Leaderboard

Folks I went back and watched last night's top 6 again and I must say the judges made a statement to Crown that hard drill and their style is not appreciated nor, will it be rewarded now and into the future. That's not to say the show is perfect, but more to say that the judging community only wants to reward stuff like what Scv has on the field. This is not a knock to SCV but in my opinion Crown has a harder show both musically and visually. What I think bothers me the most is that a corps with #1 Brass and & MA scores got 6th in GE from both music GE judges. That's a rebuke of not how well you play your book but how much they dislike the music choices. I spoke to several band directors who watched last night and they said Crown should be less than half a point with SCV or half a point over based on what they saw and heard. Clearly none of us are judges but it does sicken me where the activity is heading as marching and playing does not matter anymore. This is really quite a shame. I want the kids to know they put on stunning performance last night and their best of the season so far. I hope the Staff makes all the changes they can to get this show into metals, as it isn't over till its over.🙁

Projected Championship Week Scores 98.264 Bluecoats 97.994 Blue Devils 97.360 Santa Clara Vanguard 95.696 Carolina Crown 94.980 Boston Crusaders 94.009 Cavaliers 91.662 Blue Knights 91.635 Blue Stars 90.586 Cadets 89.095 Crossmen 88.824 Mandarins 86.944 Phantom Regiment 84.811 Spirit of Atlanta 83.831 Academy 82.784 Colts 81.338 Pacific Crest 79.770 Madison Scouts 78.602 Troopers 77.450 Gold 76.432 Spartans 75.392 Music City 74.872 Genesis 74.703 Legends 72.703 Jersey Surf 72.153 Golden Empire 70.459 Louisiana Stars 69.946 Southwind 69.784 Cascades 67.892 7th Regiment 67.730 River City Rhythm 65.595 Guardians 63.595 Shadow 60.324 Heat Wave 60.000 Colt Cadets 57.541 Raiders 53.946 Les Stentors

One of the first things I noticed, and absolutely one of my favorite parts of the show. It also seems to me Bluecoats march a lot compared to the other top corps - may not be much compared to the 80s and 90s, but certainly it's not the standstill that many accuse them of doing.

It’s disquieting to discover that there’s someone out there who feels that any social organization would somehow be better off if an alleged sexual predator was still in charge.

