GetOFFmyDot

I wasn’t speaking directly about the admin. Why are the members marching Madison? Who do they think the corps is? What do fans want to see? What do FMM want to see?

Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, but why aren’t Mandarins doing the Atlanta show? Are the one of the only ones not there?

I will totally own that this might be my own issue, but what is the identity of Madison Scouts? What makes them unique? What is their niche? What is their special take that they offer drum corps fans? In my mind, Madison Scouts used to be the brawny, broad-shouldered, powerful corps. Now I have no idea who they are.

I like this BS show the most from the past few years. I still think it's missing something - the individual parts should combine together to make something bigger, but (as of now) I'm not sure that will happen this year. There was a lot of pre-season Blue Stars hype, which i think has done them a disservice because they are having a good year, but some people thought they would be pushing for a top 5 spot (some even mentioned they would push for a medal). I don't see BS challenging for 5th place. I think Mandarins and Phantom will be fighting for the 5th and 6th spots. I think Cadets, Cavaliers, Blue Stars, and Troopers (maybe Colts) will be battling for 7-10. I thin a 7-9 spot looks the most likely. The competition this year is pretty remarkable.

Damnnnn Mandarins bringing the HEAT

I remember when the Glassmen put little cymbals in/on the color guard’s rifles. It was so neat!! it was 2003 or 2004 I think

1 Blue Devils 85.150 2 Mandarins 79.200 3 Blue Knights 73.525 4 Pacific Crest 72.350 5 The Academy 72.000

Mandarins coming in hot with a 78.05 Dang! Wow!

1. Blue Devils 84.100 2 Mandarins 78.050 3 Blue Knights 72.450 4 The Academy 71.100 4 Pacific Crest 71.100

It's early in the season, and scores don't mean much, but..... The gap between BD and Mandarins seems.... confusing.

This show is FIREEEEEEEEEEEEE

If DCI truly cares about the health of members, this show should not happen tonight. The air is horrible.

This show is awesome and the corps has so much room to grow and clean. Mandarins are going to have (another) historic year. Whatever they are doing there, they need to keep doing it.

I'll go first... Blue Devils Carolina Crown Boston Crusaders Bluecoats Cavaliers Cadets Mandarins Phantom Regiment Blue Stars Troopers Colts Blue Knights

It's time for 2023 Top 12 Predictions! Rules are simple! Only post your top 12 predictions for 2023 You can post one sentence for each corps, explaining/justifying your rationale Your predictions should be what you think will happen (not necessarily what you want to happen) All other comments/reactions should be posted in another post, not in this one Use reactions to show your agreement/disagreement with posted predictions Have fun!

Outside a few programs, marching band is dying in California. I think people who keep saying "California is the largest source of talent for drum corps" are not informed of the reality. Increasingly, many high schools no longer have a marching band. I've heard that bands competing have dropped to half of what they were 15 years ago. Times they are a changing.

Somewhat ironically, Mandarins have some of the most expensive prop costs over the past few years and they are one of the most financially sound corps in the activity.

DCI is a membership organization. It serves to provide resources and coordination among (and amongst) the member drum corps. If you aren't familiar with how membership organizations run, perhaps this will help. Think of an HOA for a condo development. The condo owners themselves are the owners. They elect a board of directors that provides representative oversight of shared interests. The BOD hires a management organization to provide services to all owners such as managing shared property, coordinating events, managing maintenance, etc... In DCI, Corps are the condo owners (specifically, World Class Corps) and the staff (including Dan Atkinson) serve at the direction of the Board of Directors. The BOD is Dan Atkinson's supervisor. Hope that helps a little.

Thanks for the reply! I realized both of the posts I saw were from Hop loyalists, which I didn't really think about before posting. Hopeful for a great year for The Cadets!

Is recruitment really as poor as some are saying? Is camp attendance way down? I haven’t heard much, but the two updates I’ve heard (along with Cadet’s financial status) have been very ominous

SCV in September 2022: We are appointing Rebecca Compton-Allen as the Director of Program Management to oversee strategic planning, administrative operations, and infrastructure improvement. She was the director of SVC in 2022. SCV in December 2022: The Tour in 22 spent significantly more money than we should have; we exceeded our budgeted amounts in every category. In hindsight, we repeatedly made bad administrative decisions that now threaten the existence of the Vanguard organization. PLEASE HELP THIS MAKE SENSE. Is the executive leadership this out of touch or unaware? Does the BOD provide such poor oversight that this is allowed to happen? The problems at SCV are really bad - much worse than many think.

When RCA was hired, I know several folks tried raising concerns and were dismissed as being sexist. Being director of two corps, one of which is no longer around and the other one is "inactive" sure raises many, many questions. Folks might forget, but after the 22 tour, RCA "accepted" another position at SCV as Director of Program Management where she was going to focus on "strategic planning, infrastructure improvement, and administrative operations" Considering SCV has stated these are the reasons SCV is inactive this year, it seems like another BAD decision. She only lasted a few months in that role. YIKES. No single person is to blame, for sure, but there is a lot of bad energy around RCA. She failed so many times.

I re-read their statement and the more I reflect upon it, it causes me to have greater concern about the future of SCV. Bingo jn California is dying. It does not have a future. The data is clear. Planning on a wish-and-prayer that a second Bingo becomes operational to keep the Corps going is bad management. Putting out a statement that actually says (paraphrasing here) “we aren’t fielding a corps because we couldn’t get another bingo operation going” is bad leadership. Think about that - they say that bingo revenues are down and THEN say that their future hopes are resting on opening another bingo operation. Ugh. This is bad and I think it’s going to get worse.

I’m not sure if this is upsetting, an example of how poorly SCV is being run, or confusing (or a mixture of all three!) but… SCV offered contracts YESTERDAY for members to March this summer. YESTERDAY! jeez!

While the “arms race” of props, new uniforms each year, new instruments, etc… is a contributing factor to rising costs, i think we really need to explore an area of exploding costs: STAFF. Designers, consultants, advisors, and (in some sections) more techs then MMs. it has to be curtailed.