NEWMA

Walt Disney's Tarzan - I want to hear "Trashin' the Camp" done drum corps style.

I have absolutely no authority to speak for Americanos, Inc. but…..don’t give up on the Americanos yet. In the midst of the Alumni Association trying to decide what their purpose was going to be (social only, booster club, Senior corps, all-age corps, SDCA, etc.) they were informed by the corps’ BOD Pres. of his and the business manager’s pending resignations. This was about 3 weeks ago. Obviously the alumni association has a completely different decision to make now – will they step in and take over the corps – or let it go? The management changeover will finally offer members of the alumni association the opportunity to actually be involved in setting the future of the corps. These members have had family, work, DCA performance commitments, and, well…..life, to deal with in the past few weeks. There has been little time to get together and see what, if anything, they can do to “save” their corps. This is not a decision that can, or should, be made quickly. They have one shot – I’d rather it be well thought out than a knee-jerk reaction. I expect that some activity will start to take place now. It would be nice if there would be FaceBook and/or web site updates – but I hope they spend more time working on the problems than posting about them. Any new management will have a lot to deal with – and they will need positive, constructive assistance. As for the possible new organization – it is still in the exploratory stage and the participants I have spoken to in the past few days fully intend to respect and support the work of the Americanos Alumni to restore their corps. The goal of the new organization is to put a youth group together and get a corps back on the field. If the Americanos could not do that – then this group (made up of alumni from many corps – including Americanos) would try. Expect this group to stay quietly in the background and give the Americanos Alumni room to try to work some magic. I believe they will offer help to the Americanos when and where appropriate. Should Americanos survive there may be no need for the new group. NEWMA members are asked to commit that they will do nothing to undermine (through words or actions) any actions that the Americanos Alumni take at this time. We ask that you work with the Americanos and help them through this critical stage. I do believe (hope) you will see the Americanos celebrate their 75th anniversary by marching in the Flag Day parade and maybe in some other activities in 2011. Madison shouldn’t start working on their “We’re number 3” (oldest corps) chant yet. NEWMA