Incorrect USA Dance chapter assignments

[Chris Stratton]

Doesn't matter what chapter you write in big bold letters on the membership form, he ignores it and assignes you based on your mailing address to a chapter you explicitly asked not to join, because it's completely irrelvent to what chapter you participate in and wish to support.

Second time this has happened to me.

The irony is that I know officers of chapters who live in different states than their chapters are located in. Are they paying dues to wrong chapter too?

Time to return to apathy I guess... if it wasn't required, this is yet another reason not to join at all.

 

[waltzgirl]

Does any part of your dues go back to the local chapter? If so, maybe they have a rule that people must be assigned chapters based on mailing address to avoid any situation where nearby chapters might compete for members and their dues $.

 

[Laura]

USABDA, what's that? Have you tried contacting the USA Dance Membership Director?

But yeah, I hear your frustration.

 

[Borbala_Bunnett]

Chris - I am sorry to hear that your experience with membership has not been entirely positive. Let me investigate the matter and report back.

I believe that membership and assignment to chapters is strictly based on geography - believe there is a system / IT tool that assigns folks to various chapters based on zip code. I don't think (don't know, will need to validate this) that the system allows for exceptions.

Can you please provide me with a bit more information around why is this an issue for you? I'd like to understand what more is there to consider beyond being assigned to a chapter you don't want to be assigned to on paper (I'm not aware of any other things you do based on it?).

Thanks -

Borbala
Region 4 USA Dance Council Representative

PS: I will start a separate thread for folks to post USA Dance related questions so we keep all items in a central place... Please continue participating there!

 

[fascination]

welcome to DF Borbola

 

[Chris Stratton]

I believe that membership and assignment to chapters is strictly based on geography - believe there is a system / IT tool that assigns folks to various chapters based on zip code. I don't think (don't know, will need to validate this) that the system allows for exceptions.

That's just doesn't reflect the reality of dance communities in the US. People gravitate towards the nearest location with a viable dance scene. In dense areas, that's often across a state line. In sparse areas, the nearest "dance city" may also be across a line. And then there are states with multiple chapters. Then you have college students, and commuter partnership, and on and on.

But there's also the question of why, if the assignment is going to be automatic, there's a spot on the form where it asks you what chapter you wish to be assigned to.

I think it's been months since I put on dance shoes on my mailing address side of the river.

Can you please provide me with a bit more information around why is this an issue for you? I'd like to understand what more is there to consider beyond being assigned to a chapter you don't want to be assigned to on paper (I'm not aware of any other things you do based on it?).

My understanding is that there is a dues rebate to the chapter. It needs to go to the member's actual chapter.

 

[wooh]

.

Can you please provide me with a bit more information around why is this an issue for you? I'd like to understand what more is there to consider beyond being assigned to a chapter you don't want to be assigned to on paper (I'm not aware of any other things you do based on it?).

Chapter politics can be a big reason one would want to be assigned to a specific chapter. And different chapters tend to have different feels and different focuses. I'd be a bit annoyed if my card didn't list me as a member of the chapter that better matches my interests.

 

[and123]

FWIW, I switched from a local chapter to a more distant one due to some rather significant issues I had with the local one. Never had a problem with doing so.

 

[Laura]

Chris, I know that people can be put into alternate chapters. For example, for a while a competitive couple from Hawaii chose to belong to the Northern California chapter.

 

[redhead]

Can you please provide me with a bit more information around why is this an issue for you?

Now *this* is getting personal!

 

[Chris Stratton]

Chris, I know that people can be put into alternate chapters. For example, for a while a competitive couple from Hawaii chose to belong to the Northern California chapter.

Yes, that's why I tried to join the NY chapter when I was living in Massachusetts but doing most of my dancing (and all my USABDA-relevant dancing) in NY. They still put me in the MA chapter. And then again, I tried to join the NY chapter while living in NJ and wrote "NYUSABDA (NY not NJ)" in the approrpriate place on the form, and they ignored it again...

 

[callen]

Chris, I had this problem when I first moved here, too. For some reason, since I don't actually live in NYC, Albany (or somewhere like that) was considered to be my region. Considering I can run to NYC in significantly less time than it takes me to drive to Albany, I really don't get this. Anyway, I think I called USABDA to get it changed. I can't remember if it was a problem the following year, but it hasn't been since. Of course, some of that may be that I keep re-registering at MAC, so my form gets sent in by the chapter with which I am associated.

Yes, that's why I tried to join the NY chapter when I was living in Massachusetts but doing most of my dancing (and all my USABDA-relevant dancing) in NY. They still put me in the MA chapter. And then again, I tried to join the NY chapter while living in NJ and wrote "NYUSABDA (NY not NJ)" in the approrpriate place on the form, and they ignored it again...

Perhaps this is where your problems lies? The chapter you seem to want is not NYUSABDA. It's the "Greater New York" chapter. They use NYUSABDA for their website, but look at the name of the chapter as it is written on that same website.

Anyway, you can probably get it fixed really quickly with a simple phone call. Try that.

Christopher

 

[wooh]

You could also write in the chapter number when you register. That may help make it happen correctly the first time so you don't have to go through this trouble.

 

[Chris Stratton]

Perhaps this is where your problems lies? The chapter you seem to want is not NYUSABDA. It's the "Greater New York" chapter. They use NYUSABDA for their website, but look at the name of the chapter as it is written on that same website.

They use NYUSABDA for everything, sometimes they even try to pronounce it.

And like you, I also submitted my form with my MAC packet, so that can't be the solution.

 

[Meagan]

Yeah I'd say it still should have worked regardless of the completely technically correct name! (I'd be interested to know if anyone has had trouble when they wrote in the chapter number, I normally tell people to do that so it goes to the right place but if that's not working either I'm out of ideas!)

Like someone said, most of the money doesn't go to your chapter anyway (UNFORTUNATELY)...but there are rebates that your local chapter would surely like to have (more money you have, the more/better events you can run)!!!

We probably run into quite a lot of that in NY since so many people come in specifically for our chapters events but probably do end up "giving their rebates" to a chapter that they aren't really active with. If you do end up contacting them to change it Chris, I'd love to know the outcome since I'm sure other NY members have the same problem!!