Is it an Alumni Corps if.......

[Fran Haring]

Maybe they should be called a  "tribute" corps.  The Star on Indiana groups that have been around have only been alums of the association, Star, Brass Theater, Blast and the other show groups.

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A friend of mine calls alumni corps "re-enactment corps"..... because they basically re-enact the various eras of drum corps.

Fran

[oldbaritone]

I might point out that a lot of guys march with more than one alumni corps.

I know that some St. Kevin's alumni march with the CT Alumni, some CT Alumni march with us and we also have a member of Caballero's alumni with us along with a mellophone who marched with Hawthorne's competing corps last season.

Its all in fun, a chance to march and play, I don't think that calling it an alumni corps is really a big issue. Besides, I'm not going to buy a new corps jacket. B)

[JimF-LowBari]

Besides, I'm not going to buy a new corps jacket. B)

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I need a new one, my old one shrunk.

Yeah really it shrunk, really.. really.... :(

[G-horns]

We came up with these question because some of the past students got wind of this and wondered why certain people were invited even though they attended for less then a year.  I personally know of 5 people who attended 3 or more schools before getting their degree. I being one of them. So, are we an Alumni of every one of those schools, or just the one we graduated from?  I know my school will not sell you one of those Alumni License plate frames of any Alumni stuff without proof of graduating. I am also aware of other schools with the same policy. If you exchange Drum Corps for schools, and marching a whole season for graduating,  you may or may not see my point.

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I had to drop out for financial reasons and the school still sends me all of the Alumni stuff - including the beg letters. :)

[goalieguy]

Food for thought...When the Royalairs came back to the field, they referred to themselves as a "Reunion" corps.

I think that might have been the appropriate name for units that choose to align themselves with a name from years gone by, and do not currently have a competing corps under the same name or aren't completely "alumni".

Pat

[Robbie Ellis]

Well, unless you want your "alumni corps" to fold, you really shold be more open about it.

If the corps carries on the traditions and style of the "original" corps, then yes, it's alumni corps...regardless of if the membership was in the original corps or not.

If you're strict, you're gonna run out of members...

I agree. I march with an "Alumni" corps, the Yankee Rebels, that swore it would never allow women when it started up in 1989. Like other non-competitive corps, it had many members upon it's inception but as the years progressed, some of the ex-Yankee Rebels lost interest or didn't have the time and the numbers dwindled. To keep the great musical tradition of the corps alive for those that still wanted the corps to continue, women were allowed in the mid 90s. I believe it was strictly a numbers thing but the corps is alive and thriving as an "Alumni" corps since it was opened up, if you will. We are also associated with the Yankee Rebels Alumni Association thus the word Alumni in our corps' name.

However, the true meaning of the word Alumni means that you were once a member and came back. About half of our corps, including myself, are not true Alumni of the Yankee Rebels. I am not sure what would best describe this activity but I think the word Alumni denotes a corps that does not wish to compete. Some corps simply use the corps name without the word Alumni like the Archer Epler Musketeers but they are not a competitive corps.

So I guess the non-competitive corps movement could be called simply Non-competitive Drum Corps. Omit the word Alumni in the activity unless the corps wants to use it in their name.

[oldbaritone]

Not trying to be a wiseguy here, but does it matter? Do we need a bunch of rules for a group of people to get together and make some music? You have corps like the Hawthorne Alumni, Yankee Rebel Alumni and Skyliner Alumni keeping the traditions of specific corps alive, but you also have corps like mine, Park City Pride Combined Alumni, who don't have any specific former corps identity and who don't have a specific book of music to play. We couldn't be called a Tribute corps since we don't play a specific book.

Let it be, we're just a collection of old men and women getting together to play our horns and drums (and twirl flags & rifles). If people want to come and hear us, that's fine; if not, we can play in the parking lot.

Dave Tichy

[77kingsmensnare]

Not trying to be a wiseguy here, but does it matter?  Do we need a bunch of rules for a group of people to get together and make some music? You have corps like the Hawthorne Alumni, Yankee Rebel Alumni and Skyliner Alumni keeping the traditions of specific corps alive, but you also have corps like mine, Park City Pride Combined Alumni, who don't have any specific former corps identity and who don't have a specific book of music to play.  We couldn't be called a Tribute corps since we don't play a specific book.

Let it be, we're just a collection of old men and women getting together to play our horns and drums (and twirl flags & rifles). If people want to come and hear us, that's fine; if not, we can play in the parking lot.

Dave Tichy

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Thank You!!

[JimF-LowBari]

Ditto on

The "Alumnis" (better start using the quotes :P ) are like going into Baskin-Robbins as each is a different flavor. Some use the old style or old music, some are 100% ex-members, some allow ex-corps people only and some allow in the younger set who never played in a corps before.

The only constant is that we'll have the same conversation in another year or so. ^0^