Hello, hello and welcome back team!!
Welcome to a brand new year filled with endless opportunities and possibilities! Hope you have all had absolutely fabulous summers and are excited to be back with your ballroom fam, dancing your hearts out (I know I am!) I am so thrilled to be reunited with you all, and honored to be serving as your President for 2016-2017. Just in case you forgot about who you elected, my name is Lindsey Hirt, and I am the bubbly blonde who has not stopped raving about how absolutely AMAZING ballroom is since my first welcome week lesson three years ago. I am passionate about this sport, this family, and I am excited to see how we will thrive and grow together this upcoming year.
Your lovely executive board, pictured above, has been hard at work setting many things up for the good of our team and I am going to fill you in on what is going on this week. But before we do that, some important overarching announcements!
- Mission Statement: During the executive board retreat, our board took the values/mission statement info we had collected before and during the End of Semester party last semester to solidify our team mission statement. This is what we came up with and will use to effectively communicate what we stand for as a team and what we are working toward. So if someone asks you, “What is the UMBDT?” you can respond…
We are a competitive, collegiate ballroom dance team that seeks to share our love of dance, by fostering a fun and supportive environment, while striving for continuous improvement.
- Tryouts: It’s that time of year again, get pumped!! Tryouts for the fall semester will take place in the CCRB Mirror Room, room 3275 on Saturday September 17th from 1:30-3pm. If you and your partner are interested in signing up for this year, please read this and fill out the Google Form at the bottom by 5pm on Sunday, September 11th. We will have the space at 1pm for people to warm up, so please be dressed and ready to go before 1:15pm so that we can start promptly at 1:30pm. Even if you have never tried out before, I highly encourage it as it is a great learning experience and you can only gain from participating – who does not want to learn some flashy fun new moves or how to fix that infuriating step in the foxtrot?
- Recruitment: Recruitment events are in full force and are listed below for your convenience. Please sign up for an hour or two at our events here. You can view the Facebook event for our welcome week events here and our event for flyering, flash mobs, etc. here. Recruiting the next great members of the UMBDT is a team wide effort, so please do your best to contribute whenever you can!
- Calendar: The calendar on the website is fully updated and should be your go-to source for practice space times, lessons, and social events. Check it out!
Monday 9/5
A full day of recruitment! Come help us flyer at these events:
11am-2pm: Northfest, North Campus
2pm-5pm: Pride Outside, meet outside Victors at 1:50pm
5pm-7pm: Pre-Class Bash, meet outside Victors at 4:50pm
Tuesday 9/6
First day of classes! Best of luck on the beginning of a new semester :)
Wednesday 9/7
7pm-8pm: League Ballroom space reserved during this time – come practice/help set up/socialize before our big event.
8pm-10pm: Our first major free Welcome Week event! League ballroom, bring your friends and anyone else you can find, please wear your Michigan Ballroom gear, interact with as many people as you can, dance with people who look like they’re struggling, etc. This is the first impression many people will have of our team, so help make sure it is a positive one!
10pm-11pm: League Ballroom space reserved during this time – come practice before and after our event.
Thursday 9/8
No official events, plug UMBDT to someone new or reconnect with one of our members over lunch (or coffee, or bubble tea, etc.)
Friday 9/9
3pm-7pm: Festifall, Diag look for our table
Saturday 9/10
1pm-5pm: Practice space in CCRB 3275, get ready for tryouts – we are a week out!!
4:30pm-6:30pm: Free welcome week lesson in the Rogel Ballroom
Sunday 9/11
12pm-4pm: Steve and Susan Workshop for A-C team members, getting ready for that open-level choreo
Second round of free club lessons for the semester!
| 5-6pm: | Quickstep 1 |
| 6-7pm: | American Rumba 1 |
| 7-8pm: | International Tango 1 |
| 8-10pm: | Open Dance |
Thanks for reading this lengthy post and for all that you do for the continued success of our team. See you all soon, looking forward to another great year with each and every one of you!
Love your new Madame Presidente,
Lindsey
