2muchcoffeeman

It's important to remember that permission to participate in shows is a consideration separate from being granted membership in DCI. A corps can obtain the former even it if has not obtained the latter. For the moment, anyway, this is exactly the situation SCV is in: they are greenlighted to roll into town and show up at the gate. However, until a majority of DCI members says otherwise, SCV will show up to competitions as an outsider, not as a DCI member.

DCI Bylaws Section 6 - Actions on membership status - Termination Membership is automatically terminated in the event a Member corps does not compete at the Drum Corps International World Championship during the year of Membership, unless that failure to compete is due to a probationary status. (Maybe I missed it, but DCI never put Santa Clara on probation. In its Dec. 12, 2022 press release, DCI said only that SCV "will opt-out of the 2023 Drum Corps International Tour." Not a word about probation.) Section 5 - Responsibilities and benefits of membership B. Voting for changes in membership status, including granting Membership to organizations... Section 2 - Eligibility for Membership Membership in Drum Corps International is available to competitive drum corps that: A. Participate in the DCI Summer Tour and at the DCI World Championships C. Have been approved for Membership by a majority vote of the current membership Seems pretty black-and-white to me: SCV will need to pitch its case for membership to the current members of DCI. Spirit was placed on probationary status, which means it did not lose its membership status, which means SoA did not need to petition the DCI members to restore its own membership. Same was true for Troopers in 2005.

Dan A approved SCV to participate in the tour in 2024. But because SCV was a no-show at nationals, by rule they are no longer a member corps of DCI. So while Dan was able to grant permission to participate in shows, only the members can decide whether to grant membership status on SCV -- and thus the benefits that membership would bestow. The burden is on Santa Clara to make its case to the members.

TIL there is something called "Bingo News."

For the record, Troopers were active and competing in 2010 and 2011. For the record, Troopers were inactive in 2006, and returned to active WC status in 2007. The casual way that inaccurate information is thrown around here with a tone of authority is dismaying, especially given that it's easy to get these kinds of facts right the first time. Look stuff up. Check your sources. Do a basic bit of fact-checking, folks. Good lord, just Google it if nothing else. I know this is just an internet chat board, but that's part of the point: It's an internet chat board, accessible anywhere on the planet 24/7/365. Such a lukewarm devotion to accuracy borders on the alarming on a thread like this, where names of individuals and their personal and professional reputations are tossed about without much evidence of verification. (EDIT: removed the quote because it isn't necessary to the point).

first corps to harness this by tying party balloons to their ankles and slide-stepping across the turf to fire up color-guard lasers and shoot sparks out of their trumpets wins DCI

This would be true only if the rules are changed to allow more than 150 (or whatever the precise number is) performers on the field. Absent such a rule change, the financial effect would be neutral. And it would require corps to remove brass, percussion or guard to make room for woodwinds. I have a hard time imagining a corps like Crown getting enthusiastic about this idea. And if you think the activity has amplification issues now . . .

A white look would seem to indicate a different thematic vibe, and I'm not convinced that Troop wants to yank the wheel into a completely new lane just yet. Coming off the pandemic year and the StarTrek theme the year before that, 2021 was a forceful re-commitment to gritty Western identity. 2022 was a show built on the concept of greed. 2023 ran with the idea of hubris, though it concluded in a note of triumphalism at finals. Three years of aggressive, almost angry explorations of the darker corners of the soul. Okay, that's overstating it (it's just band!), but I think back on the past 3 seasons of mud-in-yer-eye programming, and the idea of going all white strikes me as either willfull sabotage of all the advancement of the past 3 years, or as the most brilliant programming thing ever, like Gandalf the Gray re-emerging as Gandalf the White, or something. If Troop is serious about taking another stride forward in 2024, I can understand the rationale of being very obvious about their intentions in a number of ways: In the continued growth of their musical and visual book, and in the look of the corps itself. Sticking with the black desperado look of the past few seasons might work against what Casper is trying to communicate about its aspirations. All of which is to say I have no clue what may be up their sleeve for next year.

This thread is reliably cringe every year.

