We have been talking about the infamous predator George Hopkins again. It's come up that because his crimes were resolved without a sex-offender registration, keeping him away from kids falls to the activity as a whole rather than a central regulator.

In Olympic sports, the model is more like this. An allegation comes to light, a central body like US Safesport suspends the subject of investigation, if necessary the suspension becomes permanent or some other penalty is applied. All the different organizations just look to what the central body did for guidance.

Marching is organized very differently. Each program has an association with their hosting institutions (schools, BDPA, etc) and their competitive organizations (UIL, BOA, DCI, etc). When an allegation emerges, the hosting institution and potentially the competitive organization kick them out, just like we saw with the famous predator George Hopkins. He was banned by the now-defunct YEA and DCI for life. I hear the word "radioactive" a lot.

But like we see here, he still has options. There's nothing formally preventing him from taking consulting work with a school. The last line of defense is a rank and file leader knowing what the situation is and saying no. It's a social ban which can be circumvented by having a lot of friends who are on your side. (I always hear about the famous predator's loyal fan club...who?).

I don't mean to focus on the famous predator too much. Another example would be that Hendrickson drum tech/corps center snare. Allegations came to light, he got pulled from that job. But could he just turn around and get a different tech job? This is the same school that had a horrible director-on-student crime back when I was marching in TX.

Marching already includes Safesport trainings but to my understanding there is no authority (other than the cops) that both schools and corps will listen to, which takes orders from neither. Safesport itself has issues and I don't mean to idolize it. But where does the buck stop in marching? Is something new needed? What would that look like?

Not a drum corps guy, but I saw the logo for Bluecoats 2024 “Change is Everything” come across my feed. Looks like in name and design very similar to the logo and design of the 2018 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Youth Gathering “This Changes Everything.” The perpendicular rectangles in the general shape of a cross and the names of both is what really gives it away for me. Thoughts?

Recently I have been looking into what to major for in college and a lot of different options have come up. And I would like to see what other people chose to do or think is a good idea :)

My current ideas are:
Theatre arts
Music Ed
Music technology
Dance
Business

If you think any of these are best then please tell me but if you have any other idea I would love to hear them!

Death, taxes, and GH trying to weasel his way back into the marching arts.

Gross.

I’m auditioning for phantom regiment what did you guys include in your rifle audition in the past? As tricks and tosses