Boston Crusaders 2019

[brassdude6171]

12 hours ago, LabMaster said:

About that though, you mention there are definitely Crown undertones with the music but I don;'t know how that might be as no music staffer, is from Crown.  Not Ryan or Gino for brass.  Percussion is also not from Crown either.  Musical staff background is Cadets and other corps.   Ryan was not from Cadets and has been with Boston for a number of years now so what he writes is Boston.  I think we will see and hear a music and visual staff hitting their stride this year with a lot of talent that can handle whatever comes their way from this instructional team.  They are a performance oriented staff.  Loved everything you said though.

Mostly design wise is where I got the Crown impression. Rep choice and such. But there were a couple moments when Ryan's writing sounded Klesch-ian, though I'm sure many brass writers have Klesch-ian influences. And from what I've heard (and I'm gonna get a lot of heat for this), I'm actually more impressed with Boston's hornline than Crown's. 

[dans]

10 hours ago, Ediker said:

We can agree to disagree on money-shaming 

I really did not mean to insult or imply anything about the Boston Crusaders organization. Boston is a great organization that has many good people who work hard for the corps and the well being of the organization. The only point I was trying to make was that if a certain extremely generous donor didn't come along, the corps probably would not have become one of the top tier corps in DCI. Good luck to the Boston Crusaders for the upcoming season. Travel safe and have a great experience!

[craiga]

The corps' financial success is NOT due to any one donor.  Rather, it is the result of the BOD members spending years cultivating financial support from several dozen corporations, most of which being very old but recognizable institutions in Boston's financial district.....Putnam Investments, John Hancock, etc.  If you go to BAC's website and scroll around you can find detailed lists of corporate donors as well as the backgrounds of the BOD members.  To suggest that some sugar daddy randomly showed up and wrote a big check is simply not true.  And for the record, the annual Concert in the Park where the corps and all of the smaller local ensembles supported by Inspire play each June in the  downtown financial district brings in more money in one day than some corps' entire budget.   This is due to the tireless efforts of the Inspire board of directors. While I am not on the board, I know most of them and in many cases they have been working for BAC on some level since the 70's and 80's.  So, let's put to bed the fiction that the corps fell into money.  That notion is disingenuous and insulting.

[Ghost]

17 minutes ago, craiga said:

This is due to the tireless efforts of the Inspire board of directors. While I am not on the board, I know most of them and in many cases they have been working for BAC on some level since the 70's and 80's.  

And most of the key leaders of the corps and BOD marched with Boston back when the corps was struggling to stay active.  They have the passion and drive to see this corps succeed. 

Edited May 8, 2019 by Ghost

[Ediker]

3 hours ago, dans said:

I really did not mean to insult or imply anything about the Boston Crusaders organization. Boston is a great organization that has many good people who work hard for the corps and the well being of the organization. The only point I was trying to make was that if a certain extremely generous donor didn't come along, the corps probably would not have become one of the top tier corps in DCI.

Sincerely appreciate your sentiments.  Just want to raise awareness about what is incorrect about your point and why there is sensitivity at hearing such a thing.  As others have pointed out so well, there was no one thing, or some random fortunate event that caused Boston's success... financially or otherwise.  Rather, it was a pattern of concerted activity cultivated by the expertise, planning, commitment, and persistence of many people.  Constant effort and know-how go into keeping the cash flows multiple, diverse, and sustainable.  It is a model that the leadership is transparent about, and has been sharing with other organizations across the activity.  Understand that it hurts when anyone attempts to reduce all of that to something simple and random.  

[LabMaster]

4 hours ago, dans said:

I really did not mean to insult or imply anything about the Boston Crusaders organization. Boston is a great organization that has many good people who work hard for the corps and the well being of the organization. The only point I was trying to make was that if a certain extremely generous donor didn't come along, the corps probably would not have become one of the top tier corps in DCI. Good luck to the Boston Crusaders for the upcoming season. Travel safe and have a great experience!

