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How do we save Drum Corps


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No. It is the responsibility of the management team and board of the individual organizations that produce these corps. Their purpose supersedes the fact of even the existence of DCI.

How many corps did Cook bail out? Of those, how many are still around today? As much as you can love the activity, sometimes bailing out simply enables poor management.

Corps should not be given help in becoming self-sustaining... they should be self-sustaining from day 1.

The only thing wrong with failure is if you don't get back up. Yes, sometimes there is bad luck or bad timing or acts of God/Elvis/Godzilla or whatever you might believe in. This happens. Is this failure? Only if you stay down.

From simply a business perspective, had many corps chosen to live within their means at specific times... and followed the old adage "never let it get below a quarter tank", there would be a lot more around.

One thing I can definitely say is that a lot of corps spend too much for the amount of money they take in. Might be better for some corps thinking of quickly moving up to World Class to take a couple of years back, invest extra money into opportunities for new and sustainable sources of revenue... then plow forward in a much stronger way that ensures they'll be around for awhile.

I agree with every sentence in this post. In fact, I think corps, like people, respond better when they are rewarded for doing well, not bailed out because they couldn't. It's the wrong incentive.

I happen to disagree with Dan about what that incentive to get paid should be, or when in the life of a corps it should be rewarded.

But to intentionally save bad management instead of encouraging it to go back and regroup is a waste of funds on poor talent.

You never get rewarded for what you're going to do. Not in life, and not in drum corps.

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If you want to save and grow drum corps, you must rid the world of electronics

X Box

Cell phones that play games

computers and the internet

A/C

All of these afford many kids the excuse to sit on their butts in the AC all summer long and only socialize through Facebook and the like :ph34r:

Yea, OK.

You're not a Dad are you Mike?

ph34r.gif

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And when DCI destroys the great success it has found by corrupting the activity with sounds and visuals that offend a huge portion of their fan base, we will need these smaller organizations to pick up the pieces and start the cycle once again. We may as well start now.

Interesting.

And If I were to "start now", what should I do, follow the current elements of modern drum corps, or do I re-start what was popular pre-2000?

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How many corps did Cook bail out? Of those, how many are still around today? As much as you can love the activity, sometimes bailing out simply enables poor management.

Corps should not be given help in becoming self-sustaining... they should be self-sustaining from day 1.

I would point out, though, that at least two of the current top 12 still exist primarily because of assistance from DCI.

Mike

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For one there are no regional associations anymore. Back in the 60's thru the 80's there were regional associations; Drum Corps East, Drum Corps Midwest, Drum Corps West, Garden State Circuit and EMass to name a few. These need to be brought back into existance so the smaller corps can compete on a local level and grow gradually at a pace they want to. As of right now I believe you need to meet a number of criteria in order to be a world class corps.

Well, there's SDCA for that. There's the effort.

Now we just need corps to fill the circuit.

Who's going to start one?! Step right up!

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I would point out, though, that at least two of the current top 12 still exist primarily because of assistance from DCI.

Mike

And that assistance should be excluded from the calculation when analyzing a corps' finances. If they can't survive without DCI then....their funding gets cut?

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Well, there's SDCA for that. There's the effort.

Now we just need corps to fill the circuit.

Who's going to start one?! Step right up!

SDCA says right on their website that they are very happy to talk to anyone interested in expanding the circuit into their region. That would be a good place to start.

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