Reilley

For those of you who hadn't heard via Facebook or whatnot, Peter Crawford lost his battle with leukemia this past Saturday evening. Peter was a great friend of mine and I have missed him since he moved from Atlanta to Florida about a year ago to be with his wife Linda. Peter had been involved in drum corps for many, many years. I don't know much of his corps history other than his involvement with the Rochester Crusaders and of course, ALLIANCE. He was a charter member of ALLIANCE and we performed together in the front ensemble in our inaugural season, while both of us served in management capacities with the corps. His love for the activity was very strong, although he had very strong opinions about the direction of junior corps over the last decade or so!!! Along with being a drum corps addict, Peter was an avid drummer and performed in several bands. He was also a background artist in a couple of movies, including one where he played legal counsel in an Armand Assante film about Gotti. His first love though, was his Corgis. He took them everywhere he could along with many ALLIANCE rehearsals which drove me crazy because everyone stopped rehearsing to pet his dogs, LOL. Peter loved cigars and telling the worst jokes I think I have ever heard, but he always wanted people to laugh with him. I last communicated with Peter earlier last week after his physicians told him that there was nothing more that they could do and he was going home, eventually to hospice. Unfortunately, he passed away a lot faster than anticipated. He was not everyone's cup of tea, but I considered him a great friend. I will miss his awful jokes and his daily "good morning" on Facebook. No arrangements have been made available just yet, but I will post as soon as I hear or read anything.

Peter passed away Saturday night. I found out Sunday evening because I hadn't been on Facebook all day. I was going to try to go see him in the next couple of weeks since I had been traveling for work for three weeks and then went on a cruise.

Those of you in Rochester that marched in the Crusaders and other Northern groups may remember Peter Crawford from Toronto. After performing with the Crusaders in or around 2000, he moved down to Atlanta and worked with me to get ALLIANCE going. He's a great guy and is in need right now, so I want to reach out to the drum corps community and ask for your help. Peter was diagnosed with Myelofibrosis, a serious bone marrow disorder that disrupts the body's normal production of blood cells. The disorder is classified as an uncommon type of chronic leukemia — a cancer that affects the blood-forming tissues in the body. The result is extensive scarring in the body's bone marrow, leading to severe anemia, weakness, fatigue, and often, an enlarged spleen and liver. In fact, Peter just had emergency surgery last week in Florida to remove his spleen (which was 23 pounds when it was excised - a normal spleen weighs only six ounces in a healthy adult!!!). As of today, he is still in the hospital and his bills are racking up very quickly. Even after he leaves the hospital for this admission, he has a long way to go. In order to treat this aggressive disorder, he will be admitted into Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida for chemotherapy and stem cell therapy. This is going to require an inpatient stay of three months with one of those months being in isolation. A GoFundMe account was set up for Peter and can be located at https://www.gofundme.com/pcrawfordmedical. It would be great if you could help him out and any amount would be greatly appreciated! Yours in the arts, Terry Reilley

I was sitting in aisle 106 right where the penalty happened. She definitely stepped over the line by accident and the T&P judge was right there. This is why I tell my designers NEVER to bring anyone other than pit into the pit area.

Awesome - thank you so much!!!

Well crap... None of our regular drivers are available to take our 53' drop-frame up to Rochester and back next week, with the last driver not bothering to say anything at all. We're desperately seeking a CDL OTR driver from the Atlanta area (or reasonably close) to drive our trailer up and back and in between. An owner/operator would be easiest, but we have a truck reserved. Schedule - leave Canton, Georgia anytime in order to get our trailer up to Rochester by 5:00pm on Thursday, August 28. You will haul the trailer to a rehearsal field 2-3 times depending on our luck and back home to Canton either Sunday night after the show (assuming we perform Sunday night) or whenever. What do you get out of it?: Free room for the entire trip - and that's NOT your sleeper. We will feed you lunch and dinner during your stay with us (hotel breakfast is free). Rate negotiable, but please be gentle. Our endless gratitude and maybe a ride to Niagara Falls, assuming we let the performers actually have a night to themselves. If interested, please call Phillip Bentley at (770)876-8249 or Terry Reilley at (770)823-1310.

We never make money on these shows because we donate 100% of gate and concessions to the host school's band booster program. We've been doing that since our first home show ever in 2007.

1990 Bucs - Batman opener 1999 Bucs - End of Winter Dream Opener 2005 ALLIANCE It's been done a few times.

Well said, JoeDz - about C2's control.

We didn't fold. We took a couple of years off to refocus on quality of product.

We have 2006 patches if you want one - www.alliancedrumcorps.org and go to our store!

Congrats to you guys!!! I wish we would be there on the 50 with you!!!

