IJA NEWS  

 

Chairman's Report

By Perry Rubenfield, IJA Chairman of the Board

 

With the end of the Burlington festival, another year of running the lJA begins for myself, the Board of Directors and the employees of the IJA. I would like to welcome new members who joined the IJA in Burlington, and hope they anticipate the upcoming year with as much excitement at I do.

 

I am happy to welcome Mike Vondruska back to the Board of Directors for a two-year term after a few years rest. I also bid farewell and good luck to Jek Kelly, who has served on the board for the past three years in many capacities, but mostly as affiliate director. Jek's contributions to the organization have been substantial and beneficial, and we look forward to his continued involvement in some capacity. Jek told us, "You'll be hearing from me," and I'm sure he means it!

 

I'm sure everyone who was in Burlington would agree that a great time was had by all. The overwhelming opinion was that the facility, food and accommodations were very good, and that new events such as the party cruise, one-night championships and Best of Renegade show made this festival exciting and unique.

 

Every festival detail and decision was under the direction of Ginny Rose, the person who annually makes our dream into reality. We are fortunate to have a festival coordinator as devoted to the IJA as Ginny, who begins her work more than a year before the festival and continue for weeks after jugglers have all gone home.

 

I would also like to thank Richard Dignman, Bill Giduz, Norman Schneiderman and Bob Mahler for their work to keep the festival running smoothly, and to Dan Holzman and his crew for putting together a great championship and superb Cascade of Stars show. Thanks also to the Renegades for their shows on the cruise, at the Flynn Theatre and the midnight venues as well. Great job!

 

We are also indebted to hundreds of volunteers who gave up anything from an hour to the entire five days (sometimes more) of the festival to insure its success. I regret that I cannot mention you all by name here, but please know that your work and devotion to the IJA is noticed and appreciated.

 

The Board of Directors set as its main priority this year to increase the membership of the IJA. This is where you, the members, can help by encouraging your juggling friends to join the organization. I will keep you informed through the year about that progress, and will report in the next issue on the results of the 100 or so surveys that members completed and returned at the Burlington festival.

 

CAO's Report

by Norman Schneiderman, Chief Administrative Officer

 

The Burlington festival was a great time. Paid attendance exceeded 760 people, who enjoyed new and innovative ideas such as the party cruise and one-night championships. We are awaiting compilation of the numbers at publication time, but will report on its financial outcome in the next issue.

 

As of this issue I am no longer publishing quarterly financial reports because I received complaints that they were hard to decipher. I will publish year-end state­ments, however, and members may receive detailed and up-to-date financial statements at any time by sending an SASE and note to Richard Dingman, our secretary / treasurer.

 

As announced at the festival, the Life Member Fund debt has been totally re­tired, and the fund stands at more than $76,000. Member Jerry Carson came forward at the festival and agreed to conduct an investment analysis to present a plan for reviving the Life Member Program to the Board of Directors. We appreciate his leadership in. this matter, and need to recognize several other volunteers for their efforts as well: Mary Wilkins researched the festival attendance numbers since Day One of the IJA; Paul Kyprie did a great job selling airline raffle tickets; and Braidy Brown raised more than $2,470 for the lJA through his organization of the annual auction.

 

Thanks also to those who made comments and suggestions to me during the festival, and to the hundreds of members who volunteered to help at entry doors, the registration table and other festival activities.

 

Our current membership stands at about 3,000, and we hope it will climb steadily as the Board of Directors turns its attention to this matter in the year ahead.

 

I welcome your comments and suggestions at any time. Contact me at Halifax NS, Canada.

 

New Internet Service Tailored to Jugglers

Jugglers with a computer, some free software, and access to the "information superhighway" being developed on the Internet can now browse through a multi-media encyclopedia of juggling information. That's because the world of virtual juggling expanded significantly on May 1 with the announcement of the Juggling Information Service (JIS) on the World-Wide Web (WWW).

 

Barry Bakalor, a former IJA board member and chairman of the IJA's 1986 convention in San Jose, Calif., created the JIS on a computer at his place of employment, Hal Computer Systems.

 

The JIS is a growing repository of information, including not only text, but photographs, graphics, movies and sound. Full access to all its features is available through free software "browsers" available for PC's, Mac's, UNIX, and other platforms. The best browsers, such as Mosaic, provide full access to all features, such as color graphics and videos. For those with limited access, other browsers like lynx provide only text, and not pictures.

 

Those using Mosaic to view the JIS "home page" find something resembling an index page of a magazine, including a full-color JIS logo and a listing of its services. Highlighted words on the home page and other pages provide "hypertext" connections to increasing depths of information. Some are not stored on the Hal computer, but on other computers worldwide, owned or maintained by other jugglers who help Bakalor.

 

The home page index provides direction to the movie theater, meetings and festivals listings, help files for various props and tricks, IJA information, juggling articles in the media, downloadable juggling software, picture gallery, shopping mall, home pages created by jugglers world­wide, Juggler's World archives, and more.

 

The JIS also includes a full archive of all postings to the Internet news group rec.juggling, which was founded approximately three years ago. Jugglers who subscribe to rec.juggling receive up to 50 messages a day from jugglers worldwide discussing a variety of subjects closely or loosely concerning juggling. Over 13,000 such articles are available for browsing at the JIS.

 

Those who do not have WWW access, but who do have e-mail, can access the JIS and its services and retrieve all files, including text, pictures, movies and software. For more information on these procedures, send an e-mail message with FILE-SERVICE in the Subject, and HELP in the body of the message. Complete instructions for using the e-mail service will be returned to you.

 

To subscribe to the rec.juggling list server, send this message: subscribe juggling <Your Name>, in the body of a mail message.