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LETTERS
Newest Affiliate Has Feminine Touch Fellow jugglers, please welcome with open arms your newest affiliate, "The Flamingo Club!"
The Flamingo Club was originally founded at the Akron Festival in 1987 by Laura Green and Sandy Brown, who rallied female jugglers to the local watering hole. Since then the club has blossomed to include more than 40 members, and is the only affiliate to have members across the USA and the world. Our goal is to encourage and support families in the juggling community, with special emphasis on nurturing young female jugglers.
At the 1996 Festival in Rapid City we awarded our first "Flamingo Award" to a young female juggler who exhibits outstanding promise, 12-year-old Elizabeth Sander of the Wise Guys Jugglers.
We hope to see everyone in Pittsburgh for the 50th Anniversary IJA Festival, where we hope to set up a site on the gym floor where families can gather and pass, set up workshops for kids, and have games and contests for younger children. Please contact myself or elected chair Erm Kasper if you would like to assist. We also welcome ideas or suggestions to help us attain our goal statement. Jennifer L. Salberg Ahem! About Your Additions. According to the Fall 1996 edition of Juggler's World, the auctions in Rapid City raised $5,500, "boosting the IJA's Archive Fund to over $10,000". Congratulations to Braidy for this wonderful fund-raising effort. The IJA has been holding auctions since 1988, and the amounts raised were as follows: 1988 - $2,713; 1989 - $3,300; 1990 - $3,639; 1991 - $2,611; 1992 - $1,310; 1993 - $1,200; 1994 - $2,615; 1995 - $2,237; 1996 - $5,500.
Unless $15,000 has been spent on the archives recently, that means that the IJA Archive Fund should stand at somewhere around $25,000, not $10,000. Could you confirm this or explain the difference please?
Speaking as someone with a keen interest in the history of juggling, I would love to see some of this money spent to make the IJA's archives more accessible, by, say publishing a catalog and allowing members to request copies of sections at a small fee, or scanning in photographs and publishing a CD-ROM. I would be happy to volunteer my services to work on any archive related projects which require computer expertise. Andrew Conway San Francisco, Calif.
The IJA used the proceeds from the yearly auction in the operating account to both stay afloat through hard times and help repay the Life Member fund. In July 1993, the board of directors through a motion put forward by Deena Frooman and passed unanimously, initiated the current Archive Fund. It was decided at that time to start from the present and move forward rather than pay back the balance of funds. Norman Schneiderman, CAO
Juggling on the Other Side of Freedom The magazines you sent were deeply appreciated, since we are all prisoners at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility and receive very little in the way of donations from the public.
Those of us who have developed our basic three-ball skills are using softballs. It is not permitted that we use three oranges from the dining facility, since having that many pieces of fruit at once is contraband possession and/or proof of bartering - both of which are punishable.
In addition, gathering in groups of two or more is "at the discretion of an officer" a possible activity of "ganging," so learning or practicing passing skills is haphazard to say the least.
Nonetheless, practice goes on. There are several hundred prisoners here and a few dozen of us have found satisfaction in developing and working toward mastering a basic cascade. A smaller few of us have moved on to columns and reverse cascades and such. The thrill of expanding the limits of one's capabilities is a strong lure - even for those of us subjected to the secret society of long-term incarceration. There's little enough other positive education made available.
For myself, maintaining a smooth pattern for ten minutes or so has a uniquely calming effect, helping relieve the mental stresses of being held captive. Even a few minutes of respite is welcome.
You will be gratified to know that the magazines are being read and reread every day the library is open. I have seen prisoners taking notes from the several new and interesting passing patterns therein. From those jugglers here, we wish you all never lose count! Anonymous - Canon City, Colorado Cheers for J.E.A.P. I think J.E.A.P (Jugglers as Entertainers and Artistic Professionals - see Winter '96-'97 "Letters") is an outstanding idea! My husband, Bill, and I perform as "Two of Clubs". Our customers at fairs and conventions say our act is very entertaining, but I don't think we compare to IJA competitors!
IJA competitions are solely for the very top jugglers, and I believe this is why there are not more entrants. I don't mean that the IJA should lower the competition standards, but J.E.A.P. might attract entrants who could Ee recognized as great entertainers rather than being compared to technical jugglers. Some J.E.A.P. judging criteria could be "Most Entertaining," "Best Story Line" and "Best Flowing" from one section to the next.
I would love to see more of an entertainment/vaudeville emphasis in IJA competitions as J.E.A.P. has suggested. After all, are we not involved in making people laugh?! Tina Simpkin Benton City, Washington |