Crossmen Move Information

[corpsband]

Calling Corpsband!

lol. that would be jim coates....

anyway -- despite all the turmoil at first -- moving the Xmen to SA turned out to be a great decision. i hope they continue to appear in finals year after year.

Edited December 13, 2016 by corpsband

[soccerguy315]

There was at least one other potential new location that was much closer, but I don't know if it was a "better" option (of if it had a Fred Morrison equivalent in the offer).

Texas has worked out well, though the former band director that was going to lead the Crossmen to new heights didn't last very long as things appeared harder in DCI than in the BOA world.

Fred Morrison has been great for the Crossmen, and for DCI as a whole, as he has been very active on the DCI Board of Directors and brings significant business experience. I imagine at some point soon, he will step down, or at least to a less prominent role, as it seems like he is on tour for most of the summer with the corps.

edit: the Crossmen were not financially viable independently and YEA wanted to get them off their balance sheet, which is perfectly fine and makes sense.

Edited December 13, 2016 by soccerguy315

[va9590jm]

So...Crossmen history...and I know I'm repeating some of what has already been said, but shining some more light on the big picture story.

So...the corps had for a long time struggled financially, and in the mid 1990's were taken in by YEA! under George Hopkins so that the corps could survive. Over time, it became more difficult financially for YEA! to adequately operate both Cadets and Crossmen. From friends of mine who marched those years in the northeast, yes, they felt like they were second class citizens to the Cadets. So after the 2006 season, the YEA! board of directors forced a decision. Fold the corps or move it elsewhere to separate it. So George Hopkins called the band director (not music staff) at Ronald Reagan down in San Antonio and offered to move the corps there. Fred Morrison was/still is really good friends with Mark Chambers (band director), and has been involved from the beginning since the corps moved down to SA between the 2006 and 2007 seasons. The change in leadership and the BoD that someone referenced earlier is a little inaccurate, as Fred has been around the entire time and has held major influence the entire time. Additionally, even just a brief perusal of the form 990's of the organization will show relatively stability in the BoD (though it is natural for a seat or two to change every so often in any nonprofit org). Also, over the course of the 2007 season, the official paperwork was signed separating Crossmen from the YEA! umbrella and to their own entity, the Crossmen Productions organization that it is now.

The first few years in Texas were rough ones, and it wasn't until the breakthrough year of 2012 that brought northeast alumni back into the fold as truly feeling like it was "their corps" again, and that it wasn't stolen away from them with the move to Texas. This has helped in terms of increased funding from alumni donations, increased alumni involvement, and has overall helped to strengthen the corps to how it is now. I, for one, hope that the group continues to move up the ladder with awesome, entertaining, crowd favorite shows that they're known for.

[dcifanforlife]

So...Crossmen history...and I know I'm repeating some of what has already been said, but shining some more light on the big picture story.

So...the corps had for a long time struggled financially, and in the mid 1990's were taken in by YEA! under George Hopkins so that the corps could survive. Over time, it became more difficult financially for YEA! to adequately operate both Cadets and Crossmen. From friends of mine who marched those years in the northeast, yes, they felt like they were second class citizens to the Cadets. So after the 2006 season, the YEA! board of directors forced a decision. Fold the corps or move it elsewhere to separate it. So George Hopkins called the band director (not music staff) at Ronald Reagan down in San Antonio and offered to move the corps there. Fred Morrison was/still is really good friends with Mark Chambers (band director), and has been involved from the beginning since the corps moved down to SA between the 2006 and 2007 seasons. The change in leadership and the BoD that someone referenced earlier is a little inaccurate, as Fred has been around the entire time and has held major influence the entire time. Additionally, even just a brief perusal of the form 990's of the organization will show relatively stability in the BoD (though it is natural for a seat or two to change every so often in any nonprofit org). Also, over the course of the 2007 season, the official paperwork was signed separating Crossmen from the YEA! umbrella and to their own entity, the Crossmen Productions organization that it is now.

The first few years in Texas were rough ones, and it wasn't until the breakthrough year of 2012 that brought northeast alumni back into the fold as truly feeling like it was "their corps" again, and that it wasn't stolen away from them with the move to Texas. This has helped in terms of increased funding from alumni donations, increased alumni involvement, and has overall helped to strengthen the corps to how it is now. I, for one, hope that the group continues to move up the ladder with awesome, entertaining, crowd favorite shows that they're known for.

The statement that George sold the franchise for peanuts is inaccurate. The Texas people where looking at several different corps to move to San Antonio. The Crossmen made the most sense from a financial point of view. YEA got top dollar ($250,000 to $ 300,000) paid over several years. While the Crossmen still owed money to YEA they were non voting members of DCI. In the end it was a good deal for everyone. Crossmen are an outstanding organization.

[SFZFAN]

Fred made himself a very wealthy man in the racing fuel business. He discovered drum corps, fell in love, saw they needed a good business minded leader and the rest is history. He's a genuinely nice guy. He loves the activity and competition. I see the Crossmen going nowhere but up.

[BillH]

Fred made himself a very wealthy man in the racing fuel business. He discovered drum corps, fell in love, saw they needed a good business minded leader and the rest is history. He's a genuinely nice guy. He loves the activity and competition. I see the Crossmen going nowhere but up.

Most notably, he loves the members and is focused on the quality of their experience. Just an all-around great leader for a youth activity.

[Jeff Ream]

As I recall....and I may have some facts wrong...

YEA! decided that they could not financially support two World Class touring corps, having both Cadets and Crossmen under their umbrella at the time.

They looked around for somebody that would be willing to take control of the Crossmen, rather then just disband them.

The music staff at (I think) Ronald Reagan HS in Texas was willing and able, so the Crossmen were transferred to Texas, and the rest is history.

IMO much credit goes to both YEA! and the staff at RR for the continued existence of the Crossmen.

there was other interest, but it was deemed to be too close to Allentown and viewed as competition

[barigirl78]

I would just like to say that the Crossmen Alumni Association was very involved with the corps throughout its transition and made sure the history of the corps was still communicated and that the corps traditions were kept alive. I'm told be people who are familiar with other alumni associations that the Crossmen one is one of the strongest.

Coincidentally, Fred Morrison went to the same high school as a charter Crossmen member who is the head of the alumni association, but they didn't know each other. So, Fred is also a transplant from the Philadelphia suburbs to Texas.

[jbeatty89]

It was not uncommon in the late 90's for the DM of a corps to have the same or very similar uniform to the rest of the corps. Sometimes there were color changes, or some emb

At any rate, your recollection may be a little off on some of your timeline as well.

Kara wore an all white version of the uniform in 1997, with the exception of the cross on the front of her uniform.

In 1998 she wore a uniform that was virtually all black, that resembled a dress in some of the portions, while the corps wore a uniform that was most definitely modified post 1996-1997, being all black and white for the 1998 corps proper. Which of course means that the 1998 corps was not wearing a hand-me-down uniform.

You're both sort of right. End of the season DM uniforms were a black see through thing with the guard leotard underneath. Early to mid season the DM's wore this: http://crossmenalumni.org/1998photos/2zjth9ztigbx9pth0g6dyqs0mgzqj7

They were absolutely hand me downs. They are the exact same jackets the corps used since 1990 with obvious changes. There was such a shortage of XL jackets that for the first few shows 5 or 6 of us wore sweatshirts with red triangles sewed on!