Jester - Settling Rumors with fact

[Studio Tan]

Has anyone else noticed how contriversial Jester seems to be? What about our mere existance stirs up so many strong emotions?

Probably that name.

[dmarg]

It's funny because I'm not entirely sure which side I'm on. I was actually set to be the drum major for Jester this season, but after the every caption head resigned, the kids I was carpooling with (4 1/2 hours to get there) quit immediatly. From the get go Steve Martin was the only reason they had even stayed. The first camp included 6 kids from my high school, 2 kids from a school 1 1/2 hours from the site, and 1 Phoenix kid. Needless to say, we were demoralized. You have to understand that none of us had any drum corps experience WHATSOEVER, and that we were prosimeda trip to Madison that summer. There were no returning members, but we were told there would lots more kids coming for the next camps. I was unable to attend due to All-State Jazz tryouts and the like, but my best friend (who continued to go to every camp) told me there was still no sign of more people. Finally after one camp when a few returning members attended, I was able to go back to the corps as the only gaurd member. At the memorial day camp, I was asked to be Jester's Drum Major, and I accepted. I had previous experience so it wasn't to big of a stretch for me, and I was much more comfortable with that then gaurd. I learned how to conduct the show over the weekend, and started on my different duties, and was extraordinarily excited that it was all finally happening. We had I think 23 kids at that camp, and everyone was excited recruit more. The next week though, we were scheduled to play a show at the Phoenix Mercury game on a Tuesday, and we finally had aranged a way for the 5 of us to get there. You can imagine that it isn't easy to pay for 8 hour car trips when you're a poor teenager. The day or two before though we were emailed by the staff letting us know that they wouldn't be coming back, and that they wouldn't specify why as to keep their level of professionalism. As I said before, right off the bat 2 of the kingman kids were out, and that left 3 of us to car pool. One was already on his way to move in down in Phoenix, so he couldn't car pool either, and that left 2. There was no way I could afford that after the 850 dollars for tour fees, plus a $150 member fee and $25 dollars for every camp (totaling $125). The corps director at this point seemed to be frantic about losing another 6 kids, so he offered to pick me up (4 1/2 hours away) and drive me down to Phoenix. My parents were not about to let me drive with a man they did not know, and told me they wanted me to thros in the towel. They had been weary of Jester's unorganization since day one. I made the extremely hard decision to quit since there was no feasible way for me to continue. I was extrememyl upset, and still wish I could have at least done a part of the tour with them, but it was impossible.

I got no money back, and still have not heard back from the corps director as to where it is. Since drum corps are non-profit organizations, I thought that any money they couldn't spend couldn't be used as a profit but I guess I was wrong. Turns out my mom can write it off on her taxes as a donation, but the other 5 kids aren't so lucky. They together paid a total ranging somewhere between $5000 and $8000 depending on how you total it with all the fees. None of us stepped foot on a field, and none of us got the expereince we were promised. As I have talked to many veterans on Jester Corps and newbies from this year, it is apparent to me that even if they do believe that they are gained a worthwhile experience and education, they deserve much better. They deserve a corps director who doesn't wait until a week before to finalize a Tuesday performance, or sneak camps on to the scheduale and then claim they'd been there all along (c'mon, they were written in on a typed piece of paper). I don't know if they really are gaining from their time with Jester, or if they simply do not know better, but teh management should, and should not promise kids a trip to madison, and an awesome summer, and a staff that actually sticks around for more than a few months when none of it will happen. I may not be experienced in the mat ters of drum corps, but I know what's right and what's wrong, and what the higher ups of Jester are doing is wrong. I'm planning on trying out for a corps that has their poop in a group next year, and I definitely learned my lesson.

PS If you think the whole $850 dollar tour fee in february and $1650 tour fee in May thing is screwed up, one year they let kids march for free as long as they promised to march Jester again the next summer.

