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My Tennessee colleague makes an important point here. Having taught at various levels for many years (from elementary school through college, and drum corps throughout), using virtually every method in the book (lecture, seminar, clinic, video, symposium, individual mentoring, ...etc.), I am aware that people have a wide variety of learning styles. The best overall strategy for imparting knowledge is to use multiple methods, of course, but even more important is reinforcement. Whether one is learning the F# Major Scale or practical techniques for protecting your charges, once is not enough. The mantra I repeat to my students of every level is "Repetition is your friend. Repetition is your friend. Repetition is your friend". That said, it is also vital to vary the approach to the material when reinforcing the main principles. Watching the same video yearly, over and over, is just promoting OCD. In the particular case of drum corps, their staffs and performers, it will be helpful to utilize live presenters and enacted role play scenarios as well in follow up. As a society we are just beginning to get our collective head around the importance of these ethical issues and how to address them. Drum Corps has made a good start (generally), and would do well to remember the mantra.

She’s back, and, this time, she has friends. NOTE: Video premieres at 6 PM EDT today.

I'm not implying that Safesport is not a good program or that it's vital. The questions would still be same of any program. 1. How comprehensive is it 2. Is there testing to ensure understanding and knowledge transfer 3. Is it tracked for compliance by a 3rd party and enforced Again, it could be an excellent program. In my world we do 2 hours alone on sexual harassment prevention at the entry level for employees. Managers have FAR more hours of training as they are responsible for any employee that comes to them (plus about 12 hours of compliance work twice a year.) It could be an apples and oranges comparison. I am simply posing questions. Just as an aside, a LOT of study has been taken place on adult learning theory over the years as you can imagine. Video presentation comes in towards the bottom of the list when designing curriculum (still above lecture alone.) Adults tend to have limited recall of what they have seen and heard without additional learning methods to reinforce the skill transfer.

Any details on what was considered “member safety”? I had Department of Defense sexual harassment and sexual assault training every year. Besides reporting we had training in recognizing possible harassment when it was being done to others. IOW protect your team (here corps) mates. Also steps to protect yourself including keeping a log of incidents that can be used by an investigator. And the biggie: if one person says they are uncomfortable with something being done or said… then it should stop. None of this “everyone else is ok with it so what’s your problem BS”. Thinking of the Spirit problems from the other year as I type this.

Is she still waiting for someone to sponsor her trip to finals?

Saw this appear on my feed. For some reason it seemed like a drum corps meme. I dunno why 😅

They are all angry cellists. Why are they angry? There were no cello solos this year.

I could be misinterpreting the question and feel free to correct me, but does SafeSport not fall under this? I know that was mandatory for every member in 2022, I want to say that it continued to 23 as well but I don't recall since I was aged out. When I did the SafeSport training it had member safety, as well as how to report and the proper steps. I won't pretend to say whether or not that is super useful or helpful, but I thought it was.

With the internal shift of Bloo’s guard staff, I think they have a real shot of making the top twelve next year! Here’s hoping! 🤞

If you could hand pick Dan Acheson's successor as DCI's CEO, whom would you pick? I have seen people mention Dave Gibbs and David Glasgow already, but was hoping for people's thoughts and reasoning behind the picks. I'll go first. Robert Morrison - formerly of The Cadets, Music for All, VH1 Save the Music, Pearl Percussion, NAMM, etc. https://musicforall.org/board-of-directors/robert-b-morrison/ Bob ticks off a ton of the boxes that I would like to see. 1) Familiarity with drum corps (as he was former staff - the first front ensemble caption head for the C-Pit). 2) Experience in non-profit management. 3) Highly successful in business. 4) Very well respected by many within the music/arts community.

I wanted to reach out to the broader audience and experience of the general population here for this question. I am going to make a broad assumption that all of the corps in DCI do NOT use the same curriculum for mandatory member safety and reporting training. That being said, this is transparently assumed from my experience with one corps and that was quite a long time ago. My question is simple. Why is this the case? A single curriculum, professionally built, edited yearly and uploaded to an LMS with robust reporting is relatively inexpensive if the cost is spread across all member corps. The type of curriculum that I have built and managed, allows for the same message to be presented, consistently and the reporting is fantastic. I just rolled out a training to over 50k employees in the US. I can track completion in reports that take less than 10 minutes to run. If I need to flex to instructor led instead of e-learning, I offer that option to any vendors who we outsource to. It just seems that if I am correct, leaving writing and delivering something of this level of importance up to individual corps, is not the best way. Who is reviewing their curriculum, testing the participants for knowledge and ensuring that the message is consistent and of equal importance, legally compliant? I've been doing this now for 23 years. I have started to reach out to few corps to literally review their materials and make recommendations for free. I doubt very much that I will get any traction, but the offer is there because these actions are VITAL to the members and staff. But again, I go back to why is it this way?

