For all of you that have been bitching about Madison's colorguard uniforms you will be happy to hear that they are getting a complete makeover before the next show........something along the lines of a bumblebee.......i don't know if is an improvement....we need to wait and see....

From a former SCOUT guard member (thank God!)

As a former member of Madison, I really think it is time for some new blood in the staff. The visual program has really been less than exciting the past few years. I really would like to see some changes made. Madison is very well liked as far as the crowd is concerned, but I would like to see some new blood in there to give em a boost. Im not trying to take away what the staff has done to this point, I just think its time for a change. 8)

I agree Splat! Madison needs some people who aren't from the organization who have fresh ideas to get the corps back on their feet. Another thing that would help, is the staff to start going to critiques. Imagine if everyone felt like they didn't need to hear what the judges thought? Then what point would the critiques or even judging a competition be? Madison may feel like going to critiques is a waste of time, right now I would say they need some imput....FAST! I would hate to watch finals without them in it!

I have watched a great number of thoughts on this topic appear on the Cavalier forum and I would have to say that I agree about Madison attending critique. Judges are only human, and they are bound to get irritated that their opinion is not good enough for the Scouts. I have gone to quite a few critiques in my time, and it at least gives you the opportunity to explain your point of view. You may not like hearing that what you are doing is not what they want to see, but at the very least you can sometimes get a good laugh out of it later!

So the uniforms are making them get LOW scores?????

From what I read in board meeting minutes, they were attending critiques last season. Do we know for certain that they are not attending critiques this season? Anybody with connections to their staff who can answer this?

Guard problem was 20 years in the making.

1970's great guard, great rifle line... State Street was Madison's rifles and won high rifles in WGI year after year (they used to have Rifle titles.)

1980's year after year, one of the top guards. When I marched we won guard show after show. I don't think the Guard was ever watched by other staff members. After runs of the show, the non guard staff would never comment on the guard good or bad, the horn visual was all that mattered. We always joked about it. Guard staff asked for more visual input time and time but were stifled. This staff became frustrated and went to SCV and others groups.

1990's a new staff of young Scouts came on board and moved the guard forward. by 1995-1996 the guard/visual staff pushed hard to costume the guard for shows (pirate and spanish shows) and made some progress moving the guard center stage. I heard the powers to be wanted to keep the guard in a corp uniform w/ same jackets as horns, also wanted a smaller guard to add numbers to the drum line.

This (great) young staff also became frustrated with the lack of support to implement their visual ideas and also left.

2000:

(from the 1995 Scout visual staff)

2002 Blue Devils, have 4 Scouts on visual staff

2002 Cascades have 3 Scouts on visual staff

Lets see what happens at the Scout board meetings this winter.....

The current staff are attending critiques. The guard caption head (who is a good instructor) had not been with Scouts untill after Texas fyi...