Pioneer

[BozzlyB]

My understanding is that is Pioneer’s niche, the role that they want to fill and so that is the standard that I judge them upon and to me, they seem to be a success

If they started moving up the ranks, would other corps step in and fill that role - in the Midwest at least, at a world class level?

Many corps claim it’s not about winning, that its about the kids, many corps lie

That is really not fair. I've never bought the line that Pioneer is a "teaching" corps. Give Pioneer 350-400 talented members at their first audition camp and see how many kids who've never played anything but a flute, or have health issues affecting them make the line. It is philosophy based on necessity, nothing else.

[Scerpella]

Actually, the "glory years" for Pioneer didn't start until 1990. Prior to that, they were small and got beat quite a bit. Loved the uniforms, though!

The heyday for Pioneer lasted up until 1998; but programming issues caused thier membership and talent numbers to dwindle, thus resulting in a slide down the rankings.

Not true, Pioneer was top 25 in the 70's (back when there were many more than 25 Open Class corps) Was that called DCI Associate?

Pioneer is successful at what they do. They need nothing more than tweaking and to attract more and talented kids. There are very few corps that can mount the sustained financial and logistical effort it takes to run a top 12 corps, and every year that becomes less. Pioneer lives within its means, and subscribes to their own unique ethic and philosophy. They clearly want to become a top 12 corps some day and moving down to Open would permanently cement their status as a stepping stone destination.

Some day I believe all these necessary things are going to fall ito place and maybe they pick up a great corporate sponsor and things change for them. The idea that Roman needs to be gone or different than he is is ridiculous because without him there would be no Pioneer. If possible I would take a dozen more corps just like Pioneer rather than see them change to what some people thing they should be.

[brassensemble]

My biggest concern is for the Pioneer Corps Members who are reading all of this.

There is a lot of negativity concerning the corps, staff, and management being thrown out on this site.

How does that benefit these young members who have worked so many hours to make their corps better?

Where is the encouragement to these kids to hang in there and help their Pioneer Corps become Better Every Day?

Retention of our members is not helped by stereotyping them as being in a "training corps."

Pioneer Members, "You have every right to be proud of, and not ashamed of, your Pioneer Corps." You should be proud that your performances were worthy of several standing ovations given by the many audiences that you entertained. Other corps that were higher up the competitive ladder did not receive nearly the applause that you did. Let it be known that you were all important and vital members of the Pioneer Corps Family, and not just numbers to fill out the ranks!

The awesome music that you played was arranged by Donny Allen. Be proud of that! He gave that show his all! Your percussion music was written by Adam Hill. No one worked harder than he did to make this show sell to the crowd! Be proud of David Crook who did so very much in developing your guard and its design. Be proud that you had Jeff Wroblewski design your visual show. As we all know, he is among the best drill writers around. Add to that Chad Quamme and his visual staff who spent all of those hours with you teaching and refining the drill. Yes you had an excellent staff.

Is there room for improvement? Of course there is!

Are there steps being taken to accomplish improvement? Yes there are.

Is it worth the effort? Proud Pioneer Family, you know it is!

Bashing the corps, criticizing the show's theme, scrutinizing the corps' traditions, etc. are definitely counterproductive and sometimes reflect the forgetfulness of the purpose of drum corps, "ITS MEMBERS." They deserve the best we can give them. It is my hope that with all of your support we can continue to do that.

Constructive criticism is always welcome. You can email your ideas directly to us at: dbcpmilw@execpc.com

You can also mail your ideas to: Pioneer Corps 4601 W. Holt Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53219

Or...you can even call me at: 414-327-2847

To offer ideas is one thing. To help implement those ideas is ideal!

BETTER EVERY DAY!

[AlexL]

That is really not fair. I've never bought the line that Pioneer is a "teaching" corps. Give Pioneer 350-400 talented members at their first audition camp and see how many kids who've never played anything but a flute, or have health issues affecting them make the line. It is philosophy based on necessity, nothing else.

Exactly. Similar to what happened at BS. I recall a few percussionists in 05\06 that were on brass, you can bet there'd be almost zero chance of that happening today. When you have a talented pool of applicants, you dont turn away an auditionee that is going to do the job better than one who is going to struggle 'just because'.

[KillerLeft]

My biggest concern is for the Pioneer Corps Members who are reading all of this.

There is a lot of negativity concerning the corps, staff, and management being thrown out on this site.

How does that benefit these young members who have worked so many hours to make their corps better?

Where is the encouragement to these kids to hang in there and help their Pioneer Corps become Better Every Day?

Retention of our members is not helped by stereotyping them as being in a "training corps."

Pioneer Members, "You have every right to be proud of, and not ashamed of, your Pioneer Corps." You should be proud that your performances were worthy of several standing ovations given by the many audiences that you entertained. Other corps that were higher up the competitive ladder did not receive nearly the applause that you did. Let it be known that you were all important and vital members of the Pioneer Corps Family, and not just numbers to fill out the ranks!

The awesome music that you played was arranged by Donny Allen. Be proud of that! He gave that show his all! Your percussion music was written by Adam Hill. No one worked harder than he did to make this show sell to the crowd! Be proud of David Crook who did so very much in developing your guard and its design. Be proud that you had Jeff Wroblewski design your visual show. As we all know, he is among the best drill writers around. Add to that Chad Quamme and his visual staff who spent all of those hours with you teaching and refining the drill. Yes you had an excellent staff.

