cixelsyd

That explains it. Woodwinds were proposed by hackers!

Speaking of outbreaks - COVID-19 is nothing compared to ROBOCALLER-18. The do-not-call registry helps some. If you want relative peace, you have to turn off the ringers on your phones and let all calls go to voice mail/answering machine. Screening calls with a long pickup delay is also helpful. Many robocalls give up at four rings, while legitimate callers wait seven. Try setting your answering machine to pick up after five or six rings.

I was going to say - this thread is not done until it mentions Illinois State Fair, and McCormick Place.

Only if they have 30 people working on the same property.

What virus? (Sorry, distracted by thoughts of that Phantom Regiment hornline. What powerful performers!)

Speaking of which, I would think the financial impact to drum corps depends on when people can come within six feet of each other again. This extends beyond merely audiences, but to auditions/camps and many fundraising activities (i.e. bingo). So when will that be? Must we wait in our caves until a vaccine is widely deployed, or do we come out sooner? How many of us, and how much sooner? Will it vary with location? Will corps in hotspots be sitting out longer? Will the 2021 tour have to avoid hotspots? Will it vary with age and/or risk factors? Will corps and camps resume, but without some of the elder or at-risk people who volunteer or buy tickets?

I must be missing something here. RIght now, many of us cannot "spend money where we want". Many businesses are closed by government order. Travel restrictions and advisories limit our movement. Some face quarantine or isolation, a far greater such restriction. This time is a reminder that as humans, a species vulnerable to viruses, one of our necessary defenses against a pandemic is to restrict movement and association... to self-isolate on individual, local and national levels. It is a reminder that individuals, locales and nations should therefore aspire to be more self-sufficient so that they CAN self-isolate when necessary. Suggesting that when this is over, we support our local businesses, or even extend that support nationwide, is not "ethnocentrism". If it is, then I guess supporting Drum Corps International, a US-based circuit whose participating corps are almost exclusively US in origin, is "ethnocentrism" as well. That makes this whole forum "really gross".

The opposition I see seems to be based on two factors. 1. Rules are rules. The age rule has been the single most hard-fought, controversial rule in drum corps history. Several of our greatest-ever corps have had their seasons snuffed out over it, while another such corps settled for second place behind a corps that was forgiven for two overage marchers. None of the age-eligible kids in those corps were offered a bonus year. Rules are there for reasons. If there were no reasons, then we could just repeal the rule. 2. Nothing is fair. Not saying this to be mean - just stating an observation. Trying to make it fair for some people inevitably makes it unfair for someone else. It would be unfair if 2020 ageouts were denied their final/only season in the manner of current events. But it then becomes unfair to give them special treatment with another year of eligibility, where the class of 2020 takes spots away from the class of 2021. And no matter how many more exceptions we make, whoever is left out gets short-changed. We could permanently bump the age limit up one year, and it would still be retroactively unfair to the class of 2019, 2018... all DCI alumni. An exception for the coronavirus shutdown is unfair when the World War II shutdown of VFW/AL state and national field competitions had no such provisions.

Just showing where the logical* extension of this mindset leads.

And then everybody who gets cut in 2021, 2022, 2023... until all the Johnnys and Jennys age out... should get another year.

"Preparedness". So that is how you describe it now. I will take note of that. (And do not sound so disappointed.)

You still have not identified the "opportunity" that can only be achieved by rushing out plans for 2021 eight months and two apocalypses in advance.

2021 plans? No one knows when this will truly be "over". If a vaccine is 18 months off, the entire 2021 season faces many questions that no one can answer today. You are aware that they are reorganizing, right? And what is the rush? What is lost if they make 2021 membership policy decisions next week instead of this week?

Last time I checked, the 2019 shows "with audio" only had bits and pieces of audio. Fake news.

Now I wish DCI had delayed cancellation of the 2020 season until next week, so that every related announcement could have contained this news once it is signed into law.