CallipygianKing

Yes! Congratulations to Alliance for a WELL DESERVED CHAMPIONSHIP! You have a fantastic organization with wonderful people, and I'm just so happy to see you guys get the win. Hmmmm... Little historical coinkydinks.... '05: Chops in 1st, Alliance in 3rd '06: Chops & Alliance stuck in a bathroom for an hour as storm passes through prelims, both out of finals '08: Alliance in 1st, Chops in 3rd Methinks our fates are connected in some way.

I had the pleasure of seeing you guys multiple times this year, and this was the most I've been entertained by a Kilties show. Thank you! Can't wait to see what you bring to the field in '09.

Many thanks! Well, he is entertaining in many ways, on and off the field. It's the "off the field" ones that we keep him around for. Like lawn mowing and rum drinking.

Gracias. The fact that you (and others) had a good time and enjoyed our performance is why we do it.

Hopefully all this rain clears up before rehearsal. In the meantime, I have stuff to prepare for the week ahead of me in Rochester (yeah for the mother-in-law living out there that throws the corps a party after I&E).

Do you know who you are?

It's not an issue of "substituting" full membership. It's an issue of the possibility of a corps that has set a goal of being Class A Champion, a goal that they are hoping to use in their DCI-centric part of the nation outside of the NE to their advantage when it comes to recruiting and fundraising, and not being able to obtain that goal, ironically because the judges see the corps as too good. It's an issue of having different definitions of success. Making 10th place in Open Class seems to be of no benefit if the only DCA show your corps can attend is the Championship. Bragging about being a DCA Open Class Finalist means nothing when the majority of your fans have no clue what DCA is, and especially now will probably equate DCA's Open Class with DCI's Open (ie, lower) Class. DCA is a niche of a niche activity, especially outside of the NE. DCA needs to be truly national and truly accepted by all drum corps fans as being worthy of their attention as DCI for any of the multiple DCA corps floating alone in the sea of DCI-centric fans for any member corps outside of the NE to reap the full-time benefits that corps in the NE get. I'm not trying to belittle DCA, I'm just saying that until the fans in my neck of the woods get just excited about the Buccaneers as they do the Madison Scouts or Phantom Regiment, being a full member of DCA has diminishing benefits. Then again, I don't see this as being an either-or issue. If a declared Class A corps makes it into the top ten in prelims, then they are a full voting member of DCA. It's in the rules that membership is based on prelims placement. I don't think that this hypothetical corps should choose between membership and a shot at the Class A championship. In fact, the rules are quite clear that said corps can go back to Class A the next season. They should be able to go back on finals night. They have their membership. They have all these wonderful benefits that everyone from the NE has been singing about. Let them try and get their medal, encore, and championship if that's what they think will be the best for the future of their corps. You speak of the betterment of DCA. Well, DCA essentially is its members... What kind of organization would welcome a new member with open arms on the condition that the member gives up what they feel they need to thrive as a corps? What worked for the CorpsVets won't necessarily work for other corps. "One size fits all" is a terrible, stifling mentality. AMEN! In fact, your whole post, with the financial burdens of flying out to meetings and everything else was just wonderful. Well stated. Um... Since when do Class A corps vote on anything? Last I heard, the only corps in DCA that could vote on any decisions regarding the rules was the top ten, ie, the Open Class corps.

Not slacking... Just visiting the parents. And attending my 10-year high school reunion. And not being at a computer at all.

True. It is definitely frustrating that a competing corps isn't allowed to define themselves as they see fit. Hopefully this will be taken up at the Rules Congress in January.

Shhhh... Bump...

I'll keep bumping until you show up. You know who you are.

I love bumping!

That's right, the season is ending so very quickly! At the end of this month, actually, and far away from our Minnesota fans. So, Chops is putting out an open invitation for anyone and everyone that is a drum corps fan to come on out to our last rehearsal in the state before the corps hops a bus for the 20-hour ride out to Rochester, NY. From 6pm-10pm, we'll be at the St. Louis Park High School Football Field, at the corner of Dakota Ave. and Lake Street in St. Louis Park. Just get on Highway 7 and turn north on Wooddale Ave. (the intersection is west of Hwy 100 and east of Hwy 169), then hang a left onto Lake, or click here for the location on Google Maps. What will you expect to see? Well, if you show up early you can catch warm-ups and sectionals, if you show up about halfway through you can catch visual coordination, or if you show up toward the end you can catch full ensemble coordination and the final run-throughs. IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE LAST FULL RUN OF THE SHOW BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR NEW YORK, SHOW UP NO LATER THAN 9PM! That way you can get situated in the stands. Come one! Come all! Come check out Chops before we go off to the DCA World Championships!

