: Sofia Noethe
Recorder: Jonathan Perry
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Biz
Second by: Michael
Discussion:
Vote: Motion passed unanimously
4. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (Business Meeting Agenda – 08/21/2025 )
Motion: Jonathan
Second: Noel
Discussion:
Vote: Motion passed unanimously
5. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
2026 Festival Report (Noel Yee)
Discussion:
2026 IJA Festival Budget – Questions it’s up for vote tonight.
- Discussions of Budget and Profit estimates and how Donor income/expenses work
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion:
Nearly finished with festival financials. Settled up with the Doubletree, they claim they didn’t mess anything up but can see where there was confusion. So they added in rooms that came in after the code closed (they gave the folks the discount anyway that’s on them). And we settled on 42 room nights covered vs the 37 they said originally. Hopefully we’ll have a P&L by the Oct business meeting.
Dennis is on track to have Quickbooks moved to Quickbooks Online by year end.
Dennis and I are looking into the services our registered agent offers to move the mail to DE vs the FL PO Box. Working to get that done by year end as well.
Future Festival Site Report (Mike Sullivan and Jake Darrow)
Discussion: Mike and I are currently attending the SMMC conference in Buffalo, NY. I feel like I have done well, and can satisfactorily continue in the future with Mike’s eventual departure.
Some surprising destinations have popped up: A second venue opportunity in Albany, NY, downtown Pittsburgh (depending on hotel rates), Fargo, ND (with a brand new convention center coming in early 2029). Many others, a few hard no’s, a few “Just won’t work’s”, but, overall promising.
We will have a full report on the conference when we get back and can go through our notes better. We did uncover at least six and possibly more destinations with renewed interest who want to re-bid or who would be bidding for the first time.
Our site visit to Albany is still on for early November, and dates are tentative for the site visit to Rochester, MN next month. Albany remains our #1 prospect for 2029 and we are hoping to find everything we have been told is there for us, with still some negotiations needed to bring the hotel rates down if we can.
Mike: Jake did a great job at SMMC. He is smart, dedicated, enthusiastic and very qualified to carry on as the lead for Future Festival once we complete our next contracting cycle in the next few months. Then I will fade into a background advisory/assistance mode, with Nick Hanson coming online as Jake’s assistant and eventual #2 in the role in 1-2 years.
- to Afton: Is there a change to the total Doubletree pickup from the 967 total we were told, in light of the recent discussions and the fact that we were told numerous times that we had sold out the entire block of 1,160 rooms? We would like to update our historical numbers if there has been any upward revision.
- Discussion about excitement for coastal possibilities! But need to communicate the Hotel rate changes in preparation for sticker shock
eJuggle Report (Eric Shibuya)
- eJuggle disclaimer posted
- Typing up Reports are great even when things are still in progress!
Discussion:
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion:
Afton: I saw we had a new life member come through, when I checked the report the number of life members went down from 287 in June to 285 in July to 284 in August. Does anyone know why? I’m assuming someone may have passed away.
Marketing Report (Lisa Ellipse)IJA social media requests
Kaylin is collecting in person venue footage and content while she is in Fort Wayne, Indiana the weekend of October 3rd. She has already made contact with Bethany & the venues for permissions and contacts.
If there is any specific stuff we would like her to collect specifically please let her know.
She would also like to do more collaborations with local businesses at the festival (as our one with the coffee shop did well this year). She is planning to simply note local businesses nearby & reach out to them closer to festival time.
Promos and information for IRC Sudamérica have been posted on the social medias.
General posts have been doing very well.
Discussion:
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
Discussion:
- Typing up Reports are great even when things are still in progress!
- We’d love to have more than a day’s notice for when new IRC updates are incoming to social medias
YJA Report (Benjamin Domask-Ruh)
Discussion:
Another Badge Book Sold
Still editing the chapters!
Discussing new Club YJA Ideas (Splitting into two age groups, 7-12 and a teenage group with more agency over their space/interactions. 🙂 )
- Teen Team Committee
OpsO Report (Ross Berenson)
Discussion:
- Clickup!
6. Motions for Consideration
- Motion to approve the 2026 IJA Festival Budget
Author: Afton Benson
Motion: Jonathan
Second: Kaylin
Discussion: Questions on $1000 community engagement – advanced person before the festival
Vote: Motion passed unanimously
- Motion to appoint Thom Wall as the IJA Honorary Awards Committee Chair
Author: Benjamin Domask-Ruh
Motion: Biz
Second: Michael
Discussion:
- Jonathan will be on the Committee as Board Liaison and Thom wrangler
- They will assemble a team of people to review the nominations for Honorary awards and then provide the selections they make to the board.
Vote:
Abstain – Jonathan
Oppose – None
Approve – Motion passes
7. Varia:
Benjamin: Dave Finnigan has a plan he is looking to pitch to America’s Got Talent. He asks “when Jon and Owen send in their recommendation for this project to AGT they could simply note that you and the board have been informed of the idea.”
More details:
He wants to set a world record for teaching the most people to juggle at once. He’d supply everyone in the audience with Scarfs and teach them They’d then send in a video to be verified that they CAN juggle (This is where the IJA comes in… asking members to help verify the videos) Then everyone approved would be part of the world record. This might encourage new jugglers to become IJA members and join the community.
- Good idea on paper
- What about Guiness World Record specifications
- What IF it was successful and we DID get millions of videos. That would be a bigger bigger project
- Would Guinness accept IJA reviews…? Guinness has strict verification guidelines
- Jonglissimo did well on AGT but didn’t really get any kick-back from the IJA takeover
- IJA Public Perception?
- 10,000 feet viewpoint: Possibly people connect to the juggling and the teacher (Dave) and feel empowered to learn more and eventually lead to more members
- We can’t volunteer all our members to do work.
- AGT business practices are less than optimal
- Major Respect for Dave, Jon, and Owen
8. Confirm Next Meeting
Next meetings will take place on…
October 2nd, 2025 for the next vision meeting
October 16, 2025 for the next business meeting
9. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 7:31 pm Eastern.