Build a Drum Corps for under $40K

[Dave]

I'm not saying every band director thinks like that, but there are many that do.

[MikeBob]

Eklipse staff was totally volunteer....everyone....even me. I knew that the entire staff was teaching because they wanted to be there...not to make money. They came to teach because they believed in what it was we were doing.

I know this will sound naive, but when I moved to San Diego to work with Alliance for free (along with the rest of the staff), I somehow assumed that volunteer staffs were pretty much de rigeur in drum corps, that only Div. I corps paid the people who worked for them. Now, though, I'm getting the distinct impression that that isn't the case. I'm not dissatisfied with volunteering, but I know that the corps just doesn't have the funds to spare to pay us right now-- that money needs to, as you said, be spent on the kids. Honestly, were I to be paid, I think I'd end up spending a large part of it on the corps anyway.

Is a volunteer staff so uncommon? What other corps have volunteer staffs besides us, Eklipse, and Impulse (Ryan H. Turner never misses an opportunity to point that one out...)?

[MikeBob]

I disagree

How many band directors (talking about 90's on forward) came out of this activity and have their own programs now?

And how many didn't? I know Esperanza's Div. II Championship this past summer would seem to contradict this, but San Diego isn't always a particularly drum corps friendly town. Last year rehearsal facilities were elusive, at best, and I noticed Esperanza this season practicing in an open field in an industrial park instead of at a high school, like they used to. Schools (and more importantly, school districts) here frequently don't want to bother with helping out a non-profit community organization for liability reasons. We were fortunate enough to be able to have about 90% of our rehearsals this past season at a single high school, which was great, but it's not always that easy.

I think a lot of band directors develop a very proprietary attitude towards their students. That is, if they're going to be in their high school band, they can't have any kind of life that might interfere with that. I have heard of a band director telling a student he'd be cut if he marched corps because it'd mean him missing a rehearsal (a single rehearsal) during the summer. Never mind that that kid would've learned more from a summer of drum corps than from that one day of rehearsal, or that he would've been a stronger asset to his band for it. It's unreasonable, but it's out there, and it's out there maybe more than you think.

[KC1974]

Mike,

I think a volunteer staff is great - and most corps certainly don't make their staff rich with the wages they get paid.

I think most corps pay their staff enough so teaching doesn't end up costing the staff members money - ie: gas money - spending money on tour - flights in and out of tour - etc.....

With our corps we were paid very well (IMO) for our jobs within the corps. Then last season we had a bit of a cash crunch and staff was not paid from September until April. The first thing I noticed was the immediate separation of the staff that were there for the money, and the staff that was there for the love of the activity.

When the previous season we had virtually perfect staff attendance while getting paid.

Some reasons of the staff dropoff was the cost of fuel to and from rehearsals, some staff have children and have to pay babysitters while they are at rehearsals, there is always the staff get togethers after practices that cost money -

So I understand why certain staff members need to drop out when the money isn't there.

My wife and I are both caption heads with our corps and lost close to $10,000 of income when we stopped getting paid last season. It is really money that we know can dissapear in a second so we don't pay our bills with it, but just use it for little extras in life.

My hat goes off to those people who can dedicate so much time and energy into the activity for free - good work!

On another note - PM me - we may be looking for a new brass arranger this season, and have a staff meeting this Sunday to get the ball rolling on the 2004 season.

Kelly

Allegiance Elite

[nhsalan]

Brad,

I didn't get to see Eklipse this year, but congratulations on what I HEARD was a great inaugural season. Much like what you did, we started from scratch here in Atlanta with Court of Honor. The only difference was we didn't have the indoor component already going, so we had to create all that stuff before we could get cranked up.

Marc Kaufman, the Exec. Director, did a GREAT job putting into place all the logistical things that had to happen. When he recruited me to volunteer as a staff coordinator and put together a staff, he had ALL the right answers to my questions about uniforms, horns, 501c-3 status, insurance, rehearsal facilities, etc.... His organizational skills made the year a success from that standpoint.

