Stu

You mean like the Old Coke / New Coke / back to the Old Coke situation that happend a few years back which generated nation wide interest?

Take out the word "strong" and replace it with the word "some" and I will agree with you. All you have to do is look at the impact Cassella had on the Cavaliers style verses the impact the Cavaliers had on Casella's writing. The Cavaliers drumming changed more due to Casella than Casella's writing changed due to the Cavaliers.

This discussion about elite was not started by someone speculating within this post; it was started by the phrase, "...a real power struggle playing out among the [DCI] members..." which appeared in a tweet from Drum Corps World.

All analogies break down when used in a different context. In baseball, only two teams compete during the game; and the home team will play 60 plus games at their own home field. So, home town crowds actually buy tickets to multiple home games to see their home team play various other teams. In the DCI elite situation, six or seven elite corps will all compete at the same show; and the show will travel from city to city and state to state so that different people will buy tickets.

Clarification: All I am saying is that MLB, NFL, etc have all put strict checks in place limiting the number of teams in each division so that they can sustain the quality of their profession. Maybe this is what is also going on in DCI with the elite groups.

MLB has limited the number of Major League teams; this might be what the DCI WC elite corps are wanting to do.

Exactly; but this does not seem to matter to the elite or even to the paying public that only want to see the elite. Go to the Open Class Finals and see how empty the dome is; it will make you cry.

Watcing warm-ups in the lot gets people closer to the action and is quite frankly fun to do; especially with the higher level perfomers warming-up. Which leads back to my point that most of the paying public is there to see the biggies.

Most of us agree that a spilt would be horrible and we mainly look at the value of all corps. Many of us would even boycott the splintering groups. But take our own passions out of the picture for a moment. Look at this from a younger person’s perspective dreaming about grand things buying a ticket to a show. Show A consists of BD, SCV, Cadets, Crown, The Cavaliers, Phantom Regiment, and Bluecoats; Show B consist of (name any other six corps). I contend that the activity, and the culture as a whole, has already programmed in the desire for these people to see the biggies and it would not matter if they were split from DCI. Talk to most, not all, but most kids trying out for a lower corps and they will tell you that they are just attempting to get enough experience to audition for the Devils, or The Cavaliers, etc… As an outside example, more tickets are sold to see the New York Yankees than the Cleveland Indians or for that matter any University baseball team. Name the number of kids that want to be a Cleveland Indian as apposed to wanting to be a Yankee. This is just they way are culture is in today’s world.

Great point. 1972. Hello DCI, goodby VFW. What about 2010????

Each corps non-profit raises their own money through fund raising, donations, sponsorships, bingo (the biggie where law allows), and membership dues. The disparity comes from the ability, both legally and demograhically, that each non-profit has to engage in those activities. For example, some states do not allow bingo, so any corps located in one of those states cannot raise the millions like SCV or BD.

The SCV non-profit organization is completely different from the Revolution non-profit organization and each are responsible for their own well being. DCI is a non-profit organization which has voting members (which currently are just the WC corps) but DCI does not financially help the corps themselves. DCI just provides some venues, marketing, rules of competition, etc... for the overall actiity.

Do not want to digress here, but non-profits are allowed to make money as long as the money goes back into the organization. BD, SCV, Cadets all make millions and millions of dollars each year (especially through bingo). Check out their 990 tax forms through a website called Guidestar. Now back to the topic at hand. The "it" that is caussing the power struggle.

Apparently there is some sort of "it" since there is a power struggle within the DCI WC voting members.

The DCW words that seem to have everyone's attention here are, "...a real power struggle playing out among the members...". Can that tweet from DCW be varified in this thread?

I know that we are just bantering about in the wind and actully need official info, but if there is a split in DCI how will most non super groups survive?

WC corps now have all voting power and OC corps have none; WC corps get prize winnings OC corps get none; WC corps are locking OC corps out of local shows; housing sites are few and expensive; hasn’t the idea of the super division already started?

RAMD prophecies? Please explain.

