Increased Membership from DCI?

[Brigscontrachik05]

Loading up in August with DCI kids is not advantageous to your program. It's like your just starting the season when everyone else already has two months on you. It's not a problem that needs to be eliminated with more rules.

New rule: NO MORE RULES!

Most DCI kids come back with a mind set and the experience of learning 200+ sets quickly and efficiently. Learning a DCA drill of max 100 sets in a day or 2 isn't a big deal at all, and the music is really an after thought. As long as they fill a hole in the drill and play the big impacts, it's all good.

I have never seen a DCI kid "hurting" a corps for arriving mid season. Only benefits.

If a corps gets 2 or 3 members back from DCI, I think it's fine. More than 5, depending of the section, starts to be a little unfair.

But who is counting, anyway?

[bill]

The Kilties have one brass ensemble member who will be coming in this weekend for rehearsals (to start learning his position over the next few weeks) after perfoming with the Madison Scouts this season.

This member marched with The Kilties in 08, and "knows the skinny".

The spot he is filling is one that is now full (with another vet) and has been filled all season, but the present member has a commitment (I believe a wedding) over Labor Day, thus the spot is actually a shared position.

This arrangement was worked out very early on during winter rehearsals.

Both members are stellar performers and the arrangement has (luckily) worked out great for both Kiltie members.

As it is unfolding at this point in time, the present member may take it thru the St Paul show, with the returning member hitting the field the next day in St. Peter.

That being said, had either one been able to do the full season; it would had been a totally different senario and the flexibility would not had been there.

[dci72]

The Kilties have one brass ensemble member who will be coming in this weekend for rehearsals (to start learning his position over the next few weeks) after perfoming with the Madison Scouts this season.

This member marched with The Kilties in 08, and "knows the skinny".

The spot he is filling is one that is now full (with another vet) and has been filled all season, but the present member has a commitment (I believe a wedding) over Labor Day, thus the spot is actually a shared position.

This arrangement was worked out very early on during winter rehearsals.

Both members are stellar performers and the arrangement has (luckily) worked out great for both Kiltie members.

As it is unfolding at this point in time, the present member may take it thru the St Paul show, with the returning member hitting the field the next day in St. Peter.

That being said, had either one been able to do the full season; it would had been a totally different senario and the flexibility would not had been there.

So you do stack up!!!!!!

[J.C.]

So you do stack up!!!!!!

Nope.

The returning member is not filling a hole. He is splitting a spot with another member. We wrote the drill for what we had in March. If that's "stacking up", then....

...never mind.

[goalieguy]

I might be incorrect..(where are you Tom Peashey?) but I thought that DCA instituted a rule that the membership of a corps could not increase by more than 10% in the last month of the season..IIRC, the deadline was like 8/1 or the Scranton show, whichever came later. This was to keep the "stacking up" to a bare minimum.

Obviously, in earlier years with less elaborate drills, it would have been pretty easy for returning DCI corps members to fill holes and for drills to expand to accommodate more persons, but as the game has gotten progressively more demanding and difficult, trying to get a whole corps to relearn a large portion of drill to add bodies is hard enough, much less being able to clean it in 2 to 3 weeks worth of camps before Prelims.

I wasn't aware they eliminated the rule..been out of the loop for too long..

Pat

[Rap48]

The 10% rule was put in to efffect in the late 80ies early 90ies when I was chief judge. I think it lasted two years. There really was no reason for it. All it did was give the Chief judge and extra job.

As a side story, the rule was aimed at one Corps mainly because of rumors. The first show the following year said Corps opend up with 49 horns. They were the biggest on the field. One of the Corps who voted for the rule had 29 horns. They didn't make Finals that year, probably would have helped if they could have picked up people during the season, but they couldn't.

Remember if you open with 30 horns the first show, you could only use 10% more of your average at the finals. That meant all season you couldn't add many more than 3 people. Some small corps have vets who can't march the whole season come back, (not talking about JR) under the rule you couldn't have more than 10% come back.

This rule really hindered the smaller Corps!

Edited August 11, 2009 by Rap48

[Jeff Ream]

IMO maybe they should bring it back. I know of at least one corps who stacks their brass line with dci kids for the final push of the dca season. Just watch how some holes are suddenly plugged in. I can't understand how a corps can run that way for months and suddenly have full lines , do they wait for these kids and leave the space for them or do they just have lack of membership and talk it up to the kids . Just saying ...

doesnt mean the product gets cleaner tho. the kids have a few weeks learning a whole new show, while the other corps with no holes have been chugging along for months