Greetings all! Our January 2024 camp has come and gone, and we have a drum corps! Both percussion & brass sections are almost fully contracted with just a couple of spots to be finalized in the near future. More exciting news! At the January camp, the brass & percussion sections played some of the 2024 show music. All I can say is: WOW! Talk about energy, drive, excitement, and power – yes, all of the above! As always, this time of year is exciting as the new drum corps members start to get to know each other, as well as, the Mandarins organization. And what an organization we have. Our Mandarins Music Academy is growing, our Mandarins Entertainment is adding new gigs every week, the Immortal Winds ensemble is learning their new show, and Bingo continues to operate three times a week. Our operations and finance teams are working hard to keep the organization moving forward and the drum corps is stunning. The design team and caption heads continue to amaze me with their creativity and dedication to making our members the best they can be. Oh yeah, earlier this month I attended the Drum Corps International annual meetings in Indianapolis and met with other corps directors, the DCI Board of Directors, various judges, and DCI staff members. The meetings were interesting as always. I’m proud to announce that our very own Visual Co-Caption head, Mr. James Gow, was elected to the instructors/judges steering committee by his peers in the room. All four of our drum majors were in attendance, participating in the drum major symposium along with drum majors from many other corps. I was very proud of the way that they interacted with the rest of the drum corps community. I received many compliments regarding their positive attitude and pleasant demeanor. Ya gotta like that! The administrative side of the drum corps continues to work on the tour, new souvenir items (Check out our new Year of the Dragon sweatshirt!), transportation maintenance, and generating new member personnel records. So, as you can see, lots is happening as we gear up for the summer months. So, please feel free to check out an upcoming camp, think about volunteering, actively reach out to volunteer, or engage in some other way. Happy New Year and yes, it Is The Year of the Dragon!!! Pretty cool in my opinion. Ciao! Until the next time, JW Corps Director
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