weedyweidenthal

In those 10 years, Dann Petersen was named DCI Director of the Year. There's been 3 Jim Jones awards in the corps. The corps went from 15th place to as high as 8th or so (and that changed at the same time when a bunch of the same alums complaining now were lauding the staff changes that occurred after the 2014 season). The corps financials have finally started looking good. You can focus on the negatives all you want, but to ignore the positives and write the corps off as a failure is very narrow minded.

I’ve questioned Chris and I have been critical of him in direct communications and he has always responded well to me... Look, I don’t like a lot of decisions that have been made either, but to say that Chris and/or Dann are awful goes too far. They’ve had huge positive influences on hundreds of Scouts in the last 10+ years.

I would give up a lot to be able to march under Dann’s and Chris’s direction just one more time. Your criticism is misguided and aimed at the wrong people.

I picked 2011 just because of how much fun I had feeling the reaction to "Empire State of Mind" from the field. I honestly don't remember a single other show from that year though.

So you’ll commit credit card fraud (and openly admit it) after you purchased something with agreed upon terms? Interesting strategy

Using the span of time since an all male corps has been a champion and using that as an argument in favor of going coed is a really poor strategy. In the timespan since the last all male championship, one corps has won the title 7 times. 16 of the 22 coed corps also haven’t won a championship. Several of those 16 haven’t even been in finals (or for at least one now suspended corps, semifinals) in that same time frame. Both all male corps have gone through struggles with things off the field which has hurt both of their competitive success (although, for the Cavs it’s been to a far lesser extent).

I can only speak about the years that I marched... 2008-2011. From what I understood when I was a rookie, the design team from 2008 had originally agreed to a three year commitment. 2009 was clearly a step backwards in design. We rarely saw the design team in 2009 and we were kind of left scrambling to fix the issues and it fell mostly to the caption heads to do work that I would consider design team obligations. They were replaced in 2010. I spoke with Jim Mason and Donnie Vandoren during the winter camps and I was told their intent was to be there for 5 years and get the corps back on the right track. Jim, being an alumnus, was doing it because of his passion for the corps and Donnie was there for his passion for the activity. My impression was that Donnie wanted to help as many corps as possible and that his belief was that 5 years was enough time to build a solid foundation and that he would then go on to another corps in need. After 2014 they had completed their 5 years and ready to move on. I think there was a lot of excitement for the design team that came in and the 2015 show seemed to show that they had accomplished their goal of bringing the Scouts back. I don't know what happened with the designs of the last 3 years. I think 2016 was a good concept with poor execution of the musical book. The last 2 years have been a bit weird and obviously not a lot of people have been pleased, so now they've been replaced again. I think many people that marched during the Mason years would have loved to see that era continue, but that wasn't the plan of those individuals. I am intrigued by the design team changes. The statements from Jim Elvord seem exciting, I just hope that the team follows through with the execution of the plans they've stated.

Seems pretty obvious that the design of the shows that haven't made finals was the problem... The design team is gone and replaced. In 2008, a lot of us thought we were on the right track with the design team, and then they came out with Relampago. In 2010 we got the Mason Entertainment Group and everything was trending in the right direction. Jim had made it clear to a lot of people from the beginning that he was on board for 5 years. Now we've had 3 years of design issues. It's been shown over the last ten years that this leadership team is actually pretty #### good, but the on field product needs better designs. In fact, Dann Peterson was awarded Director of the Year in 2010 and Chris Komnick got the award in 2012.

I’d be interested to learn why that is... To be honest I’m not entirely sure that’s the case either. I thought 2005 Scouts was great writing. I think when he gets to arrange a full tune he does a great job, but the choppiness of a lot of the shows he has been asked to write for doesn’t seem to suit him (or any arranger for that matter) well. I missed him by a year at Spirit, and was 2 years after him as well as 3 years before him at Madison. It would have been great to perform a book he wrote (not that I can really complain... Jim Prime and Robert W. Smith were awesome to learn from).

Count me as one of the many people that loves Scott's arrangements from his first stint with the Scouts. That said, I don't think he did anything that distinctive in his more recent stint. Maybe he needed more creative control, or maybe he just needed an old school show design to bring the sound back, but to me this is more of a sentimental loss than anything. Really #### poor attempt at trolling from a guy who has less than 90 posts over the last 16 years, almost all of which have been about Madison, and almost all of which have had some type of negative implication.

Sounds like a few legitimate major complaints and then a lot of #####ing... That said, it's surprising that parents still let their high school aged children march with Pioneer. It's not like these complaints are new. Roman has had so many allegations made about him acting this way in the last decade, there were sexual harassment allegations against the corps, the corps has been struggling financially ever since I marched starting back in 2007 so they can barely field a corps... I might be blasted for this, but it could be time to pack it up.

