The Renegades 2008 Mysterious Stockton Score Incident

[cabhorn]

Here comes the EAST COAST VIEW!!!

DCI is sinking fast. They are in a Financial tailspin. Their grandeous move to Indy was made so they can hang on to the only thread they have left--BOA..

DCI thinks only about themselves.. They have been telling people that there is nothing after age 21... I have been telling them that there is life after DCI age-out..

They call it SENIOR DRUM CORPS!!!! AKA All age.

I agree with the statement that DCI is intimidated by ALL AGE CORPS.. They have been for years.

Now with the ALUMNI CORPS PHENONENOM as well... They realize that they are in big trouble..

Finances for being a member of a top DCI corps has increased in the last few years, relative to fuel and food prices.

Dues for All age corps are much cheaper and the hours are more flexible. Members can work during the week and play on weekends. No need for a 8-12 week commitment.

DCI has been alienating the DIVII and DIV III Corps for years. Different venues during champs, cutback on patches for semis and finalists.. changing the structure constantly....

Thanks for listening..

Stepping down off soap box.. Rant over

[MiniSopGuy]

I think you're on the right track there...DCI-P especially seems scared that a DCA corps would recruit members away from the exusting Jr programs....blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

I have heard this rhetoric since I joined SoCal Dream in 2004. While we (Senior or All-Age corps which ever terminology you prefer) still have some issues with DCI-P, there have been great strides made in the acceptance of us in the DCI theater. I have seen the shift in thought change. I have seen us accepted and appreciated. Not in the same manner as a Jr corps, but there is still some respect of what we do. Maybe not by everyone in DCI-P, but at least by the fans. Aren't they the most important anyway? They realize we are not just "old farts trying to re-live our glory days".

As the DM/co-DM for two years, I have stood on the field waiting to be announced and had it not happen. I even stood there, after they thought they were done while the others were leaving, until they announced SoCal Dream. Even when they didn't announce us, I at least was able to take pride in the fact that I knew the fans got entertained by us. We must take our pride in what we can control and forget about what we can not.

You may be a veteran of the drum corps realm, but as the director of an upstart corps attempting to get onto the field in 2009, you may want to reconsider publically bashing those who will control your performance opportunities. Every time this is done, it chews away at the positive accomplishments of Mike Nash, and the people of the Renegades, who have worked with DCI-P to get what we currently have on the west coast. It may not be perfect, but it is all we have at this time. Even if we end up with three DCA corps on the west coast, we will still need DCI-P. Just having three DCA corps is not going to magically create shows at which we can perform.

I know we have to fight for what we get, and fight to retain what we get. However, there is a proper way to fight and publically bashing those in power is not the way. I hate playing politics, but it is what we must do on the left coast.

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[GregGilman]

A wacky night, indeed. I'm just very pleased Renegades had a great performance, which the crowd loved. A wonderful start to our season. As for the judging thing, DCI-Pacific did mess up on using DCA sheets. I really do think it was an honest mistake. It won't happen again, I'm sure.

For the record, below are the scores.

Renegades Stockton Caption Scores:

Visual Effect

73/100: Design Effect

69/100: Performance Effect

142/200

Ensemble Visual

78/100: Composition

73/100: Excellent

151/200

Music Effect

77/100: Repertoire Effect

71/100: Performance Effect

148/200

Ensemble Brass

81/100: Technique

78/100: Musicianship

159/200

TOTAL

142/200: Visual Effect

151/200: Ensemble Visual

148/200: Music Effect

159/200: Ensemble Brass

---------------------------------

600/800: Total Score (75%)

Finally, whatever judging snafus happened in Stockton are really nothing. What's important is that Renegades have had one of our strongest starts in many years. It's going to be a very exciting summer!

See you on the 50,

- Greg

[GregGilman]

BTW... the local paper had a great article about a few Stockton Renegades, including the infamous Bonnie Ott (sister of brass guru Jim Ott):

Pioneering woman in bugle competition

By Tony Sauro

June 21, 2008 6:00 AM

Bonnie Ott Thompson says she’s still “dumbstruck” when people remember her. After all, it’s been 32 years since she became a women’s pioneer in the fast-paced world of drum-and-bugle corps competition that once was dominated by males.

“To this day, I’m so impressed. I can’t find the words. I’m dumbstruck that people still have heard of me,” said Ott Thompson, who, as a 10-year-old member of the Stockton Commodores, became the first female to play a brass instrument in a drum-and-bugle corps in 1967. (

link

)

Read the whole article!

See you on the 50,

- Greg

[kusankusho]

DCI is sinking fast. They are in a Financial tailspin.

I agree with what you are saying here, but is there any hard evidence for this statement? Every time I get into - er - discussions, with the DCI apologists here on DCP they are always asking for "evidence". So - I'm not trying to say you are wrong, I'd just like to know where the data is to back the claim up. I may need to reference it at some point.

