tboneloser22

Maybe y'all already noticed this, but dci.org lists 49 active dci member drum corps at the moment... the drop below 50 seems to me a somewhat significant milestone.

Well then we probably ought to close this topic. My apologies.

I remember in 2004, when I was with Magic of Orlando, Esperanza and Pacific Crest both had us beat in head to head competition during the season. They were just cleaner. However, come Quarterfinals, something strange happens: their scores plummeted (by 4 to 6 points), ours held stable, and we slipped into semifinals. Now, this could have been a product of Pacific Coast inflation. However, I felt at the time that the judging community hit them due to their part time status. Do corps actually pay a penalty, rather than gain, from doing a part time tour? Do you think Academy will ultimately pay a penalty, come finals time, for not doing a full tour? PS: I was at San Antonio, and Academy looked and sounded great. Congrats!

I was surprised tonight. I thought Academy would be just a bunch of Pacific Coast score inflation. This was not the case. They earned precisely the spot they received in finals. They are for real, and I do not see them fading out of Finals between now and Pasadena. If they did, I would be *shocked*. Congrats Academy!

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I have never heard of a corps having a closed rehearsal policy, provided people stay out of their way.

1996 Phantom

I have seen a few contracts in my day. They can differ substantially, but generally, they are very heavy on obligations to students, and light on obligations to corps. Few, if any, make gaurantees about the corps not changing policy, and few, if any, would say "if the corps breaks ___ terms, you get money back." That's just how the activity is, as I have seen it. Objectionable, but it is the case. Further, a contract will generally say "I, the member, agree to live up to everything in the member handbook." However, I would be surprised if many contracts place the same burden on the corps. In short, we cannot universalize my claim, but I would assert that in most corps, changing cell phone policy, after a contract is signed, would not qualify as a breach, and rarely if ever as a refundable breach. Corps are not stupid enough to bind themselves so severely and rigidly. To reitierate, I find this practice highly objectionable, and would be outraged with a ban of this sort in my corps after I was contracted. I would probably bury a phone deep down in my bag and use it during free days, or after the show when people are out to eat, and wandering around town. A cell phone will hold a charge for the whole summer, if kept off whenever it is not in use, and used sparingly. Is my solution kosher to y'all? Probably not. But that is how I would handle the situation, if I were there.

I agree ideally a cell phone policy would be decided and disclosed before contracts, but I think the "after we signed contracts" argument doesn't hold water, especially given the assertion that a change in policy, post contract, should allow members to claim a refund of dues and not march. There are a lot of surprises during the summer, and even policy changes, as anyone who has marched can tell you, which you may not have "signed on for." These are sometimes disappointing, but having signed on, and then having something change, should be an expected part of the game. Albeit, such policy changes generally #### me off, and I would be ###### off if my corps banned cell phones after my being contracted, but to claim I ought to be able to quit and claim a refund, to me, does not hold water.

Some corps choose to ban cell phones during the summer. Good or Bad? Positives and Negatives? Positive: I want to sleep after a show, not listen to people yammering through the night. Long, deep conversations with boyfriend/ girlfriend are not productive... and usually, when they take the chance to break up with you, not good for morale. Gymnasium fire hazards... you have seen the 30 phones into one outlet phenomenon Distract members Negative: Homesick rookies can talk to their parents during rough move-in camp. Emergency contact, especially without sufficient manpower for staff to field queries from concerned parents. Free days, airport pick-ups, hospital runs, are made easier. With the disappearance of pay phones, you might be out of contact with son/ daughter for three months

Bring 2 of anything you will be punished for not having- 2 horn towels, two hats, 2 pairs of sunglasses. Be a real (wo)man, and leave mattresses and sleeping bags at home- shed the bulk, take a warm blanket and a pillow, and do not sleep on your shoulder.

Problem with shoving ponytail into shako: tends to actually hurt to have the pressure of Shako upon ponytail upon back of skull. When you are in a shako for an hour, especially, for example, in a parade, it can really start hurting. When in drum corps, why put yourself through extra pain? Cut the hair as short as you can; keeps you cooler during summer, and makes showers quicker. Long hair = sign of own vanity.

Gold Bond

I agree completely with this point. However, consider this: if visual staff at a corps tells you to do something, do you disobey? Even if it is unreasonable, dangerous, or insane? I have been in corps where people were clearly in danger of injury from activity which went beyond what people would physically could do- as we know, a metronome and a box drill are all it takes to destroy people, if a visual staff wants to. Same is true of rehearsal in Kansas in July- when does it stop being "we are in corps: we are tough guys" and become "that boy just had a heat stroke; maybe we should stop rehearsal"? We can think of at least 1 corps this past season, and many more in the past. And to be honest, if corps staff, for some insane reason, told the corps to run through a gaggle of football players, they almost certainly would do it. Thus, I find it curious that we would find football player behavior inescusable- when a person has complete authority and autonomy in determining your path in something very valuable to you, whether it is your football scholarship, or your dream summer of drum corps, and we are talking about 30 year olds vs 18-21 year olds with no power, how exactly do we expect these things to play out? I can find no fault with the players, only the coach. To repeat though, I agree: "In my book that makes you just plain stupid."

I was with a rather small senior corps for a year before I went off and did 3 years of junior corps. Mostly guys who had marched in the late 60s through 80s. Nothing was more educational than that one year with a senior corps, especially in terms of knowing the history and the context of the activity a young person is walking into. This kind of history and context is often lacking in some corps/ members, IMHO.