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The DCI rule book


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True; the exact wording and criteria for the DCI rules is set forth by the WC corps' directors. And within those rules Judges for Brass, Percussion, and Guard are supposed to evaluate demand vs performance quality; and Music/Visual GE Judges are supposed to evaluate presentation vs performance quality. However, over the years Judges began taking on the role of "consultants" instead of Judges by telling the design teams that they need to change this, move that, alter the interpretation of the movement for the mid section, arrange the music differently going into the push, add some flare here, change the music there. The corps' which follow those "taste" suggestions score higher not on demand v performance or presentation v performance but on following the consultation tastes of the judges (and to me That is the main flaw in the current DCI judging system).

1) from stories I've heard from tons of staffers, this "practice" you suggest is not recent but has gone on since the dawn of adjudicated 'art.' If you find criticism in something, then you by definition have an idea of how it could be better and typically have no problems giving the 'advice.' Staffers have always known that's part of the "game:" you take the advice of judges you know you'll see down the road, and blow-off advice from judges you won't see at Regionals for Finals.

2) you're making a fairly big leap of logic with, "judge advices corps to make changes. corps makes changes. judge awards corps only because they see their changes brought to fruition." The 'process' is NO WHERE NEAR as simple as that implies. Judges typically don't give out design advice unless pressed by staffers in critique (since that's technically a pretty big cardinal sin for judges), and more often than not having a 'fresh' set of eyes from an unbiased, unattached source is a good thing for staffers. After toiling for months on a show's design, staffers tend to get very myopic about the show and it becomes beneficial to get outside input in regards to what transitions work or don't, whether or not a show develops the way designers intend in an effective way, if color schemes work or not, if drill design is too cluttered, etc.

3) option 'B,' if you have a reputable Caption Head or Designer in a critique, is the staffer convinces the judge they're wrong, that their design IS what is the most effective, and judges' design concepts radically change through out the course of the season. Without giving specific examples publicly, I can tell you that this is also nothing new, and proof that either a good design/execution will always prevail or the better debate skills always prevail.

But again, this relationship between staff & judges is nothing new, nor has it changed anytime recently

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Doesn't the DCI office have interns? Can't they tell one of the interns to scan the #### rule book into the computer and upload it to the website? It would take 30 minutes, max. Or, the intern can multitask if they have a scanner that will automatically feed in the next page.

No need to scan as I'm sure it's already an electronic document on somebody's hard drive. Just Save As (or Print To) pdf and upload it !

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No, they don't.

And if they did, I would hope that they would be doing something more productive.

actually, they do: http://www.dci.org/internships/

thanks for playing.

what is more productive than outreach to make sure the fans have the best understanding of the activity possible? If someone is new to a sport, you teach them the rules. You can't teach a new person the DCI rules, b/c no one knows what the f*** they are, unless you pay $45. Communications Intern? Public Relations Intern? Information Technology Intern? Adding the rulebook to the website could fall under the jurisdiction of all of these intern titles.

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Here's a suggestion: If The DCI office won't respond to your request, contact one of the corps. They all have copies of the rulebook. Offer a donation to the corps for a copy of the rulebook and I'll bet they'll respond. Especially in this economy.

And an observation. Knowing some of the top 12 designers, I can tell you that if anyone, let alone a judge, tried to rewrite anyone's show, it would probably be their last show as a judge. The first rule in judging is "Don't rewrite the shows." You can tell them what is working and what is not and why it's not as best you can, but that's about the extent.

Listen to some of the tapes.

I've read this whole thread and wonder what some of the opinions are of 9-11.

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Here's a suggestion: If The DCI office won't respond to your request, contact one of the corps. They all have copies of the rulebook. Offer a donation to the corps for a copy of the rulebook and I'll bet they'll respond.

The DCI Rule Book is Copyrighted to DCI, not to the corps', and therefore copies of the DCI Rule Book cannot be made or distributed by any corps' without express written consent of DCI.

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The DCI office is responsive and will sell you the DCI Rule Book for $35 plus shipping - as the original poster found out back in post #28.

There is a bigger issue at play here - one of intellectual property rights. The rule book, the judging system and many other things that DCI as an organization has created over the years is their intellectual property. I do not understand the concept of why some people think they should have access to that material for free.

As an example, DCI has spent large sums of money on developing the judging system and training hundreds (thousands?) of judges in its application. That system has been adopted, borrowed, co-opted and often directly ripped off over the years by various band and color guard circuits, one-off band shows and even some other unrelated activities with no compensation going back to DCI or the corps.

I have no problem with the idea that DCI should be monetizing their intellectual property rights through licensing or other similar arrangements. A $35 ask for a copy of the rule book is not an unreasonable expectation.

IMO.

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LOL. Because there's some special secret recipe involved in the DCI rules?

Please.

No major sport hides their rules from their fans or participants behind the veil of "proprietary material", and if you want the rules for the NBA, NFL, or MLB, they're readily accessible online. For free. DCI makes themselves look addlebrained by forcing people to pay if they want to view the rules by which the sport they're selling is played.

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