I doubt that anyone with even a basic understanding of how the system works would wave their Class A Champion medal in the face of, say, members from the 6th place Open Class corps and say they're better. Flaunting the championship comes down to what Jim said: When you're from a part of the country that the typical drum corps fans don't really know what DCA is, if they've even heard of it at all, then using the word "champion" is often a better recruiting tool than "10th place". Especially outside of the NE, DCA is still a niche of a niche activity, and if a small corps can take the c-word and use it to their advantage to earn a little more respect in their part of the country and, even better, use it to draw more people into their organization, then I feel it's wrong to take that opportunity away from them if that's what they want. Yes, the greater accomplishment is obvious. But sometimes it's not the greater accomplishment that is best for your corps, but the greater opportunity.

I said that? I was talking about this hypothetical Class A corps that gets into the top ten. That corps should have their vote and the option to still try for the Class A championship instead of Open Class if they so choose. On one of the other threads discussing this, someone pointed out that the Class A champion doesn't automatically get a vote because the ten best corps in DCA are the ones meant to be the voting members (as per the last rule change on membership). Let's say that this year the scores end up splitting Open and A evenly. That means that the corps that's at the top of Class A is actually in 13th place in prelims, and if they're given a vote that means they're bypassing two better corps. Looking at it that way, it sounds fair enough to me.

You've marched in a drum corpse from Connecticut? (Appropriate sound effect.)

I want both. The rules state that the top 10 corps in prelims are the official voting members receiving all the benefits that come with it. So, once a corps that has declared Class A gets into the top ten at prelims, they should get the benefits no matter what. BUT, they should be given a CHOICE after that. Is it better for their corps to flaunt the championship of the lower class or be counted amongst the big boys? Are the members going to revel in being finalists amongst the best of the best that DCA has to offer, or are they going to look over at the A champion with their shiny medals and encore performance and think, "That's what WE wanted!"? That's a choice that's currently out of the hands of the corps. IF I were the one running my small corps outside of the DCA Homeland (the NE), I would definitely want the medal and the encore and the ability to bring that home and wave those credentials around. For selfish reasons, I'd like to have a second medal up on the shelf. I'd love to let it all out on the field for an encore; one more time performing. For recruiting and promotional reasons, I'd love for us to throw around the "champion" word. Plenty of people want to be a part of the winning team, so that can pull a lot of weight, especially when being a DCA fan is a small niche crowd in a small niche activity. Of course, the next series of questions are... If a corps is in this situation and chooses to go for the Class A championship, what will they do for Open Class finals? Will they just have 9 corps? Will they let the 11th place corps perform? Will that 11th place corps be in exhibition, or will they actually compete? What if that 11th place corps competes and makes it into 9th place? Should there be 11 voting members, then? Them's my two cents.

Join Chops. We still wear the Aloha Jackets in parades!

Not everything on a uniform NEEDS to be seen from the box. Frankly, little details like this are a real treat for those who enjoy getting up close to the corps. I'm not a big fan of "if it can't be seen from the box, don't bother" mentality. But this year's uniform was flat-out awesome. It's unique, and it really does well to link them to the Boy Scouts IMHO. Count me in as part of the "they need white pants" crowd, but that can wait for a year or two when they don't need to hide their feet behind dark green as much. Bravo, Scouts. Keep this look. Make it the new definitive look for Madison.

Any chance you could start a new thread with an Inspires update for all of us, then? Tell us what's all going on, what shows you've been playing, any uniform changes, any excitement that's happened for the Inspires over there?

I think the poster meant that if Alliance (or any other declared Class A corps) were to score high enough for Open Class finals they don't have a choice but to be in Open Class according to the rules, no matter how much they might want that Class A championship.

I think Gary has it right on this one: And it was opened recently on... ...this thread. ...this thread. ...and this thread. I suppose it could be rehashed here (insert George Hopkins in Pasedena joke), so why don't we all grab out sticks and belly up to the dead horse?

That's not exactly true. What if the corps in Class A that scores the highest ends up in Open Class? They won't win in their own class because they're not in it anymore, and it's very likely that they won't win Open. Finally... Jeff isn't 100% right with his predictions!

Gracias! Excellent review, too...

I, for one, will be anxious to see the results from Reading next week, just to see where the three NE Class A corps end up in the rankings. They all had the weekend off, and I'm sure they were keeping an eye on us, too. But with 3 of the upper 7 A corps looking to make one last mark for a good prelims placement, well, insert any random comment about them wanting to kick ### and take names here. Declared Class A 10- 82.538 Alliance (Alpharetta, GA 8/17) --Open Class Finalists Cut-Off-- 14- 79.338 (0.2) Chops, Inc. (South St. Paul, MN 8/17) 15- 77.550 Fusion Core (Kingston, NY 8/9) 16- 77.325 Govenaires (South St. Paul, MN 8/17) 17- 75.538 White Sabers (Kingston, NY 8/9) --Class A Finalists Cut-Off-- 18- 73.363 SoCal Dream (Freemont, CA DCI 7/20) 19- 73.075 Grenadiers (Waterloo, NY 8/2) And, of course, let's not even talk about Dream. Wild card, stealth mode, etc. etc. etc. Their month-old score is still keeping them in just the right position to get themselves a finals spot, so... If you're a fan of theirs, I wouldn't worry too much, if you're fighting to take that spot from them, you probably should worry.