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Baby, you can say you sell the best jelly donuts in the world, if you want to, but it doesn't necessarily make it true. DCI's self-description and its actual operations focus are at odds with each other. You can choose to believe what they say they do, or you can believe what they actually do, but for most people, it's what you do, not what you say that carries the day. A fraternal collective? Ok, but what business is that, exactly? Are they in the business of providing fraternal love among the members? They sell tickets to events on behalf of the member corps. They don't provide any direct services to kids. The corps do that themselves. It could be why most of the major corps blow DCI out of the water when it comes to how much direct charitable support they receive; a donation to Phantom Regiment or Troopers is going to provide food, transportation, and instruction for those kids; a donation to DCI is going to provide.....what? Those stylin' golf shirts the judges wear? They're a classic example of the old school producers' cooperative, which is cool. So is the NFL, comes down to it. The owners of businesses pool resources to market their products, and get the greatest return on their effort they can by leveraging their shared efforts and resources. But in order for coops to work, there has to be an understanding that either everyone is bringing about the same effort to the table, or that there's a mechanism in place to make sure that those who are the most productive or whose products bring in the most money are protected from feeling that there are others in the group that are benefitting at a much greater level than their own participation would deem reasonable. Again, it's hard because people are so passionate about everything related to this activity, but if we looked at it purely from a business standpoint, it would make sense to consider changes that would either boost the productivity of those whose efforts are returning the least value to the group, or look for ways to perhaps modify the structure altogether so that everyone who's at the table feels confident that there's a shared amount of risk and reward. Thinking aloud, maybe it's time for a total re-boot of DCI, with a buy-in similar to the letter of credit that the original founders had to put together in order to get the first championship underway. If DCI said they were looking for 18 members to come in at $150k each, that would give the re-booted venture $2.7 million in new capital to go out and hire some additional marketing and sponsorship folks, find a way to put the product back on tv, and do a serious re-branding of the whole enterprise.

That's one interpretation of what happened. Here's another... Dan was fired, that part is true. If that is what's sticking in the craw of the G7 - that their edict was undone - then I suggest they grow a pair and get over themselves. They apparently didn't realize at that time that the new corporate structure had instilled them with a specific mandate of fiduciary responsibility for the whole activity. Either they didn't realize or remember it, or they just didn't think the other members of the BOD - the O-15 - would have the gumption to trump their edict and reverse their decision. Either way, the almighty decree was invalidated, two members were removed for not facilitating their fiduciary mandate, and two other members resigned in sympathy with the two who were removed. So be it. It's not surprising then to learn that both of the members who left in sympathy are now "on executive staff" at a G7 corps. So be it. If the then leadership had cronies on the BOD who were always going to vote in favor of the two who were removed, then they don't deserve to be on the BOD in the first place. The legal basis for the O-15's action is not some obscure line in the by-laws. Prior to the existing charter, there was no such mandate, but the new one clearly spelled it out. The validity of that mandate was established by legal counsel before the meeting and the O-15 recognized the failing on the part of the then leadership, met in session, and agreed, by a majority vote, that the leadership was not, in fact, living up to the fiduciary mandate. They acted based on the fact that the then-leadership fired the ED with no announced plan for his replacement, effectively leaving the activity leaderless with only the BOD left to guide the activity having announced their intentions in the G7 proposal. The truth came out later that their plan was to install an ex-director of one of their own cabal to lead DCI. The conflict of interest, even without knowing their plan for Dan's replacement, was enough to cause the O-15 to act firmly, on solid ground and with substantial basis and evidence to support their action. THOSE facts, and those alone, are what really pizzez off the 7. It is that fact, that they were trumped and beaten in their own hubris and actions, that causes them to continue in their quest. They just can't get over the fact that these, the best 7 corps in the activity (in their own minds) would be beaten, BEATEN!, by the lowly corps that perpetually languish at the bottom of the competitive scale. The 7 have said so in private many times, to many people. It is not a secret. And what the O-15 did was based totally in legal legitimacy, and with the true best interest of the activity AS A WHOLE. Their actions were based on that responsibility. And the 7 just can't seem to get over the fact that the others disagreed with them. That's another view, but it's just that simple.

We get it, you know people at Phantom. Please stop smugly patting yourself on the back about it every few posts. It's not impressing anyone.

