IJA Board Meeting - June 26, 2001.

Present: Paul Richmond, board chair; Martin Frost, Ben Schoenberg, Todd Strong, Art Jennings, Braidy Brown, Katje Sabin, directors; Norman Schneiderman, general manager.

The meeting was called to order by Paul at 1:10 a.m. June 27, 2001 (Greenwich Mean Time). (6:10 p.m. June 26, 2001, Pacific Daylight Time).

The proposed agenda was reviewed and approved.

Minutes:

Martin moved to accept the minutes of the February 2001 board meeting. Braidy seconded; the motion passed unanimously.

Martin moved to accept the minutes of the March 2001 board meeting. Todd seconded; the motion passed unamimously except that Braidy abstained (he was not able to be present at that meeting). The May minutes are to be approved via email within the next week.

Life Member Letter:

The Membership Committee is in the final stages of producing a letter to be sent out to the life members informing them of the status of the life member program. The goal is to have a final version of this letter printed, hand-signed by Paul, mailed and in the hands of the life members before the festival.

*Martin will be responsible for consolidation of comments and rewrites among committee members so that a final letter will be done within a week, if possible.

Donation Letter:

A letter requesting donations from the membership will be printed in the next Insider following the distribution of the Life Member letter. *Martin will send the board a copy of the final draft of the letter for feedback and approval.

Brochure:

Member Jack Kalvan is working on a new IJA brochure. The goal is to have the new brochure ready for distribution at the festival. *Martin will make sure that a final version of the brochure will be available for approval as soon as possible.

Member fees:

Due to the IJA taking advantage of mailing programs, the US Post Office's increases, and other factors, we are investigating changing the rates of membership globally.

*Unless other factors arise, the board will adopt $30 U.S./$34 Canadian/$39 other countries (with the option of choosing a more expensive air-mail delivery) as the new membership fees. This decision will be made by email before the brochure goes to press.

Membership Incentives:

A new membership drive has been proposed, to begin at this year's festival and to culminate at the next.

*The Membership Committee will hammer out the details.

At 2 a.m. GMT, the board entered Executive Session.
At 2:17 a.m. GMT, the board withdrew from Executive Session.

Donation Policy:

Paul moved to accept member donations of $1000 or more in return for VIP seating status at the 2001 festival's shows. Braidy seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

At 2:28 a.m. GMT, the board entered Executive Session.
At 2:38 a.m. GMT, the board withdrew from Executive Session.

Videos:

Norm reported that a lawyer has approved the contract with Alan Plotkin to produce a video of championship routines from past fest footage. He is now in the process of finalizing that contract with Alan and reviewing past contracts with other videographers to obtain the original footage of the competitions.

BOD Table in Madison:

The board is enthusiastic about staffing a table in the gym during the 2001 fest in Madison to provide members with an easy method of communicating with board members.

*Directors will take time to man the table and mingle with the membership.

*Katje will help produce a questionnaire similar to the one we did at the end of the 2000 fest to get input and direction from the membership for the board for the next year. A draft will be sent to the board for review before the festival. The questionnaire will also be included in the next Insider (so that non-fest attending members also get to offer input).

Annual Meeting and Report:

Paul has already begun to assemble the items for the annual report, and has sent a copy to the board. He invites everyone to build upon it. Katje wants to encourage members who attend the membership meeting to volunteer to serve on one of the board committees.

*Paul will keep working on the report, with feedback and contributions from the rest of the board.

Festival Pricing:

Several board members have asked that IJA members be given a discount for festival fees as a benefit of membership, and that fest participants not be forced to become IJA members but instead be charged a higher rate to attend. Also, several board members want early registrants for the fest to receive discounts.

*Norm is investigating the insurance aspects of these ideas.

*Todd will keep the issue alive by bringing it to online discussions and soliciting feedback. A new pricing policy is to be settled upon before the next year's festival.

At 3:05 a.m. GMT, the board entered Executive Session.
At 3:09 a.m. GMT, the board withdrew from Executive Session.

Bylaw Changes:

It has been an ongoing concern of the IJA board to bring the organization's bylaws up to date.

*Paul will ask past board member and lawyer Sam Kilbourn to review the bylaws, in addition to finding a professional organization to assist with an overhaul.

Martin moved to change the Bylaws as follows.
In Article III, paragraph 3, replace the sentence:

"Each member entitled to vote shall have one (1) vote to cast for the individuals to be chosen."

with the sentence:

"Each member entitled to vote may cast one (1) ballot in the election of directors."

Ben seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

*Paul will make sure that a listing of the past year's bylaw changes will be included in the annual report.

Karl-Heinz Ziethen:

The IJA was going to produce a poster of one of Karl-Heinz's historic juggling images to help offset the cost of bringing him to the Madison festival. Paul Bachman was to have helped select an image during a recent trip to Germany, but was unable to do so. Karl-Heinz will instead bring images with him to Madison to select for a poster for next year's festival. Brian Dubé has offered to allow the IJA to print and sell the Ziethen juggling history book's cover image instead to help raise funds for this year's fest.

*Paul is looking into this offer.

World Juggling Day:

By all accounts, World Juggling Day 2001 was a great success. Martin reported that there were 127 event in 37 countries, and 798 people registered on the WJD Web site , including jugglers from all seven continents. Thanks and congratulations are due all around.

Next Meeting:

The board will hold a short pre-festival board meeting at 1 a.m. GMT on July 18 (that's 6 p.m. PDT July 17, 2001).

Respectfully submitted,

Katje Sabin
board notetaker