You need to talk to the BD about this situation. The BD (I'm the BD is paying him) will discuss your concerns with him and let him know he needs to tighten up or change his ways of doing things. After all, to most high school drumlines, learning music and drill in one month for a competition is pretty ridiculous. He needs to get his priorities in order.
Mainly, talk to the BD and get him/her to talk to him about the situation.

Well learning drill a month before a competition isn't that ridiculous. There are some groups that don't even have all of the drill finished until a few days before the competition.


(let me know if i misunderstood what you meant there. . . cause i might have. . .im super tired and its been a long day. . ha)

beedubya, i understand your pain man!!! I work down the road from this school, they are an excellent percussion program, and beedubya is an excellent director. Do i agree to his excuses yes and no, but i understand his job position for the school district he works for. Win a state championship 3 times then get told your job is being cut then the district has the nutz to ask him to bring his drumline to a board meeting to shake hands and tell him job well done him.

On the side of Sara there are some guys in our area with a "respected name" in both wgi, and DCI and these guys frequently burn bridges with students and directors. The person in question is not one of those.

The person in question has been great he does hold a full time with extra hours job, is on the wgi steering commities etc etc also with 2 kids under the age of 5 and still offeres his expertise and guidance to about 3 or 4 area ensembles including Imperial Percussion. He has been a huge help to our organization with what free time he does have. I know IPT didnt field this season but without this person we would not be in the positive business situation we are in now.

Yes he is late, but he doesnt have to help nobody if they want to complain. He has a welth of knowledge in the indoor activity and I have yet to see him flat out refuse assistance to anyone who asks him.

Sara be happy you do have a staff, cause I am all by myself where I teach just down the road from your school and it is really hard on me and my students but we make it work.

My 2 cents. (with the caveat that as others have said, we don't and can't know the whole story)

It sounds like there are 2 primary problems:

Students who sound like they need to straighten up -- for trashing a bus I would've kicked them out and given them an F for the rest of the year! At a minimum, they need to have the necessary materials with them and make an effort to learn the music. It may be necessary to remove the troublemakers -- I don't care how talented a student (or anyone else) is, sometimes they really *aren't* worth the headaches they cause (heck, flunk 'em a couple of times and maybe they'll figure it out.)

An instructor who may have bitten off more than he can chew -- I'm sure it was with the best of intentions, but this may be one more job than he can realistically handle. A great instructor/arranger who just can't be relied upon to have the materials they are responsible for ready more or less on schedule most of the time is more of a headache than a mediocre instructor/arranger who can. It's *not* an overall poor reflection on the instructor (well, not if this is the first year this has happened), he just overestimated the amount of time he had to commit and perhaps should cut back next year.

Other stuff:

I don't know in what circumstances the "least disciplined line" comment were made under; in a heated tone it's a no-no, in a reasonable "hey, folks, this is the way it is" monologue it may just be something that needed to be said.

Unless the line is one of the insanely competitive programs (I think of them as "Drum Corp Lite") I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to learn music and drill to a competitive level in a week or two. It sounds like this program falls somewhere between "highly competitive" and "recreational" and I wouldn't expect them to be happy to drop everything to learn new music and drill just because the instructor was too overloaded to finish it on-time -- I'd be peeved, too. (I mean really, "I can't work at the Dairy Queen tonight, I have to practice my music." is not a formula for long employment.)

I totaly agree. If someone tells me that I dont get mad I set out to prove them wrong. I have only marched one year but I am one of the best percussionist we have. Only becasuse if someone makes a comment that I dont like. I make sure to fix that problem so I dont get it again.