JohnD

My technical answer: Respectfully submitted for your review - the story of an intermittently errant image, seemingly reproducing itself ...... over .... and over ...... and over again ...... driving the viewer mad with visions of Shadowed Maruaders appearing in an endless stream of dots and digits ...... browsers going haywire ....... and Glen Haywards appearing OVER and OVER again ..... in a place we call ...... The DCP Zone. That's my best guess ...

RSS feeds ARE here. We've just turned-up the RSS modules and are presently publishing RSS 1.0 and 2.0, ATOM 0.3, and OPML news feeds from the DCP Front Page. These feeds feature the Top 16 news stories from Drum Corps Planet and may be used by any of our members and readers. The feeds are perfect for making DCP News content available for your own website or blog. There is also an RSS 2.0 feed available for several of the forums, providing links back to the Top 20 current topics. Each feed is updated every 60 minutes and available by clicking on the RSS icon at the lower left of the page. Feel free to use our RSS Syndication to incorporate the latest from Drum Corps Planet on your site. Enjoy! -john

Elizabeth, WELCOME to Drum Corps Planet! We're awfully glad you found us on the web ... and thrilled to welcome you to the drum corps community. There are few places where such a LARGE group of people are SO passionate about what they're involved in - while being so diverse in their ages, locales, skill-levels, education, and backgrounds. Perhaps it is because of the incredible experiences people have in this activity. I'm confident that within our pages on Drum Corps Planet, you'll be able to find answers to most of your questions about drum crops and will have the opportunity to develop friendships that can last a lifetime. Best of luck with the trumpet lessons ... and we'll look for you on the field next year with Carolina Gold! Best regards, -john

We're hoping to have the store open in the next couple of weeks. The final development is being done and suppliers are working on a couple of samples for me to review. Not too much longer. -john

Good catch, Cliff! I was wondering how long it would take for someone to make a comment about the placement of the note in the new logo. YES - it was a specific design intent, meant to provide a bit of 'homage' to the history of the activity .... in the new, fresh, forward-looking DCP. Laura and Nicole Bratt of DesignAura have been my graphic designers on this project and I think they've done a GREAT job. There was no intent to resurrect a controversy .... simply to pay respect to a part of this activity's history. (Besides, the 'p' would have looked REALLY funny with the note on the 4th line of the staff.) Thanks for noticing. -john NOTE: There were no frames involved in the creation of this response.

Sam, Sorry you're having the problem. The issue has been resolved - by restoring the forums to a full-screen and removing the 'wrapper'. After reviewing the results of yesterday's wide-scale 'test-drive' - we found that, while most of the issues could be resolved, there were a couple of significant technical issues that could not easily be overcome. For those technical reasons, I decided to remove the wrapper from the forums. Please delete the bookmark you created yesterday - and simply access the forums thru the DCP Forums button on the main page. It will open a full screen forum window - which you can then bookmark, if you so desire. Thank you for your patience. -john

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their comments (complimentary and not-so) on the new site. I'd also like to thank the DCP team for their support during this design / development / validation process. As those familiar with the process know, it is sometimes difficult to anticipate every potential scenario and test for every combination of hardware, operating system, and software. While we did a LOT of testing ... with a number of different people, systems, browsers, and skill-levels - we knew that we'd have to do some 'post-cutover' testing, due to feature interactions that required the full site (news and forums) to be running in the same domain (which was not the case until last night). Most of the problems that were found today fell into the category of 'fixable'. However, after spending a fair amount of time analyzing the real-world results of today's test-drive and reviewing the probability of resolving the high majority of these issues in a timely fashion - I've decided that the best solution is to return the forums to an environment outside of the Content Management System that we're using for the Drum Corps Planet news section. The menu button on the DCP 'front-section' will route you here - without the wrapper. The DCP logo and masthead text at the top of this page (here in the forums) will take you directly back to the 'front page' of Drum Corps Planet. Other than a couple of other minor changes - the forums have been returned to the state they were on Saturday ... and 'life has been restored to normal in our world' ...... errrrrrr - Planet. Thanks again for your patience in this process. I'm going to reset the poll on the front page to start at ZERO ... and ask that you give the **NEWer DCP** another look and provide your feedback, now that these issues are largely resolved. For those that endured problems on Sunday during our test-drive - please accept our gratitude for hanging in there. Stay tuned to the DCP Front Page for the latest information from the drum corps activity and some great features ... as well as some exciting things that are upcoming. -john

