2muchcoffeeman

Indeed. Paul and Sandi write the book; Lauren teaches the book. It's been that way for more than a decade. It's been a pretty good formula. My one indulgent thought about the Rennicks is whether, given SCV's absence this season, they will linger over the Troopers charts a bit more than they usually would. Perhaps, given Troopercussion's talent level and the unprecedented retention this year, they might infuse the book with some extra compositional heft that, in other years, they might have reserved for Santa Clara? Who knows, but I do know that I can't wait to stand in front of this line this year.

I generally favor headwear. Worn right, they hide the eyes, which adds mystery and a general overtone of bad-assery — like a western gunsligner whose flinty eyes are hidden in the shadow of the brim, only the glow of the cigarello visible. Sheikos and buckets less so, but if the chain was worn right, it would add a degree of menace, which is something that I think is part of the secret sauce of drum corps. That said, it's hard to imagine "Downside Up" with hats. Berets, maybe. Depends on what you want to achieve with the show effect.

Just became aware of this artist and album, and there is some beautiful, unusual, interesting -- and fun -- music here. Abel Selaocoe, "Where Is Home"

Between the lines of this worthy tribute is some insight into how we have arrived at today's brutal economics of running a corps.

All very interesting and I will accept it as completely accurate, though it has little relevance to the challenge facing VMAPA. The topic is how VMAPA can best position itself for revival. Insofar as that question involves recruiting from the pool of interested students in its own backyard, the competitive success of CA HS bands at BOAGN would seem to have nothing to do with the answer. What makes an individual student eager, motivated and qualified to seek membership in SCV, and what makes a HS music program competitive at a national level among other HS bands, are considerations that are almost completely removed from each other, aside from the fact they both concern music/dance performance. Consider, for example, that one reason why CA bands don't factor into BOA more prominently is that GN is held in Indianapolis -- a hugely expensive travel and logistical proposition for a 250-member ensemble of California-based minors, and all the associated support. Even in the Midwest, just getting to BOA regionals requires total program buy-in from the principal's office and a massive, engaged booster organization that works fundraising 24/7. Whipping up support for the vision falls largely on the back of the band director, so BOA success ends up being a function of the personality and drive (and sacrifice of sleep) of one person, and the resources they can summon from the school's community. For a band director in California, the burdens are even heavier if only because of their distance from the Heartland. And all of this has just about zero influence on whether a guard member in Poway has the interest, discipline, and chops to audition for Santa Clara -- or on SCV's ability to find and recruit her. The whole question on the table here is whether VMAPA can revive its competitive stature by finding membership from California. I think the answer is emphatically yes, and that the vicissitudes of the CA HS marching band scene are nearly irrelevant to the question. If you're going to make the argument that competitively successful DCI corps require ready and proximate access to BOA-National-caliber HS band programs, I think you've got an entirely different argument on your hands. It's an argument that's going to have to explain the legions of kids who have left places like Iowa -- or heck, places like San Diego -- to join top-level drum corps, and explain BD's 20 rings.

If you cut the population of California in half -- and by extension eliminated a full 50% of all CA high schools altogether, including those that still have marching band programs -- California would still be the nation's 3rd-largest state, bigger than New York. If there is a Swiss-chees-ing of the scholastic music scene in CA, it isn't going to drain the pool of in-state talent potential available to a handful of world-class DCI ensembles. (FWIW, the number of California high schools marching bands listed at marching.com is greater than the number listed in Texas -- exactly what you'd expect to see in a state larger than Texas.) Other Sunbelt states are growing at faster rates, though given CA's overwhelming size, it's comparatively slower growth rate still generates new residents in numbers comparable to the Sunbelt states. Cali is undeniably expensive. Yet its GDP is growing at a rate faster than the national average. Its contribution to the national GDP is, by far, the largest of any state. It's nearly 70% greater than that of No. 2 Texas, even though CA has only 30% more people than TX. CA is simply a higher-performing engine. California isn't some spent force. It has the largest hoard of the ultimate source of the value of capital: people. Plenty of those people, and businesses, and nonprofits, have figured out how to thrive there. If SCV can't hang with them, that's on VMAPA, not California.

Stipulated: DCI membership in any given corps is more national today than ever. But California is the single largest "back yard" of talent in the USA. There is no other state with a potential membership pool within such close proximity as it is to any corps anywhere in Cali, let alone the uber-populated region from the Central Valley to the Bay Area. Why farm Texas when you're sitting smack in the middle of the world's 5th-largest economy? Why sweat the Midwest when your own state has as many people as multiple Midwestern states put together? There's something fundamentally broken about the idea that a 150-member ensemble situated amid one of the richest pools of human talent on the planet would, as a matter of survival, need to set up a recruiting booth two time zones away, at the Iowa Music Educators Assocation conference.

