Eleran

Tell them my son marched DCI every every year since his first contract at 13. Didn't stop him form getting into the #2 school in the world for his major. Yes, I'm bragging, but also mentioning it because I see so many parents (here in NJ) that think their kids have to pad their resumes with all the rote 'check-the-box' activities, meanwhile avoiding a lot of activities which (a) their kids might better enjoy, and (b) might actually have more of a lasting impact on their development. Edit: and that was one of the items on my long-lost list of things to investigate prior to any corps moving: are there cultural trends in the region that are pushing participation in the marching arts down or up?

I had this really long post about considerations before moving, but have been getting error messages all day when I try to submit. I don't feel like typing it again. Long story short, IF Cadets were to move, there are a host of criteria I would hope they evaluate in great depth before picking a new home.

You DO know that only applies to legal prosecution by the government, right?

Hawaiian shirts

I only looked up the 40 that competed at 2018 Championships in Indy. I don't think Battalion competed there, did they? Edit: Battalion - 2017 - $317, 096 revenues - $0 loans

Edit: posted in jest, but to be honest, layer that over cream pants, and do some sort of collegiate/athletic retro show ... wouldn't look bad.

In the interest of getting some actual facts out there (albeit dated, in some cases), I've downloaded the financial reports from Guidestar (the free version, not the premium version), and below is a chart of the 40 corps from this year's championships, their 2018 placement, the year of their most recent Form 990 on Guidestar, their revenues reported for that year, and any "Loans & Notes" listed under liabilities. This is all publicly available data, and can be obtained for free by anyone. Caveats: I am not an accountant. To the extent I may have misstated anything herein, or to the extent the below does not present an accurate picture of a corps' current finances, I welcome any corps (or anyone more knowledgeable about these) to offer corrective or updated information. Mostly, I did not review the individual 990s for each corps, but took the info from the Guidestar report of the 990 data Most of the 990s are 2-3 years old, and some corps have undergone substantial changes in that time With regard to the Loans & Notes, those numbers sometimes fluctuated greatly from year to year, so the numbers may not be representative of a corps' present situation Many of the 990s are for the parent organization, which may encompass several different programs, each with their own separate revenues and expenses (eg. - Santa Clara, Blue Devils, Cadets, Colts, etc., have more than one corps; Cadets' also includes the USBands circuit; etc.) some corps may have additional sources of revenue that are not reported on their 990, such as an alumni or "friends of" group that may buy things directly for the corps' benefit (eg. they might buy food and supplied for the corps on the road; Shadow is supported by a school district, in addition to the Oregon Band Boosters; etc.) Corps 2018 990 Year Income Loans&Notes Santa Clara Vanguard 1 2016 $4,586,872 ($518,614) Blue Devils 2 2015 $3,341,991 $0 Bluecoats 3 2016 $2,073,202 ($621,091) Carolina Crown 4 2015 $2,314,264 ($379,719) Boston Crusaders 5 2016 $2,855,336 ($1,676,811) Cavaliers 6 2016 $1,221,329 ($168,668) Cadets 7 2015 $5,442,229 ($430,741) Blue Stars 8 2016 $1,318,407 ($367,353) Blue Knights 9 2016 $1,644,938 ($72,412) Mandarins 10 2015 $819,467 $0 Phantom Regiment 11 2016 $1,313,707 ($46,224) Crossmen 12 2016 $1,279,912 ($66,752) Spirit of Atlanta 13 2016 $924,113 ($170,868) Colts 14 2017 $1,560,621 ($290,034) Academy 15 2015 $887,181 $0 Madison Scouts 16 2017 $1,206,904 ($253,167) Troopers 17 2016 $905,448 ($368,174) Vanguard Cadets 18 see above Blue Devils B 19 see above Pacific Crest 20 2015 $1,020,506 ($10,430) Music City 21 2016 $483,964 ($25,000) Oregon Crusaders 22 2016 $864,067 ($113,063) Gold 23 2015 $316,056 $0 Genesis 24 2016 $575,100 $0 Spartans 25 2017 $629,834 ($21,746) Legends 26 2012 $464,945 ($198,743) Seattle Cascades 27 2016 $580,836 $0 7th Regiment 28 2016 $258,923 $0 Guardians 29 could not locate Jersey Surf 30 2015 $612,791 $0 Louisiana Stars 31 2016 $318,032 $0 River City Rhythym 32 2015 $296,473 $0 Southwind 33 2015 $199,985 ($13,820) Jubal 34 n/a Golden Empire 35 part of Bakersfield College Foundation Pioneer 36 2016 $381,126 $0 Shadow 37 2016 $305,379 $0 Colt Cadets 38 see above Raiders 39 2016 $253,755 ($23,500) Heat Wave 40 2015 $74,271 $0

I thought it was Old Yellow-Stain ...

EXACTLY, what I thought of when the OP said "It's entirely possible to judge it objectively and even place it (roughly) on a universal scale from bad to good." That said, I don't disagree with a lot of his points as they relate to many show designs over the last decade.

