This fall, a history book covering the years leading up to the formation of Drum Corps International (1969-1972) to the present day will be produced by the publisher of Drum Corps World, in cooperation with Drum Corps International.

The co-authors of the book, Nic Waerzeggars and Dave Wilson, will be working to include personal comments from those who have first-hand experience as members of Drum Corps International corps. Wilson, a native of the Chicagoland area, served as the Web content manager of Drum Corps International from 2002-2006 in addition to stints at the Chicago Tribune. Waerzeggars is a freelance creative writer from Madison, Wis.

The authors are looking for individuals from each of the past 38 years and competitive levels (open class, class A, class A/60, all-girls division, and modern-day Divisions I, II & III) to make submissions of 1,000 words or less, describing one year in your life as a member of a drum corps that participated in a DCI World Championships. Feel free to focus on or cover any of the following topics:

  • What was it like marching in your drum corps?
  • Experiences riding on the bus
  • Sleeping on busses and gym floors
  • Food on tour
  • Meeting new people from across the country or world
  • Traveling to competitions
  • Rehearsals
  • Sightseeing while on tour
  • Performing in front of small and large audiences
  • Non-competitive performance opportunities (parades, mall openings, building dedications)
  • Listening to comments from judges to make your show better
  • Interacting with instructors, designers, management
  • Helping behind the scenes with your corps (publicity, logistics, fund-raising, loading buses, planning sightseeing stops)
  • Raising money for your personal dues or for general funding of your corps
  • What your corps jacket means to you
  • Collecting recordings, corps buttons, other memorabilia
  • Did you have supportive parents, siblings, band directors while on tour?
  • Which corps was/were your biggest rival(s)
  • Which corps was/were your friendliest competitor(s)
  • Who did you look up to while marching in a corps?
  • What have you learned from being in a drum corps that has been valuable in your life?
One individual will be selected to represent each year between 1969 and 2006, and material from each submission will be credited to each individual and incorporated into the book. Those who make submissions may receive a follow-up phone or e-mail interview with one of the authors. Choose one year of your drum corps experiences to write about and start to put your thoughts down on paper. E-mail submissions and questions to Steve Vickers at publisher@drumcorpsworld.com. Experiences for 1969 through 1980 should be submitted by Friday, Feb. 16. Experiences for 1981 through 2006 should be submitted by Thursday, March 15.