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On 4/23/2018 at 2:58 PM, Jim Schehr said:

With many current members being college age and younger, and most if not all involved in marching band, it has become extremely difficult to recruit potential members to commit to Labor Day weekend. Band directors don’t want their members missing opening high school and college football games. Not to mention parents who say no you’re not missing school for drum corps. It’s a challenge recruiting for an All-Age DCA schedule. 

If Labor Day weekend is becoming so problematic as to drive a corps into inactivity, then maybe that corps should consider removing Labor Day weekend from their itinerary.

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1 hour ago, cixelsyd said:

If Labor Day weekend is becoming so problematic as to drive a corps into inactivity, then maybe that corps should consider removing Labor Day weekend from their itinerary.

That should always be a consideration. 

Edited by Jim Schehr
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2 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

If Labor Day weekend is becoming so problematic as to drive a corps into inactivity, then maybe that corps should consider removing Labor Day weekend from their itinerary.

But kind of tough if your emphasis is competing and you just removed the only chance to see where you stack up with (almost) everybody.

 

six of one, half dozen of the other 

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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4 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

But kind of tough if your emphasis is competing and you just removed the only chance to see where you stack up with (almost) everybody.

 

six of one, half dozen of the other 

Said my mom, about a lot of things. :tongue:

Seriously... this MBI situation certainly has gotten people thinking about the future of DCA and all-age competition corps.

I remember what I would call the "low water mark" for DCA... 1993, with only 13 corps total. All 13 competed at prelims and at finals that year.

Then there was 2005, with a record of 26 corps at prelims, Class A and Open.

So... compared to '93, in good shape now.  But this MBI thing... wow.

What lies ahead... who knows. There are no easy answers.

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48 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

But kind of tough if your emphasis is competing and you just removed the only chance to see where you stack up with (almost) everybody.

 

six of one, half dozen of the other 

They could "see where they stack up" some other weekend in August, July or late June. 

They might not see every other DCA corps in the process, so that is not a perfect substitute.  But neither is excluding a substantial number of prospective members who cannot do Labor Day weekend (or sitting out competition entirely).

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Last year Maryland passed a law so that school would not start until after Labor Day. The Governor who proposed and pushed that bill through is one of the most popular in the US right now. It will be interesting to see if this has helped the corps that traditionaly  recruit from MD, (C2, Caballeros, Bucs, Fusion) . Maybe other states will see how this worked and pass similar laws in their states. 

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1 hour ago, JimF-LowBari said:

But kind of tough if your emphasis is competing and you just removed the only chance to see where you stack up with (almost) everybody.

 

six of one, half dozen of the other 

yeah i'm not sure what the solution is for DCA.....pros and cons on either side. Again, I'm open to ideas that make sense

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10 minutes ago, totaleefree said:

Last year Maryland passed a law so that school would not start until after Labor Day. The Governor who proposed and pushed that bill through is one of the most popular in the US right now. It will be interesting to see if this has helped the corps that traditionaly  recruit from MD, (C2, Caballeros, Bucs, Fusion) . Maybe other states will see how this worked and pass similar laws in their states. 

plus with starting so early, many schools are done earlier, providing weather doesnt screw it up. I never remember being done with school til like the 10th of June, and never started before Labor Day, and i'm only 31 years out. My 5 year old started 8/22 and is out 6/1.

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1 hour ago, totaleefree said:

Last year Maryland passed a law so that school would not start until after Labor Day. The Governor who proposed and pushed that bill through is one of the most popular in the US right now. It will be interesting to see if this has helped the corps that traditionaly  recruit from MD, (C2, Caballeros, Bucs, Fusion) . Maybe other states will see how this worked and pass similar laws in their states. 

Well... technically, it was an executive order. LOL.  The party that basically controls the state legislature was opposed to the idea, so the guv and the state comptroller went over their heads.

NOT AT ALL trying to stir up a political discussion here about the merits of executive orders and so forth.... your point is well-taken, we'll see how this works for the corps that recruit here in MD,  and if other states follow suit.

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1 hour ago, cixelsyd said:

They could "see where they stack up" some other weekend in August, July or late June. 

They might not see every other DCA corps in the process, so that is not a perfect substitute.  But neither is excluding a substantial number of prospective members who cannot do Labor Day weekend (or sitting out competition entirely).

I was thinking of Class A corps because usually not more than 2 at a regular show. Having been there in pre Class A days trying to compare your 60 score against big corps 80 does not really help that much.

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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