Distelrath leads Program Board as first executive director
Angela Distelrath has always been interested in leadership. The reason she came to Central Michigan University was because of its leadership institute.
Now the Plymouth junior has been tasked with leading Program Board.
Distelrath joined Program Board as a freshman and served as secretary her sophomore year. Distelrath will spend this year as the first executive director in the organization's history after Program Board decided to eliminate its traditional president and vice president roles. She began her duties last spring.
Through only one month into the fall 2016 semester, Distelrath said she's pleased with the turnout of the events Program Board has put on, such as the Sept. 8 Back to School Comedy Jam.
Central Michigan Life spoke with Distelrath to assess her new role, the beginning of the semester and expectations for the upcoming year.
What was it like being named the executive director?
Having Kaylee (Bloom) being the past president and having her do such a phenomenal job really made me more comfortable to use her as a resource. After she left she told me 'if you have any questions or you need anything, just give me a call and let me know.' Having that security there and the support from all the other e-board (members), I felt like I was ready to start the year.
Have you faced any challenges so far?
Typically the vice president would run the member meetings and the president would run the e-board meetings. That’s become a new challenge with me — having to do both. We’ve kind of restructured it to where everybody kind of contributes what they want to see or what they want to say in the meetings. Just transitioning into that process has been a little bit of a challenge, but we’re a few weeks in now and we’re kind of getting the hang of things as a collective e-board.
Has Program Board finalized any plans for the rest of the semester?
We’ve had to change some things. We were originally going to do a Friday movie for the football game, but we had to change that because we are showing (“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” on Tuesday, Oct. 4 in the Bovee University Center Auditorium). We are bringing in Kit Yan in mid-October. Any other events we’re finalizing is just in the a fact of there is a lot of communication that happens with other organizations in making sure we contact the people and contracts. We’re all still in the finalizing stages (for events that are not on the fall lineup).
Do you plan on having an event each day next week for Homecoming?
We plan on participating in the events for homecoming because the Homecoming Committee itself plans all the events out for us, but we hope to have a strong presence there and the events. It’s kind of taking a step back to participate in Homecoming, but also having that event on Tuesday and more coming up after. Homecoming is its own thing that we definitely participate in, but also do events that relate to Homecoming.
You said you’re trying to plan a concert in the spring. Are your events going to be free for students? Is that something you are trying to push?
That’s our goal — is to make it free or as affordable as possible for students. With bigger events, or any popular group or concert, the average price you pay is not ideal for college students.
How do you feel like Program Board has changed from this year to last year? Do you see any differences?
I definitely think it’s too early to tell. (Bloom) definitely did a phenomenal job. I definitely love that she was able to be that resource that everybody can go to for questions. That’s the goal that I can strive to be.
What are your goals this year for Program Board?
I really would love to be able to interact with all the different groups as part of the organization. I kind of want to make the e-board-to-member relations kind of apparent as well, so that I can make sure that everybody is feeling appreciated and is get what they want out of this organization. (I also want to) expand social media platforms and getting more followers and make more of an impact out there since that’s like the primary way to reach people.
