TroopAlum12

I've seen it happen and almost happen a few times. There was a more minor incident where the director allowed the members involved to continue the season as long as they agreed that any further infractions would result in an immediate termination from the corps. Another time an issue was discovered in the last week of the season and the members were allowed to march championships but then told they would not be welcomed back to the corps the next year. Once I did see a member kicked out, but it was more for consistent behavioral issues that the member had zero intentions of fixing and led to constant yelling between said member and staff.

I agree with this. After just winning high percussion, there's no incentive for them to leave as long as their relationship with the corps admin is good.

Having just attended a design meeting for the high school I am working with and also a WGI group, I learned quite a bit about this. Usually the corps director or program coordinator gets final say, but there is a committee or "Design team" that comes together to help shape the overall concept. It usually consists of the director and/or program coordinator, caption heads, drill writer, and music composers/arrangers. Many times, the base concepts for shows are created a few years in advance. This happens for a few different reasons. One, the team members often all have multiple ideas that are liked by the group. The ones that people like but aren't selected for that year go into a "let's come back to this one again in the future" category. Second, many groups create a multi-year show design plan to accomplish a goal, like getting into finals or into the top 6 or winning the championship. So they'll say, "OK, next year we want to do a fun show that really connects with the audience, then the year after that a more serious show that shows off our chops, then the year after that we'll push the boundaries with an innovative show that blows the judges away." Shows are often based around an idea or a piece of music. Team members will listen to different pieces they love and may want to use. Once the base concept is decided, they'll sketch out how they want this idea to progress through a show. Then they will decide on what music best represents this and how they want to arrange it. This is then sent out to the drill designer, music arrangers, and choreographers, who all collaborate with each other over a few months until the show is field ready. Then they will make adjustments throughout the season based on audience and (mainly) judge feedback. Rinse and repeat.

None that I am aware of. Matt Harloff of Carolina Crown is the assistant band director at Avon HS. Dean Westman - the program coordinator behind the last several years of Bluecoats shows - is the orchestra director at the same school. The caption heads I worked with all became band directors or drill designers for bands in the pacific northwest. It generally seems to be the case that music staff members (percussion and brass) are often directors or otherwise employed with high school and college bands. Visual staff members often freelance as drill designers for hs bands and travel around working with some of the bands they write for. I have 4 or 5 drum corps friends who are now professional drill designers. Guard staff members are often times professional dancers and/or work with guards for bands and WGI groups. Not the case for everyone, but that is definitely the trend.

FIxed!

Mergers do crazy things to corps. Just look at the famous 1979 semifinals leap of the Troopers. That came after the corps had been struggling with reduced numbers for a few seasons, then another corps folded prior to the start of the '79 tour and a big group of their members decided to head for Wyoming.

As for scores, it is absolutely true that you can't compare scores across years in this day and age. Scores were lower across the board from last year because they seemed to purposely start lower (champions keep getting closer and closer to 100). Also, scores are relative to each other in a given year. The judges make a score of "well corps A was better than corps B by this much in GE, so they get a score of X higher than corps B," for example. Believe me. Troopers are still stuck in the same scoring and placement range as when I marched, and they're performing soooo much better. But so is everyone else around them. It's all relative.

Yeeeeeessssss. Drum Majors are part of the performance! And often times the members will feed off the energy the DM is giving them. Again, look at the Academy... P.S. - as long as they don't give up keeping time. That is the first and foremost job of a drum major in a show: to be a human metronome. They also need to be great leaders. Some DMs don't do much more than wave their arms because they were selected for their leadership skills and not their conducting skills, and are working hard just to develop those.

Whoops. I'll fix that!