No order, just my faves of the season: Bluecoats -- silky power, a strong audience connection even through the TV screen, and groove for days Crown -- Reliably majestic. Visually crisp. Mike Jackson. Melt me. Troopers -- Masterpiece opener, and the most mature, self-assured musical sound to come out of Casper in, maybe, ever. Pacific Crest -- Lovely, thoughtful presentation. Tasteful design. Excellent performers who bought in. Mandarins -- Pure gas. Simultaneously whimsical and muscular, a potent mix.

Got your back, @hostrauser. Your central thesis (people are being distracted by your comments about the tick system) is a fascinating one: The current system, purported to unleash unlimited creativity, has paradoxically driven itself into a cul-de-sac. Granted, it's hard to see evidence for your assertion on the surface. Bloo is a riot of unconventional thinking. Crown has blown people's minds several times this decade. There is no other word for Mandarins this year than creative. But if I follow you correctly, your diagnosis is more directed at the creativity of method, not at the content of the performances. BD has mastered the method, and thus need only apply the thinnest of new washes over the top each season to collect another gold medal. Surely this can't be what the visionaries had in mind in the 1980s when the tick system was abolished. It's worth thinking about. Speaking of the tick system: I'm even more of a dino than you, and it was drum corps' obsession with perfection that generated my fascination with it and motivated me to march. It was precisely the pristine clarity of uniform performance -- group precision -- that set drum corps apart and made it, in my mind, worthy of attempt. The precision was the cool. The ability to send a judge back to the sideline with an empty clipboard was the thrill. The pursuit of tickless was energizing, not constraining. There was plenty of creativity within that system; 1982 drum corps was well advanced, creatively speaking, from 1972 drum corps. But at least as far as I was concerned, I didn't get into drum corps for the creativity; I got into it to be part of a dazzling music ensemble. Not that I long for a return to the tick system. But I share your sense that something is lost when how you build your show means more, competitively speaking, than how you perform on the field.

Get her a harmonica

All my life I have loved frames and limits; and I will maintain that the largest wilderness looks larger seen through a window. -- G K Chesterton Chesterton was right. To view Matisse through the rigid frame of the drum & bugle corps form is to see Matisse enlarged through a unique prism. To remove the frames that confine drum & bugle corps to its unique characteristics will be to throw the viewer out from behind the window and into the midst of the large wilderness. Limits on any individual art form create the possibility for more art forms. The enjoyment of art, then, is in the experience of its different forms, not in the creation of a single ominform. When every ingredient is put into every pot, every item on the menu tastes the same. Maybe there is a reason for 360-degree, electronics-driven, drone-enabled, laser-powered, gravity-defying, AI-generated stadium extravaganzas to exist. Maybe the ultimate form is a single DJ pushing a single "Play" button. Maybe there are DJs our there willing to create such lollapaloozas. Maybe there is an audience for it willing to fill arenas to witness it. Great. But even that new idea will have its own frame around it, defining what it is, and what it is not. The experience will be grander because of that frame. But it should be its own art form with its own frame, and not pretend that is some kind of evolutionary step for Drum Corps International. If there is no longer any interest in the art form of drum corps, then let's shut down DCI. But if there is interest, let it be what it is, and let other art forms blossom around it.

This is an interesting point. I love BS design for the most part and think their brass sound is tops, but the last time I can recall the performers emoting instead of executing was "To Build a Home." I wouldn't describe them as "relaxed," exactly, during that season, but "comfortable" and able to communicate instead of think their way through each set and phrase. Put simply, that was the most recent BS show that I can recall feeling a connection to the performers.

BK is evidence that design drives the bus

I mean, if you can find a buyer for such a monstrous piece of yard art, you're a better salesman than Willy Loman. Personally, I think Troop should plant it in front of the corps hall and figure out a way for it to serve up the Bingo balls.

Yah good point.

Somebody buy this man a drink.

