Madison Scouts 2018

[ndkbass]

18 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:

You marched with my son in ‘07.  He was in Cap Sound during that infighting in ‘02.  Every single day, emails or snail mail from one side or the other.  It was a disturbing time.  

I hope the alumni from all eras can come together in support of the current corps.  

Cool! I hope he enjoyed it! Even though it was a rough season, it was still a fun summer and a great group of guys!  Also, really cool they marched Cap Sound too!  I hope they are doing well with whatever endeavors they have engaged in post-Scouts.

[ndkbass]

18 hours ago, queenanne_1536 said:

Way before you, HA. I am sorry if I misread a previous post. I thought people were saying there's a lot of dissent amongst the alumni now. I texted one of my friends and he said, no.

That's a bummer about the buses in 2009 and I can certainly understand your frustration. Isn't that adminstration long gone? I don't know what the membership was like in 07-09 Scouts vs '10 Blue Devils, but I imagine it's hard to rangle up 150 members. I mean on tour groups while travelling someone always isn't back at the bus when they are supposed to be. I guess it all comes down to professionalism. Perhaps they had issues in 07 and 08 getting people to get back on the buses at stops? Not defending any position here, just trying to think on both sides. 

 

Ohh.  Ok.  I would bet the dissent comes from particular eras.  But I could be wrong, and probably am.

 

The current administration is the exact same as the 2007-2009 administration.  The board make-up is almost identical, and the top two admins are the same.  2007-2009 was the beginning of their era.

 

I do not believe there were any issues getting back on the bus in 2007 or 2008.  I believe it was solely a power play from the administration trying to tell us what to do and how to behave (like they did with a lot of other things those years).  If there were issues getting people back to the busses that was never communicated to the general membership like you think it would have been (i.e., at a full corps meeting you would expect leadership or staff to tell members not to dilly-dally at rest stops or fuel stops).

[ndkbass]

18 hours ago, KVG_DC said:

Was the “thinking chair” also the toilet block? 

You just made my morning!  I would say it could be, depending on the person.

[ndkbass]

12 hours ago, MikeD said:

I went to DCI East in 2002 in Philly. Sat next to a few Crossmen alums from the early 80's. When the Scouts took the field, we looked at each other and were like "What happened to the Scouts????" We were shocked at how bad they were, On the other hand, just three years later they did my all time favorite Scout show in 2005, the Carmen show.

My personal favorite is 1997.  But 2005 definitely is one of the better shows of all time for the Scouts.  1999 and 95/96 fill out the top five for me in no guaranteed order.

[ndkbass]

12 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:

It’s been a rollercoaster.   Lots of personnel and administrative changes.  2007 was really tough.  A total rewrite of the visual show.  If they’d started with that show,  I believe they would have made finals.  But you know..woulda, coulda, shoulda...

We were literally learning drill from Allen Joanis (sp?) in all-days and he said "Battery, why do you not have your drums on?" and we were like "because we are learning drill for the first time?" and he was like "No.  Get your drums, we need to make sure this lines up with the beats/counts." As in this dude did not even know if he had the right amount of counts for his drill. WOW.

 

And yah, the second visual package was soooooooo much better.  We definitely had a great musical run and decent visual run on semis.  I would agree, hesitantly, that we would have had a much different and probably better season score wise if we had had the second visual program first.

[ndkbass]

12 hours ago, FlamMan said:

Wow. It saddens me to hear this. When I marched Scouts in the early 1980's, we were given more leeway than any other drum corp gave to their members. Scott told us that he would treat us like responsible adults, just don't be an idiot and do anything stupid.

Yah.  That is basically my whole point.  I do not get how older brothers from that era who now run the corps could not treat their younger brothers with the same level of respect.  And when, in 2009 specifically, we called that out because most of us were now 3 year vets or leadership and the staff basically told us to take a hike a lot of us knew what that meant and where we were gonna age-out--and it was not in Scouts.  That basically broke my heart because it was my dream to age-out there and I had no intentions of leaving even if drum staff changed until the admin basically laid down the law.  It was no surprise to me that everyone who bailed ended up making basically a top 6 or top 3 corps.

