Gabe92

You how it works... blame all you can on the others! lol If memory serve me well, we did arrive there around 14h/14h30 for a show start at 17h? We were on a rush not because we were late but because everybody knew that we needed to stay on schedule every step of the way to gain maximum time everywhere. A few things to consider along the way... It would have been best for us to get to Manchester the night before but the city often have problem offering housing and as a team player, we do our part by not to asking the sponsor to spend a few extra thousand $$$ on housing while home is only 4h30 away. Leaving on tour for 24 days (2016) on that very morning makes it difficult because leaving on time the first morning of tour IS always a challenge. The corps is not in training so kids come from home with the usual consequence. People shows up too tight to be able to leave on time. First travel of the year, everything is not lock up. Moms and dads want to kiss good bye.... Etc etc etc. Border: Border is a stress for 2 reasons. You don't know how long it's gonna take to cross if any officer have a bad morning that day ... And you don't know how long it's gonna take to get to the border, depending on how many people want to cross at the same time as us. The last mile before entering USA could take 15 minutes or 2 hours. First show of the year with half a corps who has never done any marching competition in their life... you want as much time as you can to prepair. So 3 hours before a show on tour is way too long. But 3 hours before the first show ever for half the corps, comprise of 13-17 years old kids is tight. Now, we can leave at 3h00 AM and avoid all this, but what you gain in border crossing and prep time at the show site, you lose it on the other side by being exausted before you even start the tour. All in all, I think we took the right guess for the corps we had in hand (age, experience, vehicules, staff, volunteers, housing cost, etc.). I hope you don't mind the long post but at least it give you a look from inside the corps. Which I am always please to share!

The corps is not inactive. Suspension of rehearsal and withdraw of the summer schedule has nothing to do with the minimum requirement. As stated by BigW, drum corps in Canada have outgrew the traditional sponsors. To survive corps had to find extra source of revenus. In the case of the Stentors since 2001, that extra revenus has come from our lobster dinner (started during the Academie Musicale period 1983-2000). History of that dinner is quite something. It started small with 300 guests in the basement of a church to an high point of 2000 guests in 1994 and still going strong with a bit more than 1700 guests just 2 weeks ago. It became so big that even the Prime Minister of Quebec have joined us in 2007 and Canada's leader of the official opposition two years later. Banks calls in to know the "date" in order to plan for national meeting with a "night out" with us or to make sure their calendar allow them to be in attendance. Nearly 3 tons of lobster are cooked and served in 2-3 hours. A spectacular sight! It started with a team of parents, but when their kids moved along, so did the parents. It rapidly became a "Francoeur" thing. And mostly has been since 1984. Last november, out of nowhere, Mr Francoeur died of a hart attack. Came January... Mrs Francoeur entered hospital for 5 five coronary artery bypass. You now have a corps director who has to take care of his mom, replace his parents in running the lobster dinner and the family manufacture. The decision to withdraw have been made to allow me to take those challenges succesfully and secure the financial future of the corps. Trying to do more would have been a corps suicide... Now, 1 of the next 3 things could have save the season: 1) Having people ready to rise in leadership and invest the require time to fullfill the empty space. Leading a drum corps, whatever the size, is no easy task anymore. No one felt ready to invest 20-30-40 hours a week, every week. 2) Having 100 members in the roster. That would have provide for more volunteers but also stimulate people that is was worth it to invest a large portion of time in running the corps while not having to worry about membership. 3) Having sufficient funds to hire capable people to lead the corps for 1 year (at least). Here you have to take in consideration that somebody with the require qualities would have to leave a "safe" and well paid job for a "not so safe" job that required way more time but also a much wider and complex knowledge on multiple subject. However, with a 80 000$ salary we may had been able to find somebody for 1 year. Not sure still!! Nothing here was a secret at any time during the decision process. Parents, members, friends and sponsors have been notified by meeting, e-mail, facebook and phone calls at the beginning of February. 2 weeks after my mom surgery... and 2 weeks before the first camp of the season. From personal perspective, it was not a fun decision to take, nor to annonce. But on the good side, since then, about 20 (additional) persons have joined committees and work weekly in order to use that time to build a stronger organization. There is at least 1 meeting a week (except for the lobster month) and the corps is very active on many levels to prepare for 2019. Gabe Francoeur President Stentors

