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cixelsyd

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Everything posted by cixelsyd

  1. Well, for starters, only their 18 most successful stores should even be allowed to carry the name "Sears". And among them, the best 7 should get double the amount of support and voice in corporate decision making.
  2. No argument here. By the way, DCI is doing something (TOC, combined Thursday prelims, new judging system, and now SoundSport/Drumline Battle). What do you think of those? Maybe not. But remember, it is the G7 Report that proposes to hurl most of open class overboard into regional circuits that no longer exist. If you want people here to open their minds to the G7, mentioning regional models or "tradition" (i.e. top X = member corps) is not helping your case. What you see here from the people following this topic long term is a desire to find some logic behind whatever "change" is being proposed, and (like yourself) a more intelligent discussion free from the emotional BS and fearmongering from the "DCI will self-destruct in 5 seconds!" crowd.
  3. Dare I ask why? Dare I ask why? If I ask why, does that mean I just cast you as a villain? So who wants to sustain the current situation? I think everyone wants some sort of change. But it needs to be a wise, thoroughly thought out change.
  4. If you say so. But why do you bring these tangential factors up? I thought you wanted the top 18. That will get you a 2 corps league (okay, 4 or 5 if you count their feeder units). Oh, here we go again. Wait. Why is it that the same people who say DCI should return as much revenue to the corps as possible, then turn around and criticize DCI for not having enough reserves? Per prior posts, I would ask whether that is a DCI problem, or a problem with the corps themselves. Actually, they mention that sort of stuff right on DCI.org, so I am not sure what your complaint is. They do not use terms like "semi-pro", however, because neither the corps nor their members profit from this endeavor. The DCI mission explicitly states that they should "showcase the top corps", and so they do. You may have a different suggestion on how to "showcase the top corps". But saying that the DCI model, top-corps-showcasing and all, is "broken" will not help your case. Oh, now we are back to the top 18. So in that case, the mechanism you would use to determine top 18 would be season average scores? I do look at things differently from most. But to clarify, if there is a tangible reason for having a separate competitive division, then it will make sense to me. Divisions with different contest rules regarding corps size, age of members, allowable equipment or length of show have all been employed at some time in the activity, and those are purposes I understand. Of course, those kind of divisions are all in the past now. Not sure what you mean by the DCM model being a bad fit for DCI. DCM just made their top 20 corps members based on prelim scores, much like DCI did with their top however-many for their first 30 years. The main difference was the DCM pay scale, which reflected corps size as well as competitive result. Had pros and cons.
  5. Personally, I am not convinced there should be a set number. Over time, DCI and their corps have allowed that number to vary, so it would appear that they concur to a certain extent. But for the purposes of discussion, since 18 keeps popping up, let us proceed with that. You might be surprised, then. Personally, I am not convinced there need to be separate competitive divisions either. If corps are separated by member vs. non-member, and/or the WC tour vs. some other tour for the other corps, they are already separated. Whether we give those other corps separate sheets or a separate name for their "division" is immaterial in that regard. However, I understand the rationale of DCI and their corps in setting things up the way they do. I do not agree with every aspect of it, but I can support it. So I am open to discussion. Okay. I would like to clarify that rationale as well. Not if there is a sensible rationale behind it. We do this now, and no one is complaining that DCI policy is the equivalent of a middle digit in the face of Blue Devils B, Vanguard Cadets or any other open class corps. Now, about that rationale. Since "top 18" keeps coming up, would it be reasonable to conclude that you (and Daniel Ray) would be happy if DCI simply set the separation on that basis? I would think so, given that you both mention that number, and that you have expounded on the rationale that a singularly clear marketing message of "top 18" would appeal to major corporate sponsors. So if I jump ahead, the next question is how do we pick the top 18? This is why I asked whether you would prefer a promotion/relegation system or a combined contest like we have now. You also postulated a cumulative point system, which is an interesting thought, but I do not see how that could work if the top 18 are on a separate tour from the other corps. Thoughts are welcome.
  6. Hard to say, as with the overall scores being announced, they would not be flying completely blind. But that is an interesting idea. Maybe DCI should try it, even if only for part of the season, to see what would happen. For it to work, though, the caption scores could not be released to anyone, even the corps staffs, so that leaks like the 1988 semifinal results do not happen.
  7. Lower ranks? All 3 of those corps were finalists. As for corps at that level today, I would not consider "Avian" safe design.
  8. I believe that is an admission that top corps spend more (no matter what Slingerland says).
  9. But DCA is not "focused exclusively on the unique needs of corps with younger members". They are an all-age circuit.
  10. The DCI definition of "full tour" is met by joining the tour at San Antonio. As of 2012, Jersey Surf is no longer a "limited tour" corps.
