Staff Merry-Go-Round 2019

[BRASSO]

1 hour ago, Slingerland said:

It'd be intellectually dishonest not to acknowledge that their rise from 12th to 5th in two seasons was accomplished at least in part by firing their old design staff and hiring established design and instructional talent from Crown and Cadets. The current staff wasn't developed in-house. Nothing wrong with bringing in big guns,  but it is what it is.

 Except that the reply above was the comparison between what Star of Indiana did and what Boston Crusaders have recently done.  As if they were simiilar, but they are far from similar in most respects. Context is everything, Slingerland. Star of Indiana started out with the 2nd richest person in Indiana in 1984. ( Bill Cook.. multimilliionaire ) who had a Son that marched Star, and who looked at what it would take to quickly move a Star of Indiana up the ranks quickly in DCI. Star was funded with principally his money, and the Corps never started in Open Class. They started in World Class, and shot up the ranks quickly and almost immediately with their well funded Corps right from the outset. Cook brought in top national staff  from other Corps almost from the beginnings of their Corps there in the mid 80's.

 Boston Crusaders however, had no principal revenue source. They had been up and down for years since the 1940's, even into their bankruptcy years.. almost folded on a number of occasions. A few years back, 2010, the Mgt changed hands, and they put in a 10 year plan to raise more money, seek out multiple and diverse revenue streams, and restructure their organization from top to bottom. It took a fews years of even moving down in placement, in order to position themselves to raise the money they would need to be more competitive long term. There was no sugar daddy here that fronted most of the the money to improve things from top to bottom, and right from the getgo.. When staff at other Corps wanted more artistic freedom, more money, and/ or just a change of scenery or fresher challenges in 2016, Boston financially now was able to take advantage of staff looking to make a change. Nothing new under the sun with this, as dozens and dozens of staffers and marchers change Corps each and EVERY season in DCI and have done so for decades in DCI. Corps at the top do not develop marcher talent " in house " either,  lets be " intellectually honest " with that as well. Most top 12 Corps with feeder Corps don't  get even a quarter of their marcher talent from their " in house " feeder Corps. Where do they get the bulk of marcher talent ? Not " in house " . its mostly from other  DCI/ DCA Corps.

 The Star of Indiana AND the Boston Crusaders should be applauded for the manner in which they were able to attract staffers and marchers to their Corps. But they are not similar much at all in how it was done. Star of Indiana had a phenomenal run of 9 years ( from 1984-1993), and were exceptionally well funded throughout. It took Boston over 75 years to be organizationally strong and creative enough and to develop diverse and multiple revenue streams for themselves in order to finally take advantage of the staff/ marcher opportunities that presented themselves to the Corps in 2016.. Just sayin'.

Edited August 18, 2018 by BRASSO

[Bluzes]

3 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

( Bill Cook.. multimilliionaire ) who had a Son that marched Star,

Here is what I heard back then. Bills son was in the Colts which may have been the Mason connection. He built Star for his son. However, the kid decided to stay in the Colts so Bill paid for the Colts buses that year, then eventually he marched Star. This may all be a myth does anyone know?

[njthundrrd]

2 minutes ago, Bluzes said:

Here is what I heard back then. Bills son was in the Colts which may have been the Mason connection.

Which was the Mason connection. This is pretty close.  = )

[mfrontz]

4 minutes ago, Bluzes said:

Here is what I heard back then. Bills son was in the Colts which may have been the Mason connection. He built Star for his son. However, the kid decided to stay in the Colts so Bill paid for the Colts buses that year, then eventually he marched Star. This may all be a myth does anyone know?

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!msg/rec.arts.marching.drumcorps/CHQnHgE42vQ/qJHSjfyZDVwJ Star of Indiana - Recollections (by Bill Cook) [repost]

 

 

 

STAR OF INDIANA, RECOLLECTIONS
by Bill Cook and Jim Mason

Seeing drum corps for the first time

        I first became aware of drum corps in 1979 when
Carl,  my son, wanted to watch the DCI Championship for a
high school band project.  I griped but he won out and so
the TV was turned on to Birmingham.   The corps that I
remember most was the Bridgemen; to me they were humor,
professionalism, talent, entertainment, all wrapped up in a
yellow package.  When the show ended at 1:00 a.m., I was
hooked and the following summer Carl and I went to several
shows--the most memorable was the championship at
Whitewater.  Phantom was incredible and I couldn't believe
that 15 to 21 year olds were making such wonderful music.
        Carl never considered drum corps while in high
school because he was a saxophone player, but during his
second year in college he decided that he wanted to try out
for the Colts.  After a tryout, he didn't think that he
could make it but was given a flugel horn, told to go home
and learn how to play.  By his own words, he couldn't play
much his first year but by the second year, he could.  The
marching was a foreign language to him and he considered
that he might be cut at anytime.  He aged out in 1984 and
stayed on as a staff instructor  through 1986.