Very famliar, yes, thank you. DCA used to be "senior corps." Now it's "all ages." So, by definition it's open to junior corps. And their schedule is exactly the model that fits a junior drum corps that is locally based and isn't interested or able to support national touring. Open Class isn't about the national touring model, and the membership is local rather than international, as with most of the WC corps. The budgets are going to be in the $150-300k range, rather than $800-1.2m range. The members want to compete, but know that they're not directly competing with Blue Devils or Cadets so much as they are other OC corps with similar limitations and abilities. In terms of goals, budgets, etc, there's actually a lot more in common between Open Class and DCA than there is between Open Class and World Class. Aside from some adult egos being bruised by having to compete in a lower-profile circuit, there's really no logical reason why this sort of re-alignment wouldn't make sense. DCA and DCI already have some cross-promotion going on, so it's not like having Open Class moved into their own division within DCA would mean that they would disappear from the DCI radar. But it would free DCI up to focus purely on the most competitive teams in the league, promoting them without having to divert focus and resources outside of their core product. Do a better job of promoting the unique aspects of drum corps as evidenced by the most impressive teams, and you make more people curious to give it a shot. Heck, if you want to, have DCI corps adopt a policy that tells prospective members that their preference is for members who've spent some time in the OC world, and give those who are 15 or 16 and want to march in a big corps an additional incentive to go spend a summer doing OC (some would find that counter-intuitive, but to my mind, it puts WC corps into the roles of promoting marching in Open Class, something that they all give some lip service to now, but has no teeth behind it.)

Yesterday, I took my son to participate in the annual Ohio State Univ. middle-school honors program. Fascinating. The University had directors from all over the state nominate 1 or 2 students from 7th and 8th grade to attend a day-long teaching and performance event, brought in a guest conductor, assembled the kids at the University's music school, put them on a bus and took them to lunch at the Huntington Bank Club level at Ohio stadium (the "Shoe", if you live in Ohio), then prepared them for a performance for their parents at 4:00 yesterday afternoon. Music scores were distributed digitally after the kids were chosen. Sponsors - the local music stores - paid for everything. The kids got a T-shirt, an individual photo with the guest conductor, an award to hang on their wall, and the chance to digitally download both photos and videos of both the day and the performance. It was remarkable, and remarkably well-run by two -TWO - grad assistants at the school of music who were introduced and applauded for their efforts in organizing the entire day. We arrived at 3:00pm and the music school concert hall was packed - standing room only - with over 500 people. Parents, grandparents, friends, and siblings of the 100 7th graders and 100 8th graders who took the stage and beamed out at those watching. We sat next to a family of 7 who had come from a small town about 40 miles away. Their daughter was the only one in their town who was chosen for the honors band; they weren't going to miss it (she's a trumpet player). That's DCI's audience. I have a business contact in Chicago who's 14 year-old daughter is a trumpet prodigy. The high school band directors at her school have asked her to march next year when she's in the 8th grade. The mother knew nothing of drum corps, neither did the daughter. When I mentioned a corps just west of her she had no idea. I did my best to sell drum corps to her, and it was easy. I'm going to see her at a business meeting next month and she made me promise to bring some drum corps DVD's for her daughter to watch during the two days I'll be in the city. She was on the Fan Network Friday night, using my login and password, and sent me a text saying they sat up until 11:00 watching shows on the computer. The daughter is flipped out and wants to go see Phantom next week. That's DCI's audience. That's not a $50million contract with a major corporate sponsor who doesn't know a thing about the kid business. That's music schools, music kids, their parents, and local sponsors.

So you DO think Cadets owe more to DCI than Mandarins. And that's clearly the thinking that has started the G7 in first place. If Cadets do owe more to DCI than they expect DCI to owe more to them. Economically and logically this makes sense and has nothing to do with Greed but just free-market principles that you say you agree with. I don't think anywhere in DCI does it say that each corps must contribute according to their means and that DCI inherently encourages lopsided contributions with equal returns. And while being in DCI is a "choice" it's currently the only National Touring Event Producer for Drum Corps and is long established in the United States. G7 have alluded to setting up another organization because of the reasons you point out. So you believe that DCI as a willing socialist collective of corps is really the BEST business model going into the future? (and I use socialist not in a derogatory way like some political wings tend to do, I mean it purely descriptive) Having a group of corps even if they are "willing" and "choose" to cooperate in that way is not a smart decision.

No, that is YOUR fallacy. Daniel is 100% right.

DCI was originally only 13 corps. I did not support or include the dozens of other corps out there, but was membership was limited to just the 13 best corps out there at the time.

