What happened to Madison?

[Stu]

13 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

and at the high level of NCAA sports, those kids are getting scholarships that pay for their schooling. DCI has no such option.

I marched with a scholarship provided to me by my corps.

Edited July 1, 2019 by Stu

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, Stu said:

If the performers were paid I would also promote that. But since they pay dues I am for Free Agency, both unrestricted and restricted depending on the scenario.

yet you want to force them to pay to stay at places they don't want to stay at. 

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, AlexL said:

Another funny side effect the idiotic 'don't let kids transfer corps without a penalty' thing would have is a lot of kids just wouldnt turn out for lower placing corps. 

A lot of kids don't make their 'dream' corps and then go march somewhere else, hoping to build some skills and experience so they can go march where they really want to go. Year after year people advise kids who don't make their first shot to go somewhere. If they knew that marching somewhere would impede their ability to get to their goal, they'll just stay home and work on improving themselves some other way.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Jeff Ream]

5 hours ago, karuna said:

The focus on talent is mis-placed.  It's not about talent -- it's about staff and design.

Cadets won for many years with what most of the top corps would have considered "middlin'" talent.  Why ?  Because they had great teachers and great designers. 

Madison needs to find and keep the right staff.  Produce a show that makes HS kids watching say "I'd like to be a part of that".    Give your current membership great instruction so they can become better performers.  You'll get more than enough talent walking in the door.

staff and design draws kids. many kids follow staff

[Jeff Ream]

5 hours ago, karuna said:

Take the time to talk to instructors who actually taught the Cadets from mid 90s to mid '00s .   You'll be surprised.   

And I didn't say middlin' talent compared to all corps -- I said what the top corps would consider middlin' talent (which is a far different thing). 

Cappy you've never even seen the Cadets live when they were amazingly great.  2011 was a staggeringly brilliant design not exceptional member talent.

even into the 80's. that staff had the hardest working corps...they often far over achieved

[Jeff Ream]

4 hours ago, Stu said:

The DCI mission statement says it is to be "a cooperative fraternity of its member drum corps."

Cooperative does not mean to promote an idea to come see only the elite warm up in the lot, follow them into the stadium, and miss out on the others in the fraternity. And a fraternity does not mean that only a few are the real show so do not bother seeing the others.

The elite internet promotions of come see the only groups that matter, which began around 15 years ago and are still going on, and now perpetuated by the youth who were brought up on that promotion, is indeed the antithesis of the DCI mission statement.

cooperative doesn't mean forcing kids to stay at a place they do not want to be at

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, HolyNOLA said:

Don't get your panties in a twist. It's a fact drill is not nearly as difficult as it was 15 years ago. 

there's more to the athleticism kids are doing today than just "drill". These kids are being taught dance and body stuff you or i never could have comprehended doing back in the day. these kids are far better at the athletic stuff, and trained far better than we were doing "drill".

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

They are marching where they want. Nobody forced them to try out for that corps. It was of their own Free Will. However, the nature of fairness withn competition, social cohesivness, and respect for others, mandates that rules of transfer  and competition must be established. There are consiquences for your Free Will choices. Free Will does demand responsibility and consequence of action. So if you made the wrong choice, consequence, even suffering, teaches that respect for others.

forcing them to stay in a corps when they decided to move on is suffering. its also a way to drive kids out of the activity. 

[Jeff Ream]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Somewhere down the line, Instead of teacing many of our youth the nobilities of self sacrafice, honor, delayed gratification, patience, wisdom, consequence, vertue, convent, the true meaning of success, and holding them to that standard, our culture has allowed them to develop their own sense of narcissistic, twitter, Facebook,  Machiavellian, no consequence, immediate gratification no matter what perverted definition of success.

psst...kids left corps for other corps 40 years ago. You just didn't have the internet to blather on about it

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, exitmusic said:

Those #### kids are funding your retirement, despite the fact that they themselves will most likely never collect a dime of their own contributions. You're welcome.

Then you come take a huge #### on them without understanding the way culture has evolved.

This is pretty much the textbook definition of boomer culture. It's gross and entitled. The world exists outside of cornball notions of "fairness" and "wisdom."

Let kids march wherever they want. It's ####### marching band. B A N D. 

A) I have spent the last thirty years placing capital in stocks, bonds, precious metals, other investments, and am not relying on Social Security which will likely implode. So how are kids today funding my retirement?

B) When I was in my youth my dad was an idiot. Now I have come to realize he was the most wise person who ever gave me advice. So I was much like you many moons ago.