MARK74

Finals start with the first corps stepping off at 10:30 am PST. For you folks east of Indiana that will be 1:30pm EST. Not sure who is on when, as DCI hasn't posted it yet. I'm curious because what they do with Yokohama will determine whether or not Fever gets to go on with the rest of the top 6 or if they'll have to go on BEFORE intermission. Not liking the possibilities there ,because despite what folks believe , time lapsed between groups DOES make a difference in Div II/III .

there IS an International division It was developed so corps such as Yokohama and Jubal etc.could use the rules of their home circuits and compete . My understanding is (at I could be incorrect) that they have members who don't fit the age requirements DCI has in place at this time. But you're right in sugesting that perhaps we should all play by the same set of rules and compete.

Fver score from board member on site 89.825 , any body have a BD B score?

WELL THANK YOU FOR YOUR LESS THAN INTELLIGENT REVIEW OF THE DIVII/III COMMUITY. I'M SURE THE 27 + CORPS THAT ARE DIVII/III ARE VERY HAPPY WITH YOUR ASSESMENT. I ,FOR ONE KNOW #### WELL THAT OUR CONTEST A WEEK AGO WAS PROMETED BY THREE NEWSPAPER ARTICLES OVER THE SUMMER AND A HALF HOUR RADIO SHOW THE WEEK BEFORE AND YOU KNOW WHAT ? IT DIDN'T WORK ! KNOW WHY OH I DON'T KNOW HOW ABOUT TWO DIV I SHOWS WITHIN AN HOUR AND A HALF OF OURS WITHIN TWO DAYS OF OURS. ADD TO THAT A DIV II/III SHOW ADDED AN HOUR AND A HALF AWAY WITHIN A DAY AND BAKERSFIELD (neither of thelast two were on the table when we agreed to have ours). and you know what? IT IS ABOUT THE MEMBERS IT MUST ALWAYS BE ABOUT THE MEMBERS THEY , ARE WHO WE WORK FOR! THEY ARE WHO WE EXIST FOR. SO GO WATCH YOUR THREE DIV I SHOWS A YEAR AND LIVE IT UP .BUT REMEMBER NEARLY 20% OF THE DIV I MEMBERS COME FROM DIV II/III . ALREADY WELL TRAINED AND CAPABLE where will these people come from WITHOUT DIV II/III ? NOT YOUR HOUSE I'M GUESSIN'

I would like to add congratulations to ALL the DIV II/III Corps who made the trek ! I know that in these divisions finding the means to "get it done" is often more of a challenge than putting a presentable/ competitive program on the field! Congratulations to ALL the finalists who ,by all accounts can look at this acheivement as a true HIGH point worthy of remembering. In particular all those corps who had to come all the way from the East coast. (now you know what the west goes through every year.) Especially CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE Div III corps who have given notice to Div. II on the field. DIV III is smaller BUT are very competitive. Div II/III YOU ARE WHAT DRUM CORPS WAS.. IS .. AND SHOULD ALWAYS BE. Fun, Exciting, Competitive, and educational. Thank you for NOT becoming something else.

