Erika Barker
President
(She/her/hers) Erika is a graduate student in the School of Social Work. She recently graduated from UMich with a bachelors where she majored in Movement Science and minored in Dance. She is from Lapeer, Michigan, and has been on the team for five years. When she is not dancing you can find her reading, traveling, drinking tea, or snuggling her cat. Erika’s favorite dances are international foxtrot and international rumba.
Role: The President is ultimately responsible for overseeing all team operations, as well as long-term planning for the growth and improvement of the team. He or she is responsible for overseeing the timely execution of all team operations and making sure all other officers are fulfilling their responsibilities. The President leads board meetings and ensures the smooth functioning of team events. He or she briefs board members on the upcoming events and allocates tasks accordingly. The president acts as a consultant for all board members, is responsible for training new board members, and maintaining strong relations with our coaches, DTS, the CCRB, and leaders in the greater Midwest Ballroom Community (other collegiate teams, organizers at OSB, Arnold). The President is ultimately responsible for a smooth transition to the successive board. The President also serves as the “Team Liaison” on the Ballroom Club board.
Eligibility: At least one year on executive board, and member of the A/B team at time of running.
Amy Wang
Away competition chair
Role: The Away Competition Chair is responsible for promoting upcoming competitions and making attending competitions as easy as possible. This includes organizing accommodations and carpools prior to the competition. Away comp chair is responsible for accurately forecasting (possibly through polls) attendance at competitions weeks or even a month in advance in order to identify housing options. The chair is responsible for ensuring enough transportation – including members’ cars, reserving UM vans well in advance before they are all taken up, renting cars if need be. The away comp chair works with other teams’ home comp coordinators to ensure maximum rooms are made available for our members attending and, at last resort, reserves hotels. The chair works with the Treasurer to assure fairness in travel costs. Finally, for OSB/Arnold, the Away Comp chair works closely with Susan McFerran to ensure adequate rooms at the Drury Inn and Crown Plaza are obtained through the competition organizers.
Eligibility: Current member of A/B/C team
Jason Lin
Treasurer
Jason Lin is a senior majoring in chemical engineering and minoring in computer science. He lives in Boulder, Colorado and has been on the team for three years. Outside of ballroom, he enjoys playing chess, swimming/running/lifting, traveling, and drinking hot chocolate. His favorite dances are quickstep, international rumba, and swing.
Role: The Treasurer is responsible for balancing the team’s accounts and manages payments for team incurred costs. He or she also collects dues from team members as well as registration money for the Michigan Ballroom Competition. Over the course of the semester, the Treasurer tracks balances for every member and ensures members have paid their accumulated balances.
Eligibility: Current member of A/B/C team
Owen Hoffend
Technology Chair
Owen Hoffend is a PhD student studying in Computer Science and Engineering. He grew up in Minnesota, but he now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area when not at UMich. Owen began dancing during his undergrad, and has been on UMBDT since the wacky Fall 2020 COVID semester. Aside from dance, Owen enjoys cooking, playing piano, programming, video games, riding roller coasters, and various other hijinks. He’ll also gladly debate anything related to AI with you.
Role: The Technology Chair is responsible for all technology-related issues of the team. He or she updates and maintains the webpage and the e-mail lists, including newcomer registration, Michigan competition registration, apparel, PayPal payment buttons, and donations. For OSB, MichComp, and Arnold, the Tech Chair is responsible for the video taping of dancing and making the videos available for team members to view.
Eligibility: Currently in at least second semester on the team. Website expertise strongly encouraged. Coding expertise is helpful.
Luna Eve
Recruitment chair
(she/her/hers) Luna eve is a sophomore studying at the Stamps School of art and design at U of M. Growing up in NYC, she specializes in fine arts but is currently interested in film and other modes of storytelling. She is also a Member of Shift Core team and is friends with too many Stem/CS majors. Luna loves solo trips to the Movies, international rhumba, cooking for friends, and her dog rainbow. She also enjoys drawing from observation, and if you take her out for coffee, she’ll be glad to give you a lesson.
Role: The Recruitment Chair helps newcomers have a smooth transition as they join the team. He or she has an intimate relationship with newcomer couples and addresses any of their concerns, both individually and as a group. The Recruitment chair is responsible for the advertising of the team during the Fall and Winter semester recruitment seasons, including but not limited to distribution of flyers, Festifall, and Winterfest. The Recruitment Chair is present at all beginner lessons on Saturday and helps newcomers bring together partnerships and prepare for competitions. He or she handles general e-mail inquiries addressed to the team (e.g. newcomer questions).
Eligibility: Current member of A/B/C team
Nathan Peterson
Curriculum Chair
Role: The Curriculum Chair is in charge of lesson scheduling (A,B,C and Pre-C) as well as setting up the DTS teaching schedule. The curriculum chair will also be in charge of the fall and winter team workshop should there be interest in holding them. The curriculum chair is also in charge of finding student teachers and practices supervisors when and if appropriate.
Eligibility: Current member of A/B/C team.
Ray Jin
public relations Chair
Ray Jin (He/Him) is a senior majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Physics and Math. He’s from Rockford, Michigan and has been on the team for one year. He also play violin for the campus orchestra, and is friends with too many Stamps/Art majors. His favorite dance is tied between Samba and Jive, the most dumplings he’s eaten in one sitting is 84, and he have two lovely cats named Niall and Cookie. In his free time, he enjoys cooking 84 dumplings in one go, teasing the recruitment chair, and practicing dancing, because any free time you have should be put to get better at dancing #danceislife
Role: The Public Relations Chair serves as the liaison between the team and other organizations. He or she handles requests for the team to do showcase performances or teach lessons. He or she works with in conjunction with the President and Recruitment Chair on welcome week events and distributing flyers at the beginning of each semester. Prior to the U of M competition, he or she aids the competition committee with canvassing. This person is also in charge of scheduling team parties and organizing apparel orders. The PR chair is also responsible for planning team social events. The PR chair should maintain a steady stream of social events through the semester, offering a wide variety of opportunities for team members to socialize.
Eligibility: Current member of A/B/C/Pre-C team.
Andrea Vargas
practice space coordinator
Andrea Vargas is a sophomore majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in German. She is from Michigan, and although she’s only done ballroom for one year, Andrea grew up dancing competitively. Her hobbies include reading trashy YA novels, listening to music, and teasing the Recruitment Chair (when she isn’t getting mistaken for Luna). Andrea’s favorite dances are Rumba, Bachata, and Salsa.
Role: The Practice Space Coordinator is responsible for all of the team’s practice space, including but not limited to: DTS, the CCRB, and the Michigan Union/League. The most important job for this position is to maintain a healthy relationship between the team and the Crabtree family (owners of DTS) and the people in charge of any other practice spaces. He or she is normally required to oversee cleaning and close DTS two nights per week, with another board member closing the other two nights. He or she is also responsible for reserving space at the CCRB, Union or League, and anywhere else desired. The Practice Space Coordinator also ensures that the key elements of our relationship with DTS are satisfied, such as scheduling a “DTS day” to fix up the practice studio and help provide team member volunteers for the annual recital.
Eligibility: Currently in at least second semester on the team.