Reilley

As our website announcements typically end up on this forum anyway, I have decided to be pro-active and announce ALLIANCE's intention to compete in OPEN CLASS for 2009, which was submitted to DCA management today. This decision was not based on our successes of 2008, but rather a challenge presented at the Rules Congress this past December. Our original goal for 2009 was to not only defend our 2008 championship title, but to push ourselves to work even harder and design a more-challenging program visually and musically so that we could potentially score high enough in pre-lims to compete in Open Class finals on Sunday evening. This may seem like a lofty goal to many, but it is not the first attempt by a Class-A corps to break into Open Class finals. Now that challenge has been taken away from us and other Class-A corps who strive to be an Open Class corps as our organizations mature and grow. During the Rules Congress meeting, a member corps submitted a proposal to separate the Class-A and Open Class corps in preliminary competition. The published intent of this proposal was to provide a separate championship for Class-A, as there was a statement by the submitting director that the number of Class-A corps that were aiming for Open Class had diminished. Well, I know of at least two or three Class-A corps that planned to go Open one day and ALLIANCE was one of them. When asked whether or not anyone from Class-A was not in favor of this change, myself and maybe two other Class-A corps voted against this change. Those of us striving to become Open Class corps wanted to have the opportunity to not only compete against our fellow Class-A corps, but also test our mettle against Open Class corps. This proposal was approved by a majority vote by the member corps, all of whom are Open Class corps. In response, we have been forced to re-evaluate our goals and as such, we have decided to move to Open Class. That said, those individuals wanting to perform in an Atlanta-based Open Class corps now have TWO choices to pick from. We are seeking to fill the last remaining brass positions for the 2009 presentation of "DYNAMO" and interested performers should contact me via email - treilley@alliancedrumcorps.org.

Nobody was defensive - BOSMarcher is one of our most-vocal supporters on DCP and we appreciate his enthusiasm. However, we are quite protective about public statements by people who are not in the know about what ALLIANCE does from year to year. Still, his support is appreciated and he innocently assumed that we would stay Class A again in 2009, so no harm done at all!!! I trust my people to respond accordingly and as PC as possible since after all, we are the one corps that doesn't trash talk our "rivals" on DCP or publicly. As far as what we PLAN to do, we have until June 1st to declare our status, so speculate all you want about it until then. Oh, and one more thing - "APPLIANCE". -- that cracks me up, especially considering the source. I used to hear that from the corps across the hill from us, lol.

Oh my - I just saw this thread!!!! Cozy, my thoughts and prayers are with you as well!!! Please recover quickly!!!

You guys rock - thank you for listening to our stuff. I need to buy one of those DVD's so I can check out all of the groups I missed this year because of being so busy.

It's not confidence really. We're just proud of our corps and the progress we've made in the last two seasons - especially the percussion program. We don't assume that we can compete with Open Class yet. If we did, we would declare it. Besides, Fusion was right on our ### this season - only a third of a point behind at Finals. Besides Storky, you know you were digging the line. :)

I marched tenors for four years at CV starting when I was 37 in 2000. I hadn't carried a set since 1980 when I marched junior corps and boy, it hurt. People placed bets every July 4th parade to see how far I would make it. #### those Pearls. We finally got Yamamaha's and that helped a great deal. My last season on tenors was 2003 and I was 40, making me probably the oldest tenor player in Scranton that season (maybe). That was it - I moved to snare in 2004 and ahhhh, was it nice!!! Speaking of tenors, has anyone seen my boyz? Should be on Vic Firth any day now. Check 'em out - I think you'll dig the notes.

Correction - 8 trumpets.

Andy Ritchie and I reporting from somewhere on I-71 north in Ohio. Andy just saw a dead raccoon - can anyone top that?

Oh man, I just got that, LOL!!!

That would be "ALLIANCE Drum & Bugle Corps" or simply "ALLIANCE" - we are not "Alliance of Atlanta". Never have been.

Bump, bubba-bump-bump, bump, bump...

Funny you should ask... :) 6:15 Sun Devils 6:32 Shenandoah Sound 6:49 Gulf Coast Sound 7:06 ALLIANCE 7:23 INTERMISSION (17 minutes) 7:40 Music City Legend 7:57 CorpsVets

The Johns Creek Invitational will be held on Sunday, August 17th at Chattahoochee High School in beautiful Johns Creek, Georgia, formerly part of unincorporated Alpharetta. This is Show #2 of the exciting DCAS Double-Header Atlanta show weekend, featuring in competition: Sun Devils Shenandoah Sound Gulf Coast Sound Music City Legend CorpsVets And your host corps, ALLIANCE. Don't miss the fun, pageantry, and the famous August heat and humidity Georgia is known for. The show starts at 6:00pm and tickets are a very-reasonable $9.00 (children 5 and under get in for FREE) at the gate with ALL proceeds going to the Chattahoochee High School Band Boosters Association. Here's a link to the City of Johns Creek website and the article about the show - http://johnscreekga.gov/newsroom/citynews/...buglecorps.html

LOL!!! Ken, you just kill me. True that ALLIANCE has a member base younger than CorpsVets (average age of 20), but we do actively accept adults into our program. We don't purposely limit our age group - that's just what we attract. CV is a great corps too - I spent the first five years of my DCA career there and I can tell you that they are well-organized with eleven years of experience to our meager four. It all comes down to what kind of program she wants to be in. Best suggestion - check them both out throughly and decide what it is you're looking for in a program.

Baby steps, my friend - baby steps.

Thanks for your kind words. Everyone will see the full show at JSU and the kids (especially my really younger ones that are all 14 and 15) will be much more confident. They held back a lot last night. Not drumline though - they were cranking it as always.

