Jump to content

Madison Scouts survey: all male v.s. Co ed


Madison Scouts survey  

212 members have voted

  1. 1. Should the Madison Scouts remain all male or go Co ed?

    • Remain all male
      141
    • Go Co ed
      71


Recommended Posts

4 hours ago, skevinp said:

Applying the same logic to their statement as your interpretation, is DCI not then required to allow members of all ages to march (assuming being no older than 21 isn't required as an artistically-informed casting decision)?  Did you request a clarification on that?

Great point! A policy is only as good as its enforcement, anyway. But sure, I'll ask DCI if they have ended discrimination against old people :91_thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Medium article was discussed and resolved in the Madison Scouts 2018 thread. It was a bad policy in place that they hadn't really noticed to change until it was brought to their attention, and is likely to be, if not already has been, changed. 

Additionally, after noticing some biased wording and phrasing in the text of the article itself, I believe some r/drumcorps members discovered the author was a cut auditionee from the same year who had a bone to pick with the corps and essentially wrote a hit piece without giving the corps proper context or an opportunity to explain itself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, MotoSurfBass said:

Additionally, after noticing some biased wording and phrasing in the text of the article itself, I believe some r/drumcorps members discovered the author was a cut auditionee from the same year who had a bone to pick with the corps and essentially wrote a hit piece without giving the corps proper context or an opportunity to explain itself.

That's completely wrong.

--> The author was never cut from Madison Scouts auditions.
--> The author interviewed multiple Madison Scouts officials prior to penning the article; many, including the Corps Director, declined to comment in writing (even still eight months later).
--> The author has no "bone to pick with the corps" or any DCI corps for that matter, and regularly crashes the local theater on Finals week.
--> The article is not at all framed as a "hit piece." My writing deals with facts and issues, not argumentum ad hominem.

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, chadwick_michael said:

That's completely wrong.

--> The author was never cut from Madison Scouts auditions.
--> The author interviewed multiple Madison Scouts officials prior to penning the article; many, including the Corps Director, declined to comment in writing (even still eight months later).
--> The author has no "bone to pick with the corps" or any DCI corps for that matter, and regularly crashes the local theater on Finals week.
--> The article is not at all framed as a "hit piece." My writing deals with facts and issues, not argumentum ad hominem.

Thanks!

Thanks for creating an account this last weekend, just as this topic started to take off to throw your two cents back into the ring! 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, chadwick_michael said:

(1) HOW IT STARTED: After learning in late August 2017 of the contents of an email message in which Madison Scouts Corps Director turned away a transgender student from *2016* auditions, I made a request for official comment to the MS Corps Director and Executive Director on September 2, 2017. The Corps Director declined to elaborate on the policy in writing, but did not dispute the authenticity of the message.

The Corps Director of the Madison Scouts (Dann Petersen) further indicated via a phone call that there were no plans to address the corps eligibility policy with respect to cisgender female performers or transgender students, and encouraged any concerned individual to make the case for policy change to the alumni at the November annual stakeholder meeting. On a similar front, a few other alumni helped me coordinate a gender & performance poll amongst the entire 2016 Scouts members—the latest corps for which contact data were available at the time of the September 2017 poll, and the same corps for which the transgender student in question could have marched. The unofficial poll of the 2016 members found that 61% would support a decision to go co-ed, with that support increasing to 91% for female inclusion as an integral part of a show design.

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank you for joining this discussion.  I found the article fascinating, and appreciate this additional context.

The whole time reading this thread, I was thinking that the primary input for the decision to go co-ed should come from current and former members.  The "Do you support going co-ed" question and results are interesting enough, but I wonder if many might find the question pejorative, and skew the results.  Was there a question that tried to weigh how much the fact that the corps was all male factored into their decision to march there?  Or a question that tried to weigh it's impact on their experience marching there?  Those might be more telling if the all-male aspect of the corps is serving a need consistent with the mission statement. 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, chadwick_michael said:

 

(3) FINAL WORD: Scouts' honor to publish an official pro-transgender eligibility policy never came to fruition. 

In the Executive Director's post to the alumni, Mr. Komnick claimed that the Board of Directors "has been working with the National Center for Transgender Equality over the past two weeks [i.e. in early October] to draft a policy with the appropriate language."  The MS administration had also promised the alumni in late October that it would publicly publish a statement with the final pro-trans admission's policy on its website within weeks. Nearly eight months later, an official pro-trans public announcement on its website still hasn't happened

 

This is disappointing, especially since they have what appears to be a successful model with the Blue Stars.  

I must say, I was so impressed with Russ Gavin.  What a leader to simply recognize what the right thing to do was, and figure out how to execute, with compassion and determination.  And honestly, I am surprised that there was no resistance from parents, but Wisconsin is probably more progressive then my home state (HB2, ugh)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding transgender participants:

At the October 16, 2017 board meeting, the committee presented a recommendation to the board to amend its existing eligibility policy to include transgender males beginning in 2018. The board unanimously approved the recommendation and has been working with the National Center for Transgender Equality over the past two weeks to draft a policy with appropriate language. Eligibility for the 2018 Madison Scouts will be based on the gender identity indicated by the applicant, including transgender males.

Seems clear cut to me.

 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting.  Should be fascinating to see how this pans out.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i'll say it yet again....a decade of wandering around the wilderness trying to figure out who they are has led them to not be people's first choice. From 10-13, they were beginning to be "Madison" again, but the design needed to be upped to be more competitive. They can't keep going back to the latin jazz stuff to wake the beast. They need a team that puts together a series of great shows, and boom, interest will pick up. Even the "down" years of 2012-2015 haven't slowed Cavies down

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/5/2018 at 2:21 PM, BigW said:

IIRC, the last all-female corps was the Ventures, last known to compete as a corps in 1994, they then went to Winter Guard.

What about Bandettes.?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...