 

P.S. I am an eagle scout, and Madison, to me, felt like it was an extension of my time in scouting.  This made it extremely hard to not "run the troop" as "boys" since that is how scouting operates.  I totally understand that a troop is not a corps, but that was definitely something that shaped how I viewed leadership roles when I marched there.  I also never joined a greek organization or had any interest in doing so when I was in undergraduate because I had found that camaraderie in Scouts and corps in general.

 

P.P.S. What you said about Stewart is what Devs say: "You are adults and professionals, but remember that there is always a camera on somewhere, so represent the organization with class."  That's basically it.  Nothing else.  It was way different than what Petersen told us.

Edited June 14, 2018 by ndkbass
Added additional text.

[Tim K]

7 minutes ago, ndkbass said:

My personal favorite is 1997.  But 2005 definitely is one of the better shows of all time for the Scouts.  1999 and 95/96 fill out the top five for me in no guaranteed order.

My favorite Madison show is 1999, hands down. Personally, I can’t get enough of 2013. I’ll never forget the reaction of a first time attendee who was also a Vet at BAC’s show in Lawrence. He was in his thirties and he was in tears. Lots of people in the audience that night also found it poignant. Remember, this would have been a few months after the Boston Marathon bombing. I know lots of folks point to 2005 and “Carmen” and while I enjoyed the show, as an opera buff I am often disappointed that so much of the great music from the opera never makes its way to the field. However, what I think many hope for is a 2018 version of 1975 ot 1988 and while I would love risking permanent ear damage for that great Madison sound, I don’t think it’s going to happen, which is Madison’s greatest challenge: be the Madison of the past while being competitive today. 

[Terri Schehr]

3 hours ago, ndkbass said:

We were literally learning drill from Allen Joanis (sp?) in all-days and he said "Battery, why do you not have your drums on?" and we were like "because we are learning drill for the first time?" and he was like "No.  Get your drums, we need to make sure this lines up with the beats/counts." As in this dude did not even know if he had the right amount of counts for his drill. WOW.

 

And yah, the second visual package was soooooooo much better.  We definitely had a great musical run and decent visual run on semis.  I would agree, hesitantly, that we would have had a much different and probably better season score wise if we had had the second visual program first.

I knew there was a problem when you guys never passed the front hashes.  

[Terri Schehr]

4 hours ago, ndkbass said:

Cool! I hope he enjoyed it! Even though it was a rough season, it was still a fun summer and a great group of guys!  Also, really cool they marched Cap Sound too!  I hope they are doing well with whatever endeavors they have engaged in post-Scouts.

He’s doing well.  Had some very serious health issues in 2015 but he’s good to go now.  Career is going great. 

[ShutUpAndPlayYerGuitar]

23 hours ago, ndkbass said:

For example, in 2007 when the corps stopped at rest stops we could get off the busses and use restrooms, walk around and stretch, or purchase items.  In 2008 this policy became more restrictive until in 2009 we were not allowed off busses at fuel stops, only scheduled rest stops and we were not allowed to purchase goods.  That is ridiculous.  I gave money to bus drivers and staff members to buy me and other members foodstuffs to supplement our lack of corps provided food all the time to circumvent that rule.   The administration stated this was a timing issue, i.e., people took to long, but there is no way I buy that excuse as true.  In every other organization from tiny division III corps to Blue Devils I was never treated like a child and told I could not exit a bus at a stop to either: stretch/stand/walk, use the bathroom, or purchase an item for myself.

I always thought not purchasing items during fuel/rest stops was a standard thing, especially if it's a full-size group.

Not allowing bathroom breaks is just silly, though.

4 hours ago, ndkbass said:

We were literally learning drill from Allen Joanis (sp?) in all-days and he said "Battery, why do you not have your drums on?" and we were like "because we are learning drill for the first time?" and he was like "No.  Get your drums, we need to make sure this lines up with the beats/counts." As in this dude did not even know if he had the right amount of counts for his drill. WOW.

That's horrifying, but not that surprising. I know several people who marched with you, and saw some early shows when you guys were in MN (including a rehearsal in Mankato that seemed pretty brutal) ... I'm amazed by how different/better the product was by the end of the season.

What's funny is he also wrote drill for Southwind, who also ended up rewriting a bunch of his stuff as well.

Edited June 14, 2018 by ShutUpAndPlayYerGuitar