LEEB , CALL ME 209-595-3955 , MARK

THANK YOU RYAN !!!!!!!! I'VE FELT FOR SOME TIME NOW THAT THE HEART OF DCI IS IN DIV II/III . By that I mean THIS IS WHERE THE ACTIVITY IS FROM , WHERE IT SHOULD BE. Take a bunch of kids largely local (to your corps home area) AND MAKE SOMETHING OF THEM. That's what Drum Corps once was BEFORE the age of the THREE AUDITION SITES in THREE different Parts of the country AND TAKING ONLY THE BEST 135 PEOPLE YOU CAN FIND ON AN" INTERNATIONAL JOB FAIRE TYPE RECRUITMENT DRIVE" I have a hard time believing that Div I does more to EDUCATE the young people involved than DIV II/III . I KNOW for a fact ,that if you're looking for DRIVE, COMMITMENT, AND RAW ENERGY DIV II/III is where you need to spend your time. Sadly though , WE are the ( N.I.Ts) to DIV. I (NCAA) . OR the AFL to Div I NFL .Sure alot of corps are having trouble in our division WHY WOULDN'T WE BE ? The drum corps community has become jaded into believing that DIV I is all there is . I Have no gripe specifically with the individual Div I corps or for that matter with DCI .They marketed what they feel is the most marketable. NOT ONE OF THE TOP 4 OR 5 DIV II/III corps would have much trouble being presentable in competition in Div I. I'm NOT delusional ,I know they 'd place somewhere between 16th - 27th , the point is ,they could be there and ,be as entertaining . People have forgotten that ,in alot of ways the only reason a corps is in Div II or maybe Div III is because they 're S-M-A-L-L-E-R NOT LESS OF A CORPS . FOR MY MONEY DIV II/III IS WHERE DCI MEETS THE ROAD. It's Drum Corps for the masses , It's enjoyable, It's often ,High energy AND SO DARNED UNPREDICTABLE ,THAT IT'S ALMOST LIKE COLLEGE BASKETBALL." ANY CORPS ,ON ANY GIVEN DAY" (to some degree) Again DIV II/III IS WHERE MY HEART IS AND I KNOW IF MORE PEOPLE WOULD TAKE INTEREST ,MORE PEOPLE WOULD BE EXCITED.

FEVER, Thanks to the friendly folks of the L.A. Basin, is staying in the Super 8 motel on w katella in Anaheim. Sorry DCI , I really thought ,as I'm sure we ALL thought ,that California would treat DCI better .Sadly it is SOOO Letigeous here that housing was really hard to get . Oh well see you again in 35 years.

Dutch Boy 81.085 got that from Ric, He drove down to see the kids,he's driving back today

revolution 83.325

79.075 according to my version of the DCI SITE. I know it's not a big difference BUT it could make A difference for Oregon

O.K Here's what I don't get BESIDES the webcast. THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TRY AT WEBCASTS FOR THE YEAR ! Why is it that these problems occurred no where else? OR.. did they ? DCI site still won't let me order I can't get past the "coming soon"

I can't even get IN !!! It won't let me past the " order webcast" it just says coming soon, I'm sittin here with credit card in hand help !! and why aren't the scores updating on the dci site I can't even tell what happened let alone what's happening

In the case of FEVER ,when it came time to declare division for the summer ,membership count was 3 or 4 more than they currently field. I think 62 is the number.Those 3 or 4 all departed for various reasons . Long story short they were division III last year and the numbers never came over the winter. Based on previous years experience ,having fielded 90-100 members as a DivII corps the staff felt it would be foolish to try to compete 62 members against the other Div II corps of roughly 100 members . NORMALLY they would have been safe in so thinking. In DivII/III land the impact available to a corps with 26 horns is usually considerably less than that of a 40-50 man horn line,So too with 15 guard versus 24-30. The staff really felt the corps could be competitive (and probably hoped but didn't know just how competitive they could become) They are really having an excellent year and I hope that things will continue to go well. Anyway ,that's what happened,and I'll bet if anyone from Memphis answers ,their story could very well be similar.

GREAT COMMENTS !!! I THINK IT'S INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT TO LISTEN TO THE NEWBIE/UNINFORMED/UNBIASED. Are these not the people Drum Corps is TRYING to woo. That's generally the rationale for changes like, narration(personally I was always told "if you have to explain it ,you did it wrong"), singing, and amps and synths, and sax's right? DRUM CORPS FANS AND EX-PERFORMERS should always make note of the comments of the NEW audience, and pass them on to DCI. IF THEY (DCI)TRUELY LISTENED ,they'd discover that IT AIN'T BROKE ,QUIT TRYING TO BREAK IT,UH I mean FIX it.