They're all very easy to separate, actually, and yes, you read what I wrote exactly correctly. All of those characteristics you cite are pretty much shared by the same group of corps. Open Class is there to give their kids a chance to do drum corps, learn how it is played, have some fun doing it, and not have to sell a kidney in order to finance it. That's a beautiful thing - the thing that would make it even better would be if all of the marketing efforts went to promoting them as stars of their league, not as "also on the program" performers, as happens now all too often. Organizations who don't have the interest, ability, need, desire, or means to tour nationally and compete with the corps who DO have the interests and means to do all those things should be competing in a different league altogether. Put that in front of most normal adults and they'll agree with my positions. The worlds of sports and business normally sort themselves into logical affiliations, either by regions, capacity, product categories, or competitive level; DCI is resistant to that in part because (I suspect) some adults associated with the various corps would feel offended if their corps was classified as a regional corps rather than a national touring corps. Again, you have to look at the situation as a business question, not as anything having to do with pride or passion or ego. The business of DCI s to sell tickets to events and other products and bring in money that can be returned to the co-op members in exchange for their work. The ability to do that would be enhanced, not weakened, if the message and the imagery they were able to use was consistent and clean, if their product could be easily defined as "the Top 16 (or 18) drum corps in the world." To be brutally honest, there are some organizations that are now classified as "World Class" by DCI's system who really aren't. We all know it, we just hesitate to say it out loud for fear of offending the members and supporters of those corps. If DCI ever went the route of hiring a professional executive team who came into it with business, rather than 'drum corps' being their motivating interests, I would imagine that such a re-alignment and clarification of status would be one of the first things that would be addressed. Some people might feel stung, but in the long term, it would be a very healthy development for all concerned.

DCI does indeed classify themselves as a "youth organization" (I just checked their 990s), but it's misleading. They're still really a business co-op set up by a bunch of other youth organizations. Since they don't directly provide services to the kids in the corps (the members pay dues to their corps, not to DCI, and DCI doesn't pay for instruction, food, or transportation), it's a bit of a stretch for them to call themselves a youth org (IMHO, of course). That's a characterization that doesn't sound like anyone I've ever met in drum corps. Look, purely from a business standpoint, DCI isn't working as well as it could. My position is that this is because DCI is trying to be everything to everybody, when it wasn't originally designed to do that, and has never really built a financial infrastructure to support that notion. It was built to give drum corps who were good enough to make Finals (or at least come close) a chance to compete at big shows, set their own rules, sell tickets to the shows and recordings of their work, and collect the cash at the end of the season, pretty much in that order. At the time, they probably figured that the other corps would keep doing things they way they'd been doing things; focusing on doing parades to make money and doing shows for fun, but the rest of the activity didn't necessarily decide to do that. And with the collapse of the veterans orgs as drum corps sponsors (something that would have happened anyway), DCI ended up having to take on more responsibility for junior drum corps than they were built to handle. Well either the business model would need to be radically altered to accommodate that extra load, or the business model needs to be modified to allow the two different worlds of junior corps to do what they do as efficiently as they can. You can do a lot of things in the real world, but turning back the clock is a hard one; trying to make it so that every drum corps survives on local members only, and spends no more than $200-300,000 a year isn't likely to happen, simply because doing so would make the product less impressive, hence less appealing to the core audience, and even less appealing to any potential audiences. So you can move forward, and look for ways to grow the revenues, and pay the performing units an amount closer to what they're worth, or you can watch as everyone gets burned out and decides to just stop, since it feels like they're working harder and getting less return. There's a lot of potential out there for community drum corps, but it doesn't lie in the national touring model. The sooner that community corps focus on putting together a competitive format and creating associations that benefit themselves, rather than waiting on table scraps from DCI, the sooner those directors will be free to unleash their own creativity, free of feeling like they're supposed to be competing with the corps at the top. You can still leave avenues open for the most ambitious OC corps to move up to national touring, but that should be seen as an option down the line, rather than the goal of any OC corps. In short, there IS a future for all of this, but being honest about the different needs and goals of the two different types of junior drum corps would be the first step toward taking the right kinds of steps to make sure the overall activity can remain viable.

BTW - you have mentioned 501c3 over and over and over in these forums and still don't seem to grasp what it is (even after repeated explanation). It is simply a tax designation. Also, DCI is not categorized by the IRS as a youth activity. Their categorization is A6C (Music Groups, Bands, Ensembles).

Then we're in agreement. Now the next question is whether we also agree that two items that are both important - to their patrons, and to each other - but also very different in their goals and abilities, should be promoted and sold by one managing organization, when their salient marketing points and organizational goals are so very different from each other. I would say that they don't; that the form has to follow the function, and that the needs of a high school-age corps who wants to focus on limited touring and limited budgets are different then the needs of an organization with older performers who are focused on doing national touring and competing at the highest levels.. There's a reason why the NFL doesn't manage high school football and why MLB doesn't feature any farm league schedules on their home page. Because those activities, while vital to the success of both leagues, aren't "the same" as their primary focus. That's not to say that both leagues aren't paying attention to the younger athletes who play their games, but that they recognize that they have a limited amount of bandwidth in the public consciousness, and that their best shots for promoting their sports as a whole lie in promoting the cool factor of their professional teams.

so it meas that every hour and dollar a group possesses is supposed to be at the beck and call of DCI? You are still just phumphering around the question without actually answering it..full of 'supposed to...' and generic bafflegab like that. You made a statement that the corps have to dedicate all of their resources to the beck and call of DCI, but then you give no real evidence that this is actually true in what they signed up for. Why? Because it is just not true. Each organization has its own mission, and membership in DCI is but one component in some cases. BTW...no, Dan did not lie. Nothing in that statement is in opposition to corps belonging to DCI and also having other elements of their organizations.

