Creating a library .jar from Github in Netbeans - maven

Question

I am trying to use a library that is available on GitHub (MailChimp API Wrapper for Java). Unfortunately, they do not distribute the library classpath .jar or javadocs as a direct download.
Attempting to build the classpath .jar myself, I downloaded the .zip file which contained a Netbeans project and opened the Netbeans project (which is a Maven project... I'm not too familiar with Maven). I tried to clean & build the project (hoping for it to spit out a nice .jar which I can import into my other project).
But, the clean & build failed with this message:
Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.2:test (default-test) on project ecwid-mailchimp: Execution default-test of goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.2:test failed: The forked VM terminated without saying properly goodbye. VM crash or System.exit called ? -> [Help 1]
To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/PluginExecutionException
The website it directs you to says:
This error is reported in case the execution of a plugin failed due to some unforeseen event. For example, uncatched runtime exceptions caused by the plugin will raise this error. You should report this problem to the maintainer of the plugin.
Now, I'd love to believe I've done everything correctly and that this is, indeed, a problem with the build. But, before I go sending a nastygram email to the API creator, I'd like to ensure that the error is not on my end.
So, the question is thus: If you had a Netbeans Maven project that you wanted to compile to create a library classpath .jar to use in another project, what would you do? And am I doing it correctly?
EDIT:
Building the project with -e yielded this as a result:
Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.2:test (default-test) on project ecwid-mailchimp: Execution default-test of goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.2:test failed: The forked VM terminated without saying properly goodbye. VM crash or System.exit called ? -> [Help 1]
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.2:test (default-test) on project ecwid-mailchimp: Execution default-test of goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.2:test failed: The forked VM terminated without saying properly goodbye. VM crash or System.exit called ?
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:225)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:153)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:145)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:84)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:59)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.singleThreadedBuild(LifecycleStarter.java:183)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.execute(LifecycleStarter.java:161)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:320)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:156)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.execute(MavenCli.java:537)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.doMain(MavenCli.java:196)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:141)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:290)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:230)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:409)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:352)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.PluginExecutionException: Execution default-test of goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.2:test failed: The forked VM terminated without saying properly goodbye. VM crash or System.exit called ?
at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultBuildPluginManager.java:110)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:209)
... 19 more
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: The forked VM terminated without saying properly goodbye. VM crash or System.exit called ?
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.output.ForkClient.close(ForkClient.java:245)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.fork(ForkStarter.java:282)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.run(ForkStarter.java:116)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.executeProvider(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:695)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.executeAllProviders(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:666)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.executeAfterPreconditionsChecked(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:624)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.execute(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:587)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultBuildPluginManager.java:101)
... 20 more
Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/PluginExecutionException
Soo.... that's a thing.

Answer 1

If you just want jar and don't want to care about test execution (where it dies) you can invoke
mvn clean install -DskipTests
to skip surefire plugin's execution and to get the jar
and then in your project add this artifact as dependency (assuming it is maven project)
<dependency>
<groupId></groupId>
<artifactId></artifactId>
<version></version>
</dependency>
if you want to see what is going wrong, I doubt it is the jvm crashed most likely related to OutOfMemory, I would increase maven's memory by setting higher heap space in MAVEN_OPTS and increasing surefire's plugin jvm's heap if it is a fork