This is an archival website

For current information visit https:juggle.org

Previous minutes: July 17, 2009 | List of available minutes | Next minutes: September 16, 2009

Board Meeting
August 24, 2009

1. CALL TO ORDER: Chair Kim Laird called the meeting to order at  8:03  p.m. EDT. 

2. ROLL:

Present: Kim Laird (Chair), Anthony Shave, Kevin Axtell, Ken Farris, Richard Kennison, Kevin McBeth, and Thom Wall (Board Members), Brandi Slater (recording secretary)
  Holly Greeley (book keeper) Mike Sullivan, Marilyn Sullivan, Martin Frost

Absent:  

APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Kevin Axtell moved to approve the agenda for August 24, 2009. 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: _ Ken Farris_ moved to approve the minutes from July 14, 2009 (2 sets to include pre AGM, and 10:30pm meeting to elect the new chair).   Kevin Axtell seconds

minutes from AGM meeting have not been posted yet

_Kevin Axtell_ moved to approve the minutes from July 17, 2009. 

   Thom Wall Seconds

5. REPORTS: 

2009 Fest (Mike Sullivan)...  the festival made approximately $34,000. Expenses were 16% below budget (Total expense $80,785) revenue was 2% above the goal, made twice as much as planned. Almost all of the expenses were fixed regardless of number of attendees  - $25,000 came in on site at the festival. Only variable expenses were t-shirts and Saturday night dinner. City of Winston – Salem completely subsidized shuttle services for members through a grant, shuttle service fees all went as revenue to the IJA. The facility went out of their way to help us. This was pointed out as a major benefit of holding the festival in a city that really wants us and wants to work with us. 

2010 Fest... Still in search of a fest director, will discuss further later in meeting. For Sparks the facility expense is nothing if we meet the required number of rooms. Theater use is not included in contract, needs to be checked into ASAP. Concern that IJA will be charged a lot of extra fees. IJA will have to pay for extra rooms if contracted number of rooms does not fill. Contracted for 1125 room nights, which has already been reduced by 10% and can be reduced by a further 10% with no penalty. This year we had a room nights count of 931 under the two contracted hotels, Embassy Suites and The Mariott.

Financial (Kevin McBeth)...  Need 2010 festival budget, some method of inventory for tax returns is also needed. Tax return (990) has been filed. 

Magazine (Anthony Shave)... Concern on the forum about the magazine contract. Membership input tends to come in too late to take into account. Tiered system was discussed at the general meeting.  Need to do what is best for the organization, besides the festival the magazine is the other big thing we do – need some sort of publication. Even if we go digital, all of the editorial work and layout will still need to be paid for – printing cost is all that will be saved on. Right now largest expense for each issue is layout and design and Alan's salary, not print cost. Alan needs a contract decision by October 1^st. He is trying to find ways to cut costs on printing. Meeting has been set up with graphic design school.  Graphic design school would be taking on layout and design for a savings of $9,000 per year, Alan would stay on as publisher and editor. Concern about tracking digital membership, how many extra hours it would take to track. Members would have the option of paying extra for a print copy, current proposal is $35 for digital and $50 for print. If everyone opts for digital and declines print, the board will have a better idea of who and how many actually want the print magazine. It will also provide a transition rather than going straight to all digital. Goal to have a magazine contract in hand by our next meeting, may need to call an emergency meeting to come to a decision. Board agrees that a print option should continue to be available but a digital option needs to be developed. 

Store (Kevin McBeth)...  moving to a new cart system soon, which will give more flexibility in payment options as well as better display options. Any store information will go to Don Lewis for the newsletter from now on

Membership (Jim Maxwell)...  no information received

Volunteer Coordinator...IJA needs: fest director, memberships director(s), store distributor, future fest site coordinator 

Video (Ken Farris)...  Ivan is in the process of editing the festival DVD. Want to make sure that we have the artwork set up in a timely fashion. Possibility of keeping the same artwork that was used on the t-shirts for the cover of the DVD. 

Education (Kevin Axtell)...  idea is to develop a test run with local schools. Need to clarify how going to schools will up our membership. Also need to know who will be writing the grants that would pay for the program. Possibility of being sponsored by Bank of America. Program would teach school kids how to juggle. Current members could become IJA certified instructors through a 5 workshop system, and take the program into their local schools. The grant would pay for the cost of background checks and fees for instructors. Concern expressed about possible liability for IJA if we certify someone and they do something at a school that could incur liability – could the IJA be sued? 

Marketing/Promotions (Thom Wall)...   What can we offer to vendors to get more vendors at the festival? Possibly free copies of print magazine. Sponsorship advertising at the festival and discounted ad space in magazine both could attract more vendors. Having talent scouts and performance opportunities at the festival would be incentive for more people to come, increasing award money would also be attractive. Need ways to directly benefit members, which will make more people want to be members. Including the WJF could bring in a lot of younger jugglers, but would have to reach a resolution regarding the X-juggling competition. That proposal should come from the festival director. Also could offer a discount to first time festival attendees to get them in the door, though in the past lowering cost has not affected festival numbers much. Put IJA displays with store copies of the magazine into toy stores that sell juggling equipment – use store in Boulder, Colorado as a test run. IJA YouTube needs high quality tutorials from big name jugglers. 

Other... 
 

MOTIONS TO CONSIDER:

Motion to create a new policy that the board must vote on and approve a festival budget for the 2010 festival before the end of the 2009 calendar year.

Motion - Kevin McBeth

second - Richard Kennison

Discussion – in past years the board has never officially voted on a fest budget. Holly suggests that this needs to be done. There should not be penalties, however the board will be more involved in the process and anything going over budget would have to answer to the board. 

