Saw that James Mason (Star, Blast!) is now back with Madison - and bringing a some staff with him. In fact, Madison will be having winter practices in Indiana - at the old Star facilities. So much for the neighborhood corps. Wonder if this will be the start of a comeback - or the end to another corps?

John, that is interesting. Of course, "neighborhood" corps disappeared a LONG time ago! While it would be great to see Madison back in good shape, this Indiana connection sounds suspicious.

Hopefully it does better for them than the Crossmen's move to Texas - and out of finals...I think they've probably done all they could in Madison, and the corps continues to sink. If Mason still has access to Star's old money, this could do the trick - but at what price? As if that matters anymore.

"On the starting line, the Gary Scouts!"

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

1. I thought Star was from Indianapolis
2. Surprised that Crossmen have done so poorly in Texas. Texas is a BIG state for marching band programs and MANY Cavaliers have come from that area.

Star's/Maidon's facilities = Bloomington, IN.

Agree w/your Crossmen assesment. We don't see the inner workings for any of the corps so who knows what goes on.

I don't see how alumni feel attached to such a remote practice location. It is as if the corps moved - On the starting line, from Bloomington, IN, the Madison Scouts. Somehow just doesn't seem right.

1. Don't assume that the "Scouts" will still be the Madison Scouts or even the "Scouts". They could become ANYTHING!

2. "attached"? The corps members come from EVERYWHERE anyway, why would they care where they practice? Corps now are like nomads ... they move around constantly. Look at the corps "from Illinois". They are here in their "home state" for ONE contest every year .. their own show!

I think John was referring more to the alumni having an association with the corps, and where it's from, and I agree. But Dave is right about corps being "nomads". The kids are from everywhere and anywhere, so I'm sure it doesn't matter to them where that plane goes each month for camp. I would imagine most cars at rehearsals these days are rentals! Which is a shame, because how many of us can remember the first car we drove to rehearsal, or some of the lousy ones we (and other corps members) had. Just another part of the aura that has changed.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Bob you are right. I do think it is one thing to "import" the members to the corps' base and entirely different to "export" the corps to the members and still call the base home. The members go to march with a corps because they like their style or ? I just think that as a member you "expcect" to go to the base even though you are flying in.

I went to the Madison Scouts web page to see what they say about this. NOTHING MUCH. Just that Mason is now their "artistic director". And, that auditions will be held in Bloomington, Indiana.

BTW .. if you go to their website, click on "staff".. Their list of staff, instructors and technicians has more people listed than our list of corps MEMBERS when I marched!

No wonder it costs a TON of money to have a corps now!

Dave, I bought the Madison Anniversary DVD and now I am on their mailing list. I continually get updates about staff, practice, etc. The last email included the interview with Mason that they have on their site. Over the past month or two it seemed like one a day (probably 1 a week but with so much junk email who knows)

Things were kinda quiet on our site so...

Dave,

Your comment about having more staff than we used to have members is hysterical! I marched when snare lines were bigger than whole drum lines were just 10 years earlier, but staffs still weren't that large. The interesting thing is that most of those staff members won't actually travel with the corps during the summer - only the younger ones will do the cleaning, and the heavies will fly in once in a while to make show changes. Another sign that corps are rewarded more for their shows than their performances these days.

Hey, John Anderson. What about the California corps? Are the Blue Devils still based in Concord and Vanguard still in Santa Clara (at least for "home base")?

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Bob, you are right. This is another clue that corps are rewarded MORE for their show design than for their performance.

Also, sad to say (in MY opinion only), the growth of staff and expense
for it makes me wonder what is going on. But wait, this is no longer community drum corps.. it is now PROFESSIONAL drum corps. Silly me.

With DCI corps no longer being neighborhood organizations they go where they can get members and facilities. And facilities has become one of the harder things to nail down in recent years for all drum corps. the amount of money to rent a facility over the weekend is huge. sometimes you have to go with what you can get for the best price. I bet many of these corps staffs are located in these alternate audition locations.

Here's just an example of what I found at DCI.org:

Bluecoats:
Nov. 21-22, 2009 : Austin, TX
Nov. 28-29, 2009 : Canton, OH
Dec. 6, 2009 : Southern California

Cavaliers:
Nov. 20-22, 2009 : Rosemont, IL
Dec. 12-13, 2009 : Austin, TX
Jan. 8-10, 2010 : Rosemont, IL (Callback Auditions)

Pioneer:
Nov. 21, 2009 : Garrett, IN
Nov. 22, 2009 : Ypsilanti, MI
Dec. 5, 2009 : St. Louis, MO metro area
Dec. 5, 2009 : North Fort Meyers, FL
(wow, I'm surprised at this one)

Boston Crusaders:
Nov. 21, 2009 : Dallas, TX area
Nov. 27-29, 2009 : Bradenton, FL
Dec. 18-20, 2009 : Bradenton, FL (Second Round)
(yes this is for the BOSTON Cru)

And the old Star facility in Bloomington is pretty sweet for drum corps. it's huge has everything a large drum corps could want. and it's probably free of charge because it's privately owned too.

What did you do in the Corps? Brass

What years were you a Corps member? 1976-83

Certainly not your Father's Olds, oops I mean drum corps. Never realized just how widespread the remote practice was. The cost of joining or tuition as they call it plus commuting cost would put this out of my parent's league. At some point the costs will have to catch up with these organizations - especially if the economy takes longer to recover than any hopes. It IS good to be old.

yeah unfortunately to march in DCI these days you/your parents have to be rich. I'm glad I was able to march jr corps when it was affordable. Heck at these current rates, no way could my brothers and I have marched as many years as we did.

What did you do in the Corps? Brass

What years were you a Corps member? 1976-83

Gosh, to this "old fart", this is all so silly!

Drum corps was a local youth activity. Now, it is a big business for rich people. Nothing for local kids.

Also (just an opinion), the programs they present are worthless.

That's why most kids only march a year or two these days - there aren't any (or many, anyway) 6, 8, 10-year members like there used to be. And they don't even start until college, in most cases. Many of us literally grew up in drum corps (I was 10 when I marched my first parade with the Cadets - my little brother was 8).

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Going back to the earlier comments about the size of corps staff these days:
I went to the Cavaliers website and looked at their staff list. FORTY-SEVEN people!

Yes, I know that corps are a lot bigger these days, but 47??

The breakdown:
Design Team: 7
Brass - 9
Percussion - 16!!!! (Yikes!)
Visual - 9
Auxiliary - 6

My reaction:

MORE about corps staff levels

CADETS: 34
Brass - 6
Percussion - 13
Visual - 7
Auxiliary - 8

BLUE DEVILS: 37
Brass - 11
Percussion - 8 (what? Only 8?)
Visual - 11
Auxiliary - 6

Those might have been CORPS sizes in the 40s and 50s!

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

I think it should be considered that many of the so-called "staff" might just be former members hanging around to support and/or volunteer. In such a respect, all corps will have large "staff" and perhaps listing them is just a way to give recognition to those that don't get paid. I'd guess that most of such "staff" are not around 100% of the time.

Larry, good point. Lots of truth to that.

STILL a lot of people!

Actually, in many cases what Larry describes is exactly the opposite - the "big names" on the staff aren't around that much in the summer, and the "tech staff" is responsible for cleaning. The big guys come in for changes and sporadically during the year.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79