cixelsyd

Leaving a falsely premised thread sitting here has its drawbacks too. It risks misleading anyone who fails to drill down to post #19 to find out the truth.

Two of those corps do not have leaders in place. The rest are not willing to answer. But we are starting to talk past each other. I sense your concern is about overreaching "gotcha" posts (a valid and timely concern at the moment), and what you characterize as "dirty laundry" about specific corps. My concern is about trends impacting multiple corps.

Those are the kind of questions that arise. And forums like this one are a reasonable place to get feedback that points toward the answers.

Problem - multiple corps are being sidelined, either for a year or permanently. Louisiana Stars. Legends. Both SCV corps. Southwind. Cadets. Most cite inability to meet costs; one simply had no one to run the corps. Cadets have both of those hurdles. Go! Where should I take this?

That 65 I was referring to was the Stentors. That is how compressed DCI scores have become recently. The last-place open-class corps finished with the same number as what Colts opened the season with.

Bottom score at DCI 2023 was a 65. Given that, I would think 11 of the 12 all-age corps would safely break 60 at finals.

Yes, they have led SCV to a renewed focus on transparency. Whether that means providing or thwarting transparency, however, remains to be seen.

I did say "ready, fire, aim". Maybe it is more like "fire, aim, ready". Or just "fire".

Yes. Like that episode yesterday. Or anything where you extrapolate on the basis of a website being perfectly up to date.

Two thoughts: 1. When a corps has problems with abuse or corruption, and every possible option to address them has already been exhausted (including contacting them directly, as you suggest), going public is the last resort. 2. Social media makes it possible to air dirty laundry globally, and generate rage in a matter of moments. People these days are being conditioned to "ready, fire, aim". These factors combine to generate a rush to judgment based on emotion and the absence of critical thinking. I call it "cancel culture".

GoFundMe.

First Federal Blue Stars.

Apparently, yes.

This does not look good. As far as the 2019/2021 issue, I cannot say whether the fault for that belongs with VMAPA, or if someone at DOJ just dragged/dropped the wrong file into the posting. But either way, VMAPA ought to get it resolved quickly for their own sake.

I do not see where it says Rick Bays "stepped aside".

Since no one was responding, I posted some ideas to help start the discussion.

While I included a little humor, these are all real-life revenue/fundraising ideas for drum corps. I provided a couple of dozen because as SCV teaches us, and as you said in the OP, "Don’t rely on a small number of revenue providers.". At the same time, I think everything should be on the table. If a corps has the ability and opportunity to operate a legal and profitable bingo, why should we tell them not to?

That drum corps does it with brass, percussion, movement, and throwing weapon-ish things. No one is asking people to sell plasma (or that other thing) in order to keep drum corps going. But to the wider question you raise about how to justify this to potential corporate mega-sponsors? You are correct - it is not unique in that sense. A corporate mega-sponsor would therefore be justified in considering a host of other youth activities as viable contestants for their sponsorship dollar. Edit: ... and since so many other youth activities are cheaper to operate, why should a corporate mega-sponsor take on something as extravagant as contemporary drum corps? I do not see that kind of bailout coming. This is another reason why when the drum corps financial forecast gets stormy, I tend to focus on the cost side of the balance sheet.

Run a bingo. Sell candles. Apply for grants. Collect fees from members. Collect fees from non-members for camps that double as educational clinics ("experience camps"). Expand the above idea virtually via online music lessons. Collect fees from auditions to offset the cost of staging them; invest any surplus back into the corps. Tweak above fees to ensure there is a surplus. Run related youth programs (i.e. dance, drumline, band) in profit mode, and invest the proceeds back into the corps. Buy/sell related equipment if it can be done at a profit, and invest the proceeds back into the corps. Rent equipment out during the off-season while it would otherwise be unused. If you have a corps hall and/or land, rent it out when the corps is not using it. If you don't, consider investing in the above. Solicit donations. Host a show. Host two shows. Run a marching band circuit. Run an event ticketing service. Sell souvenirs at DCI shows. Sell souvenirs via an online store. Partner with other businesses such that a percentage of sales you generate go back to the corps. Similar to the above, a corps-branded Visa or Mastercard where 1% of purchase amount is automatically donated to the corps. Run concessions at a local sports venue; invest the proceeds back into the corps. Run a pep band, drumline, etc., for a local sports team; invest the fees you collect back into the corps. Run a custom music/motion entertainment service for corporate clients; invest the fees you collect back into the corps. Move your corps to a suburban Chicago city, and talk their local government into sponsoring the corps. (Or maybe reverse the sequence of events there.) Collect appearance fees from DCI. Apply for DCI membership, to increase appearance fees and add revenue sharing.

That is another looming, growing issue - nearly no one wants to run a corps. Cadets now must search for one of those few such people.

By recruiting locally, so that there was no waiting for a "move-in" before show preparations could begin in earnest. (And to be honest, also by repeating half your show from the previous year.)

By the thousands? If we did this based on auditionee demand, then every corps would field 80 battery and 20 horns.

Adding woodwinds would not cut costs. (Who do you complain to when a moderator posts off-topic?)

I see both sides here. If a corps has a proper budget, they will have certain amounts set aside for contingencies and therefore should have at least a sneaking suspicion which way the final tally will break based on how many things went wrong on tour. But depending on how your corps makes decisions, you may not know the difference between bad and full-stop bad until the full BOD has seen the final tally. Either way, I know I keep hearing about how DCI drum corps have aspired to run like businesses. And I also keep hearing that over 90% of small businesses fail.

This thread broke the news about Cadets suspending their 2024 operations, per a press release which stated the cause. So the cause was already part of the topic to begin with. If you want a thread limited to mourning, you are welcome to start one for that purpose. Click where it says "start new topic". Give it an appropriate title and opening post, so that people know what the thread is intended for. After that, if people try to drive the thread off-topic, moderators will delete the off-topic posts.