Maybe there is an opportunity to spin out a youth-centric weekend only circuit? I imagine if this existed, maybe Cadets2 would move over and maybe some DCA groups might shift to offering youth programs? Hmm.... If there was a new viable weekend only circuit that Open Class corps could participate in, built entirely around their needs, why wouldn't OC groups move to this? What is the benefit of them staying with DCI?

My support for the idea of aligning drum corps whose managements don't have the inclination or ability to raise a million dollars a year to run a national touring operation with OTHER drum corps whose don't have the interest in doing a national tour is driven by simple fact-based rationality. If you have a drum corps league out there that is geared toward limited touring and lower-budgets, than it makes sense to have those drum corps whose managements want to run those kinds of corps go compete with their peers in that league. I realize that strikes some people (it sounds like it strikes you) as "elitism", or whatever you want to call it, but it's really just looking at a situation dispassionately, and pointing out an obvious opportunity. You yourself say that Pioneer isn't competing with Blue Devils. Well why would a business that's supposed to be a league of equals/competitors want a situation in which some teams aren't really competitive with the rest of the league? More importantly, why would a corps director who really valued the experience he or she offered their kids want their kids to be competing in a league where they were all but sure to be clobbered every night? Why wouldn't they embrace an opportunity to put their kids in a situation where the best work they can do, at their level, gives them at least a fair shot of success against others who are at the same level? The brightest, shiniest objects in the tool box are going to be the most marketable to a wider audience (and yes, that includes the band parents, who are going to be more impressed by PR or Cavaliers than they are with some of the smaller corps who are performing simpler, smaller shows). There's absolutely nothing wrong with community-based drum corps; I think you'd find that everyone who's ever marched would be in favor of finding ways to increase overall participation, but part of that process will be finding ways for give fledgling corps and younger members something realistic to shoot for within their budgets and programming capacities. Take the adult egos out of the equation, and recognize that some drum corps are there primarily to teach the members how to do drum corps and how to handle themselves on their own, and others are there to give the most competitive college-aged musicians the chance to compete on a bigger stage. They're both valuable, but they're not "the same."

And yet (playing Devil's Advocate), it's unreasonable to expect that the members of a co-op, which is what DCI is, should have no interest in making sure that their co-op's executive team is acting aggressively - yes? If the directors of a co-op have no confidence in their executive team, it's not surprising to see them making noise. It sounds like everyone at the DCI level agrees that growing the audience is a problem. But the solutions seem to come down to an either/or approach; either you focus more time and attention on the top units, promoting them as being "the act", or you try to keep moving forward on a more egalitarian, but less promotable path, where everyone in drum corps is an equal participant in Drum Corps International, and it's more like a youth athletic league than it is a type of entertainment business. It seems that the current exec team and many of the lower-ranked corps want to go the second route, but doing so necessarily hampers the ambitions of those at the top, and (to my mind, anyway), makes it harder for DCI to hit the gym, start toning up, and relaunch themselves as an action sport that involves live music performance at the highest level. I'd agree with some of the earlier posters that the competitive standards would also have to change, so that showy and effective is more important than "artistic" , but that's something everyone could adjust to easily if they could see the dollar sign attached to the change. In terms of the money, you guys have to be aware that $250k for an executive with the types of credentials you need for the job is baseline - the ones who are already working at other $20-30million companies are making a lot more than that at the top. But thinking that you can defer that kind of personnel investment until some other things change is a non-starter, since nothing will change until you have an executive who has both the cred to bring in big money with her/him, and the confidence to look at the Gibbs and Hopkins of the world and tell them to focus on running their corps and to let her/him build the audience. It's a personality thing; you won't get the type of stud you want until you offer the type of stud you want the kind of money they'll expect to be paid, and studs, by definition, don't see themselves as underlings to the Board members who hire them. Does Dan A have that kind of personality? I don't know him personally, never met him, but my instinct is that no, he doesn't. If he did, he would have met the uprising a couple years ago with a coup of his own, and led the other members of DCI to oust the G7 corps from DCI altogether for a year. It could be that he's a peacemaker, not a fighter, and that's fine, but at a certain point, you need to understand that the true power in any negotiation belongs to the man who's willing to kill the deal. The G7 put up a front, and the insurrection should have been handled then, rather than punted. Now, unfortunately for him, he's damaged goods until he or his team get together and pull an Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, and start dictating to Hopkins and Gibbs, rather than the other way around. If that happens, and there's a hard and fast plan for growing audience, with actual dollar signs attached to it, he's got some hope; if he listens to certain others in drum corps, and pushes on with the idea that everyone in drum corps is equally important, there's no hope of him lasting much longer. That model is simply never going to grow anything except resentment.

