MikeN

Saw them in person at UIL Region. Absolutely blew me away. Amazing (and gigantic) guard was able to do some astounding things, and those kids made the dances look effortless. Mike

BDB's coming back to OC Finals, according to their recruiting posts. Mike

More Guardians at Madison, but congrats to Alicia Villanueva, who is hands down one of the most capable people I have ever met in all of my years of drum corps! http://www.madisonscouts.org/2019/11/meet-the-2020-administrative-tour-team-leaders/ Mike

Brass, drums and guard - everyone but woodwinds - already do that. Mike

No different than what happens today. Brass, drums and guard - you get all of that at school. Heck, drums and guard you also get WGI. Mike

Having worked with a group where we were the beneficiary of cut lists, I've seen it in multiple instances. That is definitely an area where a more systemic approach would be much preferred to the current "hope your brass staff is on good terms with other brass staffs" philosophy. Mike

I know I'm a little biased because of the Guardians connection, but Madison looks to be putting together a very solid staff that seems like long-term folks. Mike

Tim Darbonne is legit awesome. His work with Guardians was amazing! Mike

Deadspin had actually a pretty good review of this proposal. MLB is coming from the stance that because of advanced training and technology they don’t need as many players going through the minors as before, and kind of ignores the whole baseball-as-entertainment aspect. For DCI, no matter what “popular perception” is Open Class isn’t a formal feeder system for World Class. OC has a tremendous number of retained members and age outs too. Kids may move on to other bigger corps, but if nothing else, competitive results show there is considerable overlap between the divisions. Mike

But technically weren't bugles either. <sorry, sorry, the drummer will show himself out now...> Mike

Good grief! We're in week 8 of the football season in Texas, we did 4 contests already and had UIL Regionals this past weekend. Area is next weekend to determine state qualifiers. Mike

Ok, it's a silly point to get stuck on, I know, but it got me to thinking that there really *hasn't* been much turnover in Open Class lately. So, based on DCXMuseum and a Google search, here's the corps from the last 10 years that went inactive after competing at DCI: Open Class: Racine Scouts (last competed in 2015), Coastal Surge (2014), Revolution (2012), Forte (2011), Platinum (2011), VK (2010) World Class: Pioneer (2018), Oregon Crusaders (2018), Glassmen (2012), Teal Sound (2011) OC isn't so much a fly by night operation anymore, especially in the last 5 years, and having butts in seats didn't really help some of the WC corps either. (I suppose a larger point could be made that there were just as many non-monetary reasons as there were financial ones.) Mike

For Open Class, it would look like any day ending in “y.” Mike

I’m sorry for just realizing why I knew Ray’s name! Those ISO recordings were spectacular! Mike

My corps? Yes, everyone is prohibited, even in jurisdictions where it might otherwise be legal. I literally wrote the policy. 🙂 Mike

Exactly. Circuit that fosters exclusivity from admin to promoters to corps to fans now wonders where everyone went. Mike

The last two years for my Texas kiddo she got back from Nats week on Saturday and was in school on Wednesday. (so around the 14th ish) Mike

My first thought was to agree with you on that, but the top costs for a group <in general> are travel, staff and food. None of those would go down with indoor winds, unless you have a smaller corps, I suppose... but then what's to stop you from doing that anyways with an outdoor group? Mike

AFAIK, DCI does require footwear (and has for a long time), but the exact type is up to the corps. I know a few visual folks, and they all take it very seriously as far as foot support and endurance. Mike

Berry Center is the bomb - you could have a whole second show going on in their parking lots, there's so much space. Mike

San Antonio and Atlanta have already drawn 13-15k midseason before; you'd reason they'd likely pull in Indianapolis-type attendance for Finals. Mike

Note: I have zero inside knowledge on this, but it does for me sound like eliminating TEPs. Mike

I'm with you on this. I work with an Open Class corps, and none of us at the org level have *ever* thought Vanguard Cadets or BDB should be restricted for their success. If anything, we're all trying more and more to take best practices from the successful ones and try to get us up to that level too. Mike

Again, depending on the locale, techs may not be employees. (I know you're using the term interchangeably, but rights can vary based on classification.) Easiest way for (Independent Contractor) staff to protect themselves in the future - make sure they actually have a written agreement, and write in a contract clause that specifies a penalty for late payment past x date. Obviously I'm not sure how many recent grads will think of that, though. Mike

No, just pointing out in some jurisdictions the legal remedies for late pay are different depending on the classification. Federal law is pretty explicit for employees: late pay is the same as no pay. Aaaaanyways, for the Cadets, it does suck, but they're not the first drum corps that this has happened to (heck, they're not the first *this year*, nor will they be the last.) Mike