totaleefree

I think this season tour schedule looks good for a late season surge. In 22 we did ATL then did Huntington WV that Monday then we had 3 or 4 days in Newark Ohio where it was not 100 degrees, and a lot was accomplished improving the show before Allentown (we added the Chevron for one thing). For the rest of the season scores went up and we moved up a few spots from Atlanta until Finals. Last year 2023 we did ATL, then Huntington on that Mon (Which I thought was the best show of the season, though I may be biased since most of the time I saw it from the 10 or 20 yard line and that day the sponsor invited me up to where the judges were on the 50) . Then we went to a spot in PA which was a good practice for 1 day then we went up to Boston. There was an incident with one of the staff busses (no injuries) but it seemed to get everything out of sync. One good thing was that a lot of the members had time after PR performed and were able to come back and watch Boston do their home show which I think is a neat thing. However the show did not improve as much as our competitors shows improved from Huntington until finals. Some people say the show didn't have room to grow after ATL but I am sure the lost practice times going up to Boston did not help the scores. Anyway for 23 after ATL the Huntington show is on a Wens and that gives PR 3 or 4 days to beef up their show where it will be cooler (not in Texas) with fresh mountain air before Huntington Then going to Allentown I think we will have a pretty nice practice facility there. Hopefully they will not be plagued with rain that last week and the Corps will be at its absolute best going into finals. I have a lot of faith in the design team and I think that they will be doing great things with the show design and continue PRs climb aback to the top echelon of DCI

Newark was the home of the Crossmen in the late 90's. Don't know what kind of an impression they left there but that area may be ripe for a show

The DCI show and a practice day are still listed on the stadium schedule. I hope that is is something legit happening there that day and not changed for something that DCI had any control over. • 28th (Sunday) – Farragut Farmers Market (9 AM – 1 PM) • 29th (Monday) – DCI Band Practice Day (All Day) • 30th (Tuesday) – DCI Band Competition (All Day) August 2024 • 2nd (Friday) – Annapolis Rotary Crab Feast (5 PM – 8 PM) • 4 th (Sunday) – Farragut Farmers Market (9 AM – 1 PM)

It would be cool if they could move it to SeaGull Stadiumin Salisbury only a little more than an hour from Annapolis and easy access to Philly from there. I am not sure if the stadium is big enough as it was designed primarily for lacrosse I donated a lot of money (for me ) to building this, so I have to promote it every chance I get.

She is not going to be the director, I think that Corps manager was a title created just to keep her on staff. Last year she was special advisor to the director.

They figure that the Blue Devils can spend and get good lawyers, So it would be a waste of their time

I am pretty sure that wearing the old uniforms at retreat was a one last time deal. I am pretty sure when they got those out and fitted someone knew that it was the end. The time and money it took for that is not something you do if you are trying to save a budget for next season.

Somehow I stumbled my way into 3 Bronze stars while I was in Iraq. One of the times Steve Rondinaro interviewed me once I came back. I cannot find that video, however this was the video that led to having that video later. If you volunteer with Phantom Regiment I somehow trap people and make them watch this. I was so far removed from Drum Corps at the time, that I didn't realize that it was the drum corps guy who interviewed me until a year or 2 later when I saw something DCI then went back and saw this, I really wish I had the interview about Iraq.

A few months back I was able to look at a lot of the case papers online, maybe the paywall wasn't working correctly. What i remember reading was that 2 times the plaintiff asked to go to settlement conference. Then when the defense wanted to depose the plaintiff, they (plaintiff )did not show up The plaintiff claimed she was too ill to travel the NJ for the deposition. The defense said they would go to I think it was Mass where the plaintiff lived for the deposition. The vibe that I got was that the plaintiff was saying settle with me now or all this stuff will come out in court, then they even added a line about George Hopkins. I think maybe Cadets have already been dragged through the mud enough so it wouldn't really be any great bombshell exposed, or Cadets didn't have money to settle so they surprised the suing attorneys by letting go to trial. The attorney taking the case makes his living suing truck companies after accidents, Drum Corps might have trucks, but they are very different from large commercial trucking firms. I am not a legal expert and I cannot access that info now, and this is based on what I remember reading, and what stuck out to me. I know nothing about anything that went on at Garfield parties in the 80's .

You know you could sell 1 and support 5 drum corps for 3 or 4 years. It could change the face of DCI

Where can i look this up at ?

I thought it was kind of interesting. In 2022 at DCI I won a tour of the tornado center in Norman OK. The director of the center is a DCI fan and is the official DCI meteorologist. I wasn't able to do it last year but theis year I plan on taking a break from the tour in OK and seeing how they track tornadoes and such

they are looking for assistants which means they probably have leads in place. Most corps havn't finalized admins yet and housing is pretty fluid for the tour. Sometimes you find out about housing within 48 hours of heading that way.

I did it for a couple years, it was cool, one good thing was I sat next to several board members and was able to pick their brains and figure our what they did right in building a Corps. I have been disappointed the last 3 years that Phantom Regiment has not been there. Somehow I wound up touring with PR and have had to miss the closest show to my house. I think that the crown club seats are a great option.

