Board Members

President – Lizzie Nabney

Bio: Lizzie is from Birmingham, UK and hopes to graduate someday with a PhD in Ancient Greek.  In her free time she enjoys reading long novels and walking in the Arb.

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: Current member of A/B team.

Home Competition Coordinator – Anna Haynes

Bio: Born and raised in Stevensville, Michigan, Anna is now majoring in Public Policy with minors in Russian and International Studies. Outside of ballroom, she enjoys writing, traveling, and drinking lots of coffee.

 

Role: The Competition Coordinator organizes and facilitates the running of the annual Michigan Ballroom Competition. This includes managing and overseeing the Competition Committee, which will be in charge of scheduling judges, advertising, shoutouts, sponsors, etc. It is the responsibility of the Competition Coordinator to ensure that every aspect of the competition is taken care of, down to the tiniest detail.

Eligibility: At least 1 year as an executive board or current member of A/B team.

 

Away Competition Chair – Fabiola Galguera

Bio: Fabiola was born and raised in Miami, Florida. After receiving a B.A in Political Science from U-M, she now attends the law school. If she’s not dancing, Fabi is most likely sitting at one of Ann Arbor’s many coffee shops, procrastinating on her work with her friends, or sitting on the Diag (if the sun decides to actually show itself).

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.

Treasurer – Clara McFarlin

Bio: “Clara is from Alaska (or California, or North Carolina, depending on how long you want the story to be). She majors in Political Science with a focus on International Conflict. For fun, you can usually find her walking her dog, drinking her fourth cup of coffee for the day, or attempting to train for her first marathon.”

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.

The Treasurer is most responsible for maintaining strong relationships with SOFC and ensuring subsidies for competitions. The Treasurer works with the Away Competition Chair to ensure travel costs are split evenly among attending members, and also effectively allocates subsidies to alleviate the costs of competitions.

Eligibility: Current member of A/B/C team.

 

Technology Chair – Jack Boezwinkle

Bio: Jack is from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he’s majoring in Communications and Political Science. In his free time he enjoys playing piano, recording songs, and working on photography and video projects. He also probably owes several people money.

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.

Recruitment Chair – Jeb Hamel

Bio: Jeb is a junior from Maryland studying Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. When not in the library or dancing, he plays viola and maintains his four aquariums, with a combined 65 gallons and 50 fish.

 

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).

The recruitment chair works closely with the PR chair to ensure newcomers feel welcome to the team and are aware of both team and club lesson times.

Eligibility: Current member of A/B/C/Pre-C team.

Curriculum Chair – David Williams

Bio: David is from Lake Orion, Michigan and went straight from getting his undergrad degree in Computer Science here at UM to working on a Master’s of Information at the School of Information here. His interests include -but are not limited to- video games, anime, coffee, cats, and enjoying the all-too-brief Michigan Summer sun while it’s still warm outside.

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.

 

Public Relations Chair – Tara Holz

Bio: Tara is from Bad Axe, MI, and she is currently majoring in Business and Sociology. Outside of ballroom, she enjoys reading (especially when it’s warm enough to go outside), writing, and watching Disney movies.

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 commit

tee 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.

Practice Space Coordinator – Corey Flynn

Bio: Corey is from West Bloomfield, Michigan studying movement science and minoring in biochemistry. Corey works in a cellular & developmental biology lab and is a study group facilitator for Orgo II and General chemistry. Outside of ballroom she enjoys doing yoga, drinking coffee, and spending time with her two dogs and two cats when she is home.

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.