My perspective is different than most on this board. I'm a trained musician, but not a professional. I have been a DCI fan since I marched in high school, but I no longer have a dog in this fight. I am writing because I want the corps that I've loved since 1987 to survive and thrive. I have no inside information. I can only applaud the strength of the community to keep the corps alive and thriving through the last five years of narcissism, neglect and predation from one person (and much of it continued for over thirty years, but the organization was so strong, people swallowed the pain and persisted). So I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, since we all must move on. So people understand a bit about where I'm coming from: I have degrees in four different fields, so I’m a generalist more than a specialist, and my areas of expertise are social entrepreneurship, writing, education and the arts. I've taught a few thousand students over the years at the university level, but I'm no longer an academic and exclusively am now an entrepreneur. I've worked as an open innovation consultant and management consultant for small businesses and non-profits, as well as for non-profits that have over one-thousand employees and for-profit companies valued in the ten figures. I've co-founded three successful companies and two successful non-profits, and three others that failed. I know what usually works, and even more, I know what almost never does. If I were brought in as a management and innovation consultant for YEA and The Cadets, I'd make the following general recommendations. Take them for what they are worth. Since they are freely given, maybe to some they are worth nothing. But if change is to occur, nothing is more important than diversity of ideas. 1. Someone commented recently, quite brilliantly, that a certain former director still seems to be "living rent free in everyone's heads" in the organization. Exactly. Two years of reacting, and as such, some steps forward, and perhaps an equal number back in other areas. Reminds me of 2011 Angels and Demons, great achievements despite the terrible drag on creativity and achievement from the one guy at the "top". The imagery in that show reminds me of a famous quote by Walter Benjamin: "A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress." If The Cadets continue to try to "heal" or represent "healing" or do anything more than just create art, if they try to reckon with the past, or remain too traditional, they will resemble this Klee angel, but I am not even sure they could aspire to Benjamin's hope that it will result in "progress". And on the other hand, if The Cadets continue to try to innovate by imitating - which I believe they are, unsuccessfully and demoralizingly at times - we will have nothing but watered down WGI or Crown/BD/BC wannabes, so they will never exorcise their demons through imitation. 2. The Cadets have the largest, most influential, and longest-tenured group of alumni in all of DCI. No one else is even close. It is unclear how many of them have been engaged beyond volunteering or donating money (and for many of them, not donating money. Yet.) Years of neglect of the alumni because of the way the previous exec director treated them have yet to be fully addressed or mended, it seems. 3. Creative people have big egos, staff included. Great staff have that Achilles heel, and so do mediocre staff. Usually the mediocre people in any organization are mediocre in large part because they are unaware of their own limitations, and overcompensate by being wary of involving others either in the creative process, or in management and execution, or all of the above. So mediocrity can easily breed mediocrity, and in such situations, few want to take a big step back, let ego go, and truly evaluate how and who and what to do differently. New staff are brought on board and they are handed the keys and told to drive. Ego and a desire to change cause a new approach to be followed. Design decisions are made by a very small group of people, and by the time there is a product to respond to, it's too late to change fundamentally, making innovation all but impossible. 4. Potential MMs don't care much about tradition, unless that tradition is recent success. They care even less about having to bear the burden of organizational trauma. In fact, that's the very last thing anyone new would want to deal with. The MM's just want to learn, grow, be great, and will go to that organization which has the best ideas, the best organization, the best leadership, the best alumni support, the most involvement, the most dynamic and different and distinctive experience they can have. Most young people want to look forward, and want to connect with tradition that always has been looking forward. And will go where forward thinking and proven execution and culture empower just that. 5. This year's "closed door" design policy has so far mostly been a disappointment, based on consensus of show reviews as well as scores. Alumni and potential MMs had nothing to go on to get them excited other than join a mostly new staff and "trust them" to come up with something extraordinary. The earlier potential MMs in the Cadets find out about show design and music, the better. In this situation it’s the only real recruitment tool to continue to attract great talent. 6. Most organizations must hit bottom in order to fundamentally change. Cadets have hit bottom. Several bottoms in the last few years. Failure is instructive only if egos can be set aside enough to learn though. 7. Success depends very much on the following: engaging alumni not just for financial support and volunteering, but for creating an engaged environment that is unlike any other corps. Transparency and accountability are key. But that doesn't just mean financials, conduct and governance. It also pertains to creativity. 8. The Cadets should try Open Innovation. In business and the creative world, and across industries, competitions are launched, prizes offered, ideas gathered and evaluated, and in that way, many people are empowered to have a hand and contribute. The wisdom of the "crowd" is a powerful one, especially when the crowd is empowered. This is an oversimplified description of Open Innovation, for sure, but it's basically how it works. You break down organizational walls, invite many others to contribute - some a piece here and there, others much more - continually solicit feeback, iterate and improve, and successful execution is much more likely. And you've created new community along the way. 9 How to conduct show design with Open Innovation? Set up a prize for the winning idea or ideas. Solicit proposals - theme, music, narrative, even drill / staging concepts. Appoint a blue ribbon panel that includes staff - potential staff and actual staff - as well as alumni. Reach out to alumni who work with other corps. If they can't come "home" by joining the Cadets staff and leaving their own, at least they can participate. Simple NDAs/NCAs can be executed to disallow any other corps from "stealing" the ideas generated. Several finalists could be named and as many alumni / donors as possible given a vote, or they pay for their vote (I've seen fundraisers like this, including crowdfunding multi million-dollar movie productions). 10. The Cadets could also host a similar competition for identity and approach. How to move past the current dictatorship of WGI, the ubiquity of spandex, the supposed "simultaneous demand" of body movement, the cliches and overwrought "message", the tired preachiness, the preciousness. Let the alumni and the fans have a voice in deciding what Cadets they want. Maybe traditional uniforms for the hornline? Custom unis for everyone else? So many possibilities. In the organizational world, this would be called a "know your customer" survey, simple market research, but for the Cadets, it's much more than that. There is a disconnect between what management and staff are doing, and what alumni hope for and want, and clearly, what's happening isn't inspiring new members to join as they would five or ten years ago. None of the above has been tried in DCI before - to my knowledge. If the Cadets are to remain and become again the Cadets many of us have loved for decades - the thinking person's drum corps, the vanguard of the vanguard, balancing tradition with innovation, the corps to which all other corps look to imitate - they have to see how everyone else is zigging. Openly, innovatively, the entire Cadets community needs to be empowered to ZAG, just like the tee-shirt from the 80s and 90s. I hope this helps. I'm so proud of the current MMs, and last year too. Incredible work ethic, effort, faith. They've already won the championship in my mind. Now we need to keep learning the lessons from their efforts. They only deserve the best from all of us. Let's make this happen.

still undefeated posted from the DrumScorps app

I know it it is weird for me to say, but I hope this is true. Remember the days when a contest was decided by who had the best run ... when it was actually the MMs who determined who had the best show on any given night? With Bloo and BD coming up with arguably equally stellar designs, maybe those days are back ... at least for the rest of this season.

no. Bluecoats Yes Bluecoats

Its a #### good apple and a #### good orange, so I'm fine having delicious fruit salad for the next three weeks.

I have never met you, but I can say that I am really appreciative of what you brought to the organization and am deeply grateful that you took the time to write this. I hope those in power will take notice.