He's just going to say whatever he wants.

Whenever I show drum corps to anyone that is completely unfamiliar with the activity, two questions seem to come up pretty much every single time: 1) Why are they wearing those funny costumes (usually from non-Americans)? 2) Why are they throwing guns? Given the fact that: A ) Rifles make absolutely zero sense programmatically anymore B ) Gun deaths among youth, particularly accidental, are the highest they have ever been Isn't it time to change? I am not suggesting that the activity outright bans them, but I am saying it isn't such a cool thing for young kids to potentially emulate (imagine the first news story of a young kid finding a real rifle, copying what they had seen, ending in tragedy). In addition, there are at least 3,782,469 other possible things out there to spin (how many of them haven't even been thought up?). So, why spin something that not only makes zero sense, but it modeled after something designed to kill? The activity has moved well beyond its military roots. It is time now to retire rifles in search of alternatives that are more creative, programmatically appropriate and socially responsible.

A mission statement is not an business structure, it's a goal. So you don't think the way DCI is currently set up is the best way to move forward. The system you've said encourages those who have more to contribute more and those who have less to contribute less. What incentive do the corps who receive more than they put in to change the system? You don't want the "elite 7" to decide how things should change but they are the only ones with the incentive to change!

They provide everything required of them as members of DCI. So there is no problem. Period.

Onyx scored an...87.5?! I don't care who you are, no one should be that high at this point in the season. I'm guessing this might score in the 99.something.

No... they didn't. These circuits were very poorly run and much of their activities were redundant. I marched in the days when these were still around. They were extremely amateur.

Your understanding of how this whole thing works it sort of backwards. It works exactly the opposite way you imagine and it is not bi-directional. DCI organizes and promotes shows. Those shows make money. DCI takes this money and pays the groups performing. DCI also records these performances. They sell these recordings. DCI takes some of this money and pays groups that performed on these recordings. DCI also sells merchandise. Some of this merchandise has the logo of one of the performing groups. DCI takes some of this money from these sales and gives to the individual groups they sold merchandise with their logo on it. Not really much more to it. Again, not bi-directional.

Do Cadets owe more to DCI than Mandarins?

There were not 'thousands and thousands' of corps competing at that time. I believe the Drum Corps History book states that there were 440 field corps at the start of the DCI era. That number has been posted on RAMD and DCP many times over the years by people with many different points of view.

No, it was not. It was set up to benefit the 13 founding members. Early on they let others come and compete at champs, but to us the G7 terminology, they provided no real service to those corps.

YOU said that YEA! should be providing support to DCI and not provide services to the thousands of young people that participate in YEA-sponsored activities, such as the Urban Arts Center for the young people of Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, the hundreds of bands that participate in USBands and the Cadets2 drum corps. A 'correct' reading of the DCI mission states no such thing.

Call me a crazy ####### #### but this #### may be #### source of the ####### ############# problem. ####:

I think you are an example of the kind of person Daniel Ray doesn't want to work at DCI. Someone is is fixated on DCI's limitations instead of its possibilities.

If nothing, I am consistent... I've been suggesting for years that classes should be restructured and maybe some corps might find a better fit outside of DCI, maybe DCA. I honestly don't see what benefit open class corps (and some world) receive from participation in DCI events vs. doing their own thing or joining DCA. I'm also not a supporter of woodwinds in drum corps. It is far too expensive and impractical for the potential return. Indoor stuff... why not, but not something out in the elements and changing climates from one day to the next.

I think a lot of people throw around the term kids a lot. This is actually a distinction between the different performance levels of the activity. While a lot of the open class corps do actually deal with kids, the top performing world class corps are dealing with young adults. These young adults are not there to learn how to play or really getting much of an educational experience. They might learn a specific technique or approach, but they show up already knowing how to play, how to move... and know it cold. This is very different from open class corps teaching kids fundamentals. There is a huge distinction here between providing an educational experience for kids and a performance opportunity for young adults. No one ever really calls performers in the top ballet companies kids, but in most cases, the majority of performers are younger than those in top performing groups of world class drum corps. I also think this is a very interesting distinction - educational experience vs. performance opportunity. This is where the real disconnect is.

Oh, Chaos.... (I find my self saying that a lot lately, lol)

So much for one question at a time.

