Henson

The problem with current leadership is that they seem to treat the events of the past year as nothing but a PR problem. It’s not. It’s a leadership culture problem. Until they overcome their denial and recognize that, this kind of unforced error will continue. People here have said it before, and it’s true; an organizational structure where the board is wholly answerable to the individual corps management will never solve the problem. This is because all of their incentives lie in supporting the “leadership,” and the well-being of the kids gets entirely lost. There’s more here than bad PR.

I don’t post here often, but I’m heavily involved in the marching arts and a deep consumer of DCI’s products. I’m taking the year off. I’ll come back when they bring in a professional board of directors not answerable only to current member corps. I insist that this organization, when contemplating action, ask themselves “what is best for the kids” and then do that. Absent evidence of that change, I’m out. I can’t support this any more. And that’s sad. The leadership appears to view everything that’s happening as a PR problem rather than an existential crisis of leadership culture. (No, I’m not Chuck. We share a name)

My opinion is that the person is the gender they identify as. If a person transitioned to become a man, he should have every opportunity to feel welcome into the brotherhood of one of these organizations. If the opposite was happening, I could see there being some opportunity for discussion there, but my own opinion is pretty clear. She's a woman. People get all squicked out by trans folks. I don't get that. They're people, same as the rest of us. Be respectful, and accept them as the gender they present. It ain't hard.

Were DCI to define "drum and bugle corps" as all fraternal organizations, restricting corps to men only, or make a rule that only women can be in guard, or that all tubas have to be black, I would have a problem with that. THAT is unjustly denying people an opportunity to march. However, individual corps within the organization have forged identities over generations which are centered around their masculinity, and I think they should be free to do so. The alums want it, the leaders want it, and, most importantly, the members want it. For many of them, that brotherhood is THE REASON they tried out for that group and not, say, Cadets or Crusaders, especially in the case of the Scouts. Were they to change that, they wouldn't be changing their traditions - they'd be changing their core identity, just as much as that hypothetical transgender person you all keep discussing (for some reason). Corps are free to choose to accept men, women, or both. One of the things that is special about drum corps, and which high school bands can't really emulate, is that ability to make a clear choice of group identity (in all aspects, not just the gender makeup of the corps). In my opinion, if you want to be in a co-ed corps, you're probably missing the point if you take that to mean you want to be a Scout. There are choices out there. Better ones, even. But if you're looking for a brotherhood, then one of those two corps may be the place for you. It's not like they make the decision for competitive reasons. They do it because that is their product, their brand, and their identity. Asking the Cavaliers to bring in women is like asking the Blue Devils to wear green - it just ain't them. I don't mean to be flip, but there have been all-women corps before. The fact that they died off (along with most of the all-male corps) leaving only these two corps with a single-sex tradition isn't due to some nefarious activity or because the men were just mean. It's due to a lot of other factors which had nothing to do with that corps identity. (Disclosure - despite the screenname, I am not Chuck Henson. I only wish I were that fabulous. We share a last name and, occasionally, dinner.)

I've only read the first post of the thread, but my immediate thought was that perhaps some of the "name" corps should recognize their status as guests at housing sites, and show their hosts at least a little bit of respect. I know if I invited some stranger to share my home for a few days, I would be really upset if they put a bunch of unreasonable demands on my hospitality, effectively taking over my entire home in the name of "rehearsal space."

Maybe the point isn't that the penalty shouldn't have been awarded. Maybe the point we're all missing is that the rule is dumb. Think about it - a 1pt penalty FOR THAT??!?! Certain people have tried to get that rule cleaned up in the past and failed. We'll see how the Cabs come down next time it's voted on.

Of course DCI and the corps are not responsible to the high school programs and their safety. That is 100% the responsibility of the people working with those programs. My point was that I feel that DCI and the corps do a good job of this. The high school programs, however, do not. I've watched entire drum lines tumble over a badly placed tarp. I've watched kids picked up and just about flipped over when the tarp they have one foot on gets dragged towards the goal line by panicked kids and adults terrified of a penalty they have almost no chance of receiving (BOA generally won't penalize as long as a good faith effort is being made). I've watched billboard sized props picked up by the wind and blown into high velocity drill - or knocked over onto colorguard. I've watched tarps picked up by wind and blown into performers. All of this is preventable by basic practices that the corps are (largely) using, but that many schools are not. In the scholastic setting, the liability issue is a very real concern. There will, someday soon, be an accident that changes how we deal with props on the football field across the activity. My only point is - why not make the changes before we're forced to?