Hold on - YOU are the one who posted the claim that various alumni tore apart YEA then didn’t stick around to rebuild. Then when you are asked if this is really true, you want to punt the question to someone else? So, is your claim completely made up?

Your entire argument is derailed by a total lack of understanding of the true amount of money involved here, and also by forgetting that revenue does not equal profit. 2018 Revenue $ 15,790,000,000 - Netflix (139M subscribers) $ 1,700,000,000 - Amazon Prime Video (75M subscribers) $ 1,500,000,000 - Hulu (25M subscribers) $ 5,000,000 - FloSports (estimated revenue; subscriber numbers not released) FloSports' estimated revenue for 2018 was $5 million. That's it. For the whole company. FloSports is still surviving on venture capitalist investments: they just scored $47 million in funding last month, which is HUGE. And they recently signed a seven-figure deal with the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) to air their sports. I can assure you, DCI's deal with FloMarching AND the revenue FloMarching is pulling in from subscribers is nowhere close to seven figures. Obtaining the rights retroactively for all of the songs in the DCI archives going back decades would cost a fortune, even with savvy negotiation. I know we are all passionate about this activity, but we need to strongly remember that DCI is a tiny, tiny, tiny fish in a huge ocean. Having ANY streaming service AT ALL interested in carrying the activity is a huge win.

I'm obsessed with the Bluecoats this season. 2016 & 2019 Bluecoats are two of my favorite shows ever. The entertainment value is just off the charts. Bluecoats design team is on a different level than others...they really get it. Honestly, Bluecoats are one of the few shows this year that I would go out of my way to see again and again! Don't really care if they win it all this year, they are just heads above the rest this season.

Yup....that time of year. Have you served on the BOD???? Perhaps it’s time to run. You won’t get an apology out of me for giving my brothers and sisters kudos for their hard work this season. They deserve that much. You remember tour, right? Does change need to happen? Yes. Carping about it here isn’t cutting it. . Get involved as a volunteer then work your way up to corps director. It’s that time of year to put the keyboard down and do something that will actually help change things. Peace out. SUTA

I'm almost sold on Poppycock's theory. The Devils have been knocking and knocking on the door first gently, then a little harder. Either tonight or Atlanta will be the night when they finally kick it in.

Scott Litzenberg's Facebook: It’s been an interesting 4 days in Texas. I’ll leave it at that... The one thing I will say about The Cadets... if anyone thinks they aren’t going to be Cadets over these last 3 weeks, you are sorely mistaken. They know who they are and what they need to do. This, will be a fun ride! I am blessed to be a part of It! FHNSAB ♥️💛

I’m gonna go check out some rehearsal tomorrow but wow. What a show on all levels. Every little thing is just essence of Bluecoats and Beatles perfectly married into a seamless package. It’s incredible. I don’t care if they keep up the streak or not, this is a SHOW in all regards. Love it.

More hype is needed in this thread. Bloo still undefeated as of tonight!! Let's gooooooooooo!!!

SPLOOIE posted from the DrumScorps app

That was bloos best performance easily. Visual held up considering they're missing a few people though Im happy the two missing tubas are back. If that brass doesnt win first tonight, I dont know what to say. That performance was anything but flat. posted from the DrumScorps app

Bloooooooo Look who's in the stands! posted from the DrumScorps app

My seats win. Blast zone, 50, seat backs. posted from the DrumScorps app

Good seats I guess? posted from the DrumScorps app

The uniform is not the problem here. In fact, many people actually liked the new look for this season (myself included). The problem is staff and show design. SCV didn't get to where they are by changing their look. Neither did Bluecoats. They have killer design teams and teaching staff that elevate the performance level of the corps members. Nobody will say a bad thing about The Cadets drumline this year. What changed? I LOVE the maroon and gold and have been very upset when they didn't wear the traditional uniform, but that is not the problem. Give these performers a brass staff and guard staff on par with the percussion and a show that gives people a reason to cheer and you'd see a much different result.

once you go indoor - it's hard to go back

PR, you were great Saturday in SA. The crowd ate it up. Huge jump in performance and design compared to what came before. It is so hard these days to be top six, to move up competitively, please everyone, blah blah blah. Know you are loved and that most are pulling for you.

Well it looks like its that time of year again, Time for reality to set in for some, time for the I told you so's to say again I told you so, and time for the praising of the kids efforts to overwhelm all others. It's really time for the ineffective board to resign and a cleaning of the house staff occur. This current group has no imagination and no vision, the kids deserve so much more,

I kind of chuckled today looking at the flomarching schedule. We’ll fly home Sunday morning and will be parked in front of tv Sunday night watching Nightbeat. We’re crazy. 😂

Great show! I recorded Madison, SOA, phantom, crown, coats, devils, cavies. Should see them on the video tube cloud thing late tonight or tomorrow morning. posted from the DrumScorps app

Same. I am a diehard Bluecoats fan but BD is incredible every year, I have SO much respect for them and their consistently amazing performances year in and out.

