Cavaliers Cell Phone Question

[PC]

Do they allow them to access their phones on free day?

And some days on pre-tour, etc. But we are talking about teen-to-twenty-something young dudes here, who may (often) do not use the option to communicate with their parents. Surprise (not)!

I work with several winter guards and every year we have a crop of kids who get good enough to make it into DCI finalist corps. Their summer experience is generally beneficial, except for all the various hurt feelings generated by all their endless moment-to-moment twitters, facebook postings, etc., culminating in multiple kids not coming back to their home winterguard unit because of hurt feelings or other internet-posting generated estrangements. Our son comes back from Cavies relatively unscathed but soon hears all the dirty details and complains loudly that they ALL should have had their phones confiscated for the summer. I defer to his greater experienced judgement on this issue, even though I normally consider his judgement to be on the same level as other large, lethargic slugs with hair, at best.

[Stu]

The Cavaliers dont allow members to travel with a cell phone? Really? This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Wow. Maybe they should worry about other things instead.

I suggest that you take an extended four-day weekend; go backpacking with a friend or two and pitch a tent in an area with no cell service; do not carry anything electronics like an mp3 player or Ipod/Galaxy tablet with you; only carry things like food, water, and utility items; talk to each other, I mean really communicate; fly fish if you can; read a book while there, not an ebook, but an old fashioned book with paper pages; listen to the wind and the water; watch and listen to the fire at night; these are things which are 'real', and you may learn quite a lot in the process which is lost on many in the current culture.

[skevinp]

[quote name=Stu' timestamp='1379368209' post= '3323875]

I, for one, evaluate postings without being effected one way or the other by the approval or disapproval number of that posting. Just because one person receives ten greens and another receives ten reds does not make the first person's position correct and the second person's position incorrect. All it means is that ten people chose to click green and like, approve, or agree with the first and ten people chose to click red and dislike, disapprove, or disagree with the second. This is the sort of stuff that went on when a kid running for student body president at middle school said that we should get ice cream sodas at lunch (eliciting the green pluses) and another kid running for the same office said that we should get a more nutritious lunch (eliciting the red negatives). Again how does that type of 'approval' 'disapproval' system really matter in evaluating the 'quality' of a posters opinion?

You sure do talk about it a lot for someone who doesn't care.

I understand they mean no more than they mean, but personally I find the little greens and reds useful. I seldom intend to offend people, so if something I post starts ringing up a bunch of red marks, it is an indicator that I communicated something other than I intended, providing me with an opportunity to clarify. Or perhaps I said something stupid because of a misperception of my own, in which case it provides me with an opportunity to diagnose and improve my own perceptions.

Also, I like to make people laugh. And although I'm sure I fail at that much of the time, if something intended to be humorous gets a few green pluses, it is a nice feeling. And it is good feedback about what makes people laugh and what doesn't. I don't live for what others think or subjugate my own values to others, but I think the world would be in trouble if we all stopped caring what anyone else thinks.

[charlie1223]

Yes, Dude,

You are absolutely right - that you are guessing. I've only been involved in these "pagentry" activities for twenty-some years, helped organize from the beginning and raise to medal-winning level more than one long-lived top-level competing unit and helped with many specific design elements of lots of other very successful units. My own children came along a bit after I had already been deeply involved and I've had a rather weird path to learning how to act like a good parent, when around other parents in these activities.

For a couple of decades and more I've been going to DCI shows and finals with a trunk-full of care-packages to deliver to all the kids and working staff folks I know back in the bus-parking back acres - in the odd times when I'm not actually delivering stuff they need to add to their shows. I'm guessing that I know a hell of a lot more about all aspects of DCI and all the other marching activities (and relatively renowned and famous folks involved in them) than you do.

I guess seeing this post got edited because you personally attacked me says something... but maybe it solidifies that you really have no idea what your talking about in regards to cell-phone usage and the resulting atmosphere they create in multiple world class corps. Which is what specifically I called you out on.

You giving care packages and spending however much time a part of DCI does not make you an expert on the social atmosphere in all 23 world class corps and whether or not cell-phone usage adversely affects said atmospheres.

So maybe instead of being defensive you should GIVE a defense of your previous claim.

Please substantiate this claim that states corps who do not deter cellphone obsession produce less healthy social environments than those who set rules but still have usage anyway (b/c kids break the rules).

Plenty of the Cavies kids will cheat and turn in dummy phones and keep their real phones stashed, but the rule at least makes their use furtive and infrequent, and makes the social atmosphere, especially in their off time, a heck of a lot more healthy than what prevails around the other corps that do nothing to deter cell-phone obsession.

Edited September 17, 2013 by charlie1223

[Michael Boo]

I'm willing to chip in for the two of you to get a room.

[charlie1223]

I'm willing to chip in for the two of you to get a room.

It was my hopes that by the end of this tiff id get a free hotel room! Thanks Boo!

[jonnyboy]

I recently read a corps blog that went something like this: "I'm typing this on my cell phone at 2am and everyone is asleep...........now it is 3am and I need to get to bed"

It was a great blog Surfingtheflowersong btw. It goes to show that although cells are great, they can be a distraction.

Anywhoo.....I love the idea that the Cavs don't use cell phones on tour. When I marched decades ago, I called my parent once during finals week letting them know what day we were coming home, then a few times on the road to give an exact hour. Seems crazy now, but they had six kids and I don't think they knew I was even gone. I was safe on the road, and we had ways of contacting one another for emergencies. My wife on the other hand, she had to call her Mom daily from pay phones.....so much time spent in line waiting for her turn, she missed many rest stops so her Mom could hear that she was still alive. Two cases on the extreme ends of the communication spectrum for sure.

Heck, a few seasons ago I was at a practice of a corps on the cusp of not making finals for the first time in years. The first time director spent hours constantly fielding calls, he never put the phone down the whole time I was there. I think most of the calls were from busy bodies that were fixing his corps from their office chair. He should have throw that phone in the lake and posted on the corps web site "See you all after finals.....I have work to do".

So what is the Cavs rule exactly? You can't use cells but you can have them on tour? Maybe you can't even bring them? I would personally welcome the idea of traveling all summer with no cell, just focussing on the task at hand.

[drummer5485]

I think now the rule is you turn them in when you move in and you can get them on Free Days. When I was marching you couldn't have them at all. I just left mine at home. I loved it. If there was an emergency or anything a cell phone from staff or volunteers was readily available. Granted that meant that had to write down the numbers of people I wanted to call or *gasp* memorize them but I got on justfine in 3 years. I absolutely loved not having phones, even on Free Days. On the bus you talked to your seat partner, you talked to other people, you drummed and got better. On Free Days you talked to your group and had meaningful conversations over meals, it was awesome. I became so much closer to my Brothers in Green that summer. I even had a girlfriend for 2 summers who marched in corps that let you have phones and she survived not hearing from me all the time as well. I think it's a great thing that the MEMBERS voted to reinstate that rule.

[Geoff]

I'm sure no one in corps that allow cell phones talk to their seat partners, practice, or get to know their fellow corps mates.

[seen-it-all]

I'm sure no one in corps that allow cell phones talk to their seat partners, practice, or get to know their fellow corps mates.

...because that's exactly what he said.