Life Membership Report

by Norman Schneiderman, Chief Administrative Officer

The IJA initiated its Life Membership Program in Spring 1985. Funds were to be used only in financial emergencies. Perks offered to Life Members were: Reserved seating at festival shows; First class mailing of Juggler's World; Special listing in the Roster; Lifetime membership in the IJA; 10% discount on IJA merchandise; Laminated and numbered gold membership card; IJA lapel pin and clothpatch; and a Life Member Party at the festival (this was added later).

Life membership originally cost $250 until about member number 100, but was then increased to $300. From its inception until July 1992, the board set no policy as to how Life Member funds were to be handled upon receipt. Funds were generally placed directly into our operating account and periodically transferred to the Life Member Fund. The transfer of funds was not enough, however, to keep up with the growing number of new life members.

We had about 160 Life Members when $25,000 of the fund was used to pay our operating deficit after the Los Angeles festival (which lost $5,125). The fund before the $25,000 was used should have been about $43,000. It was, in fact, $35,000, a shortfall of $8,000 due to the lag time of investing money from our operating account to the Life Member Fund and the availability of funds to invest.

It is now obvious that we have been continually borrowing from the Life Member Fund until July 1992. The Life Member program has about 271 members and should have about $76,300. In fact, it has only $40,713, a shortfall of $35,587.

.In 1991 the board approved investment of the Life Membership Fund in unsecured and unguaranteed vehicles. No interest was ever taken from the fund to support Life Members, so they have always been a drain on our resources and have contributed to the current loss of dollars on our regular membership.

In July 1992, at my recommendation, the board placed a moratorium on the sale of Life Memberships. As of August 1992 we opened a separate Life Member account for direct deposit of any and all funds received in the program, and are currently reinvesting the unsecured funds into guaranteed and insured vehicles. We are also currently developing a retirement of debt strategy for the Life Membership Fund deficit.

We should invite our Life Members to make contributions to help retire the Life Member deficit and guarantee that funds go directly into this fund. We should also seek an acceptable solution to the problem of reserved seating for Life Members at the festival. We should continue the moratorium on Life Membership sales until we can be guaranteed that they can support themselves, keeping in mind that there is no way to accurately predict the growth of our expenses needed to support this program, which will be with us for the life of the association. We should consider selling tickets for the Life Member Party at the festival.

IJA Board of Director's Conference Call, Oct 12, 1992

The following is a summary of discussions that occurred at the first conference call of the 1992-93 Board of Directors, held October 12, 1992.

Chairman Perry Rubenfeld explained the call was moved up from mid-November because communication was not as good as he had hoped between directors. The resignation

of the secretary/treasurer also made it important to bring the board up to date on developments. Each director gave a report on activities since Montreal.

Norman Schneiderman, chief administrative officer, gave a report on behalf of the employees. No financial report on the Montreal festival yet. Tom Bennett is resigning as secretary/treasurer, but will assist with a gradual transition to his replacement, when that person is found. The 1992 Roster is es­timated to cost $3971 to print. We are await­ing word on our financial position. We have 3,224 members, including 273 life members, as of October 1, 1992. We had 755 registrants at the Montreal festival, and the Las Vegas winter festival is shaping up nicely.