NEWS

IJA Notes

· Affiliates are invited to consider hosting an IJA annual convention. Proposals for the 1989 IJA convention site are being solicited for presentation at this summer's Akron convention. Call Rich.

· Please note that your membership renewal date is now printed on your mailing label. Renewals are still $15 per year, or you may renew for multiple years.

· Anyone interested in running for IJA office should note that elections will be held at the annual convention. Ballots with the names of candidates entered so far will be mailed to all members before the convention so that people who can't come can still vote.

· The IJA is still asking affiliates to sponsor an award for a deserving competitor at this year's convention. The Atlanta Jugglers Association kicked off this idea with its "Wild Style Award" to Bob Nickerson at the 1986 convention. There are plenty of other ways affiliates and clubs can contribute as a group to the success of the convention. Contact Kevin Delagrange, convention chairman.

"Complete Juggler" tour cascades across America

Thousands of people across America will head for the mall to learn to juggle on nine successive Saturdays beginning in early May. Walden Books and the IJA are   sponsoring the 1987 World Record Tour for "The Complete Juggler" to try to break the Guinness world record for number of objects juggled in one place at one time. The current record of 1,865 objects was set at the 1983 IJA convention in Purchase, N.Y.

Dave Finnigan, author of "The Complete Juggler," invites IJA members and juggling clubs to join him in the instruction. Instructors who sign up in advance at Walden Books will receive a complimentary t-shirt.

The tentative tour dates and sites will be: May 2 - West Side Pavilion in Los Angeles; May 9 - Bellevue Square in Seattle; May 16 - Redbird Mall in Dallas; May 23 - Chicago (no site yet); June 13 - Columbia Mall in Baltimore­Washington June 13. The tour will also cover Boston, San Francisco, Cleveland and New York, with dates and places to be announced.

Women's Circus embarks on Nicaraguan tour

The Women's Circus, seven performers from San Francisco, New York City and London, planned to tour Nicaragua in March as a display of solidarity with the Sandinista revolution and protest against American support of the Contras.

By invitation of the Association of Sandinista Cultural Workers, the Women's Circus planned to present a broad spectrum of juggling arts in their three week visit.

Members of the circus - Deborah Davis, Sara Felder, Christina Lewis, Jennifer Miller, Susan Siezer and musicians Leslie Lind and Camilla Sanders - present a show that includes dance, song, wire walking, fire and ribbon swinging, and jugglers on stilts, unicycles, slack rope and two-highs.

On the way to convention, don't forget Juggling Day

The IJA is promoting a National Juggling Day on June 20 to celebrate its 40th anniversary in cities across America. It was 40 years ago on June 17, 1947, that . the IJA's founders gathered at a magic convention in Pittsburg to first plot their collective futures. Clubs and. affiliates are asked to host an afternoon juggling festival in their locale as a way of honoring the organization that started it all in 1947.

Tricia Allen, chairman of the 1988 convention in Denver, is coordinating efforts. Those clubs choosing to participate will receive a complete packet of materials telling how to stage the festival, plus forms for entering the juggling instruction contest associated with it. Members of the club teaching the largest number of people to juggle on June 20 will receive 10 percent convention registration discounts, and the

club will be featured in the Fall issue of "Juggler's World." Props and other prizes are also available for both juggling groups and individuals. For more information, write to Tricia Allen, Denver, CO.

New IJA Life Members

The IJA would like to thank the following people who have signed on as IJA Life Members since publication of the last issue of this magazine:

30. Ken Krakat of Dearborn Heights, Mich.;

31. Chip Haynes of Clearwater, Fla.;

32. Andrew D'Allesandro of Bala Cynwyd, Penn.;

33. Michael Lake of Holland, Ohio; and

34. Edward Kosco of St. Petersburg, Fla.

For more information on the Life Member program, contact the IJA office, Kenmore, NY.