Thanks to everyone for your feedback and support. I'm happy that we could get this project released to 'the world' and have more of you using the new system. There have been countless hours invested in the design, development, and validation of the system already .... and we'll continue to make improvements as we go along. Here are some specific thoughts and responses: We are aware of the navigation issues within the forums and will be working on finding solutions for as many of them as we can. I will not guarantee that things will work precisely as they have in all ways ... but we'll get as close as we can. I made the decision to continue use of the forum software that has served DCP for some time now ... and preserve the history of the forums' content. A 'cleaner' integration could have been possible, using a more tightly integrated forum package - but we probably would have lost a fair amount of the functionality and the message history we have amassed. Not an option, in my book. Please give us a few days with the 'live site' to get some of these things sorted-out. While there may be some resistance to changing the look, reducing the footprint of the forum on the screen, and 'encumbering' the forums with the DCP wrapper - I strongly believe the new design is for the betterment of the overall site and we will continue to refine this overall design concept going forward. Our vision for Drum Corps Planet exceeds the confines of a discussion forum and we're working hard to bring that 'additional value' to-life. That leads me to the next thought ..... My presumption is that the large majority of people that are here are because they're either interested in, or somehow connected-to, the drum corps / pageantry activity. Sure, many enjoy discussing things that are well outside that scope - but what brings them here is the drum corps activity and community. That said, this new design better serves the drum corps community - by bringing more information and features about the activity to the site .... and reminding people that there is much more to DCP than just the forums. For those that are not interested in what's happening in the drum corps activity - you'll have to either bear with us .... or go to a more general discussion forum elsewhere on the internet. There are going to be things that YOU are interested in {TRUST ME - you will be interested} that will only appear on the front pages of this site ... and will NOT be noticed or officially communicated thru the forums. For the latest info - you'll have to go to the front page ... or rely on someone else to get the info first ... which may be to your dis-advantage. Make it a point to look around the rest of the site. There's a lot of new, interesting things outside of the forums - and you'll see them grow in the near future. The entire DCP team is excited about this new platform and the world of possibilities that it brings to our growth. It will take some time to iron-out all of the annoyances and details ..... but I hope you'll find it well worth your investment of time. The coming months will bring a number of exciting developments and partnerships that are in the works .... so please stay tuned. Thank you for your support, patience, and flexibility going forward. We'll continue to listen to your comments and suggestions ... and give them fair consideration in our plans for improvement. Enjoy the new site! -john

Welcome to the **NEW** look for Drum Corps Planet!! We're still working out a few of the bugs .... but hope to have everything at 100% within the next day or two. Most of the work is complete and the only things that remain are those final tweaks that required the site to be 'fully on-line' before they could be finalized. Please explore the various sections of the 'front' of the site and let us know what you think. This new system will be the foundation for a number of new features in the future - so please be patient as we roll them out. Yes, we are aware that you must log-in when you enter the forums. That issue is at the top of our list of things to 'fix' and we hope to have that solved in the very near future. Update: The forums have been 'fixed' to properly record your login. You'll probably have to log in the first time - but from there, it should work just fine. Thank you for your support and enjoy the site! -john

We'll be doing some work on the site this evening and will have the entire site offline from approximately 1:00am EST / 10:00pm PST - for about 2 hours. If everything goes as-planned - we won't have any problems and the site will be back up without issue. Thank you for your patience and support. -john

Thanks for the thought, Mike. When I bought the sites from George late last year, I made the committment to myself that I would not go to the membership with the burden of contributing to the site's operating expenses. Rather, I wanted to find ways to turn DCP and related sites into a viable, self-sustaining business. This will take some time .... but I'm confident that we'll get there. One of the first steps towards that goal will be a new site design that will provide a more flexible foundation for news, information, news features, columnists, and of-course .... the DCP forums. Keep an eye open over the next few days for more information on the changes ahead. Stef refers to scholarship and tax exemption in her post. To be very honest, it is very unlikely that DCP will ever be a 501c3 organization - although, for the time-being I can assure everyone that it is 'non-profit'. That will change (at-least to a break-even point) and we'll begin to look at how we might re-invest a portion of those profits back into the activity. I hope that our members and visitors will see the evidence of our investment in the community (in-advance of those realized profits) .... in the near future. The best contributions that our members can make are those of their participation in the DCP site and these forums, their support of DCP's activities at events in the future ... and most-importantly, their financial and in-person support of the corps of young people (of all ages) we care so much about. As George suggested in one of his earlier posts regarding the transition ..... I really believe that DCP's best days are ahead of us .... and I'm working hard to make that a reality. -john P.S. If the urge to contribute is still burning ....... write the check to your favorite corps (which almost certainly IS a non-profit corporation) ....... I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Rob. Nice job. When you're done with Tristan's frosty brew .... the next one's on me. -john