ALLIANCE family, friends, and fans… It is with a heavy heart that I announce that we must take the corps inactive for the 2012 season. Despite the rumors of ALLIANCE folding altogether, I want to make sure that everyone understands that this is simply not the case. We are not going to field a corps this summer, but we will continue operations with intention to come back in 2013 better and stronger than before. First, I will explain how we came to this decision: Most of our alumni will not commit to attending rehearsals regularly until the end of April or May. As such, there is little chance we can put an acceptable product on the field this summer. I have tried very hard over the last couple of months to convince the membership that we must start earlier in the season in order to move forward. However, over two-thirds of our performers actively participate in indoor percussion and winter guard. While working with such groups has proven advantageous in many obvious ways, almost all of those individuals are planning to wait until after their indoor season is over before they attend ALLIANCE rehearsals. We believe it is nearly impossible to field a successful show in June or July when so many people wouldn't arrive until the end of indoor season or later. As ALLIANCE takes pride in the level of performances that we have demonstrated since we first fielded in 2005, we do not wish to tarnish the image of our organization by pushing out any product that is less than spectacular just to field a corps. While our numbers have grown an average of 14-16% every season (with the notable exception of 2009, when we grew an amazing 26%), attendance for this season started very slowly for us and with that issue combined with the indoor participants not being at Sunday rehearsals, we've seen few members at rehearsals every camp since Open House. I have been told by many prospective new performers that they will be at rehearsals after All State and other HS band activities, but we feel that we cannot field a successful corps when members are not at rehearsal until April or May, especially new members who may have to learn our approaches to performance. We considered the possibility of taking the corps Class-A, but the problem would not be resolved by simply reducing the membership numbers. It would also be impossible for us to perform our current 2012 production “Adventures of a Lifetime”, as it was designed for a larger corps and it is too late in the season to rewrite for smaller numbers. In addition to the personnel issues, we've had a great deal of trouble securing rehearsal locations that could accommodate us every rehearsal weekend. The location that we initially committed to for 2012 was on average about 1.5 hours drive for more than half of our members and as such, many people decided they didn't want to make the drive until we relocated closer to their area. With more than half of our corps residing West of Atlanta, it became difficult for us to retain those members. It has been relatively difficult to locate a school willing or able to host us, even with the offer of payment. Those who would accept payment require compensation far above our means, some even requiring $1500 per weekend without offering overnight housing to our members. Many of our members travel from Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, and even as far away as Indiana. As the number of non-local performers is growing every season, overnight housing is becoming a priority. It is my opinion that in order to be a championship drum corps, the membership, instructional staff, and management team of the organization have to embrace and demonstrate the desire to be champions. In order to do that, higher standards must be established, communicated to the entire organization, and then the membership and staff held accountable for these expectations, as well as the management team to enforce the expectations while ALSO holding themselves accountable to a higher standard. Without this desire, ALLIANCE cannot move forward as a competitive organization worthy of a DCA championship title - even at the regional level (DCA South). Now, that you know the reasons why the decision was made to go inactive for this season, I will detail our plans going forward: ALLIANCE will still participate in the 2012 July 4th parades in Baltimore. During this downtime, our staff will be designing the 2013 show now so that we may distribute it to the members as early as Open House for next season, which will allow us to be far more prepared than in season's past. Typically, ALLIANCE has never started learning drill prior to April and as we have brought new performers in as late as the middle of August, we have to do a lot of backtracking. As our shows are typically demanding, it is my goal that we end this practice and start learning our drill in February or early-March at the latest. In addition, we will be seeking new ways to fund our operations so that we may decrease participation fees to an amount more appealing to our members. ALLIANCE is not "folding" - we are simply taking a season off to reorganize, find better ways to get the word out about our corps, and uplift our infrastructure. We’re actually very excited about the possibilities. We will now be able to focus on the changes needed to make ALLIANCE stronger and more appealing to prospective performers. Sincerely, R. Terry Reilley, CEO/Executive Director ALLIANCE Drum & Bugle Corps, Inc.

Just checked it out on Amazon and it sounds like a great story! Congratulations!

ALLIANCE held their Open House for the 2012 season earlier this month on November 13th at East Hall HS in Gainesville, Georgia, a day after Atlanta Quest's final audition for their 2012 season. Having an Open House event in November is groundbreaking in the fact that we usually don't have such an event until January. Obviously, we are raising the bar and getting started much earlier, as we have our first show in June 2012 (DCI Ft. Mill). There was a very good turnout despite BOA, DCI auditions, and other band activities scheduled that weekend. We hope to see lots of new faces at our first full audition/rehearsal weekend in December. We are recruiting for ALL positions within the performance ensemble and have reduced our participation fees significantly. Speaking of, our December audition/rehearsal will be on the weekend of December 17/18, with brass reporting on Saturday from 12pm to 8pm and then full corps on Sunday from 9am to 5pm. Free overnight housing is available to all who wish to attend. If you are interested in performing in ALLIANCE for the 2012 season, please contact us at recruiting@alliancedrumcorps.org!

