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Madison Scouts 2017


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1 minute ago, henry7184 said:

Well. I've read some things but who knows if they are true. But, when a man turns everything to gold he touches you keep him.

I know details...it was not feasible or possible to keep him. 

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40 minutes ago, Madcityscout said:

So at this point where do they go as an organization?

Like I said before, I'm not sure anyone has the answers....we just know that there's a problem. And it starts at the top. Always has.

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Finally found a recording of the performance other than the first show video that has been floating around for a month now. I don't think the sky is falling, and I really think Scouts are in the thick of things for returning to finals. What bugged me about the first viewing was that the design was a monolith of fast and loud --- nothing really neat to create some pauses and interesting moments. They've incorporated a few of those in, most notably the guard-on-oil-cans drum break just before the ballad. That's some tasty stuff. The show is still nonstop fast and loud...but that's kind of working now, especially with a few moments highlighted. The circling/knocking the poles down in the closer before the big Husa chords is REALLY intense and cool, although I don't quite feel that balls-to-the-wall insanity-intensity again after that, and I think that's how this show needs to close. Also worth mentioning that they sound and look fantastic. There are some BIG brass moments that are starting to get crunchy and wild and I really like that. From that first show video until now, the guard (and corps proper) seems to be selling it all much more, although more needs to come. As I've mentioned in this thread previously and other threads, I don't have any skin in the game, I just like it when our activity is thriving and all corps are improving, and I think in a few weeks when all is said and done, this show will be a marked step up from Judas' design, although where they go from here, I have no idea. It's not over yet, and the Scouts are certainly driving this wild vehicle in the right direction.

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On 7/18/2017 at 0:10 PM, BigBadMadMan said:

hinting at the same conclusion for years that Ndkbass just came out and said...I think the admin is the problem. I have zero faith in Dann and Chris to put a competitive product on the field anymore.

That's a little hyperbolic don't you think? Plus, as many pointed out, Chris in Dann do not get involved in what the

product or design is. What the Scouts should do, is figure out how Boston built their program very patiently over the years....not

just their design, but their fundraising....then at the right time, they made a big move and put up some heavy cash to get a higher

level design staff...and look where they (Boston) are now! Scouts have been digging out of the "Sal" problem for 10 years and now

have the debt at a servicable level....but it may take several more years before they can make a bigger move. (Sad that a "youth" activity

requires such a monumental amount of cash to be viable...but that's another conversation). As far as the "Sal" problem, I submit that he

wasn't the problem.....it was the fact that the BOD put him in a position to handle the administrative and financial side of the Corps, which

he was not qualified to do. He's one of the most brilliant designers/teachers in the activity, but he's not trained or qualified to be a 

Director. So surprise surprise, he made some bad decisions with money....and the BOD get ###### and fires him! He should have been

re-assigned as Program Coordinator and they should have hired someone else as Director. But like so many Scout Alums now, they

wanted blood, so they burned him. 

 

Anyway, right now, the Scouts are chipping away and doing whatever they can do with what they have. I say they have a solid shot at returning

to Finals, but it won't be easy....they have to clean like mofos.....and add the right amount of GE moments that won't sacrifice the cleaning.

If you look at the recaps, their content analysis scores are competative with the groups around them, but they are further back in execution.

This is potentially good news, because it means once they clean, they could pass a couple corps that are now above them.

 

GO MAD MEN!!!

Edited by Nine White Russians
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1 hour ago, Jake W. said:

It's not over yet, and the Scouts are certainly driving this wild vehicle in the right direction.

I agree. The leadership is also pursuing other strategies, such as the formal name change that opens up more opportunities for music and arts education, that are good steps forward (no pun) in creating a modern DCI organization. Given what I see in management and strategies of the top tier organizations, this is encouraging. They have a development director now. (But I don't know: Have they had a full time person in that position for a while?) Some pretty good social media this summer.

