DCI and DCP Announce “Roundtable Project”

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dci.gifAvid fans of Drum Corps International’s performing ensembles will have greater access to the decision-makers of “Marching Music’s Major League?” through the creation of a new feature on Drum Corps Planet, designed to build off of the popular “DCI Direct” column launched earlier this year. The new “Roundtable Project” is designed to provide direct answers to questions of interest to the passionate and often vocal fans of the drum corps activity who frequent Drum Corps Planet by directly linking these fans with subject matter experts on a variety of topics; the agenda for which will be determined by members of the DCP online community. The featured DCP sub-forum will make its debut in November, and will provide the opportunity for an ongoing dialogue through what will likely be stimulating discussion on a variety of issues.


“Throughout the past year, Drum Corps International has massively renewed its efforts to create ‘listening post’ opportunities with drum corps fans through a variety of efforts, including research, focus groups and roundtable discussions held prior to events throughout the country,” said Bob Jacobs, Director of Marketing for Drum Corps International. “By partnering with the Drum Corps Planet team for the launch of this exciting new project, it is our hope to dive deeper into the issues of interest to those who support DCI corps and the Drum Corps International Tour. Although it may not be possible to be all things to all people, we are absolutely committed to providing factual information to our most ardent supporters… and to our harshest critics as well. In addition to learning from the drum corps community by removing barriers for effective communication, the goal of this project is to demystify the rationale behind some of the decision-making and to engage more people in the growth and ongoing success of the drum corps art form.”

“We’re very pleased to be partnering with DCI on this important project.  Its something we’ve been considering for quite some time.” said John Donovan, DCP owner and publisher.  “As the largest online discussion forum for drum corps fans around the world, Drum Corps Planet is a perfect place for this type of interactive dialog to take place.  The ability to connect our community directly with those empowered to affect change provides a great opportunity for the DCP community to get answers to the questions they’re most-interested in and better-understand the rationale behind some of the decisions DCI makes with respect to the direction of the activity. It also provides DCI with a direct conduit to what has historically been some of its most passionate fans, many of whom share a wealth of experience and knowledge and a unique perspective borne out of loyalty to the drum corps activity. Our job, as members of that community, will be to ensure that our questions and concerns are clearly expressed in order to maximize the opportunities for discussion.”

Here’s how it works:

  1. Members of the Drum Corps Planet community can submit their questions to “roundtable [at] drumcorpsplanet [dot] com “
  2. The DCP/DCI Roundtable Project team will sort the questions and determine “trending topics” which will be addressed by creating an individual thread for each question.
  3. Subject matter experts from Drum Corps International will provide an answer to the question and will provide appropriate follow up as appropriate throughout the ensuing discussion thread.
  4. The discussion will be moderated to help ensure that it remains on-topic with respect to the question being covered.
  5. Personal issues (“Why didn’t I receive my DVD …. “, etc.) should be addressed directly with DCI via their normal channels, as they fall outside the scope of this feature.

Questions may be submitted, starting immediately, to the “roundtable [at] drumcorpsplanet [dot] com” address … with the first answers and their corresponding discussion threads starting soon in the “DCI Roundtable” section of the Drum Corps Planet forums (https://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums).   We will continue to refine the process and hope to expand the ways in-which we facilitate communication between DCI management and the DCP community in the future.

We hope you will visit and participate.

Posted by on Thursday, November 4th, 2010. Filed under DCI Direct.