MCA

Being on a staff of a drum corp is nothing like having a job in the "real world". I know of no corps in the country that pays its instructional staff an hourly wage. Most recieve some type of stipend, but this is hardly reflective of the amount of hours put in. Remember that corps staff do not work for DCI. There is nothing in DCI's bylaws the dictates corps must pay their staff. Though it is extremely unfortunate and frustrating if a corps finds itself unable to pay its staff, it would be incredibly unreasonable for DCI to hold the corps accountable to their own instructional staff.

Its just interestig because the point behind their whole proposal is that those who are most competitivly successful are the ones who should recieve the most benefit.......except, it seems, where open class is concerned. In open class, its just simply a matter of who you are affiliated with.

The thing that I love....Spartans....arguably the most decorated Div II (open class, whatever) corps in DCI history that is still in existence is barred from this arrangement because it is based soley on Open class corps involvement with World Class teams. Why should Colt Cadets, BDB, and SCVC be entitled to special treatment from the G7? Though BDB and SCVC has stepped it up in recent years...those three open class corps have nothing compared to the awards and championships Spartans have earned in the past. SCVC and Colt Cadets dont even come out to finals every year.

True.

Ok, as someone who has been involved with this organization for a number of years, I find the comment I bolded highly offensive and I think you are in no position to make any statements insinutating that the previous staff has ever had anything less than the best interests of the students and the organization in mind. Keep your mouth shut about things you dont know about.

Hopkins needs to quit and go teach high school band. I'm beyond sick of him

Hi, Ive been around on DCP for a few years, dont post very often but often around. I have been having a problem the past year or so and I wonder if it will/has been addressed. Many members have HUGE pictures or banners inside their signatures. I still have dial up and I am spending an enormous amount of time waiting for peoples signatures to load. While they are loading, they of course mess with the message board format, creating huge spaces and all sorts of other things. One member (madalumni) current has three rather large pictures in his signature that takes up alot of space on the page and take a very long time to load. Ive been a moderator/administrator on many message boards and I know that there is a way to limit image sizes in signatures. I feel that should be done here, I know I am not the only 56k user using DCP who is having this problem. Any help would be appreciated.

Many Div II shows

Is it me...or is there a certain group of former corps members who are spending an incredible amount of time trying to validate themselves?

Albert LaFlamme of Spartans, 52 years.

If everyone thinks CF was bad in Bb, I can tell you it was even worse for those few of us who had to play it in G

DCI announced its planned move to Indianapolis nearly a month ago, does anyone know if the Div II/III corps will be allowed to have their championship events at the Lucas Oil Stadium with the rest of DCI? I know there have been problems with this in the past, in 03 Div II/III prelims and semis were at a high school field, in 04 all Div II/III championship events were at a high school stadium as they were also in 05. Does anyone know if the agreement with DCI will allow for these corps to participate in that venue or will they be relegated to 2nd class facilities?

I understand that....but its not very intelligent to even ask if the other corps just gave up...academy has had more shows than everyone else. beyond that, Academy is no longer two weeks ahead since they just had that week off....this weekend will show alot, and August 3rd will be the big deciding day at least for two of the 3 front runners

I beg your pardon?

.........Spartans are ahead by .5, ECJ is ahead by .2 Academy just had a full week off off.......so, it does seem that Academy is, at least for the moment...in 3rd.

Many changes have taken place in recent years with regard to DCI policy, and several recent discussions on this board show that many people are not fond of the changes. With that in mind, Div II/III tends to hold a more traditional view of the Drum and Bugle Corps activity (For lack of money or otherwise). The 2004 Div II champions (Spartans) are still even using G Bugles. To my knowledge, no Div II/III uses amplification and no Div II/III corps plan on using amplified voice this season. With that in mind, should DCI market Div II/III towards the more traditional audience of the activity? (please keep in this forum...this is not a Div II/III question but a DCI marketing question)

On tour in 04 I heard that Bob Barker and Ronald Reagan had died from some kids in Teal Sound.......turned out only one of them HAD actually died

I haven't listened to the recording yet but I do plan on it when I get home. My concern and I think the root of many other peoples concerns is that because of this "innovation" Hopkins will next year try getting a voice judge or something like it and AGAIN FORCE a drastic change in the nature of drum corps on every other DCI corps. He has succeeded once (Amps), has tried a few other times (Saxophones, etc.). I have no doubt that this kind of voice sound will add to their show, but I am EXTREMELY concerned about where Hopkins will make this go after this season is done. He wants to "innovate" his corps..fine. But he better leave DCI policy out of it.

dci@dci.org

No, the Div II/III champions have never done an exibition performance at finals. Both only participate in the mass playing of America/O Canada at retreat. Another good question I would like to know the answer to is why the Div II/III champions arent allowed to do an exibition.

With so many Div II and III's folding these past few years and little evidence that DCI is doing much to try and assist smaller corps...has anyone else wondered why DCI has very rarely supported Div II/III in DCI Today? Anyone who orders any DCI Merch gets a subscription with their order but I do not ever recall seeing an article dedicated to any div II/III corps. To me at least, this seems like a very easy way for DCI to show some support of smaller corps and take what I think could be a big step towards getting the larger drum corps populus to pay attention to Div II/III

I just want to point out, since much of the discussion has been about ECJ vs. Academy with regard to visual. Regardless of anyones opinion of ECJ's or Academy's visual performance, we have numbers that do give a great deal more than an opinion, and I would like to take this time to point out that the Spartans got a 19.9 at finals in visual performance.....in August, weeks after Academy's last performance and quite a bit ahead of ECJ.........but as we should all know....DONT count anyone out based on a previous years performance and dont say that so and so is going to win just because theyve done great things during a 3 week long season, especially when they are up against perennial champions from new hampshire and massachusetts.

From what I have heard, most of ECJ's staff quit during the off season because they havent been paid by administration in years. I aged out a few years ago so Im not quite in the loop, does anyone know if this is true?

I got the DVD for christmas and I like it quite a bit. Of course a menu system would have been GREATLY appreciated, and maybe some other camera angles, but overall I applaud DCI for offering this DVD, and I hope its sales are enough to warrant another, improved DVD next year

I honestly do not think that anyone went, unfortunatly. Lots I could say about this, however my corps does not allow it's members to post things of this nature on message boards, so unfortunatly I have to keep my mouth shut. But shame on the 20,000 + people who were in the area but didnt go to Div II/III finals.