HAHAHAHA! I nearly died laughing when I read this. Of all the silly things to bring up. Calling alums and age outs "Old Balls" has been going on by members since at least the 90's. It is a joke. It is said in fun. Any one of the alums that walked into a gym on tour was always greeted with "Old balls in the gym!!!" It was an immediate thing upon aging out. The day after finals when everyone was clearing up, any age out that walked in was greeted that way. The truth is, even if you have issues with the leadership, we do need to do more if we want the corps to thrive. No reason they shouldn't be saying that. In fact, I hope they say it more and appeal to more alums to give more. If you have issues with the staff/admin, why not send them messages letting them know what you're unhappy with. Do so thoughtfully and respectfully rather than on a whim or aggressively, and they will meet you half way. I know this from personal experience as I've let them hear my thoughts from time to time.

I suppose that’s an opinion, but it is a highly misguided opinion. There’s no doubt, the corps is struggling. It doesn’t look good. However, Dann and Chris have had a hugely positive impact on my (and hundreds of other young men’s) lives. That in itself is a tremendous accolade. Even if there is a call to remove the current leadership and go in a new direction, their contributions should not go unappreciated. That said though, the corps just released a plan for the future success of the corps during his last offseason. From what I’ve seen and what I understand from talking with people in the know, it looks good. For those of us that aren’t attending meetings and are here complaining on forums rather than getting involved and contributing, we might not know all the information necessary to call this a failure and abort so early into their current plans. I’m not particularly happy with the corps’ immediate success either, but to call for firing without being active in the corps is a big mistake as well.

Hey bro, a few guys were asking how to get in contact with you a few days ago on the alumni FB page. I hope you're doing well.

Yes. A lady attended a drum corps show... when has that ever been worth discussing? In addition to that, criminal activity related to drum corps has been something largely ignored and there is a much more interesting topic that would be of interest to many people in the historical corps discussion that has been hushed up (which I'm guessing you are aware of) that involves a drum major of the Cadets and the eventual corps director of the Muchachos, but that topic normally gets shut up pretty quickly. Firstly, that would actually be really humorous for me, but it would be incredibly easy as I have a fairly large digital footprint dating back to at least 2004 and I've always used the same screen name, which is the name I go by in real life as well. Secondly, this article brings nothing of value to the forum.

This should be deleted... Not related to the activity

That's an "interesting" perspective. The way I saw it was Brad was one of the best, most dedicated instructors the corps could have asked for for 5 years when he was given the opportunity to pursue his dream of being an arranger for a world class corps. Most of us that had the opportunity to learn from him were sad to see him go but happy for him. I am very grateful to have had the chance to learn from him...

It is ridiculous at this point that people's suggestions for a fix is to bring back Scott Stewart. He was great for the Scouts for a very long time. He has no interest in having anything to do with DCI anymore. As a member, I always hoped that Scott would come back while I marched for one night a season and act as the corps historian and tell us stories... Lots of us did. He is not interested in doing that even. He would be a terrible fit for the current activity and for the current corps. He is a great person, but it would never work. There is no point in even bringing it up. Dann and Chris are fantastic. The corps had an off year as far as design goes. Deal with it! It happens! Learn from it and move on. The talent level and level of achievement were both far beyond anything I ever saw in my years. It's so funny to me... Almost every day I still think about my years with the corps and I draw on experiences I had. Those experiences have an impact on almost every day of my life. When people started talking about the Scouts placements this year, it made me think of what mine were... I couldn't remember them. I thought we were 11th place in 2008. I thought we were 12 place in 2010 and that we were 9th place in 2011... All of those were wrong. It doesn't matter though. It didn't matter then, and it doesn't matter now.

Meh... You're being kind of short sighted. Having marched a co-Ed corps and Madison for 4 years, the absence of girls is not really noticed. The fun of cutting loose with a bunch of guys more than makes up for not having girls. In addition, you see plenty of girls on the road from other corps and it is not uncommon for relationships to form. I also road the guard bus at Spirit and at Madison (all 4 years) and even being a heterosexual guy, I can honestly say the bus rides were much more fun at Madison.

Perhaps if you got involved, you would see how your posts on DCP do more harm than good and you could actually have a positive impact on the corps.

The way it was in the years that I marched, some of the instructors would only be at camps, or just for every days, or a mixture of camps, every days, and tour. Only a few were on staff for every camp, every days, and tour. I also think that the admin had a minimum amount of time off that they required every staff member to take so that they wouldn't get tour fatigue and they could get away and come back with a fresh set of eyes.

When I marched with Spirit from JSU in 2007, we did for camps. I think we also did a few rehearsals on the parking lot during move-ins, but most of the time we were on turf.

The uniform was the same from 2010-2011 and mostly the same from 2008-2009.

I highly doubt you will find anyone that marched under his instruction at Madison that would share your sentiment.

Each show since Jim Mason took over as artistic director has been more challenging than the previous year. There needs to be a foundation built before jumping in to shows that feature that level of difficulty. I thought this year's horn book was a huge step up, and I think the visual looked more demanding as well.