Marching Percussion Committee

Interim Chair: Neal Flum . E-mail: nflum@bama.ua.edu
The Marching Percussion Committee hosts the PAS Marching Percussion Festival and Individuals Competition at each PASIC. Additionally, the committee strives to serve the international community of teachers, arrangers, performers, and aficionados by developing and offering a variety of educational materials. Many of the adjudicators for the various festivals are PAS Marching Percussion Committee members who volunteer their time and expertise to provide students with a quality evaluation and positive performance experience.

Committee Report and PASIC 2007 Meeting Minutes
Submitted January 15, 2008
by Marching Percussion Committee Interim Chair Neal Flum
The marching percussion committee’s focus in 2007 was on the further development and near completion of its Rudiments DVD Project. This effort began in 2002. Its main goals are to explore the transfer value of rudiments as they relate to performers in various musical contexts and genres, engage some of the important historical elements and developments of rudiments, explore different styles and artistic approaches, and reinforce the idea that “relaxation” is the key to “good” musical performance. Directed by Dennis DeLucia and Julie Davila, the project includes eliciting from the performers their understanding of and approach to the rudiments as well as their perspectives on the transfer value of the rudiments. Performers include Albert Bachmann, Jim Campbell, Dominick and Theresa Cuccia, Julie Davila, Dennis DeLucia, Pat Petrillo, and Jeff Prosperie. The committee plans to possibly extend this project to the PAS Website with serialized web content/lessons to engage PAS members in the history, performance, and transfer value of rudiments.

The committee also discussed possible rule changes for the PASIC 2009 Marching Percussion Festival and beyond in order to maintain full participation in the event. Additionally, the committee recognized Julie Davila for her outstanding service as committee chair for the past nine years.

PASIC 2007 Meeting Minutes

Committee Members Present: Dominick Cuccia, Ken Green, Dennis Delucia, Jeff Prosperie,  Bill Rice, Jeff Moore, Julie Davila, Paul Buyer, Chet Doboe, Allan Murray, Bret Kuhn, Thom Hannum, and Neal Flum. Guests: Andrew Porter, Mike Sammons, David Noell, Rick Jones, Mark Reilly, Robert Simpson, Neil Larrivee, and Lalo Davila.

Committee Meeting Agenda:

1. Welcome: Neal Flum
2. If your name has been misspelled or your contact info is incorrect, please let me know. Please also let me know if there is anyone who is supposed to be on the committee and his-her name is missing from the list at the beginning of this document.
3. Congratulations and “Thank You!” to Julie Davila for her dedication to, and wonderful stewardship of, the Marching Percussion Committee for the past nine years. Job well done, Julie!

A  No Marching Percussion Committee meeting for Saturday, November 3.
B.  If you wish to have a second meeting at PASIC 2008, I’d be glad to act upon that request.
C.  As a follow-up to our meeting today, November 1, we can correspond and conduct business via e-mail or set up a conference call(s).
D.  Perhaps we might think about setting aside some dates for a conference call to follow up on this meeting.

1. Past Business:
1. Update from Julie Davila on the Rudiments DVD.
2. Congratulations and “Thank you!”  to Julie, Dennis Delucia,
   Dominick Cuccia, Jeff Prosperie, and Jeff Hartsough for all of their dedication to, and work on, the Rudiments Project that this marching percussion committee conceived and has supported to what will be its most involved aspect: recording the performance of the rudiments here at PASIC.            
3. Is there a completion/release date?
4. Will there be tie-ins to the DVD on the PAS website? Rudiment of the week? Additional info, historical or otherwise?
5. Anyone else need to be thanked for the Rudiments Project?
6. Thank you to Jon Merritt and the students and parents from Hilliard Darby High School for their help with our individuals and marching percussion festival.
7. Thank you to Sean Womack, Bradley Palmer, Jeff Fondren, and Matthew Waldron for volunteering to handle the tabulation of the scores and results for individuals and the marching festival competition. We’ll need to seek out tabulation/results volunteers for next PASIC as the individuals listed above will not be volunteering at that convention.
8. Other items?
2. Current Business:
1. This meeting will be recorded using my laptop and then
   converted to an mp3. If you’d like that mp3 sent to you, please let me know. I can send it via e-mail or disc.
2. Should we be concerned with the lower level of participation that we have with our marching festival this year in Columbus and also two years ago? Particularly so because PASIC will move to Indianapolis for the next 10 years and it appears that involvement in the Midwest is less than it is in Texas?
3. Does greater involvement in WGI mean less involvement for PASIC? Only in certain areas of the country?
4. If “yes” to letter “A,” What might we do proactively to increase participation in the marching festival when it moves to Indianapolis?
5. Should we expand the marching festival to two days in Texas?  Friday would be for college ensembles and Saturday for high school ensembles. High School football games are on Friday and College on Saturday.
6. How do we encourage more adjudication participation for the individuals competition and the festival? A stipend perhaps?  registration taken care of? other ideas?
7. Brainstorming about PASIC 2008.
8. Reminder: marching percussion committee members are asked to contribute one article per year to Percussive Notes.
9. Other items?

Meeting Minutes:
Meeting began with Neal Flum, interim chair, introducing himself and asking all those present at the meeting to introduce themselves as well. After introductions were made, the committee recognized and congratulated Julie Davila for her nine years of outstanding service to the committee and PAS.
Neal Flum read a list of clinics being presented on marching percussion at PASIC, announced the Rob Ferguson clinic change, and the Bethune-Cookman cancellation. He also announced that the committee would have only one meeting and asked if the committee preferred a second meeting in 2008. The consensus was to address a second meeting on an as-needed basis. Julie Davila and Dennis Delucia followed with a report on the videotaping process of the “Rudiments” DVD Project. Julie Davila shared with the committee that there will be efforts to create tie-ins between the DVD project and the PAS website. Both Dennis Delucia and Julie Davila spoke to the excellent quality of the project, the talented individuals involved, and that the next stage of the project would be its editing and final production.   
          
A discussion was held regarding the significantly smaller turnout for the marching percussion festival at PASIC 2007. Several committee members offered comments. Bret Kuhn commented on re-evaluating the goals of the eventDennis Delucia commented on the explosion of WGI events and their effect on the PAS marching festival. Gary Cook corrected Neal Flum’s error regarding the upcoming PASIC schedule. 2008 will be in Texas followed by three years in Indianapolis and then a rotating schedule involving Indianapolis and other sites. Allan Murray introduced the question of “value” as it related to the marching festival and further discussion ensued. Gary Cook stated that perhaps the lower attendance at 2007 was an anomaly. Ken Green suggested that we question groups from the Midwest to get a sense of their perception of the event and their willingness to participate in it. Neal Flum brought the discussion to a close stating that the committee needed to be proactive in engaging the marching festival in 2009, as well as the need for engaging in continuing dialogue via emails and phone calls.

Following the discussion about lower turn-out for the 2007 marching percussion festival and discussing proactive ideas for 2008 and beyond, the committee addressed the possibility of expanding the festival to two days in Texas in anticipation of a larger turnout than can be accommodated by the schedule as it currently is. While the committee thought that expansion was a good idea for any number of reasons, the management, cost, and logistical factors precluded not doing so for PASIC 2008.

Neal Flum then called on Jeff Moore, Associate Editor for Marching Percussion to report to the committee. Jeff stated that marching percussion articles are needed and in fact he had no article for the December issue of Percussive Notes. He also shared with the committee that members are responsible for submitting at least one article per year so he would have a reserve to choose from. Jeff Moore further commented that individuals whose presentations/clinics are not selected for PASIC should write articles getting the topic out to the readership via Percussive Notes. Also, it was suggested that those individuals submitting a clinic application might consider writing an article prior to the actual clinic taking place. Bret Kuhn spoke to providing information for younger students through articles and providing clinic presenters the opportunity to flesh out clinic outlines via articles in Percussive Notes. Ken Green suggested looking into an installment approach to articles. Jeff Moore then suggested that committee members come up with topic ideas and seek out “up and coming” educators to write articles on those topics. Lalo Davila suggested that someone write an article on the “Virtual Masters Clinic” taking place at PASIC 2007. Neal Flum closed the discussion thanking Jeff Moore for his report and outstanding work as associate editor.

The committee then discussed the idea of developing a project to chronicle and examine the history of marching percussion arranging. Thom Hannum recommended adopting the same approach as was taken with the Rudiments DVD project as a context for the committee and to use the project to see how the art form has evolved. Dennis Delucia asked about “how” the committee would go about doing such a project, what mediums would be used. Thom Hannum commented on the need to seek out the perspectives of individuals now older who helped shape the art form. The committee discussed PAS being more attentive to archiving and securing historical material. Dennis Delucia held up the Drummer’s Heritage Concert and Rudiments DVD project as worthy examples of doing so. Gary Cook stated that archiving projects are taking place. Julie Davila referred to an online video interview with Scott Johnson suggesting that interviews taking place in more relaxed environments might produce excellent results. The committee discussed the idea of contacting Erin Barbour for the project as she undertook an oral history project regarding multi-tenors and their history in the marching percussion idiom. The committee agreed that the marching percussion arranging project merited further discussion.