cixelsyd

If that is the case, then the 7 should participate in recreating the local/regional circuits - since they were the ones who insisted in folding them into DCI in the first place.

Sounds good. But the 7, to my knowledge, have no intention of doing anything of the sort. They have, however, proposed withdrawing "real service" from open class up front, before there are any reconstructed local/regional circuits for them to fall back on.

Well, if the "Music in Motion, Inc." really is not being used, maybe that can be the new open class circuit.

Again, DCA is a national circuit. That means that like DCI, their focus is going to be on the all-age activity at the national level. Their voting membership will be corps that qualify at the national level, largely determined by placement at the national/world championship. Those corps will direct DCA rule and policy making toward the agenda of national level corps, not local/regional corps. My previous post was not specific enough - sorry.

Sort of. I think it was more of a habit that developed back in ancient times. Field competition was still being organized in the 1920s. The first few American Legion national championship contests were judged parades. Their first field contest was the 1924 finals, but the preliminary contest was still a parade, and "field drill" was essentially just parading around on grass instead of the street. Prelims became a field event for the first time in 1928. From what I have read, the prelim contests way back then appear to have been completed in a single day, and show length varied at times to accomodate the number of corps in the competition. As we know, things were quite different in the 1960s. Field programs were more complex, and the idea of a preliminary contest taking more than one day had occurred in both Legion (1966) and VFW (1969). Still, both of those organizations had prelim timing requirements that forced corps to cut portions of their drill (not just concert). Go figure.

In case you were not aware, DCA is also a national circuit. There are no local or regional circuits in operation anymore.

Please - we hear enough baseless fearmongering from the political class these days. It already is subsidized by outside revenues. It always has been, and it always will be. Did you just come to this realization this week? No wonder you are in a panic! The same was said a few years ago. But look - DCI is still here!

I take the last phrase with a grain of salt. But before that, are you serious in suggesting that judges will give different scores than they would have otherwise just because the show is also part of a NASCAR style cumulative point system? If so, they cannot both be correct, so would the sincere judging be with or without the NASCAR?

I understand all of that. This whole tangent originated from my response to a previous post of yours, where you said: Thought I sensed an inference from you that if any one, two or three corps (or even seven) grow to the point of being capable of creating the "next big thing", as you call it, something with open market drawing potential of its own (i.e. Blast), that DCI should be serving as the launching pad or incubator for their derivative product. I replied merely to point out that DCI is a drum corps circuit, not a search for the "next big thing", and that the 13 founders of DCI intended for the circuit to serve at least 13 corps. Nowhere along the way did I contend that the original intent of DCI was to treat Blue Saints the same as Blue Devils.

You are correct.

DCI was founded with 13 charter members, not what I would call "a few". Their dream was to enable themselves to travel to a national/"world" championship annually, a relatively new concept at the time. Their plan to achieve that goal was to increase their share of the financial pie, even if that meant running the championship and sanctioning the tour themselves to earn that money. Their most important lesson learned* was that they needed more than 13 corps to participate to connect the dots and make a viable nationwide tour. * - admittedly, it is no longer clear whether current DCI directors have all learned that lesson.

Looking at last year, the placement order was the same at every TOC show except for Cadets and PR. Cumulative scoring based on that would be no more interesting.

Good for you. There is an open BOD spot with DCI, if you are interested. Then I guess it was kind of disingenuous when you said "who really cares who owns what and how they do things".

Sorry, you are correct. I should have said this: Aside from "The 7" self-selecting the lineup and getting all the money, these are normal shows.

Well, then, make that the next trivia question. Who were the two corps in 1972 finals with 34 horns? I remember that. Had I not counted heads, I would not believe there were only 47 brass.

There were a couple of 34-horn lines in 1972. But if we are starting in 1975, I would guess the 1975 Troopers with 42 horns.

Technically, there were four AG corps competing at the 1968 U.S. Open. Royaleers and Sweethearts were in open class, while Catholic Daughters and Eaglettes finished 1-2 in class A.

The part about not being punished is not correct. The reason for the confusion, as I understand it, is because this age rule violation was not discovered until several months after the season was over. Even the LPs had been pressed by that time with Les Eclipses included, so many people never became aware that the corps was stricken from their DCI placement and rendered a non-member corps. The 1985 corps had to book whatever tour shows they could get as a non-member corps, and thus often appeared first in the performance order.

How about the following - what do these mean? Page 1 of G7 Report: "ideas for change from 7 of the corps of Drum Corps International" Page 2 of G7 Report: "We have the backings of our boards, we have discussed matters in depth, and we are united in our goals." Sounds like full endorsement to me.

So if it was said in the DCI boardroom, and you were not there to hear it, it was not really said at all? What leads you to call the proposal "possibly incomplete"? All 66 pages of the PowerPoint were posted online. Also pretty sure it was seven corps, not "a couple". Says so on the first page. Some theorize, though, that only two authors really had meaningful input. Unless that also proves unpopular, in which case you will wait one day, then say that we cannot be sure the G7 still hold those views.

And it was not just in 2010. Back about 10 years ago, when Fiedler was either posting here or having interviews presented here, he made comments about how what we now call open class was being "subsidized" by the member corps, as if this was an undesirable state of affairs.

It became an issue among the general public here on DCP when posts defended the various G7/The 7 concepts by contending that these 7 corps had unique abilities that would improve outcomes for all corps, if only we let them run a series of shows separate from DCI in every po$$ible way including a separate corporation, but still under the DCI brand. So now we are wondering if that is still happening. If not, what will save us? After all, you just told us that all but a handful of corps will fold in the next few years if nothing is done. Oh, sorry - our mistake. But in order to stop caring, we will need to ignore all of your posts - past, present and future. You sure?

Okay. So aside from "The 7" getting all the money, they are normal shows.

Why do you assume that if a kid does not march elsewhere, that no other corps excites them? Maybe they lack the means to travel to a more distant corps. Maybe they try for other corps and again fail to make the line.

I see. DCI has lots of corporate sponsors. But I guess by "major" sponsor, you mean one that will put up seven figures to underwrite the cost of the tour? Now that would be delusional, as you say. If a major corporate sponsor was such a possibility, the Music in Motion, Inc. people would have signed one and we would be eagerly awaiting their 2013 tour. My comment about DCI doing well was in a financial context. I agree that judging is an area where change would be welcome.