If in place for their scheduled call-times - warm-up, performance, whatever - and not a disturbance to any other group or the ongoing competition, how a group chooses to use the time prior to competing should be entirely up to them.  Watch the competition, dont watch it; think through the show, think of anything but; meditate quietly or fill-in-the-blank here - they should do whatever will have them most ready to perform at their absolute best.  Only then can they be fairly and accurately judged.

That is all anyone needed to say to set the record straight...no 2 page complaint about how unbelievable the reactions of groups (directors) were.

Also I don't think going overboard on the defensive really sets a good perspective to the bystander. A respectable person takes the rumors and laughs at them. Let them believe what they want, you know the truth.

MAN, that totally sucked!!! I think if we all got EXTRA rehearsal time we all could have done better! Alot of us were really shocked and dissapointed that it happened. Missing one choir, i would feel bad, but missing 4 or 5...lol, crazy! Oh well, I guess what's done is done? " border="0" alt="blink.gif" />

KyLiE

But in fact, isn't that what you are doing right now - stirring up rumors about alleged other directors who you claim to revel in other groups' demise?
Perhaps a director may have noted the problem to Mr. Willert - but as you said - the rules clearly state that there is no penalty. So the director must have had the GOOD intention of bringing the problem to light so that there may not be another time. It is unfortunate that traffic problems hindered your preparation time and even more unfortunate that your choir had to have been made an example of.

Perhaps you should not be so haste to make an allegation next time.

Thanks for your comments, Mr. Carroll.  It's true that people can sometimes take rumors, not knowing how much is true, and see something unfair in them.  Honestly, the few people I heard talking were emphasizing more the point that they wanted In Sync in the house to support the other groups rather than any complaints about some unfair advantage.  Even on this point, we should remember that In Sync has always BEEN in the house for other competitions.

HOWEVER, I believe this mini-issue shines the proverbial follow spot on a much bigger problem, and that is the inequality, unpredictability, human fallibility and appalling lack of perfection that seem to plague this creature we call competitive show choir.  To address these disgraces, I suggest the following policy changes:

1.  Henceforward, all choirs are required to have students excused from the WHOLE day of school on competition days.  This will ensure that students from distant schools don't have an unfair advantage from missing more classes and thus having less geometry and literature cluttering their brains prior to a competition.

2.  All busses will be required to arrive 3 hours before the competition begins.  Breakdowns will be disqualified.  Every school in the near vicinity of a competition will be required to drive around town in their bus until they've driven as far as the most distant school.

3.  There will be one sound check, for everyone, all at the same time, so nobody gets the advantage of going earlier or later.  This might seem noisy, but it's noisy for everyone, and after all, it IS a SOUND check.

4.  The excuse, "but they're teenagers!  They might look brilliant on stage, but they're occasionally going to lose their pants (*cough JD*), or forget to put their earrings in their bag, or have an emotional cell-phone conversation with their friend (at least they THOUGHT it was their friend) who's now dating their ex-, or maybe fall asleep somewhere because they get an average of 5 hours of sleep per night" will no longer be allowed.  Backtalkers will be disqualified and their parents flogged.

5.  All performers must eat the same food before competition...let's say, McDonald's.  Oh, wait.....they already do that.

6.  The judges will be 1) the first person we find on campus at the nearest college or university; 2) the first homeless person we find under the nearest freeway overpass; 3) the first person we find working in the weight room at the nearest gym; and 4) Mr. Willert's son.  Okay, that last one makes no sense, but it sounded funny to me.

Some other ideas I've been working on:

- Maybe we could institute some sort of a sports-style draft system.

- Maybe we should all do the same set, say Brea's set.

- If there are twelve choirs in a competition, there should be twelve divisions, with twelve 1st place trophies...and they shouldn't be letter-named, but color-named, or maybe animal-named ("We won FIRST in tortoise division, Dad!")

- John had a good idea:  Since the two of us couldn't figure out a way to have nobody go first or last, he thought of a handicapping system, a la Vonnegut.  The first group would perform normally, then every succeeding group would have to carry weights and wear ear coverings; more weights and thicker ear coverings the later you perform.

Oh, yeah:  7.  No opinions are allowed, since this encourages value judgment.  For example, I'm not allowed to say that IMHO BV should have won their division last night, even if I stress that I'm not saying anything AGAINST, Brea, Chula or Los Al, whom I love.  The fact that I said it gets me banned from show choir for life and exiled from California. 

That should help, what?

Other ideas are welcome.... as I said, it's going to take a lot to remedy all the disparity so we can start having fun....

Thanks for your consideration.

Dan