Border story are always exagerated... probably because it make for a more spectacular story to tell!!! To my knowledge, the Stentors never had any trouble crossing eitheir way. Time have changed. So yes, we now need passport (16 years old and over) and yes we all need to get down the bus, get inside the office for a passport scan which take about 30 secondes each (3-4 officers a the same time to proceed everyone). We categorize as "difficult" when an officer ask 3-4 questions, or a kid forget his passport home, or when they look inside the kitchen trailer. All in all, it takes between 15 and 30 minutes everytime for the entire corps. It actualy take way more than that in any airport of the world. But we still make stories... and they get exagerated a lot while traveling in the stands. Now we sometime wait in car lane for an hour before reaching the bus exit to custom. That is another story. Of course, as an organizer, there is a major stress as there is not much we can do if somebody wants to be a j.... to us. We do bring food... the entire tour food (1 month) accross the border and follow all the direction the border office provide on their website. We do have refugee now in the corps as well as a lot of people with foreign origin. That makes it a bit harder on paper work prior to crossing. And... sometime... an officer (who's having a gun) is having a bad day and enjoy to play tough on a 13 years old, 85 pound kids who doesn't speak english. That is sad and always become a legend! But it wouln'd refrain the corps to enter USA. It is just sad that somebody feel the needs to show their power to well behave and polite kids who is already quiet and shy to be in there.

Great post BigW! I agree with a lot of it. Quebec indeed have a great indoor season with a lot of winter guard and a rapidly growing drumline circuit. We went from 1 show (drumline) about 3-4 years ago with 3-4 drumline (+ competing team from Ontario) to a 3 shows season and a championship of approx 15 drumline a few weeks ago. FAMQ still run a two days happening with the summer unit from all horizon in 2 differents cities. The Stentors started it in 2011 if my memory serve me well. FAMQ co-organise it now with whoever is the corps sponsor. We try to move from city to city every few years to give everyone the opportunity to shine home!

That's for sure!!! While I can't talk for the entire province of Quebec, in and around town here, I see a decrease of approx. -75% of the music programs in about every school since the time when I started to visit them for recruitment purpose in 1993 (25 years).

Thanks for your good words. I understand your point of view as I am myself a traditionalist. The pressure to change and add equipement often come from ourself except when it's really broken. Believe me when we buy things here, it's for the long run! However there is other source of pressure such as housing, food, gas, insurance, transportation, ect.

Xandandl, Merci beaucoup... ;-) It's in Canadian $$. Let say you make a 30$ donation, only about 22$US will taken on your credit card (0,70$US = 1$ CAN) Of course we also accept more from those who can!

I specifically choose the World Class forum in order to reach as much people as possible. The Stentors drum and bugle corps have launch their first annual donation campaign on August 13. The goal is simple: raise enough funds to replace aging instruments. While many may not know who are the Stentors or have never witness us live, we have the priviledge to be the sole Canadian representative in competition. We are also the smallest corps on the field (33 in 2017), with the smallest fees (700$ US), one of the longest DCI tour amongst our Open class peers (31 days last summer), we probably do it with the the smallest budget out there but also play with the oldest instrument! We are still using G bugles, many bought by Star of Indiana in the falls of 1984!!! We have been receive with enthousiasm everywhere we went last summer despite our small size and lower age of our members. As we are turning 30 in 2018, we launch our campaign 30 DAYS to raise 30 000$ for our 30th Anniversary. There is 2 weeks left and much more to raise to get to our goal. We pride ourself on being responsable and operate within our means. But with the raising cost of fuel, food, housing, and such, replacing instrument become a challenge that we can overcome with your help. Most people just follow the lead of the campaign and give 30$. Just imagine the 30 000 people attending championship, each giving 30$. What a difference it would make to us! It would not only replace aging instrument but give us the tools to grow every aspect of our operation, starting with the membership size! The link to the campaign is here and... it is in french! But I am sure everyone can understand all the necessary to fill up what is needed! If not, feel free to send an email or text me. It will be my pleasure to help you out step by step. https://www.gofundme.com/stentors-30-jours30-ans30-000 Together for our youth! Gabe Francoeur President Stentors Drum and Bugle Corps Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada (819) 578-5008 gabriel.francoeur@videotron.ca

It is true that some composer are "friendly" towards smaller organisation... That is not the case of them all.... And "rights" can sometime be in the range of 1000$-5000$ to perform 1 to 2 minutes of music. In my case... we do perform 8-10 time a year in front of usualy 100-200 spectators, without receiving any type of monetary compensation. In fact it does cost the corps 3000$ a day to be on the road. So... we are sometime ask to pay more to play 1 minutes of music / 10 times during a summer, than what most of our staff gets to teach 600 hours during that same summer. Yes... we change repertoire to adapt to that new reality. I am writing to let all know true numbers. And of course if you are a million dollar organisation it is a different problem. But if you are a 5 figures drum corps, rights holders should also bend a bit in the process and be reasonable.

I would love to see how much influence the money have regarding the placement/result at the end of the year.

With Music City situation, that would be more than interesting to find out about the open class budget/Financial situation... That would require another heroic effort from Garfield...

