"Removal of field performance judging from the field has had no negative impact on the member or fan experience." This is simply not true. Immediately upon hearing about the restrictions in place for percussion judges leading into the 2019 DCI season, the overwhelming majority of the percussion community was vocal in strong disagreement. 

Given the relative rarity of judge/performer collisions, it seems odd to focus solely on the safety aspect of their movement on the field. This is especially the case when considering other safety precautions with more serious potential for harm, which are frankly often ignored and are significantly more problematic. This includes wet bulb readings/temp. limitations, sleep hours for members and bus drivers, poor nutrition, excessive rehearsal hours, no showers or sleeping areas being separated by age, no ear protection enforcement, injuries from prop/stage assembly/transportation, etc. 

Bands of America judges are allowed to cover the entire field during a performance. My understanding is that they are simply encouraged to stay out of the way as much as possible. Why should safety expectations or judge limitations be more strict for older performers/less strict for younger performers?

Since 2019, the battery has remained the only section that cannot be evaluated at any point while active in the show. The hornline and front ensemble can currently be evaluated at any point while playing, and the guard can be evaluated at any point while tossing/dancing. However, all battery performers already have the prerequisite of adequate staging before there is any potential for evaluation. 

Proposal #4 being passed and enforced would likely lead to one of two outcomes. First, percussion judges would be limited to standing behind the sidelines during performances, which only further exaggerates the current lack of battery exposure to judges. The only way around this would be to have all percussion features be very close to the sideline, at the side of the front ensemble. 

The second potential outcome would be giving the percussion judge a specific section in the stands during all performances. This would likely be very similar to the current WGI judging placement (relatively low, inside the "cone" created by speaker placement). This, in my opinion, is better than a judge being limited to being ground-level. However, this is still putting percussion judges in a position that is nowhere near adequate to get a sufficient read/quality impression of the quality of clarity being achieved by DCI drumlines. DCI features some of the most talented and dedicated rudimental drummers in the world, and they deserve to be judged and evaluated with the same care and attention as their peers. Anything less delivers an immediate message of unimportance and eliminates motivation for battery performers to strive for the highest potential of musical excellence. This strongly devalues the work and musical contribution of all battery members and battery educational/arranging staff. Perfection, by the structure of the judging system, will be rendered worthless. A battery technician would never be realistically expected to "clean" from the stands; how can we expect a judge to evaluate from the stands? Depending on the performance venue, it is hardly a stretch to compare a percussion judge in the stands to a brass judge on the visitor sideline. 
 

Having to advocate for the value of percussion education and performance, in opposition to proposals such as this, is nothing less than defeating and demoralizing. Furthering limitations of percussion judge placement is the single most efficient way of telling battery performers that their efforts don't matter. 

DCI is an activity that ought to listen to the performing members, the overwhelming majority of which are already unsatisfied with the percussion judges limitations.