Weaklefthand4ever

My favorite site for motivational (de-motivational) posters and calendars. When I worked on site, I had these up all over my office LOL.

I will never complain about a 19lbs Premier marching snare again. (Ok that's a lie....I will still complain about them)

I voted for that Asteroid for president in 2020......

My take on people wanting woodwinds in drum corps that have brought it up to the rules congress 1.37 zillion times

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I would very much like to see that Jeff LOL. I agree though.

Which brings up the question(s) that only those with insider knowledge will be able to answer: What does it cost to design a top 6 show vs a bottom 6 show? What does a Bluecoats/BD/SCV/(inserttop6corpshere) designer demand money wise? Which is the largest contributor to the increased cost? I can see how expanding member count tour fee wise vs cost wise could be a wash. So then do we go back to bigger show, bigger design, bigger cost for that design?

This really got me to thinking. I would assume that the push was "Bigger 'cast' = bigger show = bigger score." Because my original music education career path was in choral music, I always kind of think of it like you would a stage production. Historically, very few small-cast stage productions do exceptionally well in the short term (I can think of two that were big hits....The Secret Garden with Mandi Patinkin and Evita.) Big shows generate big revenue. I think this applies to the drum corps world. You can do more vertical staging and other theatrical "stuff" with 154 cats than you can with 128 and that's going to push the scores to follow that mindset. Maybe I'm wrong. Tell me if I am, but I think it almost makes sense.

I have been absolutely STUNNED at the complexity of front ensemble work within drum corps. Coming from the mid/late 80's, it's amazing what is being played now by members.

Hereby known as the "Thunderous Goo Clause"

I wonder about SafeSport's viability if MMs are using it as a pejorative though. But as you demonstrate, there are lots of companies who do this! Excellent points. I would think that given the nature of reaction to SafeSport, the same general principles could be installed with alterations to more closely fit with the DCI / DCA activity. "A" model exists even if it is not "THE" model which becomes agreed on. This is where I truly believe that DCI lacks vision. Look at the existing model for SafeSport, look at the feedback both positive and negative, and write a policy that more closely aligns with your vision. I truly believe this is "WILL" issue and not a "SKILL" issue. Agreed on the voting and adoption problems. DCI policing itself will always be problematic in my view. And that is the part that scares me the most. I think in DCI / DCA's heart of hearts, they are stuck in the mindset that they are somehow protected from legal jeopardy by the way the institutions are set up (DCI vs Individual corps.) I am not a legal scholar so I am not going to pretend to know how much truth there is to what I believe is their thought process. What I DO know, is that in 23 years of corporate work, the one thing that you can rely on is that ^#$^ happens and you are NEVER as protected against legal action as you may think. DCI cannot police itself and hold itself separate from the corps. You either have skin in the game and the teeth to protect that skin with policy, or you allow an outside source to manage the whole thing whose decisions are final (though subject to appeal and review) and binding to ALL corps regardless of their financial importance to DCI. DCI is one lawsuit from non-existence. They do not have the demographic influence nor the financial wherewithal to survive a multi-million (or more) dollar lawsuit. They need to understand this and accept it as simple fact.

Interesting questions: Who is this "independent someone" who will verify that corps has adequately trained their staff? I would think that is two fold. If the mandatory training is even partially done by eLearning, then there are literally HUNDREDS of independent companies who create, house and administrate eLearning through an LMS (Learning Management System) which includes real time reporting. I can literally pull real time compliance reports right now for 160,000+ employees for all of our annual training in any country we work in. Who sets those standards? I feel like this one is maybe easier than I had originally thought. You simply adopt the standards of an organization such as SafeSport. The biggest hurdle would probably be getting the individual corps to vote "yes" IF a vote is even the way this should be done. I almost want to say take the approach that we take with our business partners. "Here is our compliance training. By signing this contract, you agree to our terms for delivery and tracking for the length of this contract." I would also agree that DCI already has an ethics coordinator. Simply add compliance to that role.

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Going to throw another out there because I thought about it. 2014 Blue Devils B Opener - Young and Beautiful Short little opener but really well done. And another one: 2010 Phantom Regiment - Into the Light - ALL OF IT