Recruiting an all volunteer staff was harder. We had to find people who were willing to be there COMPLETELY for the kids. That's hard as someone else mentioned because it takes them away from their own families, jobs, hobbies and often costs them money. I was able to put together a dedicated group of individuals who had to give what they could to put together a first year corps. This coming season, it looks like we will be able to cover expenses, but that's about it.

It's exciting to me to see so much activity in the South with new drum corps and a resurgent Spirit. It harkens back to the days of Drum Corps South and Sky Ryders, Suncoast and Spirit as the headliners, Florida Wave, Southwind and Memphis Blues as the next tier of competitive units and then several others in and out over a period of time.

Hoping to see great things develop in the coming years with Memphis, Eklipse, COH, Spirit, Crown and Magic in the junior ranks and Corps Vets, Heat Wave and Carolina Gold in the Senior ranks.

Congrats again on a great first year. Looking forward to seeing you this winter and on the field again next summer.

Later, AA

[Eklipse_Boss]

Same to you all! There is a reason why people liek us are successful...it is our great Southern Hospitality! LOL. Serously though I didn't get to see COH either but for you all to make it out and just exist is the key your first few years. Please let us know if there is anything we here at Eklipse can ever do for you or any of our other southern brethren. Keep us in mind summer and if you all make it up our way a helping hand is always here.

Brad

[Ryan H. Turner]

Same to you all! There is a reason why people liek us are successful...it is our great Southern Hospitality! LOL. Serously though I didn't get to see COH either but for you all to make it out and just exist is the key your first few years. Please let us know if there is anything we here at Eklipse can ever do for you or any of our other southern brethren. Keep us in mind summer and if you all make it up our way a helping hand is always here.

Brad

ALERT ALERT ALERT!!! GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP ALERT!!!

What the heck is going on!?!?!?!?!?! I thought this wasn't supposed to happen!!

Man, I tell you, Brad, I don't know you from Adam but I like you a lot. What a great thread to start (which was fascinating and encouraging to read) and then what a great gesture on your part towards COH. I think there are many in this activity that would do well to see that while this IS a competitive activity and it CAN be fun to have rivals and fun to be "beating" this corps or that corps, that really, the KIDS (yeah...it's ALL about the kids!!) get so much more from this experience when they can see examples from their adult leaders that can transcend the competitiveness and show true "brotherhood". Ahhhhh...thanks! I feel better to know this is happening out there...

And yes, I do make it a point to mention (probably ad nauseum?) that Impulse is an all-volunteer organization. Quite honestly, I do that because I'm pretty amazed because I always assumed that ALL corps pay their staffs. So that's just me I guess still amazed that Impulse continues to be such a viable and awesome organization...and all volunteer! Being all volunteer really makes it more of a "we want to be there" for the kids and the organization. There are pay offs of course that don't have anything to do with money...for me personally, it's sort of a "karma" thing in that I'm giving back to the activity that gave me so much. And I haven't given back nearly enough as far as I'm concerned...I'm still working on it! :)

Well, great job to Eklipse and Court of Honor!! Two groups that have LOTS to be proud of this season...

[sokkerboie]

I think some of the problems with band/business support of non-profit organizations is that the orgs (corps tend to be bad at this) just take and don't look for ways to give back to the community. I know parades are a pain, but that is part of community support. And being willing to offer free clinics for band programs.....I think if more programs were willing to "partner" with other local programs it would be a sign to community members AND potential sponsors that this is an organization to help succeed. Philanthropy has changed from businesses just giving money to expecting (and quite frankly deserving) something in return!

And I have seen some of the B***HING that goes on between corps and honestly, this only hurts the activity. I have talked with major business leaders who have made it clear they won't support any organization with a hint of trouble or attitude or conflict....it's just tooo risky for their business.