[theotherk-town]

It's funny because I'm not entirely sure which side I'm on. I was actually set to be the drum major for Jester this season, but after the every caption head resigned, the kids I was carpooling with (4 1/2 hours to get there) quit immediatly. From the get go Steve Martin was the only reason they had even stayed. The first camp included 6 kids from my high school, 2 kids from a school 1 1/2 hours from the site, and 1 Phoenix kid. Needless to say, we were demoralized. You have to understand that none of us had any drum corps experience WHATSOEVER, and that we were prosimeda trip to Madison that summer. There were no returning members, but we were told there would lots more kids coming for the next camps. I was unable to attend due to All-State Jazz tryouts and the like, but my best friend (who continued to go to every camp) told me there was still no sign of more people. Finally after one camp when a few returning members attended, I was able to go back to the corps as the only gaurd member. At the memorial day camp, I was asked to be Jester's Drum Major, and I accepted. I had previous experience so it wasn't to big of a stretch for me, and I was much more comfortable with that then gaurd. I learned how to conduct the show over the weekend, and started on my different duties, and was extraordinarily excited that it was all finally happening. We had I think 23 kids at that camp, and everyone was excited recruit more. The next week though, we were scheduled to play a show at the Phoenix Mercury game on a Tuesday, and we finally had aranged a way for the 5 of us to get there. You can imagine that it isn't easy to pay for 8 hour car trips when you're a poor teenager. The day or two before though we were emailed by the staff letting us know that they wouldn't be coming back, and that they wouldn't specify why as to keep their level of professionalism. As I said before, right off the bat 2 of the kingman kids were out, and that left 3 of us to car pool. One was already on his way to move in down in Phoenix, so he couldn't car pool either, and that left 2. There was no way I could afford that after the 850 dollars for tour fees, plus a $150 member fee and $25 dollars for every camp (totaling $125). The corps director at this point seemed to be frantic about losing another 6 kids, so he offered to pick me up (4 1/2 hours away) and drive me down to Phoenix. My parents were not about to let me drive with a man they did not know, and told me they wanted me to thros in the towel. They had been weary of Jester's unorganization since day one. I made the extremely hard decision to quit since there was no feasible way for me to continue. I was extrememyl upset, and still wish I could have at least done a part of the tour with them, but it was impossible.

I got no money back, and still have not heard back from the corps director as to where it is. Since drum corps are non-profit organizations, I thought that any money they couldn't spend couldn't be used as a profit but I guess I was wrong. Turns out my mom can write it off on her taxes as a donation, but the other 5 kids aren't so lucky. They together paid a total ranging somewhere between $5000 and $8000 depending on how you total it with all the fees. None of us stepped foot on a field, and none of us got the expereince we were promised. As I have talked to many veterans on Jester Corps and newbies from this year, it is apparent to me that even if they do believe that they are gained a worthwhile experience and education, they deserve much better. They deserve a corps director who doesn't wait until a week before to finalize a Tuesday performance, or sneak camps on to the scheduale and then claim they'd been there all along (c'mon, they were written in on a typed piece of paper). I don't know if they really are gaining from their time with Jester, or if they simply do not know better, but teh management should, and should not promise kids a trip to madison, and an awesome summer, and a staff that actually sticks around for more than a few months when none of it will happen. I may not be experienced in the mat ters of drum corps, but I know what's right and what's wrong, and what the higher ups of Jester are doing is wrong. I'm planning on trying out for a corps that has their poop in a group next year, and I definitely learned my lesson.

