An Open Letter to the Vets Marching Next Year

[KVG_DC]

I like the baby jesus. Now go out and slaughter them. "amen"

One point penalty!

[TubaJon]

I know.. and I was only foolin' around.

Look, on a more serious note, I do know where you are coming from, and my sentiments are actually with you on this. I too wish more vets would stay put and help build something special where they are. But I also recognize the activity does not want sensible transfer policies put in place that every other amateur sport in the world has. And it is a free country as well, and so I get all that, plus the allure of marching with the top tier Corps too. In the end, people do what they want to do, and thats fine of course... but again, I understand very well where you are coming from on this, what your wish is, and I'd be remiss if I did not share that with you.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

[Ghost]

Wonder how those members who left last year to win this year, but did not march with the BD, feel now.

[wvu80]

Hell of a catch, there!

Aaaaaand, again.

[Kamarag]

Wonder how those members who left last year to win this year, but did not march with the BD, feel now.

If leaving to win was the only reason they left, I hope they are indeed miserable.

[skevinp]

Aaaaaand, again.

I was just horsin' around.

[ShutUpAndPlayYerGuitar]

Sometimes "families" are dysfunctional.

I stayed with my corps every year, nieve enough to think that the ONLY thing holding us back was member retention. I saw what was going on behind the scenes later and realized that there were plenty of other things holding us back.

If the only reason you are given to stay with a corps is "family" (as if none of the top corps offer that same spirit of comraderie), then caveat emptor.

I always tell kids "go for the experience you want." If you truly want to build something with an up-and-coming group (that has its #### together), go for it. If you want to aim higher, that's also cool.

I'm sorry, OP, but leaving your first corps isn't abandoning your family.

[FTNK]

Or they can just choose the best thing for themselves based on a huge number of factors, many of which you don't know about

[EDA16]

I marched one year in a finalist corps and three with the Blue Devils. I wasn't chasing rings. I hated my first summer and was basically talked into going to BD after being told how different it is from other corps. That was the closest thing to a family I ever felt. I feel like so many groups throw that word around so superficially, as if the more they say it the more it becomes true. All I know is I didn't feel like part of a family until I was a part of a group that treated me like it.

[2muchcoffeeman]

I stayed with my corps every year, nieve enough to think that the ONLY thing holding us back was member retention. I saw what was going on behind the scenes later and realized that there were plenty of other things holding us back.

Indeed, retention alone won't help an otherwise dysfunctional corps advance. But the absence of retention will definitely prevent a corps from advancing, even if all other aspects of the corps are healthy. Retention is key. It may be the product of other things -- staff continuity, good programming, etc. -- but without enough retention, no corps, no matter how well-run, can advance.

So, if a corps defines success as striving to be the best it can be, then by definition it is committed to the work of advancement, and that means it has to figure out retention. But it's like love: You can't command love; you can only win love. So, a corps needs to figure out how to win it from as many vets as possible. A corps needs to be worthy of a vet's return.

So let's stipulate here that we're talking about such corps -- the kind that aren't poisonous or dysfunctional, the kind worthy of a vet's continued participation. Even among those corps, some members depart for what they consider to be greener, higher-placing pastures. Some of them, maybe most, do it for the best of reasons -- maybe they've always had a crush on SCV or have always wondered what it would be like to part of Phantom's guard -- and not out of disrespect for their previous corps. That's cool.

Yet I keep a special place in my heart for members who put something else before their own self-fulfillment.

Please, for the love of all that's holy, do what YOU want to do. Do what's best for YOU.

... Maybe you have a dream. If you do, chase it...or you'll never forgive yourself.

I don't buy that idea, at least not completely. For many people, fulfillment comes not through the question "what's best for me?" but a different question: "What's best for others?" Or "How can I serve?" Or "Where am I needed?" For those people, a sense of self worth arises not from personal aggrandizement but from their role in improving the welfare of others. Think of some of the best teachers you've learned from. Or of doctors who rush into the middle of deadly epidemics. Or of a family that gives away half of its income each year to the needy. People who make sacrifices -- of their career, of their achievements, of their wealth and even health -- and do it cheerfully because they believe that concern for others is the greatest source of personal fulfillment.

These people are not dupes. They are not unhappy. They do not feel the need to forgive themselves. Indeed, they would seek forgiveness if they failed to concern themselves with others before themselves. Thankfully, there are a great many people like this in the world. Some of them even march in drum corps.

This past weekend I shook the hand of a young man who had just aged out. He spent his entire DCI life with the same corps. He could have marched anywhere, including the gold medalist. We knew that. He knew that. Other corps knew that.

I made a point of telling him how much his loyalty meant to me. I told him life in any drum corps is usually pretty great and he would have had fun, worked hard, made friends and felt great accomplishment anywhere. But while it's one thing to be part of a winning drum corps, it's something more to be part of building a winning drum corps, and that I respect him greatly for devoting his limited DCI time to building something that will be greater tomorrow than it is today.

"That really means a lot to me," he said.

Perhaps, and I'm happy if it does. I can never know the circumstances of his heart and the reasons why he made the decisions he made. But I can say that his actions spoke plainly, that others noticed, that he gave his corps more than he got, and that, for him, it will be a greater reward than any ring.

Edited August 11, 2015 by 2muchcoffeeman