so apparently the NFL players union wants all fields to go to grass....which would in turn bleed down to every level at some point. #### I can’t get the article link to paste

My Army units do this now. They throw a random simulated harassment issues at a random first line leader and follow the process through to conclusion. They follow up with the entirety of the unit at the end of the simulation. The first question asked of the whole unit is did anyone get wind of the complaint and were all sensitive things that are supposed to have remained sensitive actually remain so. The only ones that know it's a simulation is the Harassment Rep. and the victim and offender role players. The poor sucker is the first line leader that gets the complaint and has to respond and escalate as trained. Results get pushed up the entire chain of command to the Department of Army/Defense. That way................ When something reaches Congress the 4 star generals can say there is a system in place, and look at the 3 stars, then the 3 stars can provide their results and look at the two stars and it just keeps going down until a break is found. The worst place to be is the commanding officer of the lowest level where investigations indicate there is a break in the system. If one cannot kick the can down, then they better act in accordance with the regulations and laws.

Bob would be a great choice!

And they all fancy their self a harmonicist? (Just kidding; loved the soloist this year.) 😁

i don't think Ron would leave WGI. Bob would be a great catch

Thinking more on how to do it, you would need to make certain that the individual(s) at the end of the reporting chain knew it was an exercise; probably law enforcement as well in case that they are called. I suppose the place to try it is spring training as it is a more familiar & predictable backdrop. And afterwards absolutely everyone would need to know that it was an exercise to test the system.

Typically I would say yes as part of the UAT. We do that with corporate compliance especially for overseas work. If you don't pressure test the system then you're really only doing half the work. That being said, I was never part of that specific piece of the puzzle. We would sometimes be asked to make adjustments after UAT but rarely did we get a reason as to why the adjustment was necessary.

Thinking about my own DoD experiences gets me thinking. Is it a good idea to ‘test’ the reporting system by pulling a member aside, give them information to pass on that something happened, & see if the system works properly? We would do this for things like ‘suspicious packages’, but for SA or member abuse I can see it doing both good and bad. But perhaps the idea does merit discussion. It would have to be overseen by SafeSport (or whomever the overseer is), not a couple of rogue instructors or members. Good idea or not?

I haven't heard, but I hope they revive the 2018 Heart & Soul production. 👀

Bob would be incredible.

The worst part Jim, is that I still have to TAKE the exact curriculum that I write same as everybody else. So after all the UAT before rollout, I figure I've probably seen and edited that content 15 to 20 times lol. We do try to keep up with adult learning principles though. This year we took the "big enchilada" 4 hour corporate governance training and built the majority of it around gamification. The results were FAR better with first time scores in the 90's. Previous years, the first time testing was around 82%.

Well, it's not wrong... 🤷‍♂️😂

My review and photos of the 2023 Drum Corps Associates World Championships Finals drum corps show is now available for you to enjoy in Drum Corps World, Drum Corps Planet, and SmugMug! https://medi-nerd.com/2023/09/16/2023-dca-world-championships-finals-review/

Yep! Not only can't control what the judges will do BUT what other corps will or won't do. It can be heartbreaking to improve so much and not move , or worse drop BUT as in any competition it's not just about you but those others also playing the game. Sometimes as a director or staff person it can be the hardest thing to get across to a hard working member.

The nature of competition. How many non finalists improve by leaps and bounds and still don't make finals. It's never is just about how well you improve as a corps BUT has someone In front of you slipped or didn't improve at the same rate. The best anyone can do is just do their best, make the right decisions, timing of progression, set you members up for success and I have found over decades, set your own goals for success not what others think you should be. Focus on you!

I want the Mandarins to have the #### "Wheelie" on the field in 2024. This thing made me sick at Six Flags in high school. 😂 @Chief Guns @MandarinMom

Mandarins got their deserved placement in 2023, but it was close. Mandarins need to improve on brass performance and percussion performance for the future, but their GE is rock solid, and their guard is very creative. They don't need help from any other corps' misfortunes. They're a legit and quality org! I can't wait to see what else they've got coming!

Can we please stick to the prediction topic, and any personal bickering move to direct messaging between the parties. It's beyond old...

