We’re eXcited to introduce you to Ryan Alm! This profile gives you a closer look at our Education Coordinator.
Here is his bio https://www.crossmen.org/program-staff/ryan-alm
Welcome to the Crossmen family! You are in a new position with the Crossmen. What does your role as Education Coordinator involve?
I’m thrilled to be a member of the Crossmen organization. In your previous interview with Mike Hardick [https://www.crossmen.org/program-staff/michael-hardiek], he talked about the organization splitting one big role into two, his as Design Coordinator and mine as Education Coordinator. So, what does that involve? First is determining who is in front of the students and hiring that staff. The second part is planning how we use rehearsal time. What’s the schedule? What are we going to work on? In what order? What are the instructional goals that we’re looking to get done each day or weekend?
So, as Mike helps coordinate the work of the design team, you help coordinate the work of the instructional team?
Yes, and the third area is how we teach as a team. Having a common educational philosophy and approach was one of the very first things that the Board shared with me as an important goal. A large staff needs to create the same kind of environment and culture for our students as they rotate their time with the corps. We have a great team that I’m working with and listening to—that’s the coordinator part of the job.
Another area is how we evaluate talent and skill development of the students who come into the Crossmen. We wrapped up a successful audition season. My role was to bring a common approach to how we evaluated applicants, both in the live camps and in the recorded videos. We used common assessments to quickly identify talent and extend offers.
You’ve served as a judge for many years. How does that expertise inform your work with the Crossmen?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this as we prepare to take the show on the road and have judges evaluate how we’re doing. And that’s not just about a score, from my perspective. As someone who has been a visual and effect judge in the marching arts for 30-plus years, I know how valuable of a resource that feedback is. In my role as Education Coordinator, I’ll be working with the staff to make sure everyone’s listening to that commentary. We’ll have a very strategic approach to how we go into judges’ critiques. That information and data allow us to improve instruction and get the top performance and achievement from our students.
Drum corps are doing this under a new constraint in recent years of having a shortened season. How do you address that?
I marched seven years of drum corps through the mid-80s to early-90s, and we had a first tour and a second tour. I remember going to shows and not having a closer done or arriving at the show and realizing no one had taught us how to get on the field! But that doesn’t happen these days. With a shortened tour season, we don’t have that workshop time on the road to figure things out. What that means for me in my role is partnering with Mike as the design coordinator to transpose production goals into an instructional plan and to deliver that on time as we take the show onto the road.
What was your very first exposure to the drum corps activity? How did you get hooked?
I remember getting cassette tapes of the 1982 or 1983 PBS broadcast of DCI Championships from my band director, who was a big drum corps fan. My first live show was what sucked me in to becoming a member—that very night in the parking lot! The Glassmen had an open spot and asked if I was interested in joining. I showed up at rehearsal the next day. A couple of days later, I had my suitcase packed and was headed out on the road as a 13-year-old member. At that very first show, I became completely infatuated with the whole thing. It’s been a lifelong love ever since.
Do you have any treasured memories as a performer?
Oh, so many of them. And so many involve the faces of the friends that I made along the way. One of the most memorable performances was in the ’88 Glassmen, back when making top-25 was hard to do. We had a total of 19 horn players, and groups we beat had more horn-line members than we had in our entire corps. It’s memorable because I learned that if you work hard enough, it doesn’t matter if you’re small. There’s a lot you can do if you stay determined and focused and believe in what you’re doing. We almost doubled our size the next season, and by 1990 were a full drum corps, I believe. I’m just proud to have been a part of that small but mighty moment in that organization’s history.
Are there instructors or mentors who have made a real mark on you?
I’m working with one of them now as a peer. Mike Hardick was one of my visual instructors at the Glassman. Brian “Bosco” Brown (Crossmen Program Consultant 2019) was an influential instructor of mine as well in those Toledo years, when he was the drill writer there. I had some great years with those people.
I was with the Crossmen in the late 80s but don’t remember if we ever overlapped much with the Glassmen on tour. Do you have any particular memories of the Crossmen?
