Rudedog34

I guess everybody got up to take a cr,use the restroom during Henny's performance. No comments at all. Guess I should head on home to my doghouse.

Gotta love LeanderMomma!!

Careful MadisonBandMan1...steeling Danno's jokes could be TxBands copyright infringement

FloMarching and BOA will have to relinquish their tight fisted grip on media rules, and I don't see that happening anytime soon. Subriptions from the live stream is revenue for them and televised coverage would have an impact on that. Agreed though. If you review the hits that Youtube posts get, there could be a market out there. Just think of how band membership and the music arts in general would grow.

You are a testament to why Madison is moving in the right direction. Class acts, both you and your program. Congrats on a great year Maverick Band!

Rumor is Henny's unis will be upgraded soon.

Traveling with the band this year. I'll be there while the band is there. Going to miss too much this season.

What the heck! That was an awesome show

http://www.txbands.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6817-where-do-former-band-parents-go-to-die/page-2&do=findComment&comment=100990

As you point out above, there are many systems out there from multiple organisations. These systems are clearly outlined and defined. If every judge is given the same score sheet based on the defined rubric, then the scoring should be consistant. And yes. We, the community as a whole are not well versed in the scoring system or judging criteria as maybe just a few who are. The issue, from what I can see then, is the gross inconsistancies in scoring from judge to judge. If the system is so well defined, then the judging should be consistant. Let's say you have 3 music judges (J). J1 scores a 3, J2 scores a 4 and J3 scores a 10 for band A. Then we see the music scores for band B and they are J1=8, J2=9 & J3=3. This is the problem. As a community, we may assume that all judges are basing scores off the entire sheet. If this is so, then there may be a problem. If all judges are scoring the same criteria, there should be constancy. In the example above it is obvious that J3 is not following the system, doesn't like the book, is showing bias or maybe incapable of interpreting the system. In any case his/her score is an anomaly and should be thrown out. I touched base on this in another thread. Now, if the judges are assigned certain areas of the score sheet (not the entire criteria) and focused on a certain area of the music, then that's a different story. That would mean that the scoring is predicated upon a judges personal opinion or preference. If that's the case then there's no need for a system and the Judges are just fans like us and score based on emotion. This is not my personal opinion, but it is a theoretical possibility. The facts are: Yes the community as a whole are not educated in adjudication, (I come from a sports background and only noodle on the guitar & keyboard). The systems in place are not infallible. The adjudicators chosen for this level of competition are not always held accountable. In all fields of industries we are all held accountable. The organization's systems as well as the adjudicators who are contracted to enforce these systems should be accountable too. If the system in place is working, if the adjudicators of these events follow the systems to a T, then the community would not be in uproar. The numbers don't lie.