I thought the thread was about the Blue Vanguard Regiment Cadets.

This is 10 days to build, 5 days take down, I have no idea why people think it can't be taken down and a stadium returfed in 46 days. Gen COn is also the week before DCI and they plan to be in Lucas Oil The Indianapolis Colts’ home dome will have its turf replaced starting in March 2024, per Monica Brase, a public information and marketing manager for Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center. The project is estimated to cost $1.2 million and be completed by July 2024. The old turf will be removed in March because Lucas Oil Stadium is slated to host the USA Swimming’s Olympic team trials from June 15-23. It says completed by July in the Press release.

Pay for airfare, maybe hotel room for parents. that is what I think they ment by $500 to audition

I am not aware of Cadets folding, they still have a functioning board and I have not heard that they have sold all their assets. I may have missed some announcements but I don't think they have folded

Is it still innocent until proven guilty in the US legal system ? These things we are discussing here are things that the plantiff will have to prove in court. My thought is that the attorneys were hoping that to keep the case out of court the defendants would offer a settlement, but it looks like the case will go on. My look through the court papers finds the plantiff seeking punitive damages. I think the lawyers here were looking for a pot of money that probably doesn't exist. I know bad things went on back in the day, in 85 I saw a lot of stuff go on that would not be tolerated today in any youth activity. But in this case they will have to rely on peoples memories from 40 years ago. Time passed does not make a wrong into a right, or undo damages. I have no idea what actually happened 40 years ago, I think that it is going to be tough to get punitive damages from a nonprofit whose leadership was not around when the incident or incidents occured. Legal cost alone on this will probably be enough to damage the corps and serve the same purpose as punitive damages would. I left Drum Corps somewhat bitter back in the day I was not abused but it was not the experience that I had expected and I probably wasn't ready for it. I feel for people who had long term damage from abuse suffered on tour more so for people who were abused by staff members who they trusted.

I was involved with Carolina Gold in 18 and 19. One thing is as a weekends only corps we had a staff that was way better than what we paid them. many staff members basically worked for gas and lunch money but did a great job because they like Drum Corps and Marching band and they liked teaching kids who were ready to learn. However when switching over to DCI a lot of those staff members had regular jobs to pay the bills or made decent money doing band camps over the weekdays. When it came around to taking maybe three weeks off to live out of a duffel bag on the road with DCI a lot of them could not afford it, so staff that had time to travel had to be found, and they were probably not as good teachers as the part timers. The Corps Director Jesse wrote the brass parts and I think he was one of the best brass arrangers out there. But again a whole summer doing DCI making almost nothing was not an option for people with families to support. A big thing was also a reserve fund in case something happened as the corps was on the road. DCI recommended 50k be held in reserve to make sure kids did not get stranded somewhere, and to make sure there were no bills left to be paid after the corps left Indy after finals. I thought they was too large a requirement but I don't think that CG had a very large reserve at all. One other thing that happened was that DCi put out some requirements for Board of Directors members and what they needed to do and CG had a tough time finding board members who did not clash with the Exec director. When DCI finally came out to look at the books in 2021 they just closed shop and I don't think they ever got a review. So who knows what DCI would have found. I do not think anyone was malicious or did anything illegal it is just that at time the books had been neglected and no one ever did a thorough audit to bring everything up to date. There were times when bills from 5 years prior would suddenly pop up and no one on the current staff had even been with the corps then. I personally had several clashes with the exec director we did not see eye to eye, and he did not take criticism well. His personality burned some bridges with local organization whose help we really needed. I think that lot of the board members thought that he was moving too quick. I favored to move to DCI but had too many disagreements with the Exec Director that I stepped away, though I expected them to call me for help once they hit the road. I had hoped that they might come back in some form and lots of people have said they would love to do it again. I don't reallu see much hope in it being restarted though.

This is going to sound horrible, but I am glad it was finances rather than some accusations of abuse or sexual misconduct that shut them down. Financial issues may be tough to recover from. But abuse and such hurt everyone in DCI for long periods of time.

I think in this case it has already succeeded in 160 marchers lose a summer. SOA and DCI did react I just think that suing a non profit that gave up a whole season over the incident is not going to go far. What is success in this case 3000 marchers losing a season ? If a crime was committed they should be charged in crimminal court and the perpetrator punished, Not all the young people who are marching in DCI.

When I see AD I think athletic director, the person I need to talk to about using some practice fields, and who can let the kids use the good (ie football team) showers. Who at the college level funds the big marching bands

By not going to a DCI show this year you missed out on getting a dinosaur Tee shirt from Phantom Regiment, made especially for us old dinosaurs.

It was a great season for the regiment. They grew a great deal through the season and have a bright future to look forward to. They had a great tour staff and they would all be lucky if Joe Taylor came back to run the tour again. I think the future looks really bright for the crew from Rockford.