Drum and Bugle Corps

(dci.org)

Here are the voting results of all the rules considered at the DCI rules congress in Atlanta.

Three proposals were defeated in caucus sessions on Saturday and therefore did not proceed for evaluation by the DCI Board of Directors this morning.

The proposal to not include prop handlers in the overall membership limits for corps was defeated 18-1 Saturday. Both the proposals for ordinals deciding the placement at contests and for having overall effect judges instead of music effect and visual effect were defeated 19-0 in yesterday’s instructors’ caucus sessions.

The DCI Board of Directors voted on the following proposals Sunday morning.

The two score sheet proposals amending language on the front and backs of the adjudication sheets passed 20-0. From now on, the back of the sheets (clarifying the language of the rules) will be administered by the judges’ task force so it doesn’t need to come to a vote. The front of the sheets (actually affecting the scores) would still need to come to a rules congress vote to be changed.

The proposal for extended warm-ups, allowing in effect for pre-show non-judged programming to be inserted just prior to the judged program passed 20-0.

The amended percussion judge proposal passed 18-2, providing for one judge to be positioned in the stands through July 4. One judge will be used on the field and one judge in the stands (for major events) for the remainder of the season.

The proposal to allow for the visual judge to be in the stands passed 11-9. The original proposal was to have one judge off the field the entire season. An amendment offered in Atlanta that passed moves that judge back onto the field after July 4.

The proposal to increase Division I membership limits to 150 passed 16-4, for implementation in 2008.

The proposal that generated the most amount of discussion among fans was for the legalization of electronics, failed by ending in a 10-10 tie.

…legalization of electronics, failed by ending in a 10-10 tie.. 10-10? That means it’s only a matter of time before this unholy abomination gets passed. The fact it got past the Instructors’ caucus (passed 17-2) is also a bad sign.

(ohio.com)

CANTON - J. Babe Stearn spent the majority of his professional life as a law enforcement officer, first as a patrolman and a lieutenant in the Canton Police Department and later as the Stark County sheriff.

But the legacy of the man, who died early Thursday morning at 92, will be through children, not criminals.

“I knew Babe for more than 50 years and while I know Babe loved being a policeman, his greatest love was children,” said Ralph McCauley, a former director of the J. Babe Stearn Community Center. “I first met Babe as an 11-year-old kid in about 1952. He was a huge influence on my life as well as the lives of many thousands of other kids in Canton.”

A lifelong proponent of keeping kids active in sports and other activities, Stearn was honored in 1982 when the community recreation center in southwest Canton was named in his honor.

Stearn was born on a farm in Russia on March 20, 1914, and arrived in the United States in 1921. He grew up in southeast Canton and was attending McKinley High School when his brother was killed in a traffic accident during his junior year in 1930. He left school and went to work in the circulation department of the Canton Repository, replacing his brother.

First Jewish officer

Stearn became the first Jewish officer hired when he joined the Canton Police Department in 1937. He spent 10 years on the force before he began his official association with the Canton Police Boys Club. He was appointed director of the club in 1954.

Stearn always championed the club’s athletic programs, taking special interest in boxing and baseball.

He was instrumental in the growth of the Mitey Mite youth baseball program, which served nearly 800 boys each summer.

He also served as commissioner of boxing and wrestling in Canton for nearly a quarter of a century.

Stearn’s love for boxing was nurtured during World War II, when he served in the Coast Guard along with former world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey.

“Babe loved bringing in pro boxers and baseball players to see the kids at the Boys Club,” said McCauley, who retired as director of the community center in 1989.

Stearn also was a driving force in the founding of the Canton Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. Stearn and and McCauley, who was assistant director of the Canton Police Boys Club at the time, teamed with late Canton businessman Art Drukenbrod in 1972 to turn an idea they had for a music program at the old Canton Police Boys Club into reality.

The young musicians chose the name Bluecoats in tribute to the police department’s retired officers and because they were a program of the Canton Police Boys Club.

Nearly 35 years later, the Bluecoats have grown to 135 participants with an international reputation that includes a fourth-place ranking in the 2006 Drum Corps International World Championships in Madison, Wis.