John - Thank you for the catch. So noted ..... and corrected. To those that were confused (and the Govenaires, for the mis-spelling) - my apologies. -john

OK, OK, OK ..... my mistake. I should have been more specific in my question for this week's poll. Maybe the question for the poll should have been: "Which specific DCA Class A or Open Class corps show are you MOST interested in seeing in 2006 - from the set of DCA Class A or Open Class corps that performed at the 2005 DCA Championship Finals in Scranton, PA on Saturday, September 4, 2005 (as listed on the official DCA Scores page) - recognizing that there are many other very deserving but unlisted corps that should be included, but aren't due to space limitations?" I ran out of space on the page ..... so instead have re-phrased the question as: "Which 2005 DCA Championship FINALIST Corps' show are you looking forward to seeing MOST in 2006?" I'm sorry for any confusion this may have caused. Next week's poll: "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" -john

Yes, that's great news about an exciting program. Phantom and BD will do a great job together. Congratulations to them ... and best of luck in this new, very worthwhile endeavor. Also ... FYI - you don't have to go to DCI.org to see the details. You can find the story right HERE on the DCP Front Page, along with many other interesting stories from around the drum corps activity. -john

I was very interested (and PLEASED) with the Opening Ceremonies from Torino this evening - especially given that I have family that lives about 40km from the city center. My son and I had the pleasure of visiting several of the Olympic sites this summer while we were there visiting - so are really enjoying all of the coverage of the area. Despite their 'cool' exterior - I can assure you that the Italian people, especially those of Torino and the Piemonte, are very proud to be 'showing off' their beautiful city and region to the rest of the world. I spoke with my cousin there this morning and they were all thrilled with the television coverage they've been receiving. With drums, herald trumpets and flying flags ..... as well as the alpine horns and 'flag wave' - what more could you want? I have a feeling that its going to be a great Winter Games. BRAVI Torino! BRAVI Italia! -john GO Team U.S.A.

I've watched this topic since last summer with amazement - especially given the long-term relationship with between Hershey and the drum corps activity. I admire the work that Jeff and others have done to put some spotlight on this tragedy. As others that are aware of the history probably did, I took pause this morning as I read this article on the DCI site ..... "Earn $5000 for your band" -john

Thank you all for your warm welcome. I appreciate the kind words and look forward to working with you all to take DCP to the next level of greatness. There are some pretty exciting things we're working on - so stay tuned. Have a great week, all. -john

