DCUK and DCN adopt DCE Certified Partner Status

Two of Europe’s leading National Drum Corps organisations are pleased to announce that they have agreed to embrace the recently announced Drum Corps Europe Certified Partnership scheme.

Drum Corps Netherlands (DCN) and Drum Corps United Kingdom (DCUK) have formally adopted the working framework of certified partnership status with Drum Corps Europe (DCE) and as such both organisations are looking forward to working closely together, and with DCE, with the goal of standardising many elements of the Drum Corps activity throughout Europe.

This exciting news heralds a further advancement of the road map for European Drum Corps agreed at the Brussels summit meeting of October 2006.

The certified partner accreditation and partnership scheme brings many benefits to the Drum Corps activity within each of the respective countries as well as fully embracing the many shared philosophies on the future of the Drum Corps activity and how it can further progress and prosper on a wider European stage.

The shared aims and goals are the pursuit of achieving European uniformity at all Drum Corps contests organised by DCE certified partners. By competing in a certified partner organised contest it will be possible to draw a direct comparison from the scores of the different DCE Certified competitions and contests. The use of the same judges manual will be a huge benefit along with the use of DCE accredited judges who are specially trained on the use of the DCE judging manual.

On behalf of Drum Corps Netherlands, the Drum Corps Netherlands Chairman Kees Bourquin remarked “We are working with the system from Drum Corps Europe for two years now and are proud to officially become a Certified Partner. I think this standardisation is an important step to bring the European drum corps activity to a higher level and we hope that a lot of other organisations will follow”. MPAUK Chairman, Alan Thompson speaking on behalf of Drum Corps United Kingdom added “Last year DCUK decided to transfer across to using the DCE Judges Manual but wanted to use the 2007 season to ensure the system fitted with the new direction for Drum Corps in the UK. Following these successful trials the decision to become a Certified Partner was an easy one and we are really pleased to be at the forefront of this new initiative”

2008 promises to be an extremely exciting year for the European Drum Corps scene. There are already to date ten scheduled competitions and contests both in the UK and the Netherlands which will all run with an identical judging system and will all be judged by fully accredited DCE Judges.