It is not insulting when you don't know what you are talking about.  You are likely only misinformed.  I don't know who, if anyone, within the organization you have spoken with.  I am guessing no one.  The reason I think this is, if you had,  you would have a better understanding of how the turn around came to be.  Before bringing in the new staff, there was a previous 5 year effort to build the foundation of what the corps is based on today; the financial footing and the administration/leadership structural plan.  Where you are getting your information from sounds to be from outside sources who also have made assumptions for a number of reasons some of which may be sour grapes.  Boston's fundraising efforts continue throughout the year, done through a number of avenues,  created to maintain a constant funding stream. Not relying on any one thing or person to deliver funding directly or indirectly.  That is by design.

You mentioned money lured the staff.  But when you hear the staff explain why they are there, money is not what they talk about.  Being able to create unfettered is what they talk about.  Working with each other creatively is what they talk about.  Getting top talent is what they are talking about.  To say it is about money and inferring it was only about money, is to call these fine instructors and people, untruthful. 

Is the staff being paid well and being treated well? Yes they are getting paid well and they are being treated well.   How well were they paid before thay came to Boston?  How were they treated before they came to Boston?  How well respected by their peers and former organizations were they, before thay came to Boston?  Drum Corps are full of staffers who work for peanuts but enjoy where they are.  When you remove the joy, and being paid is a struggle, and they are no longer being listened to by their org's. leaders, that is clearly an incentive to go elsewhere.  For some of Boston's staff, they came home.  They came back to friends they already had there.  They came to an organization that promised them exactly what they are getting and working with right now.  Boston is being used as a model for other organizations now, and if you look around you will see that.

This year we hope to see Boston rise some more, be more in the mix and be considered a top tier corps.  How far they go we'll have to wait and see.  Maybe we'll have a good indication in a couple of weeks from ST when reports start trickling out from the DC world, or maybe we won't really know until the Detroit Premier show.  In any case I am getting a sense from the very little word that does ooze out from all the corps camps that there is no less than 20 corps that can win it all.  LOL

[Ediker]

10 hours ago, brassdude6171 said:

Mostly design wise is where I got the Crown impression. Rep choice and such. But there were a couple moments when Ryan's writing sounded Klesch-ian, though I'm sure many brass writers have Klesch-ian influences. And from what I've heard (and I'm gonna get a lot of heat for this), I'm actually more impressed with Boston's hornline than Crown's. 

Klesch is a master arranger, particularly in this activity.  No doubt he has inspired many.  Imvho, Crown's brass is the class of the field.  Boston being mentioned in the same sentence as them is a HUGE compliment.  

[Terri Schehr]

4 hours ago, Ghost said:

And most of the key leaders of the corps and BOD marched with Boston back when the corps was struggling to stay active.  They have the passion and drive to see this corps succeed. 

Very admirable.  I’m extremely impressed at how they diligently laid the groundwork to allow the organization to succeed. These things take time and patience and it is so rarely seen in this activity.   Live for today sounds romantic but is not practical. 

Plus Boston has a #####in’ golf shirt in both ladies and mens.  What I call a grown ups shirt. 

 

Edited May 8, 2019 by Terri Schehr

[OldSnareDrummer]

A lot of folks really seem excited to see what I guess you could call the "up-and-comers" of DCI. Corps like Boston, Mandarins, SOA and not so much love for the defending champs or previous champions (sans Cadets who get a lot of attention and the Cavaliers, driven almost solely by Mr. Hook'Em's enthusiasm).   Or, maybe it's just safely presumed that they'll be in the hunt anyway which is always a good bet.  The Phantom thread for example seems to be more reasons why they won't do well. I guess my point is, everyone and maybe even more in drum corps, loves an underdog or comeback story. 

[Fran Haring]

4 hours ago, Ghost said:

And most of the key leaders of the corps and BOD marched with Boston back when the corps was struggling to stay active.  They have the passion and drive to see this corps succeed. 

I hear that... there were various times, back in the day, when we would hear rumors that BAC was on the ropes. But those folks hung in there against some tough odds.

It would be so cool to see them win a DCI title someday.