We have been talking about money a lot but I see 2 other major reasons that could be brought up for the folding of a corps... Of course, money can probably solve both if you have tons of it! 1) There is less and less help to make things happen. Less volunteers, less people willing to work 10-15-20 hours a week at home (year round), on the phone or the computer to do the work. That too is a challenge and I can see that as a possible reason for the demise of Music City. If you have enough money, you can hire 2-5-10 persons to do that. You can hire drivers and head cook,ect. Those were mostly NOT paid 30 years ago and happen to be mostly PAID those days. 2) While nobody is wiling to do the bad work, alone at home 52 weeks/year... everybody wants to go their own direction thinking THEY have the answers! Still not willing to put 100-200-500-1000 hours a years.. but not ready to follow the ones who do. One day, the one's who do the work and provide the money get tired and go play somewhere else.

Great pictures! Thanks for the review. It is much appreciated by those who follow the Open class corps!

Thanks!!!!! The time you put in there is REALLY appreciated by those who cannot attend shows...! Well done!

And Stentors celebrate their 25th Anniversary with their best score ever! Congrats !!!

Stentors 74,7

May be I am wrong I don't know... But once it's there you can watch it 1000x if you want. And if it's live, wicht I doubt, it's start at 17h eastern time. (Michigan City is in Central time)

Open prelims are not Live Webcast. They are video on demand. You usualy see them within 48 hours after the conclusion of the contest.

Crown Phan, do you know how many spectators were in the stand? That crowd look pretty impressive on picture!

I saw a picture of the crowd. Wow, impressive!!! Good job to you and your team!! There is nothing more fun then perform in front of a large crowd! NE Brigand... when you have a minute give us a short review of your night! Are you going to Michigan City?

My guess would be YES!

It's been talked in meeting and they did it the same way last year and probably the year before. It doesn't make sence to leave one corps in the stands when you have 13-14 corps (12 in finals). Those not in finals can do an exibition at the begining of the show. I find it classy specialy that they are all going to Indy after Michigan City.

It is my understanding that Yuehfu cannot take out one of the Open Class out of finals. If they finish 12th of higher, there will be 13 corps in finals. But it already been annonce that every corps will have a second opportunity to perform. But only the finalist will be judge.

Great job garfiel!!! I was trying to follow you while travelling but now that I am back home, I catched up with you. While the big boys are mostly done, it gets even more interesting for me to find our about the smaller corps in order to get a full picture of the drum corps scene. I am certainly interested in knowing how all the open class corps are doing compared to each other and to the world class. If you ever get to the Canadian corps, I willl provide you with numbers (for one of the corps) since you don't have access to the 990 in Canada (we do not have that in Canada to my knowledge).

Just a word to let you know that last night was the Stentors home show in Quebec. It is the second edition of "La Fête de la Musique" and the show grow well. First on was "Les Ambassadeurs de la Monteregie. A small corps in it's third year of existence. They don't do any drill so far but there is a lot of gimmick, body move and stick trick! A talended guard and very entertaining music. Second were "Les Titans de Quebec". They were half size last night due to many kids having a "band camp" kind of. However, those left knows how to entertain and they show confidence and talent. Then the drumline of the "Diplomates" did a short showing of their capability. They use electronic a lot witch provide a great back up to their music. "Les Eclairs de Quebec" were next. Wow what a group! Very young but their repertoire is so well choosen. All music people can recognize and sing. For their age, they really do not fear to blow those horns and play their notes. Very impressive. "Les Stentors" came in with their first showing of the season. They did kind of a miracle in the last 3 weeks. For diverse reason, their season started only at the begining of February. Then the recrutement went slow and late too. By June 25, the brass/pit had half of the music known. The guard and drums were at bar 1. Of course... no drill was learn!! In the next 3 weeks... with young and inexperience players they learned all the music and all the drill but 6 shape. Having a full show last night (minus 6 shape). What a good story! It was shaky, nervous, and lot of fazzing but you could hear fire and energy behind all those "mistake". Begining next week, they will be able to revise, clean and begin to make it better! "Les Diplomates" came next. They are a senior corps with a full drum corps show. Them too are very entertaining and they use a lot of interaction with the crowd. They have about 80-85 members and sure can blow in those horns! The next group was a bit different as it is a heavy metal band and an opera singer with a full drumline at their back. It certainly provide a discussion matter in the stands! ha ha ha The drumline was tight and heavy. They give a good entertainment value and something to think about! All the corps cameback on the field for an Olympic retreat and played a song together to finish the night. There were no judge. It was a beautiful day. The crowd was about 800 people. It was a free show. All the corps but one, agreed to rehearse together from 13h to 16h to learn the "Mass Band" number for the ending of the night. The rehearsal was followed by a hot dog diner provide by the FAMQ (Quebec drumcorps association). Crowd and members were all very happy with their day. We are all looking forward to another one next year. Here's link to a short showing of yesterday action: