Welcome once again to the Kingsmen Alumni newsletter. There have been a number of exciting developments over the past few weeks.
To start things off Drum Corps International (DCI) made an announcement that the 2007 DCI finals event will be held in Pasadena, California at the Rose Bowl. The tentative dates are August 7 through August 11, 2007. This event has never been held further west than Denver, Colorado. Coincidently the 2007 finals is the 35th Anniversary of DCI and as all of you know the 35th Anniversary of the Kingsmen being crowned DCI Champions.
On October 10th, 2005 Drum Corps International (DCI) officially extended an invitation to Carol (Brokke) Jordan for the Kingsmen Alumni Corps to put on a once in a lifetime performance at the DCI 35th anniversary celebration that will be held in Pasadena, California at the Rose Bowl. As a result of this ground shaking development, this entire edition of the Kingsmen Alumni newsletter will be dedicated to providing you information on this historic and unprecedented event.
First the details. The Kingsmen Alumni Corps has been officially invited to perform at the DCI Semifinals show which will be held on Friday August 10, 2007. The Kingsmen Alumni Corps will be the last corps to perform that evening. Judging from past DCI Semifinal events, it will be somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00PM under the lights. The Kingsmen for a twelve minute period once again will “own” the field.
What is the Kingsmen Alumni Corps? The concept of the Kingsmen Alumni Corps began officially this past June at the annual alumni reunion. Several members began looking into the feasibility of putting together a one time opportunity for anyone who was ever a part of the Kingsmen to once again don the Blue uniform and take the field one last time. Within a week through word of mouth, membership had grown to more than fifty alumni. Expecting a plateau and for signups to reach a peak, no one had any idea that alumni wishing to signup would pass one hundred. And amazingly registrations continued to swell, with the goal established of fielding the largest drum corps to ever take the field. Current membership has now reached 186 members. The goal has now been set to field 300 drum corps alumni for this event. Two important points to note…there still is no formal committee to contact Kingsmen Alumni, and second, we are still adding around 10 members each week with no slowdown in site.
On September 10th 2005 a meeting of Kingsmen Alumni was held in Riverside, California to appoint committee members in order to develop a skeleton framework to move forward. Here are some of the items that were discussed at that gathering courtesy of the xKingsmen.com forum.
Joe Rybus, Chairman of The Kingsmen Alumni Corps Committee, requested 3 people from each section to represent the membership of The Kingsmen Alumni Corps. The following people volunteered to serve on our alumni corps committee:
Colorguard: Tori Wyatt Pendell, Brenda Markham Murray, Carol Brokke Jordan
Hornline: Felix Hernandez, Bob Powers, Gary Kean
Drumline: Dave Devlin, Jerry Garcia, Michael Ellerby
This committee of nine alumni will be expanded in July 2006 to include one non-alumni from each of the three sections, for a total of 12.
1. Our Mission Statement: To field the largest Kingsmen Corps ever, comprised of alumni and qualified performers who love and appreciate the spirit and style of classic drum and bugle corps.
2. Our 2007 Field Show will begin with "A Tribute to 72" which will include our 1972 repertoire of Folk Song Suite, 72 Drum Solo and Ritual Fire Dance. This is a minimum goal to get started. Even though we intend to field a 300 member corps, we intend to hold ourselves to the standards of the 1972 Tick System. More discussion on show ideas at our next meeting.
3. We will make our first purchase of authentic Kingsmen uniforms as soon as we receive checks from at least 50 people. Each uniform will cost approximately $350 depending on a volume discount that is yet to be determined. This includes plume, shako, cadet jacket with all trim, buckle, citation cord, cumberbund, pants or skirts. Boots and shoes will be purchased by each individual member. If you don't wish to keep your uniform after our performance in August 2007, you might consider donating it to the Kingsmen Starcorps. This will allow you to offset the cost as a charitable donation.
4. It is our intention to contact and extend an invitation to join us, as far as humanly possible, to every alumni. We need people to man the phones and to search for missing alumni. We encourage all alumni to register at xKingsmen.com even if they don't join the alumni corps. We would like to be able to contact all alumni and invite them to our reunions and performances. We also need people to serve as support staff for our 300+ member alumni corps.
