By CORY MATTESON
Star-Tribune staff writerIn 1972, after over a decade of being known as “America’s Corps,” the Casper-based Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps, became a founding member of Drum Corps International. Today, the DCI governs the world of competitive drum corps, where 14- to 21-year-olds spend their summers sweating through hundreds of practice hours, traveling thousands of miles and playing in some of America’s grandest stadiums.
Over the weekend, though, the DCI gave the Troopers their marching papers. Now the Casper group’s competitive marching is at risk for 2006, while it hurries to get back in good graces with the governing body it helped create.
The DCI held its annual fall meeting in Chicago, which the Troopers executive director Mat Krum could not attend due to a stomach virus. On Sunday, he received a call from Dan Acheson, executive director of DCI. Acheson told Krum that the Troopers’ membership had been revoked.
Monday morning, Krum visited the home of Ted Gilbert, president of the Troopers board of directors, and resigned.
“At this time I felt that I was unable to provide the service the organization needed,” Krum said.
Acheson did not return calls on Tuesday, but the final sentence of DCI’s report on its fall meetings read, “Pursuant to the DCI By-laws the board of directors voted unanimously to terminate the membership of the Troopers from Casper, Wyo., due to internal and external compliance issues, spanning several years.”
“I was not expecting that to be an outcome of the weekend,” said Krum. The Troopers had known before the summer season started in June that the DCI was considering such an action, though Gilbert said it happened faster than he thought it would, especially considering that Krum and three bus drivers had just returned from Houston, where two of the Troopers buses were being used to transport victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Gilbert did not expand much on the DCI’s reasoning for the termination, other to say that the ban “has to do with our organizational background, our staff, our finances.”
“I don’t think (this kind of DCI sanction) happens very often,” he added. “It definitely is something to get somebody that’s slacking, and unfortunately the truth is (we were), and it gets our attention real fast.”
The Troopers are seeking an interim executive director to help comply with the DCI, and, eventually, a full-time replacement for Krum.
Krum, who has been involved with the Troopers since playing in the corps in 1988, said he still plans to help the group.
Gilbert said he hopes the Troopers will be back under the DCI’s umbrella by November, though they may have to march at the Division II level, which would place them in fewer competitions. If they don’t earn reinstatement by next summer, the Troopers will march independently.
But they will march.
“We’re still a drum corps,” Gilbert said. “We just don’t have the auspices of Drum Corps International, and they’re the umbrella organization that arranges for tour schedules, for the various drum corps and their members. As of right now, Troopers are not going to be included on the tour schedule. We are working hard to get all that information that we need to (get) to DCI so that we can be reinstated.”
Not being a sanctioned drum corps could affect recruiting, Gilbert said. The Troopers seek musicians from all over the country, and those who participate spend basically the entire summer together. It might prove to be a difficult draw to woo top talent to a corps not involved with the DCI’s contests, but Troopers drum major Mark Crimm said he has received calls from many current members saying they’ll be back in 2006, no matter what.
“It’s gonna work out,” Gilbert said. “It’s too good of an organization. It’s too good for the kids.”