Amend – Include a 2010 operating budget approved before the end of the 2009 calendar year

Richard Kennison seconds

Vote : passed by unanimous consent

Motion to move to a tiered membership system to allow choice of print or digital magazine format (see attachment A for basic proposal):

      Motion: Kevin Axtell

      Second: Ken Farris

      Discussion: bylaws specifically outline the types of membership, so to pass this motion the bylaws would have to change. All board members support basic idea.

      Vote:   Tabled until next meeting

Motion to retain Holly Greeley as IJA Bookkeeper for 2009/2010:

      Motion: Kevin Axtell

      Second: Ken Farris

      Discussion: Holly clarified that this would be through October 2010

      Vote:  passed by unanimous consent

Motion to approve 2010 fest director (information sent to board in separate email as this is a personnel matter):

      Motion: Kevin Axtell

      Second: Kevin McBeth

      Discussion: Kim Laird has had extensive discussion with Dan Holzman. He does want to be compensated by a percentage, however agreed that if the fest did not make a profit he would not take compensation. He also offered to be in charge of cascade of stars and the championships by delegating tasks to people working under him. Taking a percentage may be illegal. Larger question of whether or not festival director should be paid. IJA may not be in a position to offer payment for 2010. Board needs to set out parameters that must be maintained by the fest director. All other candidates contacted about taking on fest director position have respectfully declined. 

Kevin Axtell moves to Amend – create a committee to negotiate festival director contract with Dan Holzman to be approved at the next meeting

Second : Richard Kennison 

      Vote:  Passed by unanimous consent

Motion to approve a committee to negotiate a contract for Festival Director with Dan Holzman, with Richard Kennison as Chair, Kevin Axtell and Kevin McBeth on the committee

Motion – Thom Wall

Second – Ken Farris

Discussion – none

Vote : passed by unanimous consent

Motion to approve new Volunteers and send a thank you to Todd Strong and Will and Rhonda Murray for their services to the IJA

      Motion: Kevin Axtell

      Second: Kevin McBeth

      Discussion: none

      Vote: passed by unanimous consent

Motion to move ahead with proposed October fundraising effort (see attachment B).

      Motion:Ken Farris

      Second: Kevin Axtell

      Discussion: has been discussed online. Public Thank You to Sandy and the others taking part in this effort

      Vote: passed by unanimous consent

Motion to upgrade paypal account to allow direct processing of credit cards

Motion : Kevin McBeth

Second : Ken Farris

Discussion : This will allow users to go through the IJA website exclusively rather than having to go through the paypal website, which has been an issue for some members.

Vote : passed by unanimous consent

 

7. VARIA:

      Rochester, MN fest proposal for 2011. 

      Contact by Huston, TX for bid submission for possible 2011,  2012, or 2013 fest. 

8. NEXT MEETING: Next regular BOD meeting will be held on September 16, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. EDT. 

9. ADJOURNMENT:    Ken Farris moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Kevin Axtell. Vote : passed by unanimous consent.

Meeting adjourned 10:26 pm.  

Respectfully submitted by Brandi Slater, Recording Secretary. 
 
 
 
 
 

Attachment A:

Tiered Membership proposal to include digital option. 

Curr. Recomm.      Case 2 Optomist.    Case 2

1302 Total Members	1447 Total Members	1447 Total Members
57% Adult @ $50	61% Adult @ $48	61% Adult @ $45
6% Youth @ $35	6% Youth @ $26	6% Youth @ $30
15% Digital @ $35	13% Digital @ $35	13% Digital @ $35
22% Life Member @ $10	20% Life Member @ $0	20% Life Member @ $20
250 Family Addon @ $10	278 Family Addon @ $5	278 Family Addon @ $10

 

Case 1                Base Case

1447 Total Members	1447 Total Members
72% Adult @ $50	74% Adult @ $35
6% Youth @ $30	6% Youth @ $26
2% Digital @ $30	0% Digital @ $30
20% Life Member @ $0	20% Life Member @ $0
278 Family Addon @ $10	278 Family Addon @ $5

 
 

ATTACHMENT B:

IJA Fall 2009 Fundraising Drive Proposal

Sandy Brown 

Financial Goal

$5,000.00 

Will advertise goal to members 

 

Duration of Drive

October 2009, entire month 

 

Payments

Checks sent to Holly Greeley’s address 

Paypal donations in IJA online store 

Credit Card payments will call Sandy Brown 

 

Getting the word out

IJA Newsletter 

Front page the month before Fundraising drive 

Sandy will write short article 

IJA website (Forum, Home page link, direct link to IJA Store) 

Will coordinate with David Landowne and Martin Frost 

Direct mailing to Life Members 

Sandy Brown will write letter to Life Members 

Cost of mailing donated by Sandy Brown 

Envelope will be included for donations with Holly Greeley’s address (IJA will not cover postage for donations sent to Holly Greeley’s address) 

Email (send out 2X) 

Written by Sandy Brown, sent by Martin Frost 

Questions will go to  HYPERLINK "mailto:Fundraising2009@juggle.org" \n _blankFundraising2009@juggle.org (to Sandy Brown) 

JUGGLE magazine: the Fall issue will be sent out from the printer on August 24th. I can have a short article or ad sent to Alan Howard by August 8th. Readers will receive JUGGLE by the 2nd or 3rd week of September. I will coordinate with Kim Laird and Alan Howard on the JUGGLE details. 

Quality Control 

Sounding Board: Working currently with a committee on ideas, format. Working with Holly Greeley on the money-end of things. Will run all member communications by Martin Frost. 

Previous minutes: July 17, 2009 | List of available minutes | Next minutes:September 16, 2009

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

IJA ezine eJuggle!	IJA Facebook	IJA youTube	IJA Juggling.tv	Copyright © 1996-2024 by the International Jugglers’ Association, Inc. All rights reserved.
			Site design credits