DCA will hold its bi-annual rules congress on December 13th & 14th at the George Eastman House Museum on East Ave. in Rochester, NY. A meeting for voting member corps will begin Saturday morning at 9:00AM, followed by the first general session at 10:00AM. All competing all-aged drum corps are welcome to attend. Hotel arrangements are available at the Strathallen Hotel, Rochester’s most exclusive hotel that is located just a few blocks from the Eastman House right in the Museum District. Anyone requiring housing or wishing to attend, need only contact Glen Johnson, DCA Secretary at secretary@dcacorps.org.
Following the first general session while staff members caucus on rules changes, seminars will be held for corps directors and managers. One will be a presentation by a professional non-profit advisory group. A second will be a round table with one-on-one discussions between some of the most successful corps directors in the business. This is a wonderful opportunity for a less experienced director to ask questions and receive great input on what works in every area. Recruiting, show design, staff recruitment and fundraising are sure to be major topics. Finally, DCA Officers – headed by Business Manager, Dick Eschenmann and President Gil Silva – will meet with directors of new corps wishing to compete in 2009. They will receive first hand, precise information on exactly what is expected of them, what is involved in the evaluation process, how to get music performance rights, what insurance is required, information on potential shows and a lot of great advice on how to make their transition to a competing corps as smooth, efficient and successful a process as possible. Any corps director wishing to be evaluated for competitive approval in 2009 is STRONGLY urged to attend or at the very least send a representative. There will be a $100 fee payable that day for all corps attending. The 24 corps who competed in the 2008 DCA Preliminary Competition, have already paid this fee.
There will be a reception for all in attendance Saturday evening at the Museum hosted by President Silva and DCA Rochester Chairman Allen Buell. Allen is an employee of the museum and urges everyone to take a little extra time and tour the facility – one of the premier tourist spots in Western New York. Sunday’s session will be the general DCA meeting where the final vote on changes takes place. This meeting is only required for voting members. However, everyone is invited to attend. There is no limit on the number of staff members a corps may bring to participate in the caucus meetings. We do ask each corps to advise Secretary Glen Johnson how many will be attending from your corps and which captions they represent. This will allow better preparation and proper meeting room selection. We hope to see everyone in Rochester December 13th.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Championship Bids for 2010/2011 Accepted Until 1/15/09
DCA President Gil Silva, announced this weekend at the fall executive board meeting that the final day to submit bids for the 2010/2011 DCA World Championships will be January 15, 2009. So far, he has received requests for information from several cities. The DCA Championship presents not only a great time for drum corps fans and performers, but also is one of the largest conventions of its type each year. With several thousand participants and many more fans, the DCA World Championship weekend offers an economic impact of 8 to 12 Million Dollars to the host area. Participants alone amount to almost 6000 guaranteed room nights in hotels, putting the DCA Championship in the highest tier for the visitors and convention business activity.
Anyone desiring information on bidding for the championship is requested to contact DCA directly, attention President Gil Silva at president@dcacorps.org.
Anyone desiring information on bidding for the championship is requested to contact DCA directly, attention President Gil Silva at president@dcacorps.org.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
2009 DCA Adjudication Leadership Announced
DCA President, Gil Silva, has announced the election of John Kreitzer as DCA Judging Coordinator for 2009. Kreitzer was the choice of the member corps to fill the void left with the resignation of long time Judging Coordinator Rich Templin. He will be joined by an experienced, and talented team of elected Chief Judges including Tony Smith, Visual Caption Chairman, Rich Guillen, Brass Caption Chairman and the returning Percussion Caption Chairman, John Stauffer. Their first duty will be preparation for and leadership of the upcoming Bi-Annual Rules Congress where each will be charged with moderating the sessions and ensuring that the changes presented are coordinated from caption to caption and result in the fairest and best possible adjudication system for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
John Kreitzer from Lewes, DE, comes with a solid education background as a special education teacher, high school principal and now education administrator. He received his Doctor of Education degree from Wilmington College in Delaware. In drum corps, John was a performer and visual instructor with the Harrisburg Westshoremen of the 1970’s and 80’s. He became a DCA Judge in the late 80’s and has adjudicated over a dozen DCA World Championships. He has been the Southern Regional Director of Tournament of Bands for over 10 years. John brings to the position of Judge Coordinator a solid background in drum corps leadership and accomplishment combined with a career devoted to education and a fresh enthusiasm that will permeate the DCA Judging community in 2009.