Now available for iPhone owners - the official app for the ALLIANCE Drum & Bugle Corps from Atlanta, Georgia. AND IT'S FREE!!! On our new app you will find: Rehearsal Schedule Open Positions Maps to rehearsal locations Souvie Store FAQ about the corps and our audition process Contact information Links to YouTube video and much more (and much, much more coming in version 1.1) Android owners - I will have this app for you soon!!!

I agree that I may have "over-reacted much", but I won't defend it because Ed and I know the truth here about his issue with my corps. Ed, the timing/penalties judges job IS to note boundary violations as much as possible, along with making sure the corps enter and exit the field in the 17 minutes they are allotted (and other tasks). I'm not at all saying that the T&P judge didn't do his job Sunday. I'm saying that with the sheer number of violations that occurred, I'm shocked none of them were caught and that annoys me because for two seasons, we got nailed at prelims and lost our chance in 2007 of making Class A finals. Our own fault, of course, but now it's blatant and both of the corps I saw doing it have been around for years. Call it sour grapes if you like. As Stephan Anderman said so eloquently Saturday night, conversation on DCP can be lively here. That's why I try to avoid posting here altogether, but sometimes I just have to say something. The solution for the boundary issue is to get rid of the boundary rules altogether. You can use the "entertainment" clause in order to justify it. I mean, who wouldn't love for Mr. Pero to jump up in the stands and start wailing, right? But I suppose that will happen when electronics are allowed too. I await Cadets2 arrival with baited breath. It will be interesting to see what happens the first time inconsistency happens - especially when it affects his corps. Anyway, I've made my comments which were WAY off topic and ask that you return to your regularly-scheduled topic.

Wow, were you even there? That's right - you watched the shows from the armchair, which obviously covered every visual angle on the field. As usual, your need to keep being an ALLIANCE-hater along with your inability to understand recap sheets forces me to respond to your comments. While ALLIANCE has struggled with guard for the last few years, I could not be more proud of our guard for moving from 15th place before Championships weekend to 8th (which if my math skills are correct, is not quite last place). Our guard scored a 158 on Saturday and 170 on Sunday, so their effort of rehearsing every night until after midnight this past weekend paid off, even if we didn't move up this season. Also, while in your opinion we may have bitten off more than we could chew in terms of visual design, it was still executed well and in my humble opinion, not appreciated by the current judging system (but then I think DCA judging is flawed anyway, considering how many boundary violations I witnessed throughout the evening and not one corps incurred a penalty - amazing how that works). What is amusing to us about that comment is that we actually designed INFERNO with a less-athletic drill so we could place more emphasis on musicality while following DCA's instructions (notice I didn't say "suggestion") to design more "entertaining" shows. If we had followed our hearts, I imagine we would have been moving more and faster. Say what you will about ALLIANCE, Ed - you are the hot air beneath my wings.

So let me get this straight - we scored 128 in guard and TBT a 138. According to your comment, a 138 on the DCA sheet is 138 points and therefore, they beat our guard by ten points? Wow, then we must have scored a 799 this past weekend!!!

Bingo is legal in Georgia, but it is very difficult to start an operation here due to regulations that didn't exist back when SOA ran their hall back in the late seventies/eighties. The GBI is in charge of the bingo laws in our state and they have maximum pay-outs in cash or like prizes that may seriously limit earning possibilities. Also, applying for a license to operate is very difficult and you have to have a licensed bingo hall to partner with. Most of the VFW and American Legion posts have bingo operations, but it is very difficult to get one to partner with you. Most have waiting lists for high school bands and athletic associations who want to get in on it. Bingo is apparently the Devil.

Meaning?

And even bigger thanks to you, Ed.

The DCI Southeastern Championships will be broadcast LIVE from the Georgia Dome on the DCI Fan Network this Saturday, July 31st. ALLIANCE will be opening the show at 3:00pm sharp, followed by the Atlanta CorpsVets. This will be the second appearance of the season for ALLIANCE, not having performed since June 20th in Ft. Mill. This was the first time for ALLIANCE to defeated an Open Class corps in a regular season show. Neither corps had their entire presentation on the field, but both will be putting on full shows this weekend for the Atlanta audience, as well as an audience of thousands on Fan Network (or maybe high hundreds - Fan Network isn't cheap) Again, the scores will be made by DCI judges using DCI sheets and without a regular panel that DCA would provide. That will be resolved a week later at ALLIANCE's home show in Woodstock, GA at Woodstock High School, Saturday, August 7th at 7:30pm.

It would just five pounds to the corps anyway.

Congrats to you guys for winning the $20,000!!!