PS If you think the whole $850 dollar tour fee in february and $1650 tour fee in May thing is screwed up, one year they let kids march for free as long as they promised to march Jester again the next summer.

well let me just say that i am the one kid who was on his way to phoenix to live there.

ive been on tour for the past month and a half or so so i havent had time to post, but friends have called me and told me about how many post there were and what theyve said

all this crap about going to madison. people misunderstood.

ive stayed with the corps since the start of the season and never missed acamp

this is how it realy went

at the very beggining of the season my friends and i took a gigantic leap and went to tro out for the jester drum and bugle corps

this was the first time we had ever come in contact with any kind of drum corps experience.

i will give names and im sure no one will care

(i) alex percussion

mike percussion

kc ( ktown) percussion

margo (dmarg) guard

tory baritone

and the new percussion caption head sean cunningham

al piled into a car from kingman az and took the four hour trip to phoenix christian high school

when we arrived there were only three other kids a secretary, the corps director and the new caption heads steve and lara martin and sean cunningham

( this is where madison comes in)

saturday morning stretching block

sean cunningham told us to close our eyes and ( IMAGINE )

that we were marching through the lot in madison to get to the field. passing larger div 1 corps.

he only did this as a motivational tool

no one ever promised us a trip to finals

no where on the website did it say we plan to go to finals on our tour this summer

and using this missunderstanding as a way to complain about the corps seems like a desperate attemt to make the staff look like liers.

now that thats cleared up

the 2nd camp at maricopa high school was indeed very discouraging

the brass caption head actually caled the camp short because he thought it was a waste of his time

but i continued to return and i saw the improvements that i had made and wanted to keep learning

several potential members did not return to further camps

kc found out his band was going on tour this sumer and he could not do it

and margo just kinda dissapeared

other kids started showing up and imediately a family began to grow

the camps went by so fast and we began recording our progress throughout our music and drill

we soon found out that mr sean cunningham was moving to albequerque nm

and we had to find a new caption head

arron hines came in

we learned all of his excersize book and we re-wrote the show music

we worked with arron until june fourth when we found out that the staff wouldnt be returning

nothing unusual happened between the maricopa camp and the memorial day camp

we worked on music and putting it on the field

after we found out the staff was quitting

alot of people started questioning whether they were going to return to jester or not

i had allready paid all of my tour fees and knew that i would be marching with them this summer

but i reallized the money didnt matter to me. i wanted to march

all of the other kids from kingman

who had paid their tour fees simply said if theres no steve

theres no us

BAD ADDITUDE.

the friends that i had had so much fun with and the friends that had supported me through this whole thing just quit.

apparently marching didnt matter to them. they werent doing it for the experience. they tried demanding refunds but didnt read the fine print saying that refund date was march 1st

they also didnt get that if for some odd reason the corps didnt go on tour had they stayed with it they would have gotten their money back

they woulndt keep the money we paid them for the tour we never went on

im happy to say we have gon on three tours so far and ive enjoyed every minute of them

all the while they talk bad to about the organization to the kids who had left long before them.

they talk about how the corps wouldnt function without steve and arron there.

now everyone in kingman thinks that jester is a bad organization. and the kid who want ed to do it but couldnt because of schedueling problems will never go back because they refuse to accept that steve wouldnt be there.

personaly ive had more of a learing experience after they left then i did before they left

the new drumline caption head is awesome and actualy has drum corps experience

arron didnt

i could care less about scores

i could care less about my friends leaving

i just refuse to let anyone believe that what they say is the full truth

bits and pieces of it have been true but, they all left and they have no right to say anything about this organization because they havent experienced it

going to camps is all they did and that isnt even the half of it

going to camps is like a tenth of what drum corps really is

the feeling i get when i walk of the field knowing i played a good show

knowing i dirted out a lick. knowing that i can improve.

thats why i stayed.

seeing the renegades on the left side of our block and so cal dream on the right side of our block as we march onto the field

where theyre cheering for us so loud i cant even hear the taps. when i hear all the good things people say about jester

i feel that they severely outway what bad things people say.

jester has been the best experience of my life so far

and i know that if i stick with it. it will only take me farther.

ask any current jester member they will tell you the same

i thank everyone who gives us their support.

and people who are being trolls or bashing our corps

come and march with us

come experience it for yourself

thats the only way in my mind i would think you have the right to say anything about this organization

we have 2 more shows

i plan on making them the best two sows i possibly can

until i return to jester next year knowing that things will only get better

alex socfield

kingman ,az

ps they didnt let the kids march for free

kids just didnt pay there fees

and now no other corps will let them march because they have outstanding fees

i actualy have no room to talk here

i didnt march last year

and margo has even less room to talk because she hasnt marched at all

pps

go renegades

ppps

go dream

pppps

go anyone who ever supported us and everyone who still does

[CSGreen]

Excellent post!