Tony Smith takes over as Visual Caption Chairman. He started as a young percussionist with Boston Crusaders going on to teach, arrange and judge percussion before becoming Boston’s visual arranger and eventually, Corps Director. He turned his attention to visual design and adjudication and has been a DCA Adjudicator for many years. He went on to design and instruct a long and distinguished list of both junior and senior corps including Crossmen, Blue Devils, Skyliners and Caballeros. For the past 3 years he has been visual consultant/arranger for the Blue Devils. Tony owns his own design company specializing in retail store design and marketing. He also has taught retail design and marketing at both the Rhode Island School of Design and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
A familiar name to DCA is Rich Guillen, from the Hudson Valley of Downstate New York. Rich becomes Brass Caption Chairman after a long career in music including both performance and education. He is currently the band director of the Arlington, NY High School Band – often recognized as one of the best programs in the nation. He was a marching member of the Garfield Cadets and the Sunrisers Drum and Bugle Corps, and instructed the Sunrisers, the Hawthorne Caballeros and Dutch Boy Drum & Bugle Corps. He is an active adjudicator for marching band and drum corps circuits throughout the United States.
Returning as Percussion Caption Chairman is John Stauffer. Hailing from Harrisburg, PA, John was a performer and instructor for the Westshoremen for many years. John has been a DCA Adjudicator since 1995, and having led the caption since 2004, he brings a stable and experienced wisdom to the DCA adjudication team.
John Kreitzer from Lewes, DE, comes with a solid education background as a special education teacher, high school principal and now education administrator. He received his Doctor of Education degree from Wilmington College in Delaware. In drum corps, John was a performer and visual instructor with the Harrisburg Westshoremen of the 1970’s and 80’s. He became a DCA Judge in the late 80’s and has adjudicated over a dozen DCA World Championships. He has been the Southern Regional Director of Tournament of Bands for over 10 years. John brings to the position of Judge Coordinator a solid background in drum corps leadership and accomplishment combined with a career devoted to education and a fresh enthusiasm that will permeate the DCA Judging community in 2009.
Tony Smith takes over as Visual Caption Chairman. He started as a young percussionist with Boston Crusaders going on to teach, arrange and judge percussion before becoming Boston’s visual arranger and eventually, Corps Director. He turned his attention to visual design and adjudication and has been a DCA Adjudicator for many years. He went on to design and instruct a long and distinguished list of both junior and senior corps including Crossmen, Blue Devils, Skyliners and Caballeros. For the past 3 years he has been visual consultant/arranger for the Blue Devils. Tony owns his own design company specializing in retail store design and marketing. He also has taught retail design and marketing at both the Rhode Island School of Design and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
A familiar name to DCA is Rich Guillen, from the Hudson Valley of Downstate New York. Rich becomes Brass Caption Chairman after a long career in music including both performance and education. He is currently the band director of the Arlington, NY High School Band – often recognized as one of the best programs in the nation. He was a marching member of the Garfield Cadets and the Sunrisers Drum and Bugle Corps, and instructed the Sunrisers, the Hawthorne Caballeros and Dutch Boy Drum & Bugle Corps. He is an active adjudicator for marching band and drum corps circuits throughout the United States.
Returning as Percussion Caption Chairman is John Stauffer. Hailing from Harrisburg, PA, John was a performer and instructor for the Westshoremen for many years. John has been a DCA Adjudicator since 1995, and having led the caption since 2004, he brings a stable and experienced wisdom to the DCA adjudication team.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Bi-Annual Rules Congress Adds Seminars
DCA President, Gil Silva, has announced that the Bi-Annual Rules Congress for DCA will be held December 13th and 14th at the George Eastman House Museum in Rochester, NY. This magnificent facility is one of the major tourist stops in New York State. (http://www.eastmanhouse.org) All DCA corps directors have already received the information detailing how to propose rules changes for the 2009/2010 seasons. New this year, President Silva has advised that there will be several seminars to create an information highway among all corps. While staff members work on rules changes, corps directors and managers will be able to attend a variety of seminars dealing with all aspects of running a competitive drum corps in 2009. Details of the seminars will be available following the DCA Executive Board meeting later this month.
President Silva has opened these seminars to all corps. Any corps director, whose corps is planning on competing in 2009 in the DCA arena, is encouraged to attend. This will be an excellent opportunity to open lines of discussion, meet the management of both the other corps and DCA, receive valuable information from some of the best and most experienced leaders in the activity and find out exactly what is expected from competing corps in 2009. This will be especially beneficial to new corps taking the field for the first time this coming season. If you would like to attend these seminars and have not already received the information, please contact Glen Johnson at secretary@dcacorps.org and he will send you details and hotel information. Watch for information in the coming weeks about seminar registration. Book transportation early and save those last minute price penalties.
President Silva has opened these seminars to all corps. Any corps director, whose corps is planning on competing in 2009 in the DCA arena, is encouraged to attend. This will be an excellent opportunity to open lines of discussion, meet the management of both the other corps and DCA, receive valuable information from some of the best and most experienced leaders in the activity and find out exactly what is expected from competing corps in 2009. This will be especially beneficial to new corps taking the field for the first time this coming season. If you would like to attend these seminars and have not already received the information, please contact Glen Johnson at secretary@dcacorps.org and he will send you details and hotel information. Watch for information in the coming weeks about seminar registration. Book transportation early and save those last minute price penalties.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)