Board Nominees Sought

 

Those interested in running for a term on the IJA board of directors need to submit

a 100-word statement of candidacy by April 15 to the IJA at Montague MA.

 

There will be four board seats coming open this year, those currently occupied by board chair Perry Rubenfeld and members Steve Salberg, Mike Vondruska and Bud Markowitz.

 

Persons who do not submit a statement at this time may still declare their candidacy for a board position during the annual festival in Rapid City, but they will not receive the benefit of receiving mail ballot votes cast by members not attending that event.

 

Five Ball Joggler Takes A Long, Long Road Home

 

Most people talk in terms of seconds, or minutes at best, when discussing their

ability to juggle five balls. Barry Goldmeier, however, talks in terms of miles!

 

The Washington, D.C., area statistician at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission has been practicing with five balls for five years now on a local track. On October 22 he put all the practice to the ultimate test by joggling five during the 26.2-mile Marine Corps Marathon.

 

Goldmeiers feat was only the second known five ball marathon, and his time of 4:59: 10 was about two hours quicker than the New York Marathon run by the late Billy Gillen several years ago. Many people have run three ball marathons, and three ball joggling races are official competitive events at IJA championships. However, five ball jogglers are a far rarer breed of athlete. The challenge of five is not just doing two more balls, but quicker and less natural foot speed. More importantly, a five ball joggler must look up in the air at the pattern, and cannot see the course ahead as can a three ball joggler.

 

Undaunted, Goldmeier was drawn to practice five at his first IJA festival, when he saw Billy Gillen do one-mile and five-kilometer demonstration runs with five at the 1989 IJA festival in Baltimore. Goldmeier's name appears in top spots throughout the record of three ball IJA joggling events - third behind Owen Morse and Albert Lucas in their record­setting 100-meter race at the 1990 festival in Los Angeles, winner of the 400-meter race in 1991, winner of the 100 and 400 meter races in 1992, and winner of the 100 meters in 1995 - but he has practiced joggling only five balls since 1990.

 

"I don't go running with three at all," he said. "I only work out with five. I use a nearby track, because I know where I'm going and am sure of my footing. I was doing 10 miles around the track three days a week before the marathon, and figured if I could do 10 I could do 26."

 

It didn't work out quite that way, though. Goldmeier concedes that the record needs to show an asterisk beside his marathon time. While Gillen reportedly joggled five every step of the way, and always began joggling again from the point of his drops, Goldmeier was not so pure in his procedure.

 

"I estimate I joggled about 20-22 miles of the distance," he admitted. "I went into it figuring to do five the whole way. But there were turns, potholes and slippery spots at water stops. Then at 18 miles I started feeling really tired, so when I'd drop after that I would go 50-60 meters before juggling again rather than just a couple steps."

 

He continued, "I had hundreds of drops. One time I had a really good run of 200-300 meters without a drop, but it's hard to go too far because you don't really know if you're going straight; or veering off into a curb!"

 

Things were tough from the very beginning.

 

With 18,000 people entered, it took him seven minutes to reach the starting line, and the first few miles were run shoulder-to-shoulder. Several times people ran into his pattern, and Goldmeier couldn't throw the balls as high as he wanted. He used squishy bean bags so that runners who stepped on dropped props would not be so likely to turn an ankle. As the runners thinned out, the monotony of the task set in. But Goldmeier said the crowd watching from the roadside kept him going, cheering him wildly from bridges as he passed beneath. Fellow runners also encouraged him and helped by picking up dropped balls. He finished 12,331 out of 14,651 finishers.

 

The aftermath was painful. Goldmeier said, "I felt terrible for two days. My legs felt much worse than my arms, I could barely walk. I felt like I was 80 years old, every step felt like a mountain. But by that time I didn't mind, because I had done it!"

 

He concluded, "The marathon just isn't meant to be joggled with five balls. When I was finishing up, 1 thought I'd never do it again because I felt so bad. But you forget the pain and remember the cheers as time goes on. The only way I'll ever hear those cheers again is to do it again!"

 

Report from the Chair

by Perry Rubenfeld, Chairman of the IJA Board

 

It has been an especially busy few months in the IJA world since I last wrote in the Fall edition. It was officially passed by the Board of Directors at our last conference call to have the 50th anniversary festival in Pittsburgh August 2-6,1997, and we're starting to gear up for that. Plans for such an extravaganza take a lot of hard work by many people, but we can assure you that the "Stars Will Be Out" for this special event. Plan now to attend in '97!

 

In my last report, I was so busy trying to not forget to thank people that the most obvious person was left out. I neglected to thank Paul Kyprie, a long-time board member who stepped down this summer. The work, support and commitment to the IJA he has shown as a board member, and even before he ever joined the board, is second to none! Paul's ideas are endless and devotion to improving the IJA has always been his first priority. He will certainly be missed on the board, but hopefully will still be sharing his valuable ideas with us regularly.

 

One special award overlooked in the last issue of Juggler's World was to Ginny Rose from the International Federation of Festival Organizers for her "contributions to the aims of strengthening peace and friendship through music and arts and the creating of friendly relations and brotherhood." Jerry Linkin presented it to her at the awards banquet, and we congratulate her and all the award recipients!

 

In looking toward awards for Rapid City in July, the Board of Directors voted unanimously to present the IJA Award of Excellence to Albert Lucas and the IJA Historical Achievement Award to hoop juggler extraordinaire Bob Bramson. Both gentlemen have accepted, and will be in attendance. Other award recipients have not been confirmed as of yet. More to come later...

 

At the Board of Directors meetings held in Las Vegas, the following motions were passed:

 

1) To have the 1996 summer festival in Rapid City;

2) To convene an expulsion hearing for one of our members;

3) To amend the by-laws, article 3, number 13, to add the word "hearing" after each word "meeting;"

4) To rehire all employees for the 1995-96 year. All salaries were discussed and approved;

5) Bonus structure for employees will be determined at the end of the year, with the understanding that none are guaranteed.

 

As Norman Schniederman says in his report, "The machine of the IJA is working just fine" due to the hard work of all those people involved in the organization. Plans to increase our membership are in the works. If you know of anyone who would like to join us, please direct them to Richard Dingman.

 

The Life Membership plan that has been on hold for a few years is being discussed at length, and we hope to have a viable plan in place within the next 12 months. More on this as the plan develops!

 

Report from the CAO

by Norman Schneiderman, Chief Administrative Officer

 

Well, Vegas was a great festival both from a good time and financial perspective.

Things are shaping up for Rapid City and it looks as exciting as ever. Rumours are also starting to make the 50th anniversary celebration in Pittsburgh look like the festival of the century and one to definitely start to plan for. The winterfest in Vegas will be history when you read this and hopefully the history books will say it was the best yet.

The new computer system is up and running with the bugs getting worked out and in general the machine of the IJA is working just fine. Lots of interesting plans in the works which you will be hearing about soon.

 

As always, feel free to write, call and or e­mail me with questions and suggestions at Halifax, Nova Scotia.