Nny14

I don't normally do this, and keep in mind that our band advanced in Area D and I do not particularly disagree with the results of either prelims or finals. But with the interest in UIL Judging Protocol popping up all over the threads, I'm going to give my 2 cents. I performed an evaluation of the results (scores - both ordinals and ranks) from prelims of all bands in Area D. Ordinals and Ranks all over the place. Yes, multiple worksheets in a spreadsheet yada, yada. My background is engineering and not music let alone marching arts, but there are correlations from both fields that can be used in comparison and analysis. It is obvious from reading almost all, OK - ALL of the posts in the TxBands forums, that most concerns of UIL scoring in our community is not so much that a certain band was not placed where they wanted to be, It is more that our community is trying to educate themselves with the scoring process. As we educate ourselves, we find that the scoring we thought we would see, is inconsistent, anomalous and pie in the sky at times. I thought nothing of it until I had the bright idea to review Area D's scores. Again keep in mind I have no issues with the placements in Area D, it's the process and the numbers that baffles me. If score was more consistent Judge to Judge, there would have been placement changes. All bands that advanced would still have advanced. So here is my soapbox moment: My analysis involved evaluating the ordinals and ranks of all judges and analyzing them for anomalous scoring by comparing the scores from each judge for each band (eg. 4, 11, 5 - Hennys prelims score for Music) Where did "11" come from? Soooo, that made me look deeper. I concluded that Henny wasn't the only band effected. What I found was that out of the 32 bands participating in Prelims, scores that fall into an anomalous catagory - J1 had 19% - J2 had 22% and J3 had 6%. 6%, while still high by my standards, I could live with that, but 20% on average from J1 & J2. I feel that this is not satisfactory at this level of adjudication. Not to question a judge's experience or education to be qualified to perform adjudication, but what holds judges accountable when placed on these panels? Keep in mind that these individuals are NOT Gods. This is part of their job description that they have decided to pursue and THEY should be held accountable for their profession. It is one thing to have an advanced music education or an extensive amount of experience in the marching arts and another to perform the tasks of an adjudicator in a fair and consistent manner. As is obvious from the scoring in Area D. I haven't looked at any of the other Areas and from what I read, I don't want to. The percentage of anomalous scores from 2 of the judges is not acceptable in my opinion. These inconsistencies should not exist at this level of professionalism. If it's not the system, then there should be a system of accountability in place that UIL judges should have to adhere to. Should an adjudicator's scoring deviate from the standards that are in place (what ever that is - UIL, educate us!), for any reason, they should be evaluated to determine if they are truly qualified to adjudicate at this level. When I say for any reason, how often are Music Adjudicators tested for hearing loss? How often are Marching Adjudicator's eyes tested? They may actually be scoring based on what they actually hear or see and their sight or hearing may not be what it once was (a lot of these judges are not youngsters). Have they been evaluated for favoritism? Are they consistently falling into the "anomalous catagory"? Maybe there are procedures already in place for this from UIL. How would we know as a community? The way I feel about it is that the general marching art community puts these individuals up on a pedestal and bow to their every whim, and we shouldn't. They should prove to the community that they are truly qualified to perform these tasks in all aspects of experience, aptitude, and physical abilities. We as a community should be educated more by UIL in the intricacies of the judging process, procedures and accountability and not rely on hearsay. UIL should hold these adjudicators accountable for their scoring (because that's their job). If an Adjudicator is inconsistent in scoring within a percentage of all judges on a panel, then they should be evaluated to determine if they are truly qualified to be on a UIL panel. If deemed not within the standards, they should be sent down to AA (sorry baseball analogy) and work their way back into form. If they are deemed to show favoritism, they should be dismissed immediately and never used again. If they are just bad at this, then they should be mentored and reevaluated before allowing to judge again at this level. If they are consistent, fair and always on their game, then reward them. UIL and the Adjudicators of these events should be continually reminded that what they put down on those score sheets are not being reviewed by just the directors and staffs of the bands. These documents are reviewed by the thousands of Boosters, Parents and Participants of this great State. Their consistency and professionalism have an effect on the continued success of the Marching Arts in Texas. If the community starts to have doubts in the Adjudicator's abilities, they may have doubts about participation. I know kids that not only quit band but gave up music because of issues with adjudication. This is something that just should not happen. Last note: If UIL has determined that all the Adjudicators they assign to panels are truly qualified for the job at hand, then they need to evaluate and correct their scoring system, because it's flawed. I am sure there are several members of TxBands forums that would be glad to offer suggestions to systems that actually work. I could think of a few. ...steps off and goes back into his doghouse...

Every band gets 5 minutes prior to start, set up, warm up, pre-show or what ever.

Made me laugh.

That's what the livonian family did last year with the Henny Weiss split.

Seating capacity at event stadiums. Number of steps to the top row. Elevator to press box or no. Entrance and exits to field. Dimensions of jumbo tron. Bush's, Golden Chick or Chick Fi La. Sweet tea or no. We could debate it all, but in the end ALL the bands performances trump anything we could root out to discuss.

Can't wait to see Reagan live.

Go Wolves! Good luck in St. Louis.

Hat guy...yep

One of many: Videographer/photographer for Hendrickson.

Go Rock. Go Band. Go Rock Band!