Cheers

Jim

[ContraRich77]

All I have to add is, Bonnie Ott kicks ###.

That is all.

(Oh, and way to go Renegades for a successful Stockton performance!)

[Gary Matczak]

With all do respect to my friends with Renegades and others outside the NE,...............but weren't a bunch of people slamming the hell out of DCA for some rules issues several months back, (maybe even before last season, but after the rules congress),.................and leading the cheers on how great the "seniors" were being accepted with open arms by DCI?

just saying...........

[dancingfrog]

Something strange went down at Stockton, even strange by Renegades/DCI Pacific standards.

As the story goes, Renegades performed at Blue Devils Family Day on Saturday, and made a solid opening day appearance at Stockton in DCI competition on Sunday. In short, we were proud and happy with the corps. We got our tapes and sheets from DCI, and our score turned out to be a 75.00 -- our best opening day ever. Which was cool.

Later on in the show, a DCI representative told our director that they were not comfortable announcing the Renegades score.

What????????????????????????

I know this sounds unbelievable. Yes. In fact, it sounds totally [bLEEP] unbelievable.

Our director then had a long conversation with the DCI Pacific coordinator, about how we don't even get paid to perform, a score is our members only reward for working in the hot sun etc ... yada, yada, yada, Didn't matter. We were told that our organization was welcome to publicize our score, but DCI was not comfortable announcing it.

Renegades have seen a lot of chaos in the last 10 years, especially at Stockton -- but this was a first. Maybe a first in the history of drum corps. Crunchy Frog even got its score announced. What is this?

I have heard two different third-hand explanations for DCI's decision.

The first explanation I heard was that DCI moved the judges around to different captions after we performed. The second is that our score was too high in relation to the junior corps at the show. Neither one of these reasons make sense.

We may have never gotten a higher score than the Santa Clara Vanguard prior to last night, but we didn't beat them -- they are in a completely DIFFERENT category. It's Apples to oranges. Dogs to Cats. Envelope to Brick. Senior corps does not compete against junior corps, and their scores have nothing to do with one another. Moving judges around makes no sense either -- we were in our very own category, what difference would it have made? No one has told us there was a tabulation error, but if there had been -- there was more than enough time to fix it. We were on first, at 5:30 PM.

Whatever the reason for DCI's sudden non-announcement score decision, I can't help but feel that "The Renegades 2008 Mysterious Stockton Score Incident" is a little disrespectful ... it is not cool to have a senior corps work hard for months, go to a show where they help sell tickets but are the only corps that is not getting any appearance fees whatsoever, and then refuse to announce their score.

I am used to DCI Pacific kicking Renegades around over the years, not paying appearance fees etc. -- but this it uncharted waters. All of our corps members who waited until the end of the show on a Sunday night before the work week to hear their first score of the season ... got a surprise announcement that they were allegedly in exhibition and got no score -- even though their Director was walking around the stadium with sheets and tapes from the DCI judges.

Maybe DCI Pacific needs to wake up and realize how much senior corps members financially support DCI. There is no need to kick senior corps around ... we're all on the same team, and we all support the same activity. WE SUPPORT YOU. Read that 10 times ... then wake up and smell the coffee.

For the record, I am not speaking on behalf of the Renegades, the board or anyone else. These are my personal thoughts, and my personal invitation to DCI to smell the coffee.

Rant: over

Anyway ... welcome to another chaotic season of Renegades. We'll post the sheets from Stockton soon.

In any event, I hope you get a chance to see our production of "Dark City" this year ... the 2008 Renegades are pretty good, and we're excited about the possibilities.

And maybe they'll even announce our score next time.

[DCIHasBeen]

I agree with what you are saying here, but is there any hard evidence for this statement? Every time I get into - er - discussions, with the DCI apologists here on DCP they are always asking for "evidence". So - I'm not trying to say you are wrong, I'd just like to know where the data is to back the claim up. I may need to reference it at some point.

Cheers

Jim

You can always go to guidestar.com and look up DCI's 990s ... for 2006, they reported a net loss of $-557K on income of $9.6MM.

That's as of 2 years ago. More recent filings could provide a more complete picture.

[dancingfrog]

Sorry for the first reply.

I have marched in both junior and all-aged corps that placed well. There seemed to be a strong sense of pride in your organization and in entertaining the general audience. Now that I am a paying customer, I can enjoy all different aspects of drum corps presented to the general public. Still I and many others wonder what has become of the activity where everything is controlled by powers to be that are afraid to lay it all on the line and not let things just be the way they are. I marched in exhibitions at DCI Shows on the East Coast where only our General Effect were released. What difference would it had made if we did out-score a DCI Corps. Especially since we were only lucky enough to see them at that particular show.