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Here are my sketchy notes approximately transcribed verbatim from my sketchy scribbles taken during the meetings. Note that I am very much not used to being in a meeting at 10am, much less being awake at a juggling convention at 10am, but I'd never made it to one, and my roommate was running for the board and felt he needed to go, so we went to sleep early (by like 3am!) and went. These are just my notes on what I wanted to remember. I recognize that they are biased, and I don't want to claim that they are detailed exact minutes. Also, i did miss the first few minutes, where I gather that a call for floor nominations for the board elections was made, but no new candidates were nominated.
I think these notes don't go very far into the range of emotions and attitudes which filled the front area of this large room (which was across the freeway from the juggling and workshop gym). I think I'd like to mention that the board was, for the most part, pretty seriously defensive from the outset, while the floor wasn't really attacking very hard. There weren't 100 people there like I gather there were last year, and those who were there were mostly longtime IJA members and interested and reasonable people (I'll leave it to someone else's opinion whether I can be included in that description, but I don't go much into what I specifically said, either). In general, the meeting got friendlier and better as it went on.
I'm really sorry this is so long and boring and probably difficult to decipher.
Campaign Speeches
Motion to adjourn the meeting to the convention floor, where there is a quorum, for the board election is called for. Rob Peck makes that motion, and it is seconded. There's some discussion about specifics, and Sam calls for an ammended motion, to include the times the voting is taking place, from 12noon - 3pm. Rob makes his motion again, ammending it with the times, but then suggests that perhaps the voting should last a little longer [I'm not sure I should take this credit, but he did this because I leaned over to him and suggested it, and he seemed to think it was a good idea].
Perry, Norm Schneiderman say that it would be logistically hard to even add 1-2 hours. Bill Giduz suggests going until 5pm, is talked down. Sam says the people at the meeting last year voted that the time for this meeting (10am) was OK. [yes, yes, these notes are a little scattered, but the meeting really was, too. The discussion about times went all over the place, with various members on the floor bringing up various points, like that 10am is a lousy time for the business meeting, and that voting from noon-3pm on the second day is unnecessarily limiting, and is a bad window of time, especially for those of us who stay up until 5am, and often don't arrive in the gym until after 3pm, etc., etc.]
A call for vote on the motion (that the meeting should adjourn to the floor according to the procedures in place allowing voting from noon to 3pm) is made. the vote is:
of the eight board members, Bill Giduz is the only one dissenting.
A motion to extend the voting to be from noon until 5pm is not accepted as out of order by Sam, the board chariman.
Bud asks how many more people we think will vote if it were extended. "What, 20?!" he asks. [20 people would be 4% of the total attendance at the festival, and would add 8% to the number of people who in fact voted]
Perry believes extending the hours would make no difference to the results of the election.
[after much discussion, including an explanation from Robert [last name?], a parliamentarian that once a motion is voted down, you can't then make substantially the same motion and vote on it, a motion was made to adjourn the meeting to the floor for voting according to the procedures in place was made and, the floor having made its point but not, i think, wanting to actually keep the election from taking place, was approved with one (i think) dissenting vote.
That, therefore, concluded the official IJA business meeting (the meeting having been adjourned to the floor). Presumably at some point Sam officially adjourns the meeting after the votes from the floor have been counted, but I didn't catch that part, since I think might have actually been juggling by then.]
The detailed board minutes will not be published, but minutes which consist of the motions made and their results will be (these will not include the specifics of how each board member voted)
At the March meeting, the board decided it cannot discuss the specifics of its meetings or its financial information.
Perry will take responsibility for writing the official minutes (motions). Sam says they have gotten a legal opinion that they cannot give out financials.
There was discussion about where these minutes would be published- obviously they should go in the IJA insert in Juggle magazine. Some members want them on the IJA website, and some also feel they should be posted in rec.juggling [this brought on some strong discussion on the relative merits of rec.juggling, and of the usefulness of the IJA website (at http://www.juggle.org), and whether just having a web site means the board shouldn't attempt to post information electronically to other places].
There were suggestions that the business meeting should be moved to the gym. Some suggested closing the gym to juggling for that time (in the afternoon). Someone on the board says that St. Louis is the last place that was done, and that there was, "some discontent." Further discussion leads to the idea that there could be room left, such as workshop rooms, or other side rooms, for juggling, which everyone seems to like. Even more discussion brings the idea that the business meeting could not only be more accessible, so that everyone knows it's going and can go, but that if they do, the actual board election could take place during that meeting, AND that maybe the meeting could be of actual interest to attendees... perhaps that'd be a good place to officially announce the site for the next year [by the way, next year's festival is on the US side of niagara falls, july 27-31, 1999], and give a bit of a presentation on the area [and maybe describe the events which led to that decision? oh, oops. i'm editorializing]. Steve Salberg is concerned about closing the gym, but there is general board support for the idea. [I think this should be discussed, and real suggestions made for making this idea work. I know that closing the gym could well be a generally unpopular choice, but I also think that the board meeting could *really* use a lot more visibility. C'mon, 23 non board members, including Norm Ginny Rose, and Stan Allen?] Perry says that the people at the business meeting last year didn't want the meeting to be in the gym. Katje Sabin-Newmiller just wants accessibility improved, not necessarily have it in the main gym. Fran thinks that juggling could be allowed during the meeting, but at least make the meeting accessible. He also thinks that the board minutes (motions) should be published in the Juggle insert, or at least on the web, as should the organization's bylaws.
Rick feels the board should give updates to rec.juggling. Sam and Perry say, "won't happen" and "look on the web site". Rick points out that while communication from the board to the membership is improving with the web site and Juggle magazine, but the other direction isn't happening- there are no welcoming methods for members to communicate with the board, and suggests that there should be a referendum process, where members can vote on issues, not just having their elected board members vote on those issues.
Robert the parliamentarian discusses some flaws in procedure he sees, such as having both voting by mail and motions for nominations on the floor at the last minute, and that there is no write-in space on the ballots. Believes we should be electing a president and vice president, rather than having a chairman by decree.
Stan Allen is excited about the potential of juggling.
Fran - Re business meeting:
Braidy Brown
Tripp Holmgrain
Sam Kilbourn - excited about going to the floor with a new approach.