Your loyalty and dedication and no quit attitude with your favorite corps is admirable Hook’emCavies . Corps need more fans like you , imo . Fans that stay with them throughout the good times and the not so good times placement wise . 👍

Actually, my predictions are total SWAG (Scientific Wild ### Guesses) But … if you gave me 100:1 odds of me being right, I’d lay a single Geo. Washington down.

This would be exciting . It’s hard for me to pick in placements any Corps other than the Blue Devils to win as they enter just about every season as the preemptive favorite . I can see 2 or 3 corps likely challenging them once again next season . As for the Mandarins they seem to have what it takes to move up the ranks , and I personally love seeing Corps like Boston Crusaders and Mandarins of late moving up the pecking order as it demonstrates that it can be done . That’s healthy for the activity overall, imo.

This is the main reason I don’t do these predictions. Well, that, and I would be wrong. These corps are so good, and it is tough to see any of them not place as highly as they might have or, worse, have a really rough season and fall far short the potential they were perceived to have. When the season finally rolls around, we will all have to see that play out, and as always @Jeff Ream will get it right. For now I just want to believe that next season everybody is going to maintain or improve their placements and everybody is going to be in medal contention. Kudos to those who make predictions, though - I enjoy reading them in the spirit of looking for pleasant surprises!

I sure hope we are not about to argue about 2024 placement predictions on here . It’s one of the reasons some fans have left DCP and never to return . Too much unnecessary initiated criticisms of posters for simply providing their opinions , placement predictions , or assessments and observations on things posted on here . Everybody please chill on this 2024 placement predictions thread . Jeesh .

well, not to get technical, but i've been correct for decades now. cause i always predict the corps with the highest score wins. 😅

I'mma head out.

I don't think anyone years ago thought BAC would be in the top 4/5 but they are. So yeah it's not out of their reach. What I'm saying is they STILL are not taking seriously.

If souvenir booth scuttlebutt is an indicator, word from a BAC cashier is that the three corps that had the most inquiries about auditioning for next year are BAC, Troopers, and Mandarins. I’m sure this is speculative and I have no idea of how it is measured, other corps may disagree, and every kid who is under the age of 21 who attends Indy and probably Allentown, San Antonio, and Atlanta/NightBEAT wants to march even though not all will even formally inquire speak less of audition. That being said, I think it’s safe to say Mandarins auditions will not be ghost towns.

I believe Mandarins are on that launching pad to the level of top 4. NOBODY....including me expected their rise and sophistication in 2023. I still get that feeling from these post they are not taking seriously.

Did you catch my “way too early” projections? I put Mandarins 4th

I kinda love the fact that people are sleeping on the Mandarins...........I am not going to say anything, but if these doubters only knew............alot of people going to be wiping egg off their faces in 2024.

Mandarins ARE the West-Coast recruiting competition. Fans are fans, and they have visions of the bottle dance in their heads, but potential members, the slice of the population ages 18-21, saw Sinnerman and said I WANT TO DO THAT. That show was pure gas, absolute catnip to any performer who wants to do drum corps, who wants to perform. Mandies will have so many kids coming out for camps they'll be be loading the cut bus and sending it to Santa Clara.

I believe Gabe G .was the Troopers DM there just a few years back ( and a good one on the podium then , I thought )

Let's just take the average and round up the decimal and allow 12.

Great, now someone wants to decrease the number of finalists to 8 instead of increasing to 15! 😂

That didn't take long for the Mandarins to drop behind SCV. But then again it makes sense, because some of the doubters were firmly convinced that SCV packed up their trucks and moved 90 miles east to Sacramento, and that's the only reason they were good.

Heck yea! I called it when I first heard Take me to Church at Family Day. I knew it had a chance to be ballad of the year. And there were some phenomenal ballads in 2023!

@Chief Guns @MandarinMom Pretty cool that they were also voted Flo's favorite ballad. Doesn't come with anything other than pride, but shows the show resonated with the audience! https://fb.watch/mX8_kEoWC4/

Based on the most recent tax return filing which ran from 11/01/2020 - 10/31/2021 (So this is the covid celebration year), the organization able to collect donations and revenue from various operations to make money. They were able to grow cash balances, although they are small in my opinion. Financially they appear okay. Based on local rumor mills they seem to be fine and are collecting donations. And I do know there is a big effort amongst the board and those associated with the board locally here in Erie attempting to gain corporate sponsors from businesses in Erie. Including some that would be extremely beneficial to the corps. All things considered, The Cadets appear to be doing well here in Erie and are prepared for the next year.