  11. Jersey Surf is not a weekend only program. But do not take my word for it - look at their appearances on tour: Thu 7/19 Round Rock, TX Sat 7/21 San Antonio, TX Tue 7/24 Ocean Springs, MS Wed 7/25 Hattiesburg, MS Sat 7/28 Atlanta, GA Tue 7/31 Salem, VA Wed 8/1 West Chester, PA Thu 8/2 Lawrence, MA Sat 8/4 Allentown, PA Thu 8/9 Prelims Fri 8/10 Semis
  12. But they cannot do that if they follow your previous advice:
  13. So you now admit that, contrary to your previous assertions, that the role of DCI should be more than just organizing events and selling media?
  14. Is that your opinion, or is it what you are hearing from the G7 directors themselves? Then all hope is lost. Correction - grow the business, not the activity.
  15. But it sounds like these judges would have given the same results under a subjective system like today.
  16. Sorry, but when someone pays $100 and gets $15 worth of stuff in exchange, the other $85 qualifies as "contributions" in my book.
  17. I agree. Except that if we did away with the current preliminary format, we would separate the greats from the also-rans in advance, denying them the chance to compete. You are mistaken. The whole principle of the Premier League was to make the top tier smaller. English clubs had lost ground to their European rivals because most European top-tier leagues had 20 teams, while England had 24. As a result, the top English clubs had eight additional matches on their schedules, plus the usual dividing-the-pie-into-smaller-pieces. Formation of the Premier League permitted them to ramp the number of clubs down to 20, divide the pie among fewer clubs, and not long after, regain their competitiveness with the rest of Europe. This sort of situation might have been useful to refer to back when top DCM corps were pushing for a pay raise. There, you had an analogous higher level of competition. For DCI, the only analogous feature is how the pie is sliced.
  18. The multi-billion dollar company cares. And evidently, they must think others will care, or they would not pay to have their logo all over DCI in the first place.
  19. If the 30,000 seat venue costs more, the former would be preferable. But I agree with your premise that it is better to have more fans. I would rather have DCI net $2 million profit from 2 million fans at $1 profit each, vs. 2,000 fans at $1,000 profit per fan.
  20. No, it is not. This is one of the things I have learned from discussions with supporters of top corps. The voting members of DCI, historically 13-25 of the top corps in the activity, decide on rule and policy changes. Some of these changes affect corps operating costs. These voting directors, as I am told, would not be voting in favor of changes that increase costs if they are not prepared to cover those costs. Either they think the change will cause a proportional rise in revenue, or they are willing and able to increase their own funding to cover the cost. Either way, it is not incumbent upon DCI to do anything different. I have yet to see a rule change proposal where the "financial impact" section mandates DCI raise unrelated revenue to cover the cost of the proposed change.
  21. Not necessary to identify a problem? You suggest hiring a high-priced manager to take control of DCI away from the corps and fundamentally transform it, without even identifying a problem that justifies such a radical move? And these questions - give me a break. "Are we as successful as we can be?" Anyone who answers "yes" to that talks himself out of a job. You want someone on your team who presumes they cannot improve? Neither do I.
  22. And if PC had the same split on their reports, their numbers would be lower too. We can only compare apples to apples. (The funny thing is, even if we accepted your premise, Crown would still be spending $300,000 more than Crest.) I am sorry, but the numbers do not lie. Top corps spend more. No, but there is a strong correlation, and plenty of logic to suggest that money well spent makes a difference. What is this - National Twist-My-Words Day? Show me where in my posts it says that I "despise everyone at the top of the field". I have given plenty of positive suggestions on this board. If you were sincerely interested, you would look them up. But I doubt that you are sincerely interested. From your first post, your mind has been made up. You did not come here to discuss with an open mind, and perhaps learn something in the process - you came here to present your point of view, which is remarkably similar to that of the G7. I see no point in repeating my suggestions just for you, so that you can poke holes in them. (Of course, if you hang around long enough, you will get your chance.) Anyway, I am still interested in hearing what DCI does that you call "mission creep". For that matter, I would like to know a few other things: - How is the DCI marketing message blurred? Open classs gets one 2-minute video from the Janual, and some news from the tour two weeks out of the year. The rest of the DCI marketing message is world class. Are major corporate sponsors really balking at that sixth decimal place because of that? - What is different about your 18-corps premier league and 22-corps minor league vs. the current 22-corps WC and 18-corps OC? To me, it still seems that the only difference is the numbers. Dividing the pie into fewer slices, so that each slice is a little bigger. Am I missing something? - Or is it that all these extraneous stereotypes about small corps/young corps/community corps are attempted justification for the above? Since those stereotypes are inaccurate, they only really serve to distract from your actual idea to set the top division based on competitive placement. But again, if I am confused on that, set me straight.
  23. No - another organization that runs a marching music circuit brought in more charitable support than DCI. And of course, that one piece of data is the outlier, owed to that Chase donation. I give YEA! credit, as they certainly worked to drum up votes to maximize their Chase ranking. But I would not dismiss DCI as not having any kind of support base of their own.
  24. Crown had $1,588,600 in expenses in 2011, and placed 4th. Pacific Crest had $679,854 in expenses in 2011, and placed 18th. I think that does disprove your point.
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