MikeN

As long as I'm tossing my opinions out there, I'm also concerned by a couple of other things in their statement. This is good: This is a massive red flag: Where did the capital and endowment fund go? If it was to pay vendors, as is implied by the fact it's all in that one sentence, questions must be asked. The other issue, regarding leadership: This is ... kind of ... concerning? Could be a big deal, could not be. While the Board definitely has the authority to conduct business without an ED or corps director, that means the Board also made the (possibly) decision above to spend their capital and endowment fund. They're also charging full steam ahead without having installed any permanent day-to-day leadership, and the run up to 2024 starts on literally Sunday. Finally, this: This probably should have been Step One for 2024, not step At The End Of The Summer. And nobody at SCV BoD has contacts on their own? When I was at Guardians, I had half a dozen other orgs on speed dial that were cartoonishly awesomely helpful when I needed it. And we were on the bottom shelf of DCI, not the top. Anyways, there may still be much going on we don't know about, but that's what stood out to me from this most recent update. Mike

They aren't yet. Means they couldn't meet the original deadlines and asked for extensions. 😞 Mike

Good job Guardians! Within striking distance to move up. I haven't been able to see them yet this year; am very anxious to! Mike

I'm just uncomfortable tethering organizational stability and funding with on-field performance in a youth circuit. I think DCI has the right idea in raising the bar for how member orgs must conduct themselves financially, and *that* should be the criteria for inclusion. Mike

Kind of reads as "we showed Dan our plan, and he introduced us to people who have done this before." 😞 Mike

So... because they may finish 17th, they should rebrand the organization and give up their World Class membership? Gotta be honest, I think I've read every single post of every single annual Madison thread, and the drumbeat that never ends is, Madison is bad, the board should be fired, the corps should be dissolved, rebranded and the earth sown with salt, because... 1) They don't make Finals anymore; 2) They fired Jim Mason, that made them not make Finals anymore; and 3) They made it harder to become a member so people mad at 1 and 2 can't easily vote the board out, and those alumni now have a strained relationship with the organization. That's about it. Even the admission of women came and went with relatively minor waves. Now, #3 there actually *is* something a little eyebrow raising from an organization perspective. However, many other corps had much higher barriers for participation; Madison was kind of an outlier in that regard. They actually seem like a fairly well run corps off the field. Is it really just about the on-field product? Mike

Jersey Surf fielded a corps and SCV couldn't. <shrug> Just saying (ok, with a fair bit of snark)... Mike

It's more than a few nickels, less than a cartoon bag of money with $ on it. Mike

It was actually 30 years ago. We're old. Mike

That is not in any way true. Mike

That's not quite how this works. Mike

Ask an AI to describe GE, you'd probably get the same word salad the humans use... 😞 Mike

Percussion caption judges have traditionally been the only group in recent times unafraid to call it like this. Would love to see the lowest placing high brass trophy in the last few decades. Mike

It's a polite / low key way of saying pirate / downloaded streams. Mike

Drumline is amazing this year. It does feel like they kind of skimped on the brass book - lots of segments given over to the battery, and that's a new thing for Cadets. Not bad necessarily, just new. For the uniforms, they've definitely grown on me, though I would have like to have seen warmup pants rather than shorts and leggings. As a former AAU parent, I think they don't look as good in that setting either... All in all, this is a good vehicle for them, and I hope they keep pushing this design philosophy forward. It's fairly unique among their peers, and they have a distinct identity. Mike

I get where you're coming from - but as a drummer, Cadets drumline is friggin' awesome, and I'm okay with it. Mike

The thread title made me giggle. Mike

Sounds legit; that's how it was handled in the past. That said, I am virtually certain SCV will get a pass on this one. Mike

Love it! I can pretty much hum every Cavaliers show from 1989-2008 at you on demand. And for some reason, also Men are From Mars. Mike

Totally agree - this is one of my *favorite* shows of the summer. It's traditional and clever at the same time, with a crazy athletic corps and a drumline from Hades, and I appreciate the heck out of it. I can guarantee I'm going to rewatch this one more often than I am some of the medallists. Mike

PBS will not show anything in the Saturday night slot that would pre-empt their existing lineups. That's part of why they cut DCI in the first place - British mysteries draw an order of magnitude more viewers. Plus, DCI had an unsavory reputation with PBS of donors making pledges and then not following through. That ship, sadly, has long sailed. Mike

I collect a *lot* of DCI drum music/scores for funsies and to have stuff to play around at home on, and I have to say, there's a massive gulf in degree of difficulty between the top lines and everyone else. It's pretty clear that when corps recognize they have a talented and veteran battery, they tend to twist the difficulty knob up to 11. Mike

Here is the one I saw:

As a risk manager, I am absolutely professionally convinced the only thing preventing the end of the touring model as we know it is that there hasn't been a court case requiring its examination. Mike

Have to give massive props to the BD battery - one of their warmups this year is an old school classic called Robbie Beats / Chuguda. I think the last time I heard it from them was... 1989? Somewhere around there. Anyways, does this old drummer's heart good to hear them play it again. Mike