5. We intend to have our first full corps camp in June 2006. The idea is to create a 4 day event that will include several rehearsals, an alumni party, and culminate with a public performance of either a standstill or field show of our 72 opener. This is NOT a mandatory event, but it is looking like it will be a great experience for all who attend.
6. We intend to finalize the selection of our instructional staff at our next meeting.
7. We intend to post a list of Kingsmen Alumni Corps FAQ's on xKingsmen.com.
8. We intend to finish our "Statement of Intentions" at our next meeting.
The Kingsmen Alumni website xKingsmen.com has been modified to provide a special forum area where information related to the alumni effort can be disseminated. So far the Kingsmen Brass Guide, and the brass charts to Folk Song Suite have been distributed to registered brass participants via the members only forum . In the future percussion parts, color guard and rifle parts as well as special announcements will be sent out through this avenue. The goal is to release one brass chart each month going forward.
The first informal brass rehearsal will be held on Sunday, October 30th at 1pm in Newport Beach, California. Contact Joe Rybus for info.
Joe Rybus has taken on the added responsibility of locating brass instruments to outfit the entire 150 person horn line. To date there are 96 brass members registered and 60 of them have instruments. Joe is scouring every corner of the planet looking for bugles and it appears as though everyone intent on marching will have one in the coming weeks. If you need a horn Joe can be contacted via email at joe@camcomgroup.com
Jerry Garcia has been actively searching for percussion instruments for an anticipated drum section of 60 members, and it appears as though the percussion section will be fully equipped in time for the first formal practice.
Carol (Brokke) Jordan, Brenda (Markham) Murray, and Tori Pendell have been evaluating rifles and are the focal point for the flag and rifle section moving forward.
Debbie (Pouliot) Clark is taking on the responsibility of finding English riding boots for a color guard and rifle section estimated to be near 100 members.
There has been a significant commitment from the past instructional staff, show designers, and arrangers that were a part of the Kingsmen organization over the years. Mike Duffy and Ken Norman have agreed to work with the alumni corps and provide their talents to this effort. They will be assisting Gary Kean and Greg Woll with the brass charts and providing instructional talent. Also signing on are Michael Ellerby, Jerry Garcia, and a true legend Donnie Porter Jr. to support the percussion section. Brenda (Markham) Murray, Linda Markham, Carol (Brokke) Jordan, Jim “Silverstein” Stevenson, Greg Thomas, and a myriad of others will be assisting with M&M. Visual Consultants so far are Charlie Groh and Dave Weinberg. Nearly all of those listed above will also be marching members. In addition to date there are five former Kingsmen Drum Majors signed on. They include Earl Douglas and Jim Good.
The first formal camp "CAMP KINGSMEN" will be held June 21st to June 24th 2006. This camp will not be mandatory but we would encourage all who plan on being a part of the DCI 2007 35th anniversary celebration to attend. This coming year the Riverside DCI show looks like it will be held on June 24th. It is also appearing very likely that the Kingsmen Alumni Corps will be extended an invitation to perform at that show. Most feel that it will be an excellent opportunity to perform in front of a crowd and gear up for the big event in 2007.
In addition, there will be a mandatory camp "CAMP DCI" that will be held from August 4th to August 10th 2007 for all who plan on marching. Plan your time off now in order to be able to make the commitment.
If you have not signed up for the Kingsmen Alumni Corps yet please do so. You can register by going to xKingsmen.com and clicking on “Alumni Corps Signup” on the left panel. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Don’t get left standing on the sideline……
All alumni and fans are more than welcome to attend the camp and cheer us on as we make this huge dream a reality. More information to follow in the coming weeks and months.
We believe that there may be some alumni or guests that are signed up, or intend to march, that may not have there names on the "Yes" list. Please check to see if your name is on the "Yes" list if you intend to be a member of The Kingsmen Alumni Corps. If your name is not on the list, please go ahead and re-register at xKingsmen.com.
You can view The Kingsmen Alumni Corps "YES" list here:
Regards,
Keith Wilbur
Webmaster, xKingsmen.com
Soprano 1971 and 1972