Vanguard is I believe the only corps to have made finals every single year since the founding of DCI (1972). Other corps that were present in the top twelve that first year include the Troopers, Anaheim Kingsmen (who won that first championship but folded sometime later), 27th Lancers, Blue Stars, Bridgemen, Cavaliers, and Kilties. Madison Scouts made their first DCI finals appearance the following year in 1973. Blue Devils and Phantom Regiment both made it for the first time in 1974. The Cadets broke through in 1975. Blue Devils won their first title in 1976. Crossmen broke the ranks in 1977. Spirit of Atlanta in 1978. Sky Ryders in 1982. Suncoast Sound in 1983. Velvet Knights in 1984. Star of Indiana 1985. Bluecoats 1987. A rare one, Dutch Boy from Canada in 1990. Blue Knights in 1991. Colts and Glassmen in 1993. Magic (tragic) of Orlando in 1994. Carolina Crown in 1995. Boston Crusaders 1999 (fixed) Boston Crusaders and Seattle Cascades in 2002. Troopers return in 2009 after not making it since the 80's. Academy in 2016. I skipped over a lot of the early corps in the 70's such as freelancers, black knights, guardsmen, etc.\ All of this thanks to http://corpsreps.com/

For sale: salt, several thousand pounds. Keeps building up annually. Cheap prices for bulk purchase. Visit http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums for more.

Immediate liquidation sale on hundreds of band uniforms! 20% off full set purchases. Everything must go as we rush to develop new uniforms to compete with the bluecoats next year. Call 1-800--WE-BUY-SHAKOS now!

I can't be the only one who heard the last part of that phone number in John Stamos' voice...

I'm going to need a shower to wash off all that salt now. Secondly, it's only titled that because it's true. Pretty much every off season there is a shuffle of staff members between corps. Thirdly, this stuff with the Cadets is extremely serious and is much more than rumor. So...lighten up yo.

Some of us have only heard rumors with no real confirmation until now. The ability to anonymously review an employer online had definitely opened up opportunities for former yea folks to openly speak about what goes on to a larger audience.

I'm curious though, If enough people got together and contacted the DCI administration, maybe even sent them a link to or a picture of the glassdoor reviews, would they be able to do anything about it? I know they couldn't directly interfere with how things are run at YEA, but would they be able to threaten to restrict the cadets participation if a corps director was really treating his staff that horribly? Or any kind of potential punishment? World-class membership is at least in part dependent on financial status of the corps, is it not? If they knew how horribly the finances of the organization were managed, could they do something about that? I'm legitimately wondering.

They won't comment until everything is sorted out. I know they are currently trying to midigate the social media response and keep misinformation from running wild until they are able to say exactly what is happening. All the legal procedures and decisions by staff need to be in place first, and all the administrators are currently seeing the corps off and heading home from tour. They need time.

I've heard so from a few different sources since my post. All I can say is... Words I can't say on here.

Let's please avoid starting any talk about resignation until we hear something from official channels.

Looking at those glassdoor reviews, many of them definitely sounded way too similar to be genuine. I think at least two were genuinely unique however, and they were both also negative. Not counting the one positive that was so obviously written by Hop it's just funny (anyone who follows him on social media would recognize that typing style anywhere). Of course...that one guy who posted all the spam reviews could also have done that one just so he/she could point it out for effect.

Actually we do, because there was a lot of people standing around watching, and I've spoken to a few of them. Tim was simply telling the guy - who had already expressed aggressive behavior by throwing props and yelling at the staff - to chill out and the corps would move after they finished singing battle hymn. That is not threatening. That was an attempt at de-escalation.

Hi folks. To those of you who still have ruffled feathers, let me tell you a bit about what the Trooper way is and is not. The Troopers way is NOT attacking somebody unprovoked. That is dishonorable. That is what the LOS events/security guy did. The Troopers way IS standing up for yourself and your corps. It IS not letting other people take advantage of you. That is honorable. That is what Tim Snyder did. To recap: what the LOS guy did was not the Trooper way. What Tim did was the Trooper way. Maybe one punch too many? Perhaps. But I stand by my case that he was in the right. Because at least when I was a Trooper, and the way I was raised in general, if somebody tries to come at you for no reason other than to be a bully, you stood up to them. Have a nice day

Thank you for whoever shared the full thing, and thank you to those who have come to help defend Tim :)

It currently exists only on Facebook and is not publicly visible, though that may soon change in response to the shorter video making the rounds.

Indy police told Tim he could press charges against the LOS guy for assaulting him first.