A lot can happen in 15 years. (G7 proposal)

[Jeff Ream]

3 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

He was the guy at the top that set the atmosphere for the organization.  He was getting away with it (at the time), and his underlings saw the behavior as acceptable.  

actually in the timeline i saw, i don't believe he was officially director yet.

[Boss Anova]

2 hours ago, MikeRapp said:

The biggest issue to me is the length. The sheer volume of strongly positioned opinions with no supporting data bludgeons the audience into submission, locking out any reasonable way to discuss any of it. The best presentations I’ve seen are no more than a dozen pages and the last page has the word Questions? on it.

As was the author’s personality and pattern, this was a hammer that was meant to position him as the sole arbiter of the path forward. That he added pages of #### without ever clearing it with the other corps directors is what a true narcissist would do 💯 of the time—I’ve seen it so many times it makes me ill.

[OldCorpsGuy]

3 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

actually in the timeline i saw, i don't believe he was officially director yet.

As I understand it, Hopkins was Assistant Director in 1982, but due to the health of the Director, Hopkins basically ran the show. 

[OldCorpsGuy]

1 hour ago, Boss Anova said:

In case you didn’t know how big of an ### Hopkins is, the day the Cadets announced they were done, he posted a link to the article on his Facebook page and just commented “lol”. 

[Boss Anova]

5 minutes ago, OldCorpsGuy said:

In case you didn’t know how big of an ### Hopkins is, the day the Cadets announced they were done, he posted a link to the article on his Facebook page and just commented “lol”. 

 Was not aware of this.. says a lot, I guess.

[RiverCityAndTroopersFan]

3 hours ago, Slingerland said:

GH isn't capable of adult thought and expression. Clearly

I'm always somewhat interested that Dave Gibbs escaped unscathed from this mess, despite him being a principal voice in the concept.

A thought, however, is that 6 of the 7 members' of the group were still top 9 finalists last Saturday, holding 5 of the 6 top spots (and if Cadets hadn't gone boom.....), so their own belief in their commitment to being good has stood up pretty well. And inarguably, Boston slamming down the checkbook this time in 2016 changed the direction of their corps, so the link between financial capacity and excellence was only underscored. 

Like it or not, we've entered the Hunger Games portion of the lifecycle of the activity, and the fallout the next few seasons may be nasty.

It’d be nice to see corps working together in terms of sharing housing sites and whatnot. Blue Stars going to pick up MBI’s truck and Vessel lending Troopers their Chuck Wagon brings me hope that corps can work together.

[Boss Anova]

On 8/12/2025 at 6:38 AM, Arrowmarcher said:

I know that both eventually won championships and are crowd favorites, but Bluecoats and Crown being in the tour of “champions” with exactly 0 combined titles at the time is funny.

 So much was so wrong and on so many levels to count.

 Heck, even the number " 7 " Hoppy wanted in his group was poorly thought out.  8 would have been a better number as they could have had 4 perform before intermission, 4 after intermission.

[Boss Anova]

3 hours ago, Slingerland said:

. 

Like it or not, we've entered the Hunger Games portion of the lifecycle of the activity, and the fallout the next few seasons may be nasty.

 Maybe... but maybe not.  For all intents and purposes, DCI Drum Corps should have died during the recent pandemic where the activity was literally completely shuttered for 2 years of competition. If the activity can survive that, it likely can survive anything. Thsat said, its imperative for DCI and its member Corps to be financially wise over the coming years as they continue post pandemic.

[rpbobcat]

8 minutes ago, Boss Anova said:

 Maybe... but maybe not.  For all intents and purposes, DCI Drum Corps should have died during the recent pandemic where the activity was literally completely shuttered for 2 years of competition. If the activity can survive that, it likely can survive anything. Thsat said, its imperative for DCI and its member Corps to be financially wise over the coming years as they continue post pandemic.

From what I've read, DCI/Drum Corps got a lot of Covid relief money.

That's how they survived.

 

 

[Boss Anova]

10 minutes ago, rpbobcat said:

From what I've read, DCI/Drum Corps got a lot of Covid relief money.

That's how they survived.

 

 

 While true, they needed that and benefitted from that. But that relief money was just a drop in the bucket of what they really needed to fill the shortfall. SCV and BD for just one example are still clawing back  from the Bingo money revenues they lost during the Covid years of shut downs. It was pretty precarious there for awhile. They made it thru, but even they will tell you they still have work to do re their finances, post pandemic. Every Corps does. The shortened season of 2025 is but one example of the still lingering effects of the pandemic.

Edited August 13, 2025 by Boss Anova