Ranger Rick

BDB will win, no suspense there. The real fight is for 2nd place.

http://www.dci.org/scores/?event=242da04c-...d4-e3b853a0dd7d Scores are up. Cascades dropped over a point. I know this is Open Class, but how did Oregon Crusaders drop 1.7 points in GE Music alone in one day!?

To play devil's advocate, if you think most of these schools where corps stay aren't getting paid cash money for the privilege, you are quite mistaken.

http://www.usctrojans.com/blog/2009/12/working-extra.html Anyone know who it's going to be?

Trojans still won! Booyaaaah.

Blue Devils, Phantom, Blue Stars, Pacific Crest, and Bluecoats have all auditioned rookie conductors or DMs in the past few years. Most corps would prefer veterans in these roles, but sometimes they might accept someone from outside the corps out of necessity. For some corps, this is blasphemy, as you may have inferred from some of the responses you've received. I was a rookie head drum major once. It was an extremely difficult role to fulfill on many different levels. It was also a very rare opportunity. If you really want to conduct as a rookie, you might be able to find a role as an assistant drum major or a conductor with no drum major status. For your only year in DCI, that is not an especially fulfilling role. I would suggest you find an Open Class corps that might actually need you, or you pick up an instrument, or you get a summer job. Otherwise you'll be learning a lot more about operating a Dr. Beat than leadership.

For those of us who used to be DCI drum majors, yeah, we do.

By far my favorite comment.

Asking OC corps to do marketing themselves for DCI Finals Week is fantasy. OC corps do not have the manpower or the money, are almost universally not located properly, and frankly, do not have the skill or experience. And, they never will. If only there was an organization that governed all of the OC corps and could act centrally with unification of message and pooled resources to market the events... oh wait. 25,000 drum corps fans are already IN Indianapolis during the OC shows, the cost of the tickets are a pittance compared to what these people have already spent, and they aren't doing JACK while the shows are going on! It should be so easy! Seriously, when I get my degree, I should work for DCI.

I would argue (vehemently) that it hurt us (former Div III corps) by reducing reward incentives for members. I think the full implication that the restructuring was more than just a marketing strategy, but the elimination of a division and all that comes with it for every member in that division was not seriously considered. Would Oregon have had better recruiting this year if they had come back with gold medals, rings, and a title instead of a pat on the back for what would have been the highest Div III score of the millennium? Such questions cannot be answered.

Some things that have been said here are offensive and ignorant. Who are you to say what the Oregon Crusaders have and have not purchased? Do you know something that others do not? Please, enlighten us. Is this how you think housing for Open Class corps works? If the show organizers have finished arranging housing for HALF of OC's upcoming shows I'll eat my shako. You don't know what it's like to run a drum corps out of the NW. If Oregon takes a year off, they're as good as gone. Cascades survived a year off, yes, but they lost most of their old membership base and are VERY small for a WC corps despite having taken over an entire OC corps. What kept them alive was a bailout from old debts, and the World Class brand to recruit members. The result? A corps apparently destined to finish dead last by a sizable margin. I take no pleasure in saying that, Cascades boosters, but that is what I project, honestly. Without the World Class brand, Cascades wouldn't receive the DCI royalties and wouldn't have enough members to compete. Oregon doesn't have these luxuries. Oregon needs to field year after year or they're gone, and that means drum corps in Oregon is gone FOREVER. This isn't about directors putting scores over financial responsibility, this is about people who love this American art form and work hundreds of hours for little or no pay so young adults can experience what it means to be in a touring drum and bugle corps. We're in a serious economic crisis that has hit the NW hard, and the Crusaders are still 80% self-sufficient. 80% isn't good enough, but it's a miracle that they're doing this well. Perhaps it's not responsible to attempt a tour under the circumstances, but a year off will kill drum corps in Oregon forever. An economist would say it shouldn't be done. But it must be done anyway. Some corps could fill nearly half their budget if every living alumni gave $100 a year. Oregon is 10 years old, and has never been large. They have no such resource. It takes a lot of guts to accuse a corps of mismanagement and irresponsibility when you know little or nothing about their specific situation. You say 'encourage irresponsibility,' I say save an art form. There's an ocean between me and my corps right now, so I'm a little out of the loop, but I know the men and women who run this group and are they are intelligent, responsible, caring individuals who have always put the health and safety of their members first, people who understand art AND business, and people who are willing to do anything, ANYTHING to make this tour happen. I'm going to say something that I shouldn't, from a business perspective. Even if OC doesn't raise the full $50,000 at that dinner, I think the tour will happen anyway. Someone will sell their car, or their boat; someone will make an extreme sacrifice to make this happen. They will do this because they know that the value of a year of drum corps for sixty of the finest young men and women in the NW is worth a hell of a lot more than $50,000. And they know that these years where 40 members quit during camps because their families can't provide the money will soon end. The corps must go on. Of course I encourage you all to donate anyway, as I will. My brief two years as a member of the Oregon Crusaders give me strength and confidence each and every day of my life. I can meet any challenge, because I am an Oregon Crusader. No obstacle is too great, because I am an Oregon Crusader. I take offense to things that have been said here. If you truly support drum and bugle corps, you should know better than to disparage your greatest allies. Sincerely Former Marching Member, Rick J. Vranish Drum Major Oregon Crusaders 2007-2008

Don't blame drum corps. Marching band has changed far more over the last 30 years to become more like drum corps than drum corps has changed to become like marching band.

I've known this was coming for a while, but I am still absolutely astonished by the level of instructional talent they were able to put together. Every person on staff is the very best in the NW. Vern was in the Blast! Battery Battle for crying out loud! This group will be competitive nationally.

Ms. Sullens is with the Oregon Crusaders now.

Tough economic times last winter cost us a lot of members. I am concerned. The saving grace is that gas prices are dropping too.

Mike, Check out the schedule which is now up on www.oregoncrusaders.org. The fees have also been posted in the member handbook; I'm surprised that we managed to keep them so low.

All I know is, if this sort of thing happened in my band, the discipline would be handled without the public ever hearing a word. The bad press for UW suspending the band is far worse than the damage the few individuals in the band who screwed up could have done to the reputation of the the university on their own.

It took about 2 hours for us, yeah. I think we did 9 takes. They wanted 6 takes just for video and 3 takes just for audio. And they had to move the big boom camera around a lot. It was about 80 degrees, so it was pretty obnoxious.

Our band has a rule that I think some corps should pick up on... "You can get on the bus, and you can get off the bus, but you can't get off on the bus."

You can't record a 320 member band on a flat field with one boom mike. A lot of bands raise their own money and pay for everything (EVERYTHING) themselves.

They just scheduled a series between USC and Syracuse in 2011 and 2012. Do you know if the band is going to LA your senior year?

Finances are a concern. My band travels long distances as a full group of 300+ 1-3 times per year. On top of it, members pay NO dues. Needless to say, you're looking at a multi-million dollar a year organization. There are very, very, very few other bands who have these opportunities. Most bands have little support from the higher ups at their universities and function as a plaything of a disdainful athletic department, praying for a bowl game. Most bands could only dream of our fundraising resources. Another band in our conference had to charge their members hundreds of dollars to do a trip to another school in that conference. It's such a different beast than competitive high school band or drum corps. Besides, there is only one measure for how good a college band is: how much the student body / alumni appreciates them.

Oregon Crusaders had 1 ageout.

I saw it at the SCVC food table after retreat. It is a brand new trophy.

The crane operator was a maniac. I stood about 5 yards from him at full retreat in front of Vanguard's block, and he would stick his camera literally an inch in front of their faces to see if they would break.