Risk mitigation and risk management are not new fields. There are well defined best practices that can and should be used in the identification and mitigation of risks. Frankly, I trust the modern DCI groups to implement a lot of these practices, though there should be strong incentive for the organization itself to either clinic some procedures and sell them to the groups, or even mandate some type of performance and rehearsal risk analysis. This, and other issues of liability, will be the next "copyright/permissions" problem faced by the marching arts world, and a lot of people are slow to wake up to it because they're chasing after the newer, bigger, better thing. The people that concern me aren't the DCI staffs. I think they have the right people and procedures in place to do the right thing by the kids. My concern is the high school groups that try to emulate them. Someone brought up the example of tarps, and how much thought has to go into safely integrating them into a performance. Now extrapolate that out to the hundreds of high school groups who are using tarps on football fields around the country every fall - do you think they are making that same kind of effort to get it right, or even know to try? I don't think they are. I don't mean to get preachy, but I've worked as event staff for BOA for a long time, and some of the crap I see high school groups try to pull makes me sick. If it were up to me, I'd ban tarps in high school competition entirely the way we've banned animals, pyrotechnics, props over 12', people standing on props without a safety rail, etc. I'm terrified to see how many middle-tier high school groups try to emulate the end of Tilt this fall, or Boston's pyramid. The effectiveness of communication in show design is important, but the kids and their safety are way, way more important. Those relative values need to be carefully weighed when you want to integrate some of these massive props and tarps in an outdoor environment, because these props are inherently dangerous.

I love Coastal Surge. I love the show, your drumline is especially great. I love the staff, I love the kids. I love drum corps in general. Because of all of this, I have to say - PLEASE be careful. This ain't the 80's. Don't let someone in or out of the organization pressure you into making a decision with undue risk to the children entrusted to your care. Don't just wing it with a busload of kids and a vanload of staff. Everyone deserves better than that. Don't leave because you have enough to "start" tour. Leave when you have enough to finish tour, safely, and get everyone home with a positive experience.

Those uniforms definitely DO say "Blue Devils." They just don't say "1970s Blue Devils." The breezy construction, the way I expect them to move, the flash and showmanship... There is no modern corps for whom this uniform is a better fit. What would you rather see... ruffles???

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"Beginner Friendly" Isn't this DCA nowadays? The average age of a DCA corps in this decade is much, much lower than people think. The 50 year old beer drinkers aren't just becoming outliers - they have been for a while. An illustration: At the open house camps for the corps I affiliate with, we have well attended parent meetings where we explain the drum corps thing in detail, assure them that we're concerned foremost for their child's safety and education, and give examples of how many of our former members have moved on to DCI corps - then, in some cases, returned home to us after age out.

The current generation of band directors is, in large percentage, a group who grew out of drum corps, or grew up as fans of it. The best groups in BOA have heavily corps-connected staffs and encourage their kids to march corps. They see the benefits of a corps education as something which outweighs missing a couple camps - because let's face it, a kid who marched corps all summer is going to know how to learn music and drill pretty darned quickly, and will (hopefully) bring an businesslike attitude to rehearsal which will rub off. Doesn't always work that way, though. Plenty of kids come back "too good for marching band" and are a drag on the ensemble. There, it falls to the leadership of the director/staff to make the necessary attitude adjustment. That doesn't speak to all BOA bands. It speaks to the top couple tiers, "semifinalist" caliber bands. Thing is, DCI is becoming a college activity, especially in World Class. Not many HS sophomores marching Blue Devils...

Wholeheartedly agree, and that was kinda my point. They separate operations and education, and their education staff already include the same people they'd be getting from any kind of formal DCI branding - but the MFA contacts are already more extensive than DCI's because they reach out to college and high school educators, as well as professional artists, that DCI has no relationship with. BOA, DCI, and WGI run in parallel. Same people, different structures.

Why would BOA pursue a partnership with DCI which disrupts their current (successful) event model? Frankly, the guys judging at a BOA event and doing Sunday clinics on request are largely already the same folks they'd be "gaining" from any partnership. I know this is a DCI board, and we get a bit of myopia here at times, but the reality is that DCI should be pursuing a partnership with BOA, not the other way around - and I'm not sure BOA would be all that interested. They know what they're doing, and don't need the "help." BOA runs events. Does a really good job of it, and they don't use corps people or band people. They use events people. Their legal ducks are in a row, they're back on solid financial footing, they're managed extremely well (and consistently, which is a not insignificant point given the context of YEA...), they have great relationships with the venues, and every detail of every show is relentlessly scouted, planned, and controlled. That and the promise that BOA judges are arguably better in consistency of commentary and professionalism than what you're going to find at any other high school band show add up to a value to the customers - high school band directors. Listen to what the band directors on this thread have been quietly saying, and realize that for every band student with a corps affiliation, there's over 100 without it. BOA doesn't need DCI. DCI needs BOA more so than the inverse. Someone made the point that USBANDS is overextended - their resources don't match their vision. This seems like it could be an attempt to overcome that structural deficiency, and I hope they succeed. Consistency of the brand is a problem with that circuit, and it starts at the top, I'm afraid. These are problems that BOA doesn't have. If there would be some sort of formal agreement between DCI and BOA to partner on events, there had better be some analysis that it's something which is making their shows demonstrably better, rather than change for the sake of "cool! DCI!"