Social Digest:
The Chapter Chatter
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Welcome to Chapter Chatter - January 2021. Wishing you all the best for a happy, safe, and healthy 2022 filled with lots of dancing! |
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Quarter 4 Chapter Member Rebates Being Mailed
February 1st
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In July the Board of Directors approved a chapter rebate program proposed by Senior Vice President Todd Kirrane to support and incentivize our chapters to begin operations and recruit membership. In addition to giving all new and renewed social dance member an extra month of membership, the incentive program offered $5 for every social dance membership paid to the chapter for use of the local level in support of chapter operations. For quarter 3 Nationals happily mailed out $6550 to121 chapters throughout the country. For quarter 4 we will be sending out over $4800 to 122 chapters throughout the country beginning February 1st. In order to receive your rebate check in a timely manner, please make sure your chapter has submitted an updated Chapter Board report. The form is available in the Chapter Admin portion of our website. Special congratulations to Chapter 2020 in North Dakota who topped the program receiving $390 for 78 new/renewed members between October 1st and December 31st.
The Board is expected to vote on a proposal by Senior Vice President Todd Kirrane to continue the incentive program for six more months to help chapters with retention and recruitment of members. Stay tuned!
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All Chapters were required to submit the 1099 form to Nationals by January 6th in order to ensure our compliance with the IRS. The form is required to be sent by all chapters, regardless of the amounts paid out. The excel and fillable PDF form is available for download at https://usadance.org/page/FinancialRecords and should be emailed to talley@usadance.org or placed in the drop box as soon as possible. Please include the chapter name in the document name.
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2022 Chapter Relations Director & District Director Appointments |
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At the January 12th meeting of the Board of Directors, Social Vice President appointed and the Board ratified the appointments of the following leadership positions within the Social Dance Council:
Chapter Relations Director: Phil Sisk of Chapter 6006 in Virginia
District 2: Bonnie Burton of Chapter 2011 in Minnesota
District 4: Maureen Cleary of Chapter 3039 in Massachusetts
District 6: Herb McGurk of Chapter 4031 in California
District 7: Diane Montgomery of Chapter 5044 in Texas
District 9: Rebecca Kelley Fournier of Chapter 6010 in Florida
These leaders are your direct resource and support system for everything related to Chapters and Social dancing so please contact them with any questions, concerns, initiatives, etc. Their contact information is available at https://usadance.org/page/SocialDanceCouncil Watch for more appointments to come out over the next month.
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Recruitment Challenge From Social VP Lolita Brawner |
Following the Board’s expected vote on January 26th, Social VP Lolita Brawner is challenging all chapters to maximize membership in Q1 2022 by getting as many Social Dance Advocate $45 memberships as possible. Why the $45 membership option?
$30 - National Admin dues – Music Licenses, Liability Insurances, & Non-profit Statuses
$10 – Social Dance Events, National Chapter Leader Conference (2023); cruises, etc
$5 – Local Chapter support ($5 rebate)
It is a win-win-win for the entire organization! Which chapter will be the top in Q1-2022?
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In order to ensure our compliance with the IRS and 501c3 requirements, USA Dance chapter bank accounts are required to have the Senior VP and National Treasurer included as signatories on all accounts. Additionally, all local signatories including the Chapter President and Treasurer must be members in good standing. This, and other requirements, are included in the Chapter Financial Procedures Policy that is available on our website here: https://usadance.org/page/FinancialRecords
Over the last month National Treasurer Esther Freeman has begun reviewing accounts to ensure compliance with these policies - a requirement of our 501c3 non-profit status. Please review the policies available via the link and take steps to ensure your chapter’s compliance. If your chapter account is not compliant, please work with Esther to bring it into compliance. She can be reached at treasurer@usadance.org
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Speaking of training, Scalora DanceSport and USA Dance Academy are teaming up to bring the DanceSport industry one of the most elite online dancesport summits! The two day online event will take place February 5 & 6, 2022 and include:
- Gabriele Goffredo - Fundamentals of Movement in Latin
- Pavel Lebedev - Fundamentals of a Winning Smooth Viennese Waltz
- Karina Smirnoff - Roles Between a Man and a Woman in the Paso Doble
- Paolo Bosco - Characteristics for a Tango of Champions
- Saverio Loria - How to get into Character for a Winning ShowDance
- Larissa Kerbel - How to Create Beautiful Interpretation Using the Musical Structure
- Joanna DeCamps - Fundamentals in the Mambo
- Benedetto Ferruggia - Characteristics of the Four Standard Swing Dances
Tickets are available for the full summit, per day, or per workshop. USA Dance members receive a discount with use of the following promo codes.
USADANCEMEMBER1LECTURE -- $10 discount
USADANCEMEMBER1DAY -- $35 discount
USADANCEMEMBERFULLSUMMIT -- $50 discount
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Membership Benefits
Take Advantage of the Membership Benefits As Part Of Our Agreement With Dance Vision and Our Own Free Library of Online Workshops Perfect for Social Dancers!
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During the AGM, 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 this week, 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.
Thanks to the support of a private donor, USA Dance’s Collegiate Network was able to provide a semester's worth of online syllabus and social dance video instruction to collegiate clubs during the Spring of 2021. USA Dance has launched a new video platform, accessible via our website, to provide 30+ hours of instructional videos to social dance members as a benefit of membership.The videos will be accessible at
Twenty-three videos are uploaded and we will be adding more each month. Please note that these are only available to members so you must be logged into your account to access them.
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Insurance Certificates & Music Reporting Forms |
As chapters begin hosting events we have received an increase in requests for insurance liability policies to cover the event locations. Our National Liability Insurance policy covers our chapter events and facilities that host these events. Requests for coverage certificates can be made by completing the “Blank Request for Certificate of Insurance Form” available in the Chapter Admin section of our website. The form includes instructions on how to submit the form. 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 3 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 in the Chapter Admin section of our website. The form includes instructions on how to submit the form. Just a reminder that you must be logged in to access this part of the website.
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National Calendar for Upcoming Events |
The National Organization continues to try to inspire America to get back to social dancing and part of this is to promote chapter based dance events throughout the country via our calendar so that when people begin traveling and want to social dance they have a single place to look OR to inspire other chapters to begin holding events as public health restrictions allow it. The calendar is available at https://usadance.org/events/event_list.asp
To ensure your event is listed you can either:
please create the event within your chapter’s SocialLink group, complete this form, and then National Officers will be able to add it to the National calendar; OR
Email the relevant info (date, time, chapter, theme or event name, contact info, flyer, etc.) to chapter-announcements@usadance.org and the Marketing & Communications Committee will add it for you.
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