2024 NASSPDA Board Election Results 

In addition to nominations for re-election of two of our longstanding Board Members Eddie Alba and Lee Fox, three candidates were newly nominated: Chelsea Blandford, Denise Machin and James Repetti. All three of these new Boared Members are known and rooted within our community.

Ballots were sent out on April 29, 2024, and voting ended on May 12, 2024, at 11:59 PM PDT. Participation is typically around 33% of all eligible members of NASSPDA and rose to 64% last year. However, just prior to this year’s election quite a few memberships lapsed and weren’t renewed, most likely due to the absence of a NASSPDA sanctioned event around this time (April Follies in particular) that usually drives membership numbers. Still, overall participation settled at 44% this year, higher than the average.

All 5 candidates, Eddie Alba (California, USA), Chelsea Blandford (Arizona, USA) , Lee Fox (Florida, USA), Denise Machin (California, USA) and James Repetti (New York, USA) received 85% or more votes from those NASSPDA members that voted. Therefore, with the remaining three Board members, whose terms haven’t expired yet, NASSPDA ended up once again with an even number of directors, a total of eight. The last time this occurred was in 2014 without ever encountering an impasse on any votes during that time of NASSPDA’s Board of Directors.

Following a week after the election, as announced, the Board met and elected its officers in accordance to NASSPDA’s By-Laws as well as appointed committee members and chairs. Officers are confirmed as follows:

Benjamin Soencksen, President

James Repetti, Vice-President

Lee Fox, Treasurer

Erik Jaeger, Secretary

It should be noted that the election of officers had usually followed the rule as stated in the Board’s Governance Policies on page 1 under point 2.c. “The President and Vice President shall be of opposite gender whenever possible.” However, in the years 2014 and 2015 NASSPDA was led by Barbara Zoloth (USA) as President with Pat Hogan (Canada) in the position of Vice-President. This year therefore marks the second time that the Board decided not to follow that guideline based on several sets of reasoning, including experience and general lack of diversity on the Board.

Many heartfelt thanks to all those members of NASSPDA that cast their votes and congratulations to those elected and reelected!

AND again, please, if you aren’t yet a member or need to renew your membership, we encourage you to join or renew using the link above so that you have a voice within our vibrant community!

Results are in from the 2023 Gay Games and IFSSDA World Championships

This year, the IFSSDA World Championships were held at the Gay Games XI in Guadalajara, Mexico. The dancesport competition brought couples from around the North America, Australia, Europe and Asia to compete for the title of World Champion.  The organizers found a great venue to showcase the dancing and ensured that the dancers had everything they needed, including a full house of spectators cheering them on! See the competition results HERE

NASSPDA Revises Competition Rules to Include Country-Western Dancing Title Awards

NASSPDA always recognized IAGLCWDC as the governing body for competitions and related rules in Country Western dancing and therefore hadn’t incorporated explicitly that style in its Competition Rules, next to International Style, American Style, Argentine Tango and the Showdance categories. When IFSSDA formalized its Competition Rules, after consulting IAGLCWDC, which is also a founding member of IFSSDA, Country Western dancing was naturally included, which for the first time defined the required dances for a graded/classified event. This year, IAGLCWDC agreed that NASSPDA should follow suit and the Board voted unanimously to revise its Competition Rules accordingly, including Country Western in the list of titles to be garnered at the North American Championships. You can find the revised NASSPDA’s Competition Rules here: NASSPDA Competition Rules.

NASSPDA Ambassador Program

NASSPDA is looking for a member (single person or a dance couple) to help provide exposure and promote NASSPDA.  This NASSPDA member will be given the honorary title of “NASSPDA Ambassador” and an honorary stipend to pursue various outreach efforts. For more information, please visit: NASSPDA Ambassador Program