Those moves don't mean everything is rosy and there is no need to fret. Fundamental change takes time and is painful. Particularly in an organization with so much passion from stakeholders reaching back decades. But the moves are some evidence things are not as dire for the future as it seems given the Scouts' current scores stuck in the mid 70s.

And I anyway still like the unis and the show. I'm glad they went radical. (It'll be juicy cool when they bring back a traditional look, too.) Seeing them tomorrow night in SA and rooting them on regardless.

Can't say it enough, though: for my tastes, next year back off the uppity abstract stuff; give us some great music we might hum once in a while. (That goes for almost of the other corps, too.)

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1 minute ago, mjoakes said:

Can't say it enough, though: for my tastes, next year back off the uppity abstract stuff; give us some great music we might hum once in a while. (That goes for almost of the other corps, too.)

Obnoxiously quoting myself, this: Oh, and maybe a screamer in 2018. Like that Troopers guy this year.

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7 hours ago, BigBadMadMan said:

Like I said before, I'm not sure anyone has the answers....we just know that there's a problem. And it starts at the top. Always has.

Ask any professional sports team and the smart ones will all give you the same answer: championships always start in the front office.  I am not saying I want to see Scouts dominating starting tomorrow, I am just saying the culture of success starts in the upper echelons of any organization.  Success is also not simply measured by placement.

 

I also do not get how people think the director or executive director of any corps let alone Scouts have absolutely no say in show design or concept decisions.  I understand they may not be literally brainstorming the ideas like other staff who are hired to create and teach do, but when I was in the organization during the start of this administration they were certainly involved in decision making processes that directly related to show design and concept (i.e., uniforms to name just one).  Komnick is a branding guy after all.  This also goes for all the corps and WGI ensembles I have been a part of.  Part of this may be that some ensembles were smaller than others, but when I was at Blue Devils Dave Gibbs definitely watered a bass break that was originally a snare break that was having trouble being cleaned.  He heard the change during an ensemble rehearsal and made note that he thought the snares would cut better so the snare break was altered and put back in.  Also, has anyone ever heard of a man named George Hopkins?  Or Scott Stewart for that matter?

What I am not saying is that all design issues are because of the administration.  What I am simply pointing out is that from my time as a marching member in the organization underneath this administration to my time as an alumnus of this organization I have never felt that the skippers steering the ship really had a compass and a map to get where they wanted to go.  To me, it does not really have to do with who they hired and fired so much as the general framework that undergirds their decision making that some have already alluded to in more recent posts.

 

There is always good with the bad.  While some of the current administrations attempts to maintain fiscal solvency in the post-Salas years remains admirable, I think the deficit spending Sal engaged in paid dividends not only in placement but member experience and recruitment efforts that would have been able to (potentially) right itself if he had maintained the helm and the corps had been able to court some of the financial suitors it did in 2008-2009.  I was lucky enough to be around throughout Sal's tenure intimately, and, in fact, my very first drum corps tour was as a cook for about six weeks in 2003.  Seeing this organization up close like that reinforced my will to join it.  Blaming Sal for current corps issues outside of finances, which do not seem to have held back this administration with the rate it has changed uniforms, etc., seems a little ridiculous to me.  Part of me feels like this administration has constantly attempted to band-aid the corps back together in an attempt to return to the "fabled pre-Sal" era where everything was supposedly groovy and a-ok.  This would be a feeble attempt in my mind since time moves in one direction only, and that happens to be forward.  The evolution of the organization is a good thing, and maintaining access to its cultural roots is also important.  Finding this balance will be hard no matter what.  Either way, I repeat my suggestion from an earlier post that I would make an offer to Brian Howard from the Blue Devils organization.

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11 hours ago, Old VA said:

Yeah, put together a top 13 show, dropped the identity of the corps and put a Volkswagen in the Indy 500!

The whole idea that the corps is in the right hands is a dream right now. Sorry , that's how I feel.

 

Exactly. The results are what they are. The numbers are the numbers.

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