Thanks guys. Haha.

Don't forget that I need your competition info by the end of the week!

plus if you go to dci championships and say that..you may get attacked--ive seen it! lol right or wrong its considered a faux pas...

Alllllright. Anyway, how scheduling now works:

Week 3 - Member directors submit estimated tier and competition name.

Week 4 - Based on what tier you said you would host, you are given a different set of options of when you can host. If you are hosting a tier 6 you will have a day to yourself. A tier 5 will have a tier 1 competition along side, and tier 4 has a tier 2 or two tier 1s, etc. The goal is to have 30 people able to get into a competition on any ECC competition day. Because of this, everyday might not have an ECC competition. (This way if you want to do some other show one of these days, you can). This will be done with the scheduling committee. If you have any preferences on what day of the week or a week you cannot host due to not being around, send that with the message containing your competition name and tier.

Week 5 - The official schedule will be posted. Note, if you do not host on the correct date, add the [ECC] tag to your competition or accept the combine members assigned to your competition you will be put on a competition "black list". This says that you won't be able to participate in any other combine events of the season that you have not already been accepted to. Regional competitions will not accept anyone who has not scheduled a competition. We will try to consider influence when creating the schedule, so no one is stuck with all low influence groups.

Things to note. If membership for a season goes above 30, Regional Championships will be a qualifier for ECC Championships. This will be the top 2 from each division from each region. (So 18 groups - I am saying 2 because 3 would leave only a few members out).

Please, make sure you follow all of the combine rules so we don't get any problems like last season. Thank you!

-Joe

(P.S. this will be sent as a message shortly with a reminder to check the forum often!)

The JCFN competition committee is currently meeting to discuss our future with the ECC.

Positive Considerations: This is a nicely developing organization of corps which allows for another dimension of competition and comraderie. Conceptually, the committee really likes being a part of the ECC, and likes what it has brought to FMADC. In many ways, corps leadership feels that combine participation is integral to enjoyment of the activity, even more so than winning championships!

Negative Considerations: The lack of following combine rules, and more importantly, the lack of enforcement of these rules by combine leadership, has weakened the ECC. Rules that were broken inadvertantly or due to insufficient funds available are more understandable to this organization than those that showed a blatant disregard for other members and allowed some units to gain an unfair advantage in fund raising by stacking non-ECC corps in their shows, all the while claiming to be an ECC member in order to gain entry into our shows. We are confident that similar clandestine activities take place on a regular basis in the real DCI, however, we feel like this is getting a little bit too realistic!

The committee had desired to wait on this decision until after combine elections. However, the new scheduling rules are forcing our hand. Therefore, we shall render our decision by the end of the week (assuming we are still welcome).

Drum Corps = Marching Band

George

Maybe so in all ways that matter to you, but not to me and many others.

The drum corps "spirit" lives in the heart of many bands.

Snarizona, we hope that because this new scheduling system it will force combine directors to accept other combine groups. We will see what happens after scheduling. If you wish to back out of the combine, you may do so at anytime. We have no rules against leaving in the middle of a season. If you don't like what happens after Week 1 of Season 4, feel free to leave, I won't stop you.

Thanks for the reply. Decision upcoming. Finally got post number fitty!!

I'm edging closer to post 500! =D Haha.

I hope you stay as well...remember this is all very new and nailing down how it will work is a challenge no doubt...my feeling...stay and help fix it rather than just walk away...but I was a psyche major so....lol

Which reminds me, PLENTY of you have not sent in your competition name and estimated tier (competition size) yet. That needs to happen before Sunday!

I only have 5 out of 27 done! (One is myself, and two are new members. You're slackin' folks!) Your reminder has been sent out.

I am a good girl I am!!! Mines in !!

Now we got 9 in!

Life has gotten too busy recently, so I'm afraid I have to stop playing the game now.
I will check back in from time to time to see how everybody is doing!
Thanks for providing some good times and distraction from working life.
And good luck with the combine in the coming season!

Rich

Thanks for letting us know!

The crazy part is, I still may not catch him for best in ECC Division III before the season ends. He's got over 9 points on me right now (the lead was around a point at the first show). Wow.

It can be crazy sometimes.

Got 11 now.

Alright... 13/28 now...

All board members need to check their inbox for information on scheduling.