What's more important for placement?

[Medeabrass]

I voted instructional staff #1.

As far as what qualities you want your members to have, I would say good attitude is most important, followed by retention of veterans, and lastly talent.

[Chris Scott]

Feel free to justify your votes.

Most important: Creative Team.

Least Important: Members. (Though that's a qualified response).

Best time to make improvement: Off Season (Pre-Summer)

Hey, look at it this way: A Yugo (the car) is still a Yugo. Doesn't matter if you have (insert professional driver here) driving it. It will always be a Yugo. It was designed to be a Yugo. If you put Low-Profile Chrome Spinners on it: Still A Yugo. If you put a Sirius/XM/whatever sound system in it: Yep, still a Yugo. You can bring in talented staff to teach your top rated talent how to drive the Yugo, but, until it becomes something else, it will always remain a Yugo.

And as far as the time to improve, if you educate your members in a philosophy so that their thought process and approach is the same (every month) from Novemeber to August, you will have greater success, as you do not have to retrain your members at each and every camp. Less time retraining = more time honing.

Fundamentals and good design is the key. Usuaully talented staff will follow good design, and will set the proper fundamentals. Proper fundamentals will draw the "correct" member to that staff and it's teaching style.

Oh, and team concept. But that wasn't a choice.

Just my two cents. What do I know?

[drumcat]

Ya, I think we saw the White Rabbit Yugo this year. It was part of why I asked the poll.

So it sounds like then, the kids don't matter so much as long as they're talented enough to do what the design team asks of them? Would that not then emphasize instruction? Or are we saying here that the less you instruct, the more you work on "the show", thus doing better...?

[audiodb]

It seems like the kids don't matter to most people... if that's the case, then why do people complain about how the "big corps" recruit from, say, Texas? Why is that so important?

Because it levels the playing field for kid-talent. It seems that any corps can recruit talented kids from faraway states now. It's not that the kids don't matter, but rather that many corps are finding talented kids these days.

[drumcat]

Because it levels the playing field for kid-talent. It seems that any corps can recruit talented kids from faraway states now. It's not that the kids don't matter, but rather that many corps are finding talented kids these days.

That would imply parity, of which, I've seen little.

[Liam]

That would imply parity, of which, I've seen little.

Which gives support to the argument that the instructional staff is more important for placement .....

IMO, all play a role -- talent level, staff, design -- but I will take lesser innately talented kids with a strong instructional staff over the opposite any time.

Edited September 20, 2006 by Liam

[3rd_Star_Brigade]

In the words of Jeff Fiedler: "Yes."