MAYFLOWER ANNOUNCES 2001 SHOWS FOR THEIR THREE GUARDS
Mayflower have now announced their shows for the 2001 Winterguard season (see Guard Season). The 2001 season will see Mayflower competing for the first time with THREE Colourguard teams. the Junior Guard has been a huge success over the past four years, but with the standard so high in the Open class Guard it was proving difficult for some of the juniors feeding through to make that huge leap, it was therefore decided to introduce an "A" class Guard to act as a stepping stone to the Open class Guard. The new A class Guard has 7 first class members of the previous Junior Guard and this now will act as the feeder Guard for the Open class Guard, safeguarding the future of Mayflower into the new millennium.

"LION KING" FOR 2001 CORPS SEASON
A selection of music from "The Lion King" has been chosen as the show for the 2001 Corps season. The selection will come from the musical production of the show now showing in London. There will be phrases from some of the more recognised pieces, but also some very unusual percussion features. Check out the Corps season page for more info.

TOP US DESIGNERS TO WORK ONCE AGAIN WITH MAYFLOWER
We have retained the services of Michael Shapiro to work once again with our Senior Guard. Michael is one of the top names in the US working with several of the top Guards and DCI Corps. Michael will be over in November 2000 to work with the existing Mayflower staff to teach this years chosen show. Michael has been instrumental along with Robert Dacosta in designing the 2001 show, and will finalise the equipment during his three week stay.
We also have Jack Shallow who has been a staff member of Mayflower since 1996 completing our US staff. Jack has been an integral part of Mayflower for some years now, having spent some considerable time working in London in 1996 he became a full time staff member and will always be very close to Mayflower, Jack also teaches Blessed Sacrament from Boston.

MAYFLOWER PERFORMING ARTS
We have decided to drop the title Mayflower Drum and Bugle Corps as this does not really portray a true picture of everything that Mayflower undertakes. Our strength over the past few years has been in the Colourguard section, and even the word Colourguard does not really depict the true focus of what a Colourguard is. The Colourguard activity has moved on from just "tossing" a rifle or flag, it really has become an ART form with dance and movement being a major part of the activity. It is for this reason that both the music side and the guard side of Mayflower should now fly under a Performing Arts header, hopefully giving it more youth appeal.

RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN
We have undertaken a vigorous recruitment campaign in the area of Essex to combine with the re-launch of Mayflower under the Performing Arts title. All local schools have been very supportive in allowing a display stand to be erected in their reception areas for a day, many of the schools showing the new Mayflower promotional video. The display stand has also been shown in local supermarkets and the press have been covering the re-launch with supporting articles about Mayflower. It is hoped to increase the membership mainly in the Corps side of Mayflower. anyone wishing to become part of Mayflower please go to the How to Join page.

FUNDRAISING EVENTS
Mayflower have organised a trip to the "Dogs" for Saturday December 9th. there will be a coach leaving Wickford at 6 p.m. with pick up points on the way to Romford dog track, anyone interested please contact Ron Hope on 01268 521750.

CORPS FINALS REPORT
At the start of the season it was thought we would have to withdraw from the season, we had so many new members that had never played an instrument before it seemed unlikely that we could get them ready in time for the 2000 season, but with a lot of hard work by both members and staff alike we were able to put the Corps out for he second half of the season. This great bunch of kids done so well to achieve the standard they did, many of them only 7 years old, but with the help of a few really dedicated ex-senior Corps members we managed to get the show out. Playing a selection from John Williams they performed a great show for Finals, with so many people surprised at the standard, and such an improvement on last year. Mayflower finished a creditable third place with a score of 68.8 behind Black Knights and Forgemen. It is hoped that with an expected increase in members that we may be able to move up to a"A"class for the 2001 season, but of course a lot depends on the standard in January.