Never mind - I misread the post.

That is not entirely accurate. ALLIANCE and Quest enjoy a friendly partnership but we are two separate groups, each funded independently of the other. Some of the Quest staff are staff members at ALLIANCE, but not all. ALLIANCE provides some logistical support and use of equipment to Quest in exchange for use of front ensemble and instruction. There are members of Quest who march at ALLIANCE and make up the majority of the corps' percussion group. There are no plans to merge the two groups at this time. Lauren Harper does in fact run Aureus with her friend Tavius Cooper, but few of her members are with ALLIANCE (maybe two). Tavius is also on ALLIANCE staff in a limited capacity as he is on staff with an out-of-area junior corps. Can I ask who this is?

Thank you!!! I can't wait to see you guys in July!

Wow, is there ANYTHING you guys can't do well? That was a very nice video and being an amateur videographer/editor, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending fly-in graphic was excellent!!! Now you've motivated me to update mine!

We held our first full camp this past weekend at Chattahoochee HS. Turnout for percussion was incredible, with over 30 individuals auditioning for very few spots thanks to almost 100% return of vets for battery. Still under the instruction of Alan Sears and Larry Summerlin, the battery will expand in size this year. Front ensemble will grow as well under the leadership of new instructor Sarah Lindner, so expect to see an even better percussion section than last season. The tenor line is expected to be nothing short of unbelieveable this season. Brass numbers are a tad low as usual, but more than this time last year. We are trying to field 28-30 brass, so we are looking for more of everything. We added more euphoniums this season, so the planned ensemble is 10t/6m/6b/4e/4tu. Scott Jones is the brass caption head once again. ALLIANCE welcomes additional brass instruction in the form of 2006 Teal Sound staffer Nick Golding. Nick will only be part-time with ALLIANCE due to being on a junior corps staff, but he has already done a great job at our Open House in December. All brass spots are open, so if you live within reasonable driving distance to Alpharetta, check out ALLIANCE! Guard is being downsized this season to a smaller, more effective group of 12. This was planned to allow for more musicians on the field. ALLIANCE has an immediate need for guard instructors due to losing our previous instructor to family health issues. Interested individuals should contact Terry Reilley or Josh Matthews as soon as possible. 2008 also brings a new visual design team to the corps. Duane DeWire resigned as Program Director/Visual Designer in order to spend more time with family in his home state of Pennsylvania, so he is succeeded by Josh Matthews. Josh has great plans for ALLIANCE and will continue to develop shows that are both visually and musically exciting - and still just as fast-paced as people recognize ALLIANCE for. Nick Garofalo is leading music ensemble and will assist caption heads with music GE. ALLIANCE welcomes Ryan George to the ALLIANCE family as our new brass arranger. An Austin, Texas resident, Ryan has arranged for scores of championship band programs around the United States. You can check out some of his work by listening to the MIDI file of the 2008 opener at our website at www.alliancedrumcorps.org. There is also a new video there as well, which is constantly being updated for your entertainment. Please visit our website at www.alliancedrumcorps.org for more information about the corps and our 2008 program.

ALLIANCE Drum & Bugle Corps in Atlanta is seeking color guard staff for the 2008 season. We are looking for experienced choreographers/instructors for immediate openings for caption head and techs. Interested applicants should contact Terry Reilley at treilley@alliancedrumcorps.org or call at (770)823-1310. ALLIANCE is located in Alpharetta, Georgia, about 35 minutes North of the downtown area. Please visit our website at www.alliancedrumcorps.org for more information!

Thank you too, Tom - you will definitely see us again in 2008.

As always, thank you for your support Mark!!!

I can explain the penalty as told to me by DCA officials. First, I want to explain that less than a month ago, we had only four trumpets and three mellos, but by this weekend we filled all seven trumpet spots and the mello hole. For the first time in ALLIANCE history (all three seasons of it, lol), we fielded a corps with all brass spots filled. One of those trumpet spots was our brass caption head, Scott Jones, who stepped in last weekend to learn the entire ballad and closer drill (plus music). I publicly commend his efforts to do this. On to the penalty - according to DCA officials, the penalty was received due to the fact that Mr. Jones marched out on the field with the corps (as required) and then moved to the sideline before the first note of music was played - apparently not a legal move. In all honesty, we did not know that he was supposed to wait until the show started before moving to the sideline. We did this at our Alpharetta show two weeks ago and did not incur a penalty and that performer was in even a more-exposed position than Scott was today. Our program director questioned the penalty with Mr. Templin since there was an apparent "miscommunication" about this rule in Alpharetta, but the penalty stuck and we are now out of Finals tomorrow night. We will not argue about this further and accept our penalty with our heads held high because we know we would have been in Finals if not for that. For the record, although the corps is frustrated tonight about the decision after working so hard to prove ourselves, ALLIANCE is not bitter. As corps executive, I took full responsibility for this penalty because I should have had the rule book memorized and therefore should have known about this. My apologies to ALLIANCE and to the DCA audience. I hope you at least liked our show and how we moved. I think everyone realizes where we would be tonight if not for the penalty. As far as we are concerned, we had a great season again. We close 2007 with an even more determined corps and money in the bank - what more can we ask for? We wish Sunrisers, SoCal Dream, and Govenaires the best of luck tomorrow in Finals and it was a pleasure to have performed our show for all of you in Rochester today. It was great to meet the management teams from SoCal and Sunrisers this weekend at the director's meeting and thank you for your support and kindness today. Sincerely, Terry Reilley, CEO / Acting Corps Director ALLIANCE Drum & Bugle Corps, Inc.