To the members of Drum Corps Planet, Color Guard Planet, and Marching Band Planet: I’d like to take this opportunity to finally introduce myself as the new owner of Drum Corps Planet and the DCP family of sites. There has been speculation about and interest in ‘who’ the new owner of the site is – so I thought I’d let you know a little about me. I’ve been a fan of the drum corps and pageantry activities for a number of years, a parent of two sons that participated in a DCI Div III corps then aged-out of DCI Div I, a trumpet soloist in a championship high school program taught by a legendary music teacher, and an active performing arts supporter. I’ve been an entrepreneur and successful businessman, primarily in the telecom technology industry, and have worked with clients and partners around the world. In the past couple of years, I decided to slow things down professionally and was looking for something ‘more-fulfilling’ to put my time and energy into. The DCP opportunity came along at the right time. Over the past few years, I had the honor of serving as a member, then eventually President of the Board of Directors of BD Performing Arts – the organization behind The Blue Devils. It was an incredible experience and it gave me a unique insight into the drum corps activity, the dedication of the people involved, and the difficult challenges that corps and guard organizations (large and small) around the country face. One of the reasons for the lengthy transition period was that I felt it necessary to remove any potential conflict-of-interest concerns that could exist with my involvement in both DCP and The Blue Devils. To that end, I removed my name from consideration for another term on the board at the recent annual meeting, completed my Board duties, and can now serve the drum corps community in a new and exciting way. Each and every one of us have our personal favorites and allegiances … and I’m still a Blue Devils fan. However, I must emphasize that beyond that - I’m MORE a fan of the great activities we support, the people and life-long relationships that are created, the rich history of the activities, and the ways these activities positively influence peoples’ lives year-after-year. With this new role, my attention has broadened to the activity as a whole – supporting, growing, and improving the DCP community. I’ve assembled answers to some of the questions that have been raised since the sale was announced. Hopefully, you’ll find the answers you’re looking for and be as excited about the future of the DCP communities as my team and I are. Q: What is going to change? A: Our first priority is to ensure that the community is on a sound technical and financial foundation – which are some of the core skills and resources that we bring to the table. As we better understand the needs of the entire DCP membership and community, we’ll be adding services, features, and more content to the sites. Our first step will be to develop a new and improved look-n-feel for the sites – which will help provide the foundation for improvements over the coming months. Our goal is to grow and enhance what are already the premier information and community / discussion sites in the drum corps, marching band, and color guard activities. Q. Are we going to be asked to ‘donate’ to the site to keep the doors open? A: I’m fully committed to making these sites self-sustaining in the next year and prepared to fund the operations for the time that it takes to get there. We’ve done our due diligence and are satisfied that we understand the commitment that is required to sustain the sites’ operations. Just so there’s no misunderstanding – DCP and its related sites are NOT non-profit or membership-owned and funded organizations. We’ll be working with people in the activity and related businesses to build a base of sponsorship to fund the sites’ activities and growth. Q. What about the confidentiality of my personal information – including name, email address, other contact info, etc.? A. We will continue the Drum Corps Planet Privacy Policy under the terms described on the site’s “Privacy Policy” page. To review the published Policy, please read the privacy page on DCP. Should any changes to this Privacy Policy be required for some reason in the future (legislation, for instance), our members will be notified well in-advance of the Policy change. Q. Will the new owners take an active part in the day-to-day activities of the site? A. There are many talented and dedicated people filling the roles of editors and forum support team members and we hope many of them continue their roles and support of DCP. My intention is not to be the news editor or administrator of the site’s news features and forums – but rather to set high standards for professionalism and conduct. Initially, we’ll be focused on ensuring the sites’ growth and finding ways to improve the features, services, and benefits of the community. Partnerships with others in the various activities we support will be explored and considered, in the hopes of finding new sources of information and content for the sites. New channels and methods for collecting, presenting, and delivering that information will also be explored and expanded. Sponsors and advertisers from within the activities we support will be sought to help fund the operation and growth of the sites. There’s plenty of work to do for everyone. Q: Ok – so what about in the future? A: We’re excited about many of the positive things that are happening in the DCP community and want to explore new ideas and ways to make the sites even more accessible to a wider audience, while offering our members and guests more information about the activities that we’re all passionate about. As members of this site, we don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize what we already enjoy. There will be changes made as we move forward, always with our focus on improvement. We hope you’ll support these improvements as they’re implemented over time and our efforts to improve the site’s focus and dedication to the activities we support. Your comments and suggestions for improvement are always welcome. Q. And what about George – will he continue to be involved? A. I have a great deal of respect for the contribution that George Dixon has made to this community. Without his investment of time and money over the past 4 years, DCP would not exist as it does today. Going forward, George has graciously agreed to assist with on-going technical support, but only if so-requested. We see this plan as the best way of ensuring that there are no technical issues with the sites as the transition continues and that things continue to run smoothly. I’d like to thank George for his vision, his commitment, and his concern for the well-being and preservation of the community …and appreciate the trust he’s put in us to take the DCP vision to the next level. Thank you, in-advance, for your continued support of and participation in this community. We look forward to working with the entire DCP/CGP/MBP community to make this THE premier site in the activity – the one you’ll look-to regularly for the latest news and information, the source for up-to-the-minute statistics, polls, and reviews from around the country, the place to go to engage in lively, engaging discussion about the activity, and one that sponsors will be proud to support. I’m excited to be a part of this vibrant community and helping build its future …... Let’s get the show on the road! John M Donovan Publisher DCP Partners, LLC