I do remember my first exposure to the Crossmen. It was probably at Allentown in 1987. We were on the Glassmen bus sitting in the parking lot when, all of a sudden, these buses rolled in with their tops open and big skull-and-crossbones flags flying out of the top. The buses were rocking back and forth. I’m like, who is that? Well, that’s the Crossmen—literally rocking and rolling into the stadium that night.
That was us. Allentown is still one of the most exciting shows of the year for the Crossmen.
And then hearing the horn lines and drum lines of those years. Unforgettable.
Are there skills you bring from your career into Education Coordinator?
Although my degree is in economics, and I’ve been working in the financial services industry for the past 30 years, about 20 of those years have been in adult learning. I spend a lot of time looking at how people learn, how they retain information, how they build skills over time, and the type of repetition that it takes. One of the reasons I became successful in my career was because of my experience in drum corps. I understand the importance of repetition and the frequency learners need to revisit something before forgetting. The study of that helps me now as I apply my skillset to this new role with the Crossmen. I’m looking at how we structure our schedule based on how much members can learn and the amount of repetition they need. I observe rehearsals and provide notes to the staff. I’m also measuring a lot of progress from a time perspective. I’m very interested in how long it takes us to achieve certain milestones in our process.
How can you harness the internal motivation of members to help them achieve excellence?
We’re encouraging students to better their performance and remove barriers to success. It is somewhat of an internal mental game. Even if everything didn’t go as planned today, the crowd tonight still deserves the very best performance of the season. For those wanting to do this as professional musicians, there’s a lesson there about what to do when the studio light goes on. For the rest of us, we all have our moments when the bell rings and we have to perform—no matter what has happened during the day.
You served for many years with the Pride of Cincinnati winterguard, one of the most legendary and accomplished groups in the marching arts. Are there any valuable lessons from that administrative role that you bring with you?
Being the president or chairman of the Pride of Cincinnati truly was an honor, and the length of time that I served in that volunteer capacity was almost half my life. It was exciting and terrifying to be asked to be a steward of an organization like that. That’s similar to the way I felt when asked to join the Crossmen. This is an iconic organization with a rich and deep history. Although the winterguard and drum corps activities are very different, one thing that I took away was good advice from a mentor at Pride who told me: All you’ve got to worry about is who you put in front of them in the gym. Put great people in front of them, and everything will work out. That made it much easier to say yes to the position with the Crossmen, because there are some great, great people already in place here.
Have you ever bumped into a drum corps person in a surprising place?
My wife had a pretty serious health incident a few years ago, and I was going to the hospital. I was teaching the Cavaliers at the time and had my Cavaliers ball cap on. When I got into the elevator, a woman looked at me and said: “Oh, the Cavaliers. Is that the drum corps?” (Most people ask if it’s a basketball team). She told me that her nephew marches in drum corps from Wisconsin. “The Madison Scouts?” I asked. Not only did I randomly meet someone in the elevator who knew about drum corps, but I had taught her nephew when I was with Madison in 2019. That was just the weirdest thing. While we both were going to the same very serious hospital unit, the coincidence offered a bright moment at a dark time.
I was judging a marching band show in Michigan last fall. I’d only been with the Crossmen a couple of weeks, and an alumnus came up to say hello because I was wearing a Crossmen ball cap [https://store.crossmen.org/collections/headwear] I bought from the online store. I’ve met Crossmen alumni all over the place. With a 52-year history, this is a special place with a lot of special memories for a lot of folks. I’m looking forward to meeting Crossmen alumni and fans out on the road this summer.
Please support the corps however you can. I can tell you from my experience with the Pride of Cincinnati that these things don’t just happen. The Crossmen community can contribute in a lot of different ways. Help when we’re in your town [https://www.crossmen.org/volunteer]. Join Club Unity [https://www.crossmen.org/club-unity]. Pick up a T-shirt or buy some coffee from the online store [https://store.crossmen.org/].
Do you prefer Crossmen Dark Horse or Crossmen Earth Song coffee? [https://store.crossmen.org/pages/coffee]?
My wife is the coffee fan. Dark Horse. You can’t go wrong with either, though. The Crossmen coffee is really good-tasting and nicely packaged.__________________