USA Dance Announcements
USA Dance and Special Olympics kick off DanceSport's official inclusion into the Utah Special Olympics Games
USA Dance partnered with Special Olympics Utah, November 6, 2021, for a night of performances and showcases featuring Special Olympic DanceSport (SODS) Athletes and their Unified Partners.
Hosted by USA Dance Special Olympics Committee Co-Chair and SODS Dance Ambassador Louis Van Amstel, this was the first Special Olympics event since our joint proclamation of support with Special Olympics North America. Joining Louis in this event were USA Dance President Ken Richards with SODS Athlete Laura Lemon, and USA Dance Utah Chapter President Shawn Fisher. YouTube videos of the event follow:
If your chapter is interested in developing a Special Olympics program, contact the USA Dance Special Olympics Committee at specialolympics@usadance.org.
See here for coverage of the first-ever Special Olympics DanceSport World Championships held in Graz, Austria.
Esther Freeman named as new National Treasurer
Following an exhaustive search, the USA Dance Board of Directors unanimously approved the appointment of Esther Freeman as the new National Treasurer for USA Dance. Esther, a native of Medford Oregon, is no stranger to serving USA Dance on the national level. She is the only individual in USA Dance history to have ever served in all four corporate officer positions – National President, Senior Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. On the Chapter level, in July 1995, she joined USA Dance, then USABDA, and helped to start the Southern Oregon Chapter #1011 in Medford, Oregon. She remained an active member and board member until the chapter closed in 2018. An avid social dancer, she then joined the Eugene Springfield Chapter #1010, where she continues to participate and help promote community dance activities.
This experience on the chapter and national levels, when combined with her professional background as an independent Non-profit Management Organization consultant, gives her a historical perspective of our organization that few can match, and allows her to hit the ground running as we rebuild our organization. Esther can be contacted at treasurer@usadance.org.
Insurance Certificates and Music Reporting Forms
As chapters begin hosting events, we are receiving an increase in requests for insurance liability policies to cover the event locations. Our National Liability Insurance policy covers our chapter events and the facilities that host these events. Requests for coverage certificates can be made by completing the “Blank Request for Certificate of Insurance Form” available at https://usadance.org/page/Insurance in the Chapter Admin section of our website. The form includes submission instructions. Just a reminder that you must be logged in to access this part of the website.
Similarly, the National organization maintains membership licenses with the three largest music copyright holders – ASCAP. BMI, SESAC – to allow chapters to play music without violating copyright laws. An important part of this is keeping track of the level of music played at events to ensure we are not overcharged. Therefore we require that chapters submit the “Quarterly Event Attendance Reporting Form” available at https://usadance.org/page/Music in the Chapter Admin section of our website. The form includes submission instructions. Just a reminder that you must be logged in to access this part of the website.
National Calendar for Upcoming Events
The National Organization is seeking to inspire America to get back to social dancing. This promotes chapter-based dance events throughout the country via our calendar, so traveling social dancers have a single point of reference. Our hope is also to inspire other chapters to begin holding events as public health restrictions allow. The calendar is available at https://usadance.org/events/event_list.asp. To ensure your event is listed you can:
- Create the event within your chapter’s SocialLink group and complete this form. Then National Officers will be able to add it to the National calendar; OR
- Email the relevant information (date, time, chapter, theme or event name, contact info, flyer, etc.) to Chapter-announcements@usadance.org. The Marketing & Communications Committee will add it for you.
Membership Auto-Renewal
A number of members have expressed frustration at needing to remember to renew each year. Thus, we are excited to announce that auto-renewal is now available for all DanceSport membership categories! If you would like to set up your membership for auto-renewal, please email talley@usadance.org with your full name as it appears on your USA Dance card and your membership number. If you have any questions about this, please feel free to email our Membership Director Margot Garnick at membership-dir@usadance.org.
Announcement of New Cooperation Agreement with Dance Vision
During the Annual General Meeting, the Board of Directors announced a new agreement with Dance Vision to strategically align the two organizations. Dance Vision, also known as DVIDA, operates one of the largest ballroom dance teacher certification programs and provides instruction on syllabus dancers for competitive and social dancers via online and app formats. While more benefits will be included in the formal announcement later, one of the benefits of the new agreement includes a one-time 20% off coupon code for a new monthly or annual membership for USA Dance Social Dance members. To take advantage of this membership benefit, please email Margot Garnick at membership-dir@usadance.org. In order to maximize the benefit we strongly recommend the annual membership.