What you have now touched upon is the overall homogenization aspect in my previous post. Beddis at Regiment was not under the current Valenzuela Regiment Administration (which brings with it a SCV design vibe) and that does change things up for Regiment on a global level. So the overall Regiment identity of today is not the same as the Regiment of Beddis, or Mason, or Prosperie, or Hurley. Nevertheless, while it is true that the leadership of the corps has some design influence, the teaching philosophy and instructional loyalty of Beddis or Rennick is certainly the same no matter where they are instructing. The Devils changed more between Float and Johnson than Float himself did by moving from Spirit to the Devils to VK.

Paul Rennick, UNT, went from Sky Ryders, to Crown, to Regiment as Percussion Caption Head with many of the performers and techs in those corps following him during each of his moves. If you can show how Rennick's lines at each corps drummed based on the corps identity instead of his instruction and philosophy, and show that Crown drummers now drum the same "Crown Identity" way under Beddis as they did under Rennick, then your argument will hold water. Otherwise, the identity is based off of instructional philosophy and instructor loyalty instead of corps identity or corps loyalty. And you know this how? By definition a Public Forum is an exchange of ideas, beliefs, and passions in which people who disagree can voice their opinions. Show me where you have the right "not" to be offended by that exchange.

What I believe has happened over the last few decades is the loss of corps loyalty that used to drive the individual corps identity. Although jumping ship has always been around, it began as an acceptable trend when Star of Indiana secured high caliber staff from other corps (such as the percussion staff from the Bridgemen). Take a look at what has happened since then. A Cavalier used to bleed Green and never would have considered jumping ship; however SCV and the Cavaliers began trading a lot of their staff. Not only did this happen with those two corps, but Crown staff, Cadet staff, Bluecoats staff, ad infinitum have all bounced around from corps to corps over the past twenty years. Once this began to become the norm, performers began following staff from corps to corps instead of choosing a corps for its identity. Now it has turned into a performer looking to audition for the winning corps, or for a corps that has a staff that marched with a winning corps, and in general they are no longer choosing to audition based on the identity of the corps. Therefore, since this is happening with Design staff as well as techs and performers, is it any wonder that most corps’ are becoming homogenized?

Bill Cook set up and personally owned several independent private incorporations with his own capital (ie a bus company, an aircraft fuel depot, a pharmaceutical company, etc) then had his various corporations donate funds and equipment to Star of Indiana as tax deductable donations. The bus company was ran by Star of Indiana because it passed the related business IRS test (Star used the busses directly for the musical unit). However, the bus company ran in the red well after Star morphed into Brass Theater. Although Cook reccomends staying away from owning a bus company, he personally thought that getting corporations to sponsor corps was the wave of the future. You can read about the history of Star as well Recollections by Bill Cook along with Blast and Shockwave by following this link: http://www.starofindiana.org/

While that is true, non-profits have to be very careful where they garner their revenue. For example, they cannot develop an outside business in which employees are paid to generate corporate income; the IRS views that as non-related business income. So, non-profits are relegated to raising funds strictly through patron donations, through thrift stores, through membership dues, through ticket and souvenir sales, or where legal through Bingo. However, a for-profit company can diversify by owning various outside franchises, like Fast Food Restaurants, to generate great amounts of revenue from outside of the activities it supports. Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, also owns a multitude of shopping complexes in which he funnels revenue into the Cowboys. That process is illegal in the world of non-profit.

University athletes have the opportunity to continue their trade as paid professionals well into their mid-life through Professional Baseball, Professional Football, Professional Basketball, ad infinitum. The draft for rookies combined with a certain length of time before players are eligible for free agency and salary caps all keep young prima donnas in check; and product endorsement combined with souvenir marketing and ticket sales pay their salaries. The ultimate question here is this: Can the overall DCI audience and product support actually financially uphold World Class Drum Corps as becoming a professional outlet for marching musicians? By the way, major Symphony gigs like the CSO and BSO are full time paid gigs for the musicians, so paying marching performers in corps is not that far fetched.

I am not referring to how the institution considers transfer credits, but how the individual evaluates what is considered an acceptable grade to earn in a given course of study. If an individual personally considers that a grade of C as an acceptable passing grade to accomplish another task, then I would not want that person to instruct band, become a medical doctor, or an engineer, or choose any number of other professional careers in which we have to put our trust in that person to always do their best.