UPON FURTHER REFLECTION, Here's a plausible rationale for Troop to make a play for Team Rennick to hang their shingle in Casper, and this rationale may be what @IllianaLancerContra may have in mind: Suppose VMAPA is taking on water and Corps X (not Troopers) hires the Rennicks away. My knowledge of "how these things work" is limited, so handle with care. But If the Rennicks were to be given responsibility for the vitality and success of the Corps X percussion program, presumably Paul and Sandi are going to want to entrust hands-on instruction to people they know, and people who know the Rennick pedagogy. That's only reasonable; the Rennicks will not sign a contract that holds them responsible for outcomes they can't directly manage. That means a new caption head at Corps X. And that could mean Lauren Teel & Co. You see the issue. Now, if VMAPA survives and SCV lives to take the field again, this might not be as urgent an issue, if SCV still has instructional staff that meet the Rennick seal of approval. But maybe they don't, in which case swap SCV in for Corps X. If all this is sound logic, then a Troop investment in the Rennicks may be more of a defensive maneuver than a growth opportunity. If such an investment is beyond the Troopers' resources, the best-case outcome in such a scenario is that Troop continues its current relationship with the Rennicks, and that Team Teel has been preparing for succession (though, see this very good point by @Jeff Ream), and the next CH is ready to step into her place at Troopers, and the elevator ride continues upward uninterrupted. And all that would have to be weighed up against the overall objectives of the organization -- competitive success? Member experience? Well-rounded program? Drum corps is a tough business, man. OR MAYBE the program coordinator has everyone on board through at least 2024 to complete the 3-year programming trilogy we've been teased about, and all this is needless speculation.

If you're driving at the idea that SCV won't return and the Rennicks will be looking for a home, I can see where you're coming from. And, sure, if the Troopers have the resources and the Rennicks have the interest, then, well, Wagons Ho! But even if the resources were in place, the ROI would need to be greater than the return Troopers are getting out of their current, presumably less expensive, arrangement with the Rennicks. The current arrangement -- the one in which the Rennicks have been full-time with VMAPA and have also composed the percussion book for Troopers -- has brought Troopercussion into the company of upper-echelon programs. They finished 8th this year, ahead of such programs as Phantom and Blue Stars, and closer in score to Blue Devils than to Blue Knights. If the Troopers were to invest in the Rennicks in an amount that would ensure their FT commitment, the admin would need to be persuaded that it could, at a minimum, result in pushing Troopercussion into the discussion for the Sanford. . . . . . . because not even that possibility may be enough to warrant the expenditure. Having realistic dreams about the trophy -- one named after a Casper native and former Trooper, after all -- is cool and everything, but even if Troop had won the Sanford last night, it would have boosted their overall score to about 90.6, good for 9th place. (And maybe an extra ~1 point in MA, so call it 92.0; still 9th place). And maybe, when you're trying to get into the top 6 and then aim for a medal, this is what it takes: You have to spend and sweat more to reap smaller increases in points. If all else is constant and the Rennicks are worth an extra 1.5 to 2.0 points during championship week compared to where you are now, maybe that's a good investment. But even if the Rennicks, assuming they want to even stay in this game, remain with SCV (if VMAPA survives) or land with another corps (if it doesn't or is limping), then at worst the situation going forward is status quo ante, with Paul and Sandi charting the Troopercussion score, and Team Lauren teaching it to the members. Same as now. Same as what has brought Troopers drums to this point. To make the added investment, admin would need to be of the belief that further progress in Troopercussion is not possible under the current arrangement. There could be a cost associated with sending that kind of signal, too -- or maybe not; maybe having the Rennicks and Lauren Teel under one roof would be percussion heaven and lock up the Sanford for years to come, who knows. Point is, it's not a slam dunk to hire the Rennicks, assuming they would even entertain such an offer. The Troopers have bigger issues now than their percussion program, and their limited resources probably would bring a bigger return if invested in their visual programming generally and guard specifically.

Smiling at the thought, but I'm not sure what that gets you. Sandi and Paul have written the Troopers charts for 10 years, and Lauren Teel, who is from the same UNT pool, has been teaching them. Looks like it's been a successful arrangement so far

Got a close-up at a show as it sat in the end zone, awaiting its turn in competition. A real contraption.

Congratulations to Troopers on achieving their highest score of the DCI era tonight at finals. This year Troop increased its score from semis to finals. That's going out on a high note. HLD

It's always been cool to like the Troopers >"<

Well, these are words