mkelley

Kids and parents should vote with their feet. I know not everyone wants to drive five hours to practice, and I may be missing a few, but if memory serves within a two or three state region there is... Blue Stars, Bluecoats, Cavies, Colts, Colts Cadets, Madison, Phantom, Legends, River City, Shadow are all within a two or three state drive... I assume soundsport / WGI opportunities abound as well. Lots of really great options for those kids, no matter what skill level there is somewhere pretty darn good to march within a few hours ride. Just my .02.

Hacked again? Yikes. It is disappointing to me that they are still struggling with these types of cyber security issues. This winter my kid attended the camps in NJ, when the folks found out that I worked in the cyber security / compliance field they introduced me to GH. He disclosed to me at least two recent technology specific security and compliance "events" that they were still dealing with. I was told that their legal team / insurance company has been asking for a formal security and compliance audit (this is NOT a financial audit) for some time. I live way too far away to do a long term on-site pro bono security and compliance assessment, but as a courtesy I called out several common sense security controls which must not have been implemented (ie at minimum deploy multi-factor authentication for critical administrative accounts, encryption of data at rest, Internet facing vulnerability assessment scans, etc). The reason I call this out at all is because the data they collect on prospective marching members definitely has some elements of both PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and PHI (Protected Health Information), both of which are regulated at both the state and federal levels. I think most non-profit organizations struggle with this type of thing, hopefully this is sorted out as well, would hate that any MMs end up the victim of identity theft. To a large degree this is a problem that all corps DCI/DCA would have to address, I have often wondered if DCI provided cyber or business best practices to every corps but after the disheartening month we have had my guess is they do not... or it is not followed very closely by some organizations. I have read DCP for years but seldom post (I hate politics), I hope the above comments are not a distraction from the theme of this thread, prayers to those girls who have had to suffer in silence for so long.

OK. I will bite. Colts. Go Red Team! :)

Jeff, sorry you were hurt by my comments, but to put it simply my kid said he doesn't want to step backwards to do part-time weekend drum corps! This isn't his first time on a gym floor, he already cut his teeth sweating it out in DCI, like the majority of kids there at the last two camps I attended they are hard working, ambitious and universally all want to jump up to that next level of competition as a member of the Cadets. If we lived close to Allentown and he needed to build his chops then sure, why not, but neither is the case. It is important to note that I was witness to many other students providing a far more articulate and thoughtful view on this exact topic as we left camp, so as adults whether we validate their views or not, kids were and surely still are voting on DCI vs DCA with their own feet! Again, my initial comments were in relation to a crowd of kids and those that I shuttled to and from the Airport expressing how much they enjoyed the Cadets camp experience (even those offered only C2 positions) and then my own observations that staff consistently provided a very supportive and positive learning environment. It was not intended to somehow single you out or provide political commentary on part-time vs full-time, DCA vs DCI or elitist vs snowflake. I thought that was obvious, but if not I will be much more careful next time I post in the Cadets forum where EVERYTHING seems to go sideways! :)

We flew home last night from camp, shuttled a few folks to/from the airport as well. The MMs are really excited for the show this year, and they should be, the concept is great and the almost two minutes or so they had down by "show and tell" was impressive progress for an audition camp in early December. I am a horn line guy so there was much to love sitting and watching their rehearsals, brass staff was great with the kids and the horn book that Drew is putting together shows great promise. There is nothing more drum corps than a big horn entrance that incorporates a smoking hot mellophone run! Unfortunately with two separate audition sites this year there was great competition for very few open horn spots, so my kid was asked to march C2. As my son doesn't want to step backwards to DCA, this is our last Cadets camp for the year, so I will miss not being able to follow this more closely.

I laughed out loud here at work when you asked if folks remember Hop's blog, it isn't updated very often so I may be the only one who still reads it! Just three days ago he posted: "$500 K more a year and I get to breath for the first time in 30 years"... https://yeaguy.wordpress.com/ Hey, you gotta give the guy credit, at least it sounds like he has a plan! This being said, I don't know that I would have published goal #4 in the "What's in it for me" section, but that is just me.

I think there is a link on the corps website with tickets available online: https://bostoncrusaders.org/clinic/

Never heard of them! :) PS. Haven't heard from Fish in 30 years!