The Cincinnati Tradition has some very exciting news from the color guard! First we want to thank from the bottom of our hearts last season's guard choreographer, Christie Johnson. Her enthusiasm, wealth of knowledge and excitement were major contributing factors in our success and growth as a guard and a drum corps. Christie and family have embarked on a new chapter in their lives and while we are excited that she will still be involved with CT, (she will be consulting from afar) she will be missed by the entire organization. Thank you again for making a real difference Christie, we wish you all the best in your new life in the sunshine state. The next chapter for the 2013 CT guard begins with the introduction of our newest choreographer, Marcus Daniels. Marcus is the current choreographer and instructor for Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. Marcus has over 20 years of performance and teaching experience in the field of performing arts, including 6 years of drum and bugle corps and 4 years of winter guard. He is a former member of Speakeasy Winter Guard in Aurora Colorado; Sundowners Winter Guard in Madison Wisconsin; PresenTense Dance Company of Madison Wisconsin and Madison Scouts. Marcus has also choreographed and instructed some of West Virginia's top Color Guards including James Monroe High School Color Guard, Huntington High School Color Guard, and Cabell Midland High School Color Guard. He has been a guest Choreographer/Instructor at Yvonne DeKay School of Dance in Ironton, Ohio, since 2005. His teaching career began in Denver, Colorado at Ponderosa High School (Color Guard Designer), Arapahoe High School (Winter Guard Designer), Eaglecrest High School (Visual Consultant), Rangeview High School, Northglenn High School (Visual Consultant/Weapons Tech), and Broomfield High School (Color Guard Designer). He was also Color Guard Designer for Nova Winter Guard of Denver Colorado in 1999. Locally, Marcus has also served as the Minford High School Color Guard Instructor, Guyan Valley High School Color Guard Instructor, Marshall University Auxiliary Coordinator 1997-2004; and Hurricane High School Color Guard Designer in 2004. He is also an experienced color guard adjudicator judging various festivals throughout the tri-state area, and serves on the board of trustees for Vertigo Indoor Pageantry Arts Association. Marcus is looking forward to another exciting season with Vertigo Winter Guard as choreographer. We couldn't be happier that he has chosen to join the 2013 Cincinnati Tradition family. Welcome Marcus!

Not necessarily. Looking at the 990s thread last night, there were a few corps down in the rankings who would likely have the financial capability to work with their Boards and their communities to come up with some money for a fresh capitalization. I think what people forget is that the original members of DCI all made personal guarantees in order to get the thing off the ground; that sense of shared risk was helpful in letting them work together and seek consensus in hiring their first executive team (Pesceone and Whitely(?) and in making decisions designed to improve their visibility and financial capacity. They'd all taken a risk, they were all going to share in the reward. A fresh capitalization would serve as a put-up or shut-up gut check for some of those who are currently talking big about DCI's future. If the guys behind Crown and Vanguard and BD et al really think they're ready to kick it up a notch at the DCI level, then here's a chance to provide the seed money for their own expansion without having to go out on their own to do it. Anyway, as I said, it was just thinking aloud.

So 'you' say! The word on the street is that you were actually born in 1905 not 1955; and that you have been able to get away with your child-like smiling face!

I love critiques being posted about a corps has not posted anything. I realize that people have/are going to camps, but it's sort of bush-leagued if we criticize with not basis or relevance to the audience on here. Just saying...

DCI as a 501©(3) is structured that way because it's a non-profit, not because it's a charity. They're not really the same ideas, even though both of them operate under the same designation on the IRS code. DCI is a business co-op, not a widows and orphans charity.

Drum corps has absolutely zero in common with a charitable organization. It is an activity that is only open to kids who have a certain level of ability and can spend thousands of dollars to participate.

My thanks to all for the well wishes for my Mother ... pray for her comfort at thie point ... her numbers are improving slightly but, at 98, there are other challenges ... Glad the show went ok ... I'm sure Vito did a stand up job ... my personal choice would have been for Solomon to take over ... his delivery would have certainly been unique ... Ray's the only one who'll understand that one ... Andy

DCI-Next did not succeed because rather than acknowledging the fact that there are groups out there performing on radically different levels and seeking to maximize the potential of each, it was more of a lowest common denominator approach that would make the entire activity more of a regional thing. DCI-Next could be something interesting to consider as a way forward for Open Class and a few current WC corps that might find this model a better fit.

You are selectively choosing what is in writing. Completly ignoring most recent and relative information. Not just what is in writing but what is currently implemented by the G7.

