The Official JPA Web Bunker
Hello, I'm Nelson Pavlosky. The JPA began as a group of kids who hung out together at the PGI conventions. It was the good idea of some of us including Sarah Lynch and Lauren Petrzilka. But the JPA really came together at the 2000 PGI convention in Fargo, ND. We raised $400 and used it to get a very large box of firecrackers and light it off during the Friday display. Unfortunately, the show was delayed until the following night where very few people saw it and hardly anyone knew of the JPA's existence.
This did not discourage us, and we proceeded to organize over the internet. We worked hard to come up with our bylaws, using PGI's bylaws as a model. Our bylaws explain our purpose and current structure.
The JPA was created in the aftermath of a few incidents that shed a bad light on the minors who attended the PGI convention. We intended to show that teens can accomplish something positive, and that's why we founded an organization dedicated to helping teens do positive things at conventions. We want to organize activities which will entertain and educate the youth of the PGI about fireworks (As well as keeping them from doing stupid things and getting in trouble).
One of our ideas for activities include a small class "C" fireworks display one night during the week that is designed, organized, and fired by our members. Soon, we realized that the PGI was the best equipped organization to help us in this goal. Reveling, we contacted Dr. Steinburg for advice and support. We asked if it were possible to get an article in the PGI bulletin about our mission. We also asked Dr. Steinburg for his opinion on our bylaws.
More recently, we noticed we had major problems handling our finances: our membership is spread thinly across the country, our officers change frequently, (they cannot be elected to an office once they have turned 18) and if the treasurer were to miss the next convention and had all of our money, we would be penniless. In order to circumvent these problems, we thought the PGI would be able to help us by handling our finances. Having the PGI vouch for us would also make potential donators more likely to help. Surprisingly enough, the PGI board approved of our organization and offered to aid us in our mission. We were on a roll...
Then tragedy struck. Our extremely motivated, founding treasurer, Sarah Lynch discovered that she would be a foreign exchange student in Argentina during the 2001 convention in Appleton, so she resigned. Without her boundless energy, the JPA slowly ground to a halt. The officers became distracted by their personal lives, (I don't know about anyone else, but I had girl problems) and it was Christmas time before we started to think about the JPA again. After having a few conversations with Kristi Barr, and a few days of hard work on the computer, I produced our first web site. With your support and donations, we will be busy making the JPA an increasingly enjoyable experience. And with a little more HTML, we will have as good of a web site as the PGI does.
-- Nelson Pavlosky, Founding President, JPA
I would also like to add that I am pleased to say to Nelson AND everyone that if the JPA's web site isn't as good or better than the PGI's yet, soon it will be. :)