Go JESTER!

[Storkysr]

Excellent! good luck in your final shows and in the future!

[Sayre Kulp]

I guess you could say that at least someone feels they are getting the drum corps experience they deserve. Way to set the records straight. I'm glad you are loving this activity and I hope you stick with it. It really is a kind of family... ESPECIALLY when you are in a smaller corps or a corps that has to go through tought times. (Usually the one is ALSO the other.) Keep on rockin' and rallying the troups behind you. You guys are already quickly becoming an underground success by drawing fans from all the West coast senior corps. And I am officially a Jester fan as well. And so, like every other time I post on this thread...

GO JESTER!

[drumlaw80]

Sean told us we were going to Madison at the very first meeting we had at his house.

First mistake = listening to anything Sean Cunningham says about anything. Sean marched Renegades in 2004, and promptly showed his sense of honor and respect to the corps by taking (i.e. , stealing) a bass drum from the corps and never giving it back ... even when we offered to personally pick it up and/or pay the shipping back to California. Sean is bad news, and will never be welcome back with our corps. Sorry if anyone on here is his pal, but that is exactly what happened.

In any event -- Jester is a first class corps, and the Jester kids show all of us time and time again what drum and bugle corps is all about. I am a huge Jester fan, and anyone who has anything bad to say about Jester is missing the entire point of what this great activity is all about.

GO JESTER!

[84BDsop]

oh and beccas the one who told me that kids marched free, including her

Actually, you're coming actoss like a spoiled infant....stop now before you make yourself look worse.

Mods, I think t's time to edit the last few posts and close the thread.

[dmarg]

I'm not saying anything bad about the Jester kids. I'm actually very jealous that they were able to participate this summer. I only came on here to let people know about the situation, and thought that since you care about the activety, you would try somehow to help these kids. I was physically unable to participate in Jester because I was dependent on the fact that I could carpool with the other kids from my city. Due to the unstability of the corps, and the issues the staff had with the management, this was not possible. I love drum corps as much as anyone else, and would have given up a lot to march this summer, but I COULD NOT. I am simply saying that the students should not be able to commit until it has been truthfully, and plainly laid out in front of them. I can't understand why no one cares about this. I'm begging you to look into the situation and see if you can't find some way to help. Maybe you know someone who would be willing to be a part of a stable Jester staff. Maybe you know something about recruiting, I don't know. All I know is that there are a lot more than a few kids who have been disgruntled by this organization, and it is breaking my heart to watch them all get overlooked because the vets of the drum corps activety are too busy talking about the 1980 bridgeman drum line to see what's happening to the future of the activety. Because Jester has made such an infamous name for itself, be it deserved or not, many young Arizona musicians only allow themselves one option, The Academy, which is extremely competitive, and is not a reality if you don't have much experience. I am not a spoiled infant, a am a concerned human being who is not only trying to help this activety, but pleading for people with more experience to help. Maybe I'm just a huge ###### who knows nothing about this whole thing, but to me it certainly seems that if Jester is ever going to have a year without drama, they need people to step in and help. I'm sorry I can't be more constructive. I'm a 17 year old girl that is trying to change things for the better, but if I'm in the wrong I'll gladly shut my mouth. I just feel bad for the kids that have been discouraged because of all this. Maybe a petition would help you understand.

Oh and about sean cunningham, how were we supposed to know? he was our high school percussion instructor and had helped us progress infinitely over the course of one season. I had no reason not to trust him. I actually disliked him a lot at first, but he grew on me. He even got me my first job at the Flying J. But really, how was I supposed to know?

[drumlaw80]

Jester Rocks.