There's a saying in the investment business that's used when a company is cutting its expenses and hunkering down: "You'll never be profitable cutting costs." While I can't argue with running lean and mean, I think the majority of cutting should be done at the corps level and DCI should focus on growing the client base. If you're a successful corporate leader, the first thing you would say about DCI is "Stop the bleeding" but, in this case, it's the bleeding of fans away from the activity, not the money. The balance sheet of DCI (as represented by the 990's anyway) don't suggest corporate bloat. It suggests implosion. Stopping the bleeding means halt the decline in irrelevance by exposure to new fans, not running the tour better. Then grow the base of support.by hiring a sales staff to go talk to the most obvious source of new fans: marching band kids. I don't consider using corps as a resume-builder such a bad thing, even though some say it's shortened the participation time for MM's (do one season, get it on the resume, then go to work to pay for college). In fact, I'd say DCI should make it so relevant that every music kid realizes he/she has to have it on the resume to get accepted to the best schools. Go sell that. I keep hearing claims that DCI has failed to act on great idea initiatives that the directors have charged them to implement. But when you look into the details that caused many of those initiatives to fail, you find that the directors themselves failed to follow through on their part in the execution of the initiative, not DCI. DCI is asked to do or start something, then the egos on the BOD deep-6 the plan developed by the Executive staff, then claim the ED is incompetent. Then, in steps the savior savants of drum corps to, supposedly right the ship. It's just all too, darn easy. It might be debatable that the staff crafted the wrong plan, or that they were inept at executing an effort, or executing the right effort, but I'll remind that most of the endeavors that DCI had attempted prior to 2010 were initiated by the same directors who later claimed incompetence by the guy charged with executing the plan. Again, look at the facts of those efforts. You'll find reasons different from incompetence on DCI's part for why efforts to restore relevance failed. Remember the 5-year plan? It never even saw the light of day before it was deep-sixed. DCI-Next that was presented to corps BOD's last August? Commandeered by working groups made up of the corps directors themselves. It died a quiet death and resulted in the 7 presenting their proposal to the BOD at the Janual. Many people say that DCI should be run by men with successful business experience and the corps directors should focus on running their corps - how about we start with getting the director's noses out of DCI's business? If you look around now, you'll see men who run, or ran, successful businesses dot the drum corps landscape. Several of them are directly involved with staff activities at DCI. Growing the activity among its chief consumers should be the primary goal. DLB and SS seem to be solid ways to do that, based on the sheer number of indications of interest in competing (from world-wide). I've heard some of the 7 are openly poo-poo-ing those efforts. If history is a guide - and let's hope this new BOD does not represent history - it won't be long before the seven savants of drum corps hack it to death. God, I hope not. A strong leader will tell the naysayers to shut the heck up and get behind the bus to push. We need that leader before we can even think about paying some exec $250-grand a year to be bludgeoned to death by the very people he'd be trying to save. Let's start by re-programming the BOD to set expectations and hold DCI accountable instead of proclaiming they can do it better and trying to take over. Run your corps, directors, and let the business-people run the business. If they fail by the opinion of the majority of the BOD, fire them AFTER you have a better replacement chosen. Don't try to take over, don't try to subvert the rules to secure your power position, and instead focus on giving the business people a product that is salable as a goal to all those kiddies in school.

So much wisdom in these short few words in my opinion. If DCI brought in an outside management consultant firm to do a detailed analysis of what it would take for this actvity to grow a wider audience ( thereby increasing revenues to Corps ) they may very well come back with a suggestion on "the product that we sell" that many in our very small niche activity may not want to follow in recommendation. Anybody that is familiar in the business world and with what management consultants do with ailing organizations know that they tell that organization even before the scrutiny bregins is that they'll be some toes stepped on regarding people and product and that while some will say they are " for change ", when that change that comes forth recommends a massive change in product and/ or people in the organization there will be strong resistence to implementing the change the " outside " management consultants will recommend. As mentioned earlier, DCI matkets currently to mostly music majors... to students and schools. This is their " customer " that pays for their services, which is primarily education, ie instruction. Their primary customer is not the public. As such, trying to grow a wider audience with " the public " will require fundamental changes that perhaps quite a few are not prepared to make. Which brings us right back to square one, and right where we are today. For better or worse, DCI early on decided to change its product to more effectively cultivate its new customer base it saw as its future... the music student in the schools. This is a noble and worthy endeavor. The product became more professionalized and glossed and shined up and made much bigger, and larger. And DCI did effectively become much better selling its new and improved product to its new customer... the parent of the student. But of course, the public didn't respond any better than it did in earlier eras. No surprise here as the public was not involved, and nobody from DCI asked them what they wanted in DCI's " product ", and the scoring sheets were altered over the earlier years to actually diminish the public's feedback in their response to the product they were paying for with their ticket purchase. So now we arrive at a place where some on DCP want to know how we can grow a wider audience base with the public. Well, again, this might very well require fundametal chaanges in both the product and the judging sheets that many may not want to adopt. This is because up to now, the non student music major's input has never been properly valued at all, nor implemented. Absent fundamental chsanges in THAT approach, then we are just going to continue to market this product to the parents of music students in the schools and somehow hope continuing to do this will somehow bring in thousands of new fans... if we could just "get business people involved from outside", and just "learn to market this product better" to the public as they'll love it as much as we do here "if they could just see it and hear it". Well no. The first thing you do if you are REALLY serious about increasing the want and desire and need for your product with the public is to find out what they want and give it to them. Sounds simple. But some people make big bucks getting people to grasp and implement this simple business principle #1

