ilmarching

U of I scores appear to be posted at http://www.music.uiuc.edu/outreach/IMBF/imbf.html .... big surprise in AA?

Story from the Peoria Journal-Star on Morton's performance.

And unless I'm mistaken, none of this includes visits to the forums. Including that, I think we're getting very close to (or more than) a million hits since Feb. '08. Update: Just checked the forum stats. Since 2/1/2008, we have had 216,942 topic views on the public forums, for a grand total of at least 920,467 hits.

Yes. Plymouth-Canton has 3 schools, Plymouth, Canton and Salem, all which have nearly 2,000 students. I know someone from PCEP, and she told me that each school has their own football team, but the three schools share a marching band. I always thought that'd be strange, cheering against your own band members during a game.

Hey, wouldn't it be really fun if this topic could continue on without a couple of posters getting into a shouting argument? I like this thread so much, in fact, that I think I may just ask any potential troublemakers to PM me or another admin before they post in this thread again. That sounds really swell.

Every good project grows bigger than its creator can handle, and that

Printfection might be cheaper if we could figure out a way to do orders in bulk.

FYI, I'm having problems with our mail server at the moment, and so I can't pull off the last set of Division III votes. I WILL post the Bands of the Year lists tonight, whether it involves posting Divisions I, II, and IV earlier or not.

Remember, stay on track. This thread is about how bands did at FIELD SHOW competitions, not dog and pony shows. The good thing is, regardless of what you think of the judging, we can watch both Bloomington and Dunlap's performances at U of I, and then make up our own minds: Dunlap: Bloomington: (Both videos have higher-quality versions that I strongly recommend - click the link right below the volume control).

Of that list, I'm only aware of Prospect and Dunlap having competed in a parade this year... or for several years, actually. And if I were planning the parade, I'd invite at least one city of Chicago band.

As some of you might have noticed, I deleted a bunch of posts in this thread, and a couple of warnings were sent out. You are welcome to disagree with another poster's list, but you need to provide reasons for doing so ("Band X placed above Band Y at Contest Z") rather than stating your opinion and calling someone else a name. If you can't do that, don't post in this thread.

The problem we have with this is that it's extremely difficult to develop a list of which bands to include. All of the bands from ISU, the U of I Field Show, and BOA Grand Nationals have been included. Can you think of a way to, without arbitrarily deciding who is in and who is out, make up a ballot? This is why, however, the write-in rules are in place. Any band director that wants to see one of the above listed bands (or any other Illinois band) on the list is welcome to write them in after checking their enrollment on the IHSA website. We have had write-in votes before, including sufficient ones to place a band on the BOTY Honorable Mention list (Robinson in 2006). The decision was made in 2007 that all bands who qualified for BOA Grand National Semifinals would automatically be grouped in Division I the following year due to the high level of achievement these bands have reached. For 2007, the 2006 BOA Semifinalists were in Division I, and in 2008 the 2007 BOA Semifinalists were in Division I. I will add this to the written rules, but I think the other admins can confirm that this rule has been in place for over a year. We ignore the multiplier because we don't feel there's sufficient evidence that private schools go out of their way to recruit musicians outside of a regional area like they might in sports. We also ignore the gender multiplier on the theory that an all-male or all-female band has no advantages over a co-ed band.

The Bands of the Year Ballot has been posted at the main site. Band directors and other qualified voters should submit their votes by November 23, 2008 to be counted. Feel free to use this thread to discuss which bands you would pick.

If you want an e-mail address for contact, PM me.