Even for the top corps, appearance fees amount to a very small slice of the annual revenue pie. Unless show organizers start selling out 50,000-seat stadiums or charging $500 per ticket, appearance fees are not going to make an appreciable difference in any corps' finances -- certainly not make-or-break, tour-or-don't-tour, differences. In general, what moves the revenue needle, in descending order, is: tuition, side hustles (bingo, festivals, home shows, etc.), fundraising/grants/alums, merch sales, appearance fees. The order in the back end of that list will shift around depending on the corps.

Drum Corps International

If the Troopers can make it in Casper, Wyo., the Vanguard can make it in the heart of the richest enclave of the world's 5th-largest economy.

I can see it: A teeny-tiny trailer hooked to the back of the gator, which hauls it out from the tunnel, around the perimeter of the field, and comes to a stop at the 50, where the DM unpacks it and places the harmonica on a stand on the sideline

Every night at the food truck will be spaghetti night

Competition is valuable. It's the animating energy of the activity. The members love it because they love trying to be excellent, and competition is a natural way to promote excellence. Competition is rooted in human nature and we respond to it. And it works; the excellence on the field today is unquestioned. Like anything else, it is best enjoyed in moderation. As with many other elements of life, the culture around competition can be healthy or unhealthy. It unlocks hidden skill and confidence within some people, but it also unleashes insufferable egos and narrowed vision in others. It leads some to conclude that if you're not Top 12, you're not "successful." It's okay in my book for this thread to ask "who makes the Top 12?" because that's the system we have. Twelve has become a mythic number in this activity, for reasons that have been discussed at length in about nine million threads. It's also okay in my book to ask, "why do we even have finals at all?" because I believe the competitive energy of the activity that pushes performers toward personal excellence (personal excellence is what corps sell to students) does not require the artifice of a showcase of exactly twelve corps on the second Saturday of August. But that's another thread, not this one. I'm as happy as anyone else here to speculate on who makes Finals in 2023. I have my own expectations on it. What depresses me with unfailing annual regularity is the be-all value placed on it.

I have no knowledge of anything Colts, but this strikes me as unlikely. Citation needed.

Finals culture depresses me. Exhibit A: defining a "successful" season only as one in which the corps is in the Top 12.

A great friend and benefactor. The whole family. >"<

If you are a nonprofit org that runs a junior drum and bugle corps, your client (customer) is the student first, last and always. That is the hill I will die on. Drum corps exists for the benefit of young people who invest themselves and their resources in the experience. Does the general public find value in enjoying drum corps performances? Yes Is the public willing to pay money to enjoy drum corps performances? Yes Is the roar of the crowd part of the reason why young people will pay tuition to experience drum corps? Yes. Do drum corps seek and even require revenue from the public? Yes Do these four facts impose certain obligations upon drum corps to cater to the public's wishes? Yes Is it not, then, all just a virtuous circle with (to borrow a phrase) No Beginning, No End? It is a circle, yes. But it has a beginning: The student and his/her tuition check. That is 12 o'clock on the self-reinforcing circle of participants and fans. It starts there. It must start there. If it does not start there, then the way forward is to stop charging tuition, hire professional performers, drop the age limit, charge $120 for tickets, and hit the road. It would be a hell of a lot simpler business model. Selling entertainment is easier than selling education.

The day you turn the customer of drum corps (the tuition-paying 19-year-old) into the product is the day you doom the activity to extinction

Disclaimer: NOT AN ACCOUNTANT Comment: I think you can include something among your assets only if you own it already -- or if its a receivable (money owed to you for a product sold, for example). Otherwise, I'm not confident that you could include any kind of hoped-for funding from the city among your assets. Unless the Cavies have some kind of contractual agreement with Rosemont guaranteeing the delivery of X dollars on Y date, the corps would not include it on the asset side of the balance sheet. But, again: NOT AN ACCOUNTANT

This was the January camp, just concluded. I would imagine there were a good number of callbacks at that camp, so not all of them got contracts. But I wasn't there, so I don't know for sure.

Trying to solve the cost problem on the backs of props and uniforms and front-ensemble equipment is like trying to balance the federal budget on the backs of foreign aid and ethanol subsidies -- politically potent moves, but financially meaningless. The big timber is in transfer payments -- Medicaid, Medicare, etc. In DCI, the timber is the housing, feeding and moving of 200 people across 4 times zones in the span of 10 weeks. It's the tour model.