If there's "plenty" now, was there "too much" in the 1970s? Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. Look back at my first post. You see the past two years as especially volatile, but on the other hand, in neither year did any corps have their best-ever Finals placement--and that's the first time that's ever happened two years in a row, going back to DCI's founding. It might be worth determining the average change in placement for each year. Still, maybe we're at the bottom of the curve, in terms of the fluidity of placement, and things will be changing? Yeah, why not. I've calculated the average change in placement for the top 25 corps every year, to get some additional perspective on this question. For example, in 1997, these are the number of placements each of the following top 25 corps moved from the previous year: BD -- 1st (tie) to 1st = 0 Cadets -- 3rd to 2nd = +1 SCV -- 5th to 3rd = +2 Phantom -- 1st (tie) to 4th = -3 Madison -- 6th to 5th = +1 Xmen -- 8th (tie) to 6th = +2 Cavs -- 4th to 7th = -3 Glassmen -- 13th to 8th = +5 BK -- 12th to 9th = +3 Magic -- 8th (tie) to 10th = -2 Bloo -- 7th to 11th = -4 Crown -- 10th to 12th = -2 Colts -- 11th to 13th = -2 Kiwanis -- 14th to 14th = 0 BAC -- 17th to 15th = +2 Musicale -- 18th to 16th = +2 Spirit -- 23rd to 17th = +6 Les Etoiles -- 15th to 18th = -3 Pioneer -- 20th to 19th = +1 Mandarins -- 21st to 20th = +1 Southwind -- 24th to 21st = +3 East Coast -- N/A to 22nd = +4 Spartans -- N/A to 23rd = +3 Patriots -- N/A to 2rth = +2 Troopers -- 19th to 25th = -6 Take the absolute value of all the changes, add them up, and you get 63. Divide by 25 slots, and you get an average ranking change for 1996-1997 of 2.52 per corps. To keep things simple, I have assumed all corps that did not crack the top 25 in the previous year placed 26th (because, for one thing, I had no idea what number to use for a corps that didn't compete at all the previous year). For 1994-1995, 1998, and 2000-2010, there were fewer than 25 corps in Quarterfinals, in which case I divided by the actual number of participating corps. If you do this simple arithmetic for the history of DCI, this is what you get: So the overall trend appears to be toward less turnover, and while the big decline in churn came in the 1970s, the calcification continues. Only two years in the 2000s, for instance, have seen more change than in 1997, and only one significantly so (2002; the other year is 2007). And 2010, 2005, and 2006 appear to be the three least surprising years in DCI's history.

Good thoughts for Andy's mom! I'm sure Vito did a great job as Andy's fill in.

Again, where's the stock market going to close on Monday, Dan? I could really use your crystal ball. I promise, I'll split the profits with you if your prescient foresight is correct at least 50% of the time. We'll make a KILLING!

I did not say that a CEO of a non-profit should not receive fair compensation; the person does need compensation for time and expertise. What I did say is that the 'purpose' of the generated revenue is vastly different between a For-Profit and a Non-Profit. In a For-Profit, after capital investment into the corporation for it to become more profitable, the more revenue going into the pockets of the owner, the investors, the stock holders, the better; the primary goal in a For-Profit is to make personal gains. And that is great!!!! However, it is beholden to the Board of a Non-Profit to maximize the use of their revenue for the Program Mission and minimize overhead costs. In the world of non-profit, especially in the aspect of securing development/funding raising, the following is true: Major Donors, Major Contributors, and Major Investors want to see as high of a percentage as possible of their contributions going to the 'Mission Programs' and the lowest percentage possible going to 'operational overhead'. So, the mindset of a CEO in a for-profit is (personal gain and personal profit is the goal), whereas the mindset of a CEO in a non-profit is, or should be, (while I need compensation for my time and expertise, I want the overwhelming bulk of revenue to go to the mission of the non-profit programs).

The Cadets are always running all the time (hence their legendary endings from...'83 on?), which is why their show this year will be...different. I always hold them (and BD) in the highest regard because their feet are just the best, hands down. 1. It's been staggered. When two major snare drummers left after '08, things got a little rough for the line. When Herbert left the guard after '10, things got a little rough. But they always rise again, it just takes time. 2. Pit's still the worst-written book I've ever heard, consistently. They're stuck in WGI mode (harmony is rare, 'boards are just being smashed, wrists are exploding, "performance" is the only focus). 3. Crown does have great confidence, but it borders on cockiness. This mentality does not make for consistent performances and Championships.