I love it when corps compete at the top of their game!

Thanks for all the pictures! .....and to all those with commentary. posted from the DrumScorps app

LETS GO CAVIES!!!!! BREAK 90!!!

Brass was spot on.

posted from the DrumScorps app

Crown just now. posted from the DrumScorps app

posted from the DrumScorps app

Crossmen posted from the DrumScorps app

Bloo is the PERFECT match for Dean and this design team! Indeed the BEST in the business. The mutual respect is so obvious.

Not all of the evolution has been bad, for the record. I marched in the early 80's and taught through the early 90s. I NEVER saw a water jug. In fact, they used to give us SALT TABLETS when it was hot. And having a doctor and physical trainer on tour...???!!! I also recall corps like 27 and the Troopers in what was THEN 30 year old buses, with no ac and driven by at times, unlicensed drivers. And don't get me going on quality of tour food in those days. Although we all have our own opinions of the creative aspects of today's DCI, I think most of us would agree that it is a far healthier activity for the members than it ever was.

Better than losing the activity entirely. This is no longer a post-war society with all of the types of groups that gave us our original corps demonstrating military precision and discipline. It has been adopted and taken over by the fine arts professionals and students and they have a different set of imperatives that motivate them than their fore-bearers. Thank goodness for that or else the quality of instructors, designers, and performers would be nowhere close to what it is today. Adapt or die! I would add that the main part of the activity's identity (DCI era) that does remain to this day is that is has always been at the cutting edge of innovation compared to High School bands and other forms of pageantry arts on a football field. I'm just thankful there is such an activity that still has relevance to the current generation of youth.

Well said! 👏👏👏👏👏 Thank you for offering solutions rather than just reiterating the problems. Openness. Inclusion, and positivity are sorely needed. And putting egos aside would be a huge step forward, too. Lots of egos in this activity. Not just The Cadets. I was once asked why I didn’t attend a manager’s meeting and my response was that I didn’t think there would be enough room for me with all those egos.

It's astounding to me that anyone could think that. Even if one believed with all their heart that GH is innocent (which to me is very hard to believe but I do believe in due process as well as respecting others with different opinions) I don't know how they could think that he could lead the corps while embroiled in a scandal, not to mention while on trial for very serious charges, without that being massively detrimental to the corps, if not rendering it altogether impossible to function.

I would love to see these folks change the color on the wall props. When the CG, especially the rifles, are on the props, or in front of them, it is hard to see them. I think Black might be good, in which case i would give the drummers white tap shoes. Just my opinion. And i love the show, regardless.

Hey, you could get the same field positions as drum judges.

Let's not forget that The Cadets slump started when you-know-who was in charge, so it's not like this is a sudden thing. This has been happening for a few years now. Also let's not forget the plethora of talent that left while he was in charge (Jeff, Gino, Colin, Neil, Tom, etc). Thankfully Tom and Neil came back, and I don't think it's wrong to suggest a motivating factor was someone no longer being there. Also, according to Scott, there's a LOT of behind the scenes stuff that most of us do not know that needed to be fixed. He didn't go into details but he did suggest that those things just don't fix overnight. If I were to take a guess at one thing, I would say housing. I do know some schools did not want The Cadets there after GH went against the schools wishes. Getting housing is difficult as it is and mending relationships takes time.

We opted to go to Atlanta over Winston Salem, which is only one hour away because concessions are cheaper in Atlanta ??? and it could rain !!!! and.......... I couldn't get my Madison Scout and Music City t-shirts at Night Beats ! now that makes sense.

SPLOOIE!!!

I thought about Scott and the post about a strong leader for some time today. It reminded me of the beginning of World War 2 when Nimitz was brought in as the CINCPAC. A lot of media felt they needed a firebrand, a personality like Halsey who was bold, brash, and media savvy. I wonder of that's the perception of "Strong" in this case. Halsey was important and very good, but Nimitz was far more sublime, as was Spruance. They were both very "Strong" and incredibly able individuals but very quiet about how they went about things. They inspired confidence in people and were quietly encouraging. They knew their people well and tried to help them find their niche where they could be a great contributor to the overall effort. I think Scott's more in that mold, and personally, I tend to like that. I think both kinds of leaders have their places and situations, but right now, maybe that quiet and polite kind of "strong" is the right thing.

The most obvious difference is that now without judges on the field FANS CAN WATCH THE FRIGGIN' SHOW WITHOUT THE STUPID DISTRACTIONS CAUSED BY THE JUDGES RUNNING THROUGH THE FORMATIONS! It's ten time better now. Thank you DCI. Finally. 🙏 /end rant /end PSA