Oh, that I agree with whole-heartedly. I was not a fan of re-treading Mass last year. And while I don't mind little signature things, like the Rocky Point allusion during the Zpull, I really want to see Cadets chart their new course, not circle back to past glories. Doesn't mean all the music has to be of recent composition, but new to Cadets.

But most of their camps the last three years (or more) have been in Jersey anyway, so simply moving the corporate offices won't change much.

As of today, he is officially a domiciled resident of northern California. Hope the prevailing winds keep the forest fire smoke away.

I move that the Cadets immediately relocate all activities to northern California. Is there a second?

Don't scoff - there's at least one lower-end World Class corps for whom $120,000 would mean 1/5 of their yearly income (based on 2015 Form 990). I don't know if they actually get anywhere near $120,000 from appearance fees, but if that number is accurate, that's a fairly large chunk of their income, compared to $0 appearance fees if they were open. Edit: $120,000 would be over 30% of another certain World Class corps' annual income, based upon 2016 Form 990 Edit: Heck, that amount is still 10% of a certain World Class FINALIST corps's annual income, based upon 2016 Form 990

Alright, Cadets ... it's been nearly 48 hours since Finals ... Oregon Crusaders already have an Audition recruitment video up.

Well, what if a corp decided to limit their color guard to two flag-bearers and two rifle-bearers that stood at their side the entire show?

As far as revenue generation, I think USBands remains a good branch for YEA, which both generates funds for Cadets but also provides an already established framework and system for competitive high school marching band in the region. According to YEA, they numbers of bands registered this year are substantially at the number from last year, so they don't appear to have taken much of a hit. Should they be working to expand their footprint? They currently only hold State Championships in NJ, NY, PA, MD and VA, with regional championships in New England and Southern States, so I presume there are still plenty of areas they could expand into. What about leveraging relations with those high school bands further? They have hosted "Music is Cool" camps with the Cadets while they are on tour, but frankly I think those have (a) interfered with Cadets rehearsal time, and (b) based upon reports not always been very valuable to the kids. What about piloting a program to provide instruction to HS marching bands during their late-summer band camps, and into their season? Instead of letting each HS find and contract their own techs, free-lancing, from Aug - Nov, the "Cadets Training Corps" would gather and train a collection of instructors in various areas, and they could contract directly with the school music programs to provide services. That has happened in a lot of youth travel-level sports over the past two decades, where instead of each team finding its own "professional" coach the club would contract with an organization that supplies the coaches for teams, and provides clinics and camps, etc. The schools would benefit in knowing that their techs are [hopefully] qualified through the Cadets vetting/training, and that band directors would not have to search far for their own techs. The techs would benefit from having a greater network for finding work, as well as getting Cadets training on how to tech. The Cadets would charge appropriately, and hopefully make a little money out of it, as well as having another opportunity to get their brand name out there among the high school set.

Thank you for betting on Cadets. If you would also consider donating the proceeds of your wager to the Cadets, that would be greatly appreciated. Wagers, annuities, insurance payouts, bequests, and other financial assets can all be donated to the Cadets, not just cold cash! Find out more ways that you, your family and friends, can give to Cadets, here! The Cadets are a program of Youth Education in the Arts, a non-profit organization which is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

Maybe we need a teary-eyed video plea to raise $300,000 in 3 days.

At a minimum, it's about time they separate Percussion into separate judges for Battery and Pit, since it's ridiculous for them to be running back and forth between the two, especially when they have to go all the way around the huge pits of today and avoid all the speakers and mics, etc.

I'm not certain what this means. This year they used music composed in 2018 (Demonic Thesis by John Psathas) and 2008 (Ara Batur by Sigur Rós). Granted, last year they spent the whole show in 1971, but the year before that half of the show was composed in 2006 and 2014 (Turning and Wine Dark Sea, both by John Mackey). Do you mean they need to explore certain specific genres of new music, such as GOT7 or Bieber (BD '15, '16) or Beck and Imogen Heap (BK '17)? If we look at the source music used this year by the six corps above Cadets (see below), I don't see a lot of music that is necessarily newer than what Cadets have been using, and most of the new pieces are simply Brass Band or film scores, which are not really ground-breaking exploration though they will always present great source music options. I'd say that only a very few pieces constituted new music, and I'm not sure how effective they were. Which pieces stood out to you as new and effective this year? What specific avenue of new music do you think Cadets should explore? Cavaliers: 1990, 2014 (brass), 1928, 2006 (film), 1988, 2003, 2001, 1939, 2003 Boston: 1995, 2009 (band), 1983, 1937, 2000 (film), 1779 Carolina: 1887, 2014 , 2017 (band), 2013 (band), 1964, 2012, 1995 Bluecoats: pre-1991, 1976, 1979, 2006, 1939 Blue Devils: 1944, 1939, 1988, 1967, 2016 (film), 2009, a couple pieces that are recent but I can't find dates, 1998 Santa Clara: 2010, 2005 (brass), 2014 (brass), 2014 (film), 2017 (PS - this is the type of discussion I wish we had more often here on DCP; let's keep music as the central focus of DCI!!!)

He still has three more years, and as of earlier tonight, I know he wants to go back to Cadets next year [though nothing is certain]

Thanks for all your love and support this season for the Cadets.