The Annual Meeting of the Chippewa Valley Drum & Bugle Corps Association Inc. will be held on Thursday, November 6, 2008 from 7:00 p.m. ~ 8:30 p.m. CST. The meeting will be held at VFW Post 305, 1300 Starr Avenue, Eau Claire, WI 54701.

The agenda will include elections to the Board of Directors, and annual report on the fiscal and operational results of the Association and plans of the Association.

The meeting is open to the public.

The Chippewa Valley Brigade invites you to become a part of our winning team! We will be taking the field of competition for the first time in 2009, with the goal of winning a national championship within two years.

Our goal is ambitious, but we believe that our region has more than enough highly-talented young people to support a top Open Class drum & bugle corps.

Our educational staff of experienced drum corps professionals will help you unlock your potential and gain the self-discipline necessary to compete at a National level. Program Coordinator & brass caption head Dennis Tischhauser is dedicated to assembling a top-quality staff that will help enrich the local music community and maintain the high musical standards that we have come to expect from our school music programs.

Auditions will be held in the Fall of 2008 for the 2009 competition season, with openings for 110 members. Any person between the ages of 14 & 21 is welcome to try out. Audition locations will be in both the Eau Claire & Minneapolis areas. Specific audition sites & dates will be announced soon.

To join our mailing list for auditions, please fill out our online Audition Registration.

Drums On the Chippewa
Carson Park Stadium
Eau Claire, WI
27 July, 2008

5th Place - 71.15 - Racine Scouts, from Racine, WI
4th Place - 75.45 - Colt Cadets, from Dubuque, IA
3rd Place - 78.20 - Yamato, from Riverside, CA & Kyoto, Japan
2nd Place - 84.55 - Spokane Thunder, from Spokane, WA
1st Place - 84.60 - Oregon Crusaders, from Portland, OR

Congratulations to all the corps for a fine performance!

(Click for Map)

Tickets are now on sale for the 2008 Drums On the Chippewa competition. The event will be held Sunday, July 27th, 7 p.m., at Carson Park in Eau Claire, WI.

Making their second appearances at Drums On the Chippewa: 2007 Division III finalist Oregon Crusaders, from Portland, OR - and the always entertaining Colt Cadets, from Dubuque, IA.

Rounding out the lineup are Racine Scouts, from Racine, WI (in their fourth consecutive appearance at DOC), Spokane Thunder, from Spokane, WA, and Yamato, from Kyoto, Japan & Riverside, CA.

Yamato is unique, in that it is Drum Corps International’s only bi-cultural (Asian/American) organization. They have been a DCI Division III finalist 7 times in their 10-year history, taking second place in both 2003 & 2004.

Tickets are $10, on the day of the show - but you can save 20% by purchasing e-tickets from our Online Store (sorry, online sales are now closed.) (If you happen to live in the Eau Claire/Chippewa Falls area, you can get your discount tickets at Gordy’s County Market, or Mega Foods.)

Drums On the Chippewa is sponsored by Heyde Companies, with additional funding by the Chippewa Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Contact person:
Linda Knutson
Executive Director
345 Frenette Drive
Chippewa Falls, WI 54729
Phone: 715-726-9094
April 4, 2008

CHIPPEWA VALLEY BRIGADE BEGINS FUND RAISING
TO FIELD DRUM AND BUGLE CORPS

The Chippewa Valley Brigade Drum and Bugle Corps Association has started to raise funds to field an Open Class Corps for competition in 2009.

Linda Knutson, Executive Director for the Association, stated that the Brigade plans to field a 100+ member Corps to take the field of competition in the summer of 2009 with the goal to qualify for the National Championships which will take place in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Brigade is a new name but Drum Corps are not new to the Chippewa Valley. Drum Corps existed in Eau Claire for over 25 years but ended when the Sundowners went inactive in 1984.

Walter Brown, the original founder of the Boy Scout Band which became the Eau Claire Scouts and subsequently the Eau Claire Boys Drum & Bugle Corps, is being recognized at a special event held at the VFW Post 305, on Starr Ave in Eau Claire, on May 17, 2008. Walter was truly the Father of Drum Corps in the Chippewa Valley. Alumni are encouraged to attend.

Anyone wanting information on the Chippewa Valley Brigade can contact Linda at 715-726-9094 or stop at her office at 345 Frenette Drive in Chippewa Falls. Audition camps are being set up for this fall.

It was an extremely productive weekend, as both Jim and Mike brought back lots of notes and new ideas that will help to insure the success of both the Chippewa Valley Brigade and Drums On the Chippewa.

The Saturday Medical Summit was kicked off at 7 a.m., with a brisk walk around the conference center grounds, led by DCI Executive Director Dan Acheson. Careful observers of the slideshow posted on the DCI website (see link below) will note the stylish CV Brigade cap and t-shirt being worn by Mike in photo number 4.

Visit DCI.org to see a slideshow of pictures from the entire event.

We’re planning a corps of 100 high school and college age members, with an annual budget of $320,000 that will be met by a combination of fundraising, grants and member fees. Jim Young will continue as Corps Director for the Brigade, with Allyn Kjarsgaard as assistant director.

The development of a Founders’ Club will be an area of top priority for the Association. The Founders’ Club will fund the administrative function of the Corps activity. Founders’ Club membership will start at $3,000 with payments over three years.

Linda lives in Eau Claire and brings years of business ownership and management to the Association. In 2006, she was named as Restauranteur of the Year for the work she has done for the West Wisconsin Chapter of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, as well as her involvement in community and national events. She has and continues to own the Quiznos Classic Sub Restaurant on Golf Road in Eau Claire for the past six years. Linda will work with the over 1,000 Alumni of the former Eau Claire Corps to establish a base of ambassadors to assist in the Corps development.

Linda can be reached at 715-726-9094 or at 345 Frenette Drive, in Chippewa Falls. Linda’s e-mail is execdirector@cvbrigade.org.

Check out the article at the Chippewa Herald website!