Star becomes a reality

        After the DCI semi-finals in 1984, Bob Lendman and I
were crossing a street in Atlanta when I asked him, "Carl
just aged out of the Colts; what would you think about us
starting a drum corps?"  His answer was: "you're nuts!"
        I met Bob in the summer of 1981 when he appeared in
Bloomington with a huge white and blue semi equipment truck,
two sagging buses, and the "Blue Stars."  Bob had parked
this monstrosity on a sidewalk next to a fire plug and was
having a conversation  with a two off duty university
policemen. Earlier that morning, I had received a phone call
from the police chief telling me that some "drum" guy had
parked his semi in a no parking zone.   It seems that Bob
had convinced the police that the truck belonged on the
sidewalk and next to the fireplug but only after
considerable talking.  Suffice it to say, the truck remained
there until the Blue Stars and Bob left two days later.  Bob
and Allison Lendman have deep roots in drum corps; their
kids marched in Phantom Regiment and Bob later became
Phantom's director.  He had the fortune or misfortune of
getting two back-to-back 2nds in the World Championships.
To this day, he is sensitive to what happened.  I still
greet Bob with:  "hey Bob, have you got a second?"   He goes
ballistic!
        But back to the story in Atlanta.  My next question
to him was "who would you pick as director?"  He related the
backgrounds of several Midwest directors but in the end
said: "I would pick Jim Mason."  So off we went to find him.
Jim was standing by a Colts bus at the back of Grant field.
        After several minutes of pleasantries, I said to
Jim, "would you consider being director of a new drum corps
which would be based in Bloomington Indiana?"  His answer
was, "let me think about it and talk with Theresa (his
wife.)"  On the following Monday, I called and set up an
appointment for the two of them to visit Bloomington.
After seeing  my commitment to the project,  Jim said:  "You
now have yourself a corps director; I'll take the job."   He
didn't ask about salary or any details before he said yes.'

[Bluzes]

16 minutes ago, njthundrrd said:

Which was the Mason connection. This is pretty close.  = )

Didn't he go from the Colts to Star. This is all from memory have not looked anything up

[Barneveld]

28 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 Except that the reply above was the comparison between what Star of Indiana did and what Boston Crusaders have recently done.  As if they were simiilar, but they are far from similar in most respects. Context is everything, Slingerland. Star of Indiana started out with the 2nd richest Man in Indiana in 1984. ( Bill Cook.. multimilliionaire ) who had a Son that marched Star, and who looked at what it would take to quickly move a Star of Indiana up the ranks quickly in DCI. Star was funded with principally his money, and the Corps never started in Open Class. They started in World Class, and shot up the ranks quickly and almost immediately with their well funded Corps right from the outset. Cook brought in top national staff  from other Corps almost from the beginnings of their Corps there in the mid 80's.

 Boston Crusaders however, had no principal revenue source. They had been up and down for years since the 1940's, even into their bankruptcy years.. almost folded on a number of occasions. A few years back, 2010, the Mgt changed hands, and they put in a 10 year plan to raise more money, seek out multiple and diverse revenue streams, and restructure their organization from top to bottom. It took a fews years of even moving down in placement, in order to position themselves to raise the money they would need to be more competitive long term. There was no sugar daddy here that fronted most of the the money to improve things from top to bottom, and right from the getgo.. When staff at other Corps wanted more artistic freedom, more money, and/ or just a change of scenery or fresher challenges in 2016, Boston financially now was able to take advantage of staff looking to make a change. Nothing new under the sun with this, as dozens and dozens of staffers and marchers change Corps each and EVERY season and have done so for decades. Corps at the top do not develop marcher talent " in house " either,  lets be " intellectually honest " with that as well. Most top 12 Corps with feeder Corps don't  get even a quarter of their marcher talent from their " in house " feeder Corps, and I'd imagine you are aware of this too,

 The Star of Indiana AND the Boston Crusaders should be applauded for the manner in which they were able to attract staffers and marchers to their Corps. But they are not similar at all in how it was done. Star of Indiana had a phenomenal run of 9 years ( from 1984-1993), and were exceptionally well funded throughout. It took Boston over 75 years to be organizationally strong and creative enough and to develop diverse revenue streams for themselves in order to finally take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves to the Corps in 2016.. Just sayin'.

Could you please explain/elaborate what you mean in the part I highlighted? Thanks!

[Slingerland]

34 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 Except that the reply above was the comparison between what Star of Indiana did and what Boston Crusaders have recently done.  As if they were simiilar, but they are far from similar in most respects.

No offense, and this isn't a criticism of Boston's achievements in the last two seasons, but they have some committed Board members who were willing to pony up some money in summer 2016 to buy an improved staff. Nothing wrong with it, but it's not accurate to claim that their improvement, in very material ways, isn't related to this hiring of established staff members from other corps. They could, and they did, and good on 'em.

Edited August 18, 2018 by Slingerland

[njthundrrd]

2 minutes ago, Bluzes said:

Didn't he go from the Colts to Star. This is all from memory have not looked anything up

He did.

[BRASSO]

 Incidentally, the notion that inexperienced, young people can't write great shows. great music that'll place well/ be entertaining is something we really don't know... one way or the other, imo. Most Corps mgt do tend to become risk avoidance with the risks they are willing to take on with new, young, unproven show designers, music arrangers, visual designers, program coordinators. I suppose thats understandable when we are now talking million dollar revenue budgets on the line with these show creations.

 On the other hand, if a Corps is not in the Top 12-14 or so, why not take a chance ? There are examples of young, unproven, people doing amazing placement successful shows in the past in DCI.  So its not like we don't have examples of where its been done successfully in the past.

[xandandl]

3 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 Incidentally, the notion that inexperienced, young people can't write great shows. great music that'll place well/ be entertaining is something we really don't know... one way or the other, imo. Most Corps mgt do tend to become risk avoidance with the risks they are willing to take on with new, young, unproven show designers, music arrangers, visual designers, program coordinators. I suppose thats understandable when we are now talking million dollar revenue budgets on the line with these show creations.

 On the other hand, if a Corps is not in the Top 12-14 or so, why not take a chance ? There are examples of young, unproven, people doing amazing placement successful shows in the past in DCI.  So its not like we don't have examples of where its been done successfully in the past.

Regarding your first sentence, my memories instantly turned to Michael Klesch being given the reins at 23 or 24 when the Cadets had no arranger and look at what resulted.

On the visual side, I think of George Bonfiglio's risk and reward in letting young George Zingali write 27th's memorable drills.