LoveKathyG

I've worked in higher education for 36 years. One of my reporting units is student conduct. I understand.

How dare you?!?!?!? How DARE you make such a sweeping generalization?? THIS music educator would like a retraction of this statement I wouldn't expect music educators to be experts in student conduct. It's a complex and challenging field of work that people devote entire careers to mastering. Music educators shouldn't have to possess that level of expertise. Let the music educators do music education and let the people who are expert in handling sexual assaults, harassment and misconduct take care of those cases.

So many thoughts and questions... Taking the reporter's account at face value, why wasn't the respondent told to stay away from the reporter while an investigation was going on? That's de regueur with any investigation. Or if he was told to keep his distance unbeknownst to the reporter, why wasn't his comings and goings monitored and addressed when he violated the stay-away direction? I get that you can't immediately dismiss a respondent when an allegation is made, but you can certainly take better care to protect the reporter. Why wasn't the staff on high alert after an initial report was made? Why wasn't the fact that the members blocked the bus driver's view during the talent show a tip-off that something wasn't right? While I acknowledge that I don't know enough about how drum corps operate on tour in the modern era, it strikes me that music educators are ill-equipped to manage issues of member conduct. Schools and universities have entire departments that are dedicated only to student conduct. The University where I work has separate departments dedicated to conduct, sexual assault, Title IX reports and investigations. (Editorially speaking, I think it's a bit of overkill, but I blame ourselves since historically we haven't done an adequate job of monitoring behavior and holding violators accountable. Finally, the government stepped in to mandate all these measures because we weren't addressing issues ourselves.) In the new era of accountability in drum corps, do corps have to have a dedicated and well-trained staff member on tour to manage these kinds of situations? If not, why not? Seems like the best way to ensure incidents like these stop is to have a DCI staff member on tour who fills this conduct role and reports only to DCI, not to corps management. The conduct role can then enact protocols developed by DCI when an incident occurs, and if the corps management doesn't comply then pre-determined sanctions can be triggered, like denial into upcoming contests until the necessary steps are taken. Again, I'm so out of the loop on how things work on tour these days and what the DCI's new accountability measures involve that maybe there are very good systems in place. It does seem inevitable, though, that bad behavior will continue until there's a pretty harsh ouch in place for violations, both for the individual respondent and the corps as a whole.

I think I'll wait to hear what their programs are before I start trying to slot them. 🙄

Ahhh! I see what you did there. Madison '83 and '84.

Makes me very sad.

More and more, by trying to stand for everything and everybody we stand for nothing and no one.

She fit the suit.

Pretty sure Blue Devils would win. Ditka would be a close second. 😜

Punk rock aliens in rolling hamster cages.

With the $4.7M grant, DCI can buy 9,400 of us a vest. Since it was my idea, I get first dibs.

Seems like these kinds of things happen at all grade levels and with all kinds of teachers. It's awful, but is there a sense that it's more prevalent with band directors or staff?

I work for a large university on the west coast with housing for about 16,000 people. The campus has already announced that there will be no conference housing this summer, which would include groups like drum corps. We're walking away from millions of dollars of revenue, but there are too many unanswered questions about how the pandemic plays out over the next few months to host outside groups summer 2021. I can't imagine that K-12 is going to be any different in terms of renting out their facilities. Maybe things are different in the Midwest and East.

An important and exciting step for the Bluecoats. Now comes the hard part - introspection on questions like why the Bluecoats and drum corps in general doesn't reflect the diversity of the greater community; what would need to happen for the the pathway to the Bluecoats Experience to be truly accessible to students from underserved and less-resourced communities; how do we select students, what are the standards we use, and are we willing to adopt measures that level the playing field even if they require us to redefine organizational success; are we striving for equal or equitable treatment of all members of the Bluecoats family? When it starts to hurt you personally...when you start to recoil a bit because you see that the changes that are needed will fundamentally change some of the things you love about the Bluecoats...that's when you know you're doing the deep work. Many organizations that start down this path don't have the intestinal fortitude to stay with it until they get to real shifts in thinking and values that result in real changes that lead to real inclusion. I'm excited and a bit scared for the Bluecoats. They've really put themselves out there, and done right, this will be a huge undertaking. It's clear they intend this work to be much deeper and more meaningful than just a policy and statement. I'll be cheering them on.

Star '93 from start to finish. So gutsy that it very possibly cost them a championship.

I don't disagree with what you've got, but I do think SCV earned their bronze last year. That said, I didn't love Crown's or Vanguard's show. Based purely on how it hit me, I'd put Boston in 3rd over CC and SCV.

I do remember Maytime Band Review. We never did it, but I do recall it being a major event. Thanks for the memory!

Wedding bands, jug bands, ska bands, studio bands, boy bands, klezmer bands,, jam bands, military bands. Band saws, banned bands, banned books, banned movies, contrabands, househusbands, broadbands (AKA girl bands), Band of Brothers. Watchbands, sweatbands, wristbands, waistbands, armbands, hairbands. And last but not least, our muy caliente amigos from the south, the saraband (or sarabande if you're fancy).

That's interesting. I marching HS band in Southern California from 76 - 80 and then my sisters marched from 81 - 87. We did field show competitions and band review in the fall and then concert festivals in the spring while drill team and flags did their own indoor competitions. Not saying you're wrong, but we never knew anything about spring competitions. Where were they?

And ban those super-expensive b-flat instruments and go back to the ultra-economic G bugles. There. I just saved the activity! 🤣

Or Sansa Clara Vanguard. Arya will be so jealous.

Blue Stirs Black Batch Boston Crusabers Spy Ryders Mouthwind Heat Rave Golden Umpire

Abe Vigoda's

The University of California campuses are cancelling all events with more than 100 attendees through the end of the academic year in June. I work for one of the campuses that hosts a lot of non-University events at our arena, including a large statewide high school dance competition. All contracts are being cancelled. We understand that USC and Stanford are doing the same. Both the Pac 12 and Big West basketball tournaments will be held without spectators. I can't believe UD is going to permit WGI to be held in their arena, but who knows?

If passed, which I sincerely hope it doesn't, it will be like all the other changes we've seen over the years. A few corps will play with it out of the gate. it will suck. Most of us will hate it. And the most competitive corps will let other blaze the trail. Give it five years, and more corps will use new instruments strategically, like they have with trombones. It will suck less. Many of us will actually like the way a few corps use it. I hated amplification until corps started editing their use of it. I didn't much like B flats until corps began to get closer to the power and volume of Gs. I didn't like the idea of trombones until I saw how corps were actually using them. I still cringe at singing and narration, though vocal soundbites as background have been used really effectively by corps like SCV and Devils. And I have a feeling I'll eventually come to appreciate non-brass instruments used in some applications. I'd still pay double for every show ticket into perpetuity to not have to endure it, though.