Sixteen corps members from the Blue Stars gathered at Drum Corps International's Indianapolis headquarters Friday, May 21, for a leadership workshop. The session, led by Blue Stars Corps Director Howard Weinstein, was in anticipation of corps members arriving Friday evening at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis for the start of their pre-season rehearsals.



According to Weinstein, this has become an annual affair for the corps, hosted as a way to get the corps' leadership mentally and emotionally ready for the start of the summer.



"We have all of our section leaders and the drum majors here today," said Weinstein. "This is an opportunity for us to look ahead and go over what we'll be doing programmatically during the move-in itself, so that the members can lead their sections more informed. We also use this time to reflect on last year as far as some of the things they'd like to go a little better, and ways we can implement those ideas."



Evaluating last year's successes and "needs improvement" items is an exercise that section leader Kevin Guth was looking forward to.



"Making sure we're all on the same page as a leadership team and just getting those last minute kinks worked out is really important," said Guth. "It allows us to focus in and discuss how we're going to attack the season and propel the drum corps forward from where we were last year."







The Blue Stars will rehearse at the Indiana State Fairgrounds until their "Grand Premiere" performance on Friday, June 11. They'll continue rehearsals in Merrillville, Ind. and Sparta, Wis., before their very first Drum Corps International Tour event on June 25 in Normal, Ill.



"We have a lot to look forward to," said drum major Mark Donahue. "We have a lot of great talent this year, and from where we've built to in the last couple of years, we're in a really good place with our membership and the infrastructure of the organization."