The more creative an organziation is to be an active part of the community, the more likely they are to receive benefits from their community - after all, wasn't drum corps developed to be a source of community support and pride? Why have we gotten so far away from that?

[SonicBoomer]

Hmmm...wow where to start...well first off I'd like to say that Eklipse was definitely a great corps!!! We had a few shows with you and the staff and kids were always really great to run into and have a few kind words with! So I definitely wish you much success in the future!!

~About the band director's being anti-drum corps (not all of them obviously) I have witnessed that and it doesn't make sense to me. Obviously I'm not a band director...heck I have a business degree :P but how can someone not want their students to take so much pride and dedication in the art they've chosen to perform? I mean look at the alternative: not marching and possibly not even touching an instrument for the majority of the summer...and do they really think those 4 summer rehearsals will in anyway come close to the hundreds of hours of practice and performance these kids will have between November and when school starts back the next fall? If anything most of the kids I've witnessed marching and coming back to band come back with an "I want to help make things better" approach and not an "I'm better than you this is how we do it in corps" type approach. *takes a deep breath* :) I don't know, maybe that's why I don't understand, because I'm not a director and I've been fortunate enough to always have directors that supported DCI.

~~As for the business support of DCI...I think it rolls down to alot of they just don't understand it...if I were a multi-million dollar company and you asked me to sponsor DCI and I didn't know what it was, I would probaly say no too. Sure, you'll give me a description, show me a video...but please, it's like I told some of our kids when everydays rolled around..."it's not going to be easy--this is the part they don't show you on the finals tape..." There is no tape, no brochure, and no description that can fully describe what drum corps is about to someone on the outside...so without pulling that person in for rehearsals, and having them interact with the members, and coming to shows...funding will be hard to come by in some cases just for the simple fact that people are afraid of what they don't understand, and even more afraid to sink their money and have their name associated with it.

~~~Unless something has changed in the past few years of corps, I know that many corps have open houses where the community can come and see what exactly it is the corps has been working on...and I know that we (and I'm sure others) have no problem giving a clinic when we're housed at a school for a few days and the band members ask us for one, or performing at a church picnic, or anything of the sort...so I find it very hard to believe that one could say it has turned into a non-community friendly activity.

Anyways...been out of the forums workin' on "normal" life stuff for awhile...hope I haven't missed too much!! B)

[Jim Alberty]

This is a really good discussion - I tend to hang out at Soundmachine and a pal pointed me over here - I'm posting from Portland, Maine and am in the initial fundraising for Atlantic Guardian - it looks like a local school system is going to loan us drums (their marching program is currently inactive except on Veteran's and Memorial Days) if we are careful and get new heads for them - we've got almost enough money together to insure the group (bid is still out) - and if we can manage it, we'll have a guard and percussion ensemble in the summer of 04 to do parades, bring in money (there are festivals in almost every coastal town in Maine each weekend, as well as July 4th - you haven't lived until you've done the Yarmouth Clam Festival parade - 60,000 folks).

The theory is that by showing viability and a capacity for actually getting things done we can make ourselves more attractive to foundations, businesses and large private donors - it's easiest to get support for startups and new programs - but having a startup that's already doing something is even better.

We have Maine Non-profit and 501©3 status - now, a year after rolling the idea out, local band directors are sure that we have a viable group and are becoming more supportive.

The mission of the group is twofold - to teach kids and to share with the community.

There is a section on the Atlantic Guardian website, under "The Plan" which lists resources for starting a non-profit - we could surely use feedback on this whole thing.

The exciting part is that after three years of planning, things are starting to happen - but I hear it over and over again, just as stated in the posts above - SMALL STEPS - SMALL STEPS - SMALL STEPS - if we get bugles the first year, fine, on the field in the second, fine - you have to have faith you'll get there, because it's surely worth it.

Reading what other groups have gone - and are going through - is very heartening - thank you so much for this thread.

regards - Jim Alberty

Community Musical Arts/Atlantic Guardian