C.Holland

likely some of it. there may be some classification of dues as "donations", though this becomes a tricky situation. though if they could pull that off without being audited, members could then write off their dues on taxes. though they'd need to prove nothing was provided to the person in return.

ive already seen my own former team put up an ad for a performer. so lie? not so much. and as a former staff member. yes, we pulled every exercise for the handbook and audition packet from show materials.

pending how the group is registered as a non-profit, there is a requirement for un-earned (donated, grants) income to be a % of the total operating budget.

Mid season? hahahaha. i've already seen a few of those in December. There's teaching to better the performer for the life of the performer, and teaching to better the show. The less you do of the first, the more you can do of the second. This era of drum corps is all about the latter. Everything taught in early camps, is pulled from the show needs.

The situation of drum corps, and situations adjacent to it have changed. Schools cost a fortune to use, you rent equipment to move the group for safety reasons and better service, the costs of feeding and caring for membership costs much more than how we ate 20 years ago, and certainly in the 80s and 70s. Perhaps development is something that the activity needs to figure out. Colleges, theatres, ballet, music programs, art camps, and a million other activities for youth find ways to do it. Drum corps is coming to a point of finally thinking about this, though it may be too late