jimpjorps

I think New Jersey still edges them out for membership and ties them for total corps -- Cabs, Bush, Fusion vs. CT, Rogues and Saints

Maybe there's just some critical magic bullet that I'm missing, but recruiting at band shows and engaging with circuits and band directors doesn't seem like it's working to any significant degree, based on my experience burning shoe leather on recruitment for a couple years now. Almost every NE corps has tables at a show every weekend in the fall, and the return on investment is minimal to nil -- after they've performed, kids avoid corps recruiters because they're too busy or too tired or just want to eat dinner before the concessions line gets too long, so the most we manage is cajoling a page of email addresses that never reply to any of our follow-up blasts. Directors don't let us get a foot in the door and throw out the promotional materials we send them instead of sharing them with students, and a fair number actively discourage their students from even thinking about corps. Word-of-mouth from existing members seems like the much better recruitment tool in my experience (though for a new corps, then you get into the catch-22 of how do you get new members without any existing members and how do you retain members if you don't have any coming in the door yet). Staff can be pretty good at bringing a kernel of members in, too, though that varies depending on what other positions they have during the year and how far away they're coming from.

Yeah, it was my post. Schools still operate over the summer even if class is out, and this is especially true of colleges.

Schools still run summer sports when there's no classes in session, and a lot of marching bands have camps during the summer too.

One lean year and everybody's threatening to run for the hills, I guess. I don't think anyone would argue that it's a smaller activity than it used to be, but the landscape's changed significantly in 40 years, and DCA's settled into its niche in response. Kids are busier with school and work and a spectrum of hobbies and interests that didn't exist a generation ago, budgets (both household and charitable giving) are tighter, corps operating costs are higher, and people who see show ads posted in their neighborhood don't really feel like sitting in high school bleachers in mid-July weather unless it's to see their kid or friend perform because they have so many other entertainment options available to them. Something I think might be worthwhile for corps is exploring partnerships with colleges that don't have marching music programs or high schools that don't compete in the local marching band circuits. Beyond that, I'm not really sure what DCA or the corps ought to be doing in this new environment.

They were on-track to Open Class enough to be making plans for a tour and wider recruitment this season, at least. They seemed to have assurance that they would not have a hard time qualifying.

They're a SoundSport member, and that's still under the DCI umbrella.

Mix-ups can happen, especially in complex group booking situations like this. At Indy this year, those of us playing brass with FREE Players were supposed to pay for our own rooms in the larger group block, but this wasn't communicated to us and the front desk staff didn't take our payment info because they assumed our rooms were pre-paid. Three weeks later we got a panicked call from their director asking us to get in touch with the hotel manager ASAP because they got a surprise bill for a few thousand dollars from the hotel, and realized what happened.

I'm starting to think it's time to start ending DCA's season sooner, too. Even one week earlier would help resolve the situation that's developing lately where high school marching bands are required to have a halftime show ready to go on Labor Day weekend for the football season opening game in "Week 0", as well as college move-ins and a whole bunch of other conflicts.

As someone involved in one of the two corps you're thinking of, it's not an unfair criticism, even if it stings a little. It was an uphill journey to get our show on the field at Williamsport at all, and it involved a fair number of compromises, cuts and late-season recruitment to get it to a point we felt would be acceptable to present to the public. There's also a lot of personal responsibility in a 15-person horn line that's playing an arrangement that puts one person on most of the parts; it makes mistakes or people laying out that much more obvious. I know that it doesn't retroactively make the show more entertaining, but I hope it at least explains some of the things you thought were missing or unacceptable. It is definitely something we are already trying to address for 2019.

Sky didn't want to go on first and Tri-Valley Brass did, so they've swapped spots. I think the schedule is otherwise the same.

Highland is at Indian Park (104 Park Rd) in Montoursville on Saturday.

Like Kamarag said, we'll be in Reading tomorrow. We had a tough time with scheduling this year because of the timing of our approval and because of some longstanding member scheduling conflicts. We were bumped from the Clifton show, couldn't do the Jefferson Township show because about a half-dozen of us had already committed to being in Indianapolis volunteering with the Free Players the year prior, couldn't do Peckville because the roster was already full, and decided not to do Woodbridge so that we wouldn't be doing three show weekends in a row. It wasn't our preference, but that's how it shook out, and I think we're going to be plenty ready for our debut.

The combination of the timing of our approval, our ability to travel far afield and some member scheduling conflicts have made our scheduling difficult this year. We're confirmed for the Reading show and finals; we're trying to get into another show currently but I don't want to preemptively talk about anything that isn't confirmed.

Highland Regiment has passed their evaluation.

There were a few low brass I&Es on upright euph, trombone and concert tuba last year. The top two in the bari/euph/trombone category and the winner of the tuba category all played on non-marching instruments.

DCP and /r/drumcorps are complementary -- the drumcorps subreddit is more aimed at current members than fans. The activity on reddit ebbs and flows with the competitive season, so right now things are relatively quiet and most of the discussions are from people thinking about auditioning for DCI soon.

Honestly, one of the biggest barriers to any local junior corps renaissance is that the realities of education and employment are radically different for kids now. College prep (coursework, resume-building, applying for scholarships, working to save money) consumes most of the free time of high school students, the price of tuition and the tenuousness of the entry-level job market heavily discourages college students from taking time off to indulge in hobbies that aren't directly marketable to prospective employers (which is why the plurality of DCI members now are music majors), and any amateur musicians in school are much more likely to be involved in their own schools' bands because of ease of access and the fact that they fill gen ed course requirements. Anyone left who is still interested in and able to do drum corps is going to be more interested in the big touring competitive corps rather than a small local/regional one with no name recognition. Local drum corps is just a very hard sell in this environment.

For at least the last couple years, Fusion's done a camp weekend two weeks before Finals so that they can spend the whole two and a half days concentrating on necessary cleaning and revisions without having to worry about travel logistics or a show.

No, not that the corps is also running winter guard/indoor percussion -- with the way competitive guard/percussion work, many members planning to be in a corps will be in their school's or another group's WG/IP line until April and unable to make the corps' rehearsals until then because of scheduling conflicts between the two independent groups. I think DCA at least accounts for this, though. I don't think they just count heads at the rehearsal they show up to.

I think that's our plan, and as far as I know everyone's cool with it. I don't think anyone's really angry at DCA's reasoning behind the limit, just a little disappointed that we had an over-optimistic goal (going from nothing to a competing corps in one off-season) and came somewhat short.

I honestly can't say for sure. It wasn't a matter of just being one or two short, though.

Highland Regiment is still waiting for a final decision, last I heard. DCA went over our books and sat in on a rehearsal and liked what they saw, but their one concern is that we might not reach the minimum membership threshold to qualify for Class A by the time the season begins. The decision is supposed to be made by April 1 so hopefully we find out soon. edit: nope, no luck. Didn't pass the evaluation this year.

Highland Regiment is getting evaluated this weekend.

Is there a website or Facebook group or contact info for CMCC Warriors? I haven't found any first-hand information about their 2017 plans online yet, just mentions on DCP about them.