Hi This is my opinion only and not to be construed as a board statement. I think that all parties are right here. I believe that no party should suffer from this and as such the decision made by the past board has made a lot of folks upset and both they and the IJA have suffered. We need to mend this.
Some folks say it is okay and right to end the program and they also are right.
Bottom line though is that to end the program, people feel hurt and wronged whereas to not end the program, people who felt it should be ended feel far less wronged than those who wanted their memberships. I do not think that a life member program should be reopened unless there is a sustaining fee involved that is set yearly to make sure the cost of running the program is covered and the IJA does not lose money on it. Our programs are too flexible to be able to set a fee that covers all contingencies. I hope you get the picture. One final note, a number of you have talked about the reserved seating, to clarify, this has not happened for the last three festivals because the logistics, numbers and lack of designated seating have made it impossible to institute.