Is there room for improvement? Of course there is!

Are there steps being taken to accomplish improvement? Yes there are.

Is it worth the effort? Proud Pioneer Family, you know it is!

Bashing the corps, criticizing the show's theme, scrutinizing the corps' traditions, etc. are definitely counterproductive and sometimes reflect the forgetfulness of the purpose of drum corps, "ITS MEMBERS." They deserve the best we can give them. It is my hope that with all of your support we can continue to do that.

Constructive criticism is always welcome. You can email your ideas directly to us at: dbcpmilw@execpc.com

You can also mail your ideas to: Pioneer Corps 4601 W. Holt Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53219

Or...you can even call me at: 414-327-2847

To offer ideas is one thing. To help implement those ideas is ideal!

BETTER EVERY DAY!

Well said, Murray!

[BozzlyB]

Question to anyone with an answer. Do you think Roman WANTS Pioneer to continue on after he is gone, or do think he feels so connected to the organization that he would prefer to see it cease to exist when he is no longer capable of being involved.

[Staxrocks93]

My biggest concern is for the Pioneer Corps Members who are reading all of this.

There is a lot of negativity concerning the corps, staff, and management being thrown out on this site.

How does that benefit these young members who have worked so many hours to make their corps better?

Where is the encouragement to these kids to hang in there and help their Pioneer Corps become Better Every Day?

Retention of our members is not helped by stereotyping them as being in a "training corps."

Pioneer Members, "You have every right to be proud of, and not ashamed of, your Pioneer Corps." You should be proud that your performances were worthy of several standing ovations given by the many audiences that you entertained. Other corps that were higher up the competitive ladder did not receive nearly the applause that you did. Let it be known that you were all important and vital members of the Pioneer Corps Family, and not just numbers to fill out the ranks!

The awesome music that you played was arranged by Donny Allen. Be proud of that! He gave that show his all! Your percussion music was written by Adam Hill. No one worked harder than he did to make this show sell to the crowd! Be proud of David Crook who did so very much in developing your guard and its design. Be proud that you had Jeff Wroblewski design your visual show. As we all know, he is among the best drill writers around. Add to that Chad Quamme and his visual staff who spent all of those hours with you teaching and refining the drill. Yes you had an excellent staff.

Is there room for improvement? Of course there is!

Are there steps being taken to accomplish improvement? Yes there are.

Is it worth the effort? Proud Pioneer Family, you know it is!

Bashing the corps, criticizing the show's theme, scrutinizing the corps' traditions, etc. are definitely counterproductive and sometimes reflect the forgetfulness of the purpose of drum corps, "ITS MEMBERS." They deserve the best we can give them. It is my hope that with all of your support we can continue to do that.

Constructive criticism is always welcome. You can email your ideas directly to us at: dbcpmilw@execpc.com

You can also mail your ideas to: Pioneer Corps 4601 W. Holt Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53219

Or...you can even call me at: 414-327-2847

To offer ideas is one thing. To help implement those ideas is ideal!

BETTER EVERY DAY!

Finally......!

[Musicman1084]

Genuine question: I've seen many organizations, including Pioneer, reaching into different parts of the country for members, but has anybody considered tapping into the Northeast? With East Coast Jazz in a temporary (?) hiatus, Boston having few members from the Northeast, and only two active open class corps, I would think it wouldn't hurt to at least try to squeeze some members out of the area. Massachusetts in particular used to be a bit of a hotbed for drum corps, and now only the Spartans and 7th Regiment remain, and I'm sure a number of young talented members are marching in the DCA corps Hurricanes. Even the Buccaneers have quite a large amount of eligible members. I don't think it could hurt to perhaps set up a booth at local band championships, if that's feasible, although probably not USSBA events as that's pretty much Cadets territory. Although, at this point, with Spartans back up and ECJ talking about a return, I'm not sure if it would be worth trying. It was certainly worth a shot 2-3 years ago when both of those organizations were inactive. An alternative to this would be to reach out to any corps that are potentially going inactive and ask if they would pass on info to their members about Pioneer - I know there were 2-3 in OC alone this year that went inactive.

Just a thought, I guess...

[The Oz]

Question to anyone with an answer. Do you think Roman WANTS Pioneer to continue on after he is gone, or do think he feels so connected to the organization that he would prefer to see it cease to exist when he is no longer capable of being involved.

Don’t take this personally, but I hereby nominate this for the “Silliest Post of the Year” award.

[BozzlyB]

Don’t take this personally, but I hereby nominate this for the “Silliest Post of the Year” award.

One would certainly want to assume the former to be true, but quite frankly given what some people here are posting with regard to Roman I think it is a valid question.

Pioneer, sans Roman, has a significant chance to improve. With Roman, we can continue to expect bottom tier last place finishes. It isn't a slam on the corps, on the members, the desgners, the staffers, or anyone else. Just an honest opinion regarding what needs to change at Pioneer.

I get the concern for members, but we're not dealing with elementry students , they probably "get" what is being discussed here, and if a few members are willing to get on here and publicly voice areas of concern to be addressed then I have to believe a good number of them wouldn't be averse to changes within the organization or it being discussed on a drum corps forum.

....and I didn't take it personally.

Edited August 24, 2010 by BozzlyB