NWguardparent

That would be correct. The Madison Scouts tried to bring out a world guard "Fluer De Lis" that would basically roll the existing NxNW group into them. That fell through and then NxNW tried to come back out but after auditions I guess they decided to call it quits or take a season off. Cascades Independent tried to come back out (the Drum Corps guard staff this time.. not the first people who did cascades ind then turned it into NxNW) but also had to call it quits due to low turn out not making the budget work. These groups are all here in the Porltand area. Rhapsody is from Seattle. I guess they have 4 ensembles now as as a part of their organization. World Guard, A guard, Regional A guard, and the Rhapsowiggles a very very young prep group. I don't know what it is. Portland has more Scholastic groups and percussion groups than the smaller Seattle Circuit, but we have no Independent groups here for High School students to aspire to! Thankfully Rhapsody is coming down here for the regional and alot of Portland/Vancouver kids end up in seattle for college and still have opportunities to march past HS.

The New World guard out of the NW(Seattle), Rhapsody, is doing a Vampire show.. I hear they're out for blood....

Update: It now appears that due to staffing changes at Scouts Fluer De Lis won't be coming out. However, their website oddly enough directs you to the NxNW winterguard auditions and page. I find that a bit strange for the Scouts organization to do but cest la vie. The NxNW website has audition info up, but still doesn't have anything other than a membership listing at wgi.org.

Interesting about NxNW registering as a member. They certainly don't have any audition information on WGI or on their website.

What? NEi is in Florida. We're talking about groups in OR and WA.

To any Madison Scouts Administrative Staff: I have now seen for myself recruitment emails being sent to High School students. Also a large part of the staff at Fluer De Lis comes from ANOTHER portland guard that is folding (apparently into Fluer De Lis. It goes like this Cascades Ind -> NxNW -> Fluer De Lis. Theyre all essentially the same guard with the same staff. Unfortunately here in Portland we can't seem to get any sense of stability within our circuit or Ind. Ensembles) and that guard and staff are known to recruit students OUT of High School Programs. I did not think that was ever the intention with Independent Units (Except in rare cases where a student and their parent specifically asks for a scholastic release to be signed). In fact WGI strongly discourages this practice.

As a colorguard parent from the NW I have to say I am highly highly disappointed in the Madison Scout organization. The Pacific NW is barely ready and able to support 1 world guard (We have 2 as the 2 local Open guards got 1st and 7th at WGI and both were bumped to world class for next year) let alone 3 world guards! If the madison scouts wanted to start a winterguard they should have tried doing it in their own backyards! This move can ONLY be detrimental to the small winterguard scene in the NW. We need succesfully run (on and off the floor) quality winterguards. Here it is DEFINITELY about quality over quantity for the time being. Perhaps as NxNW and Rhapsody become more and more succeful the high school programs will also grow and someday we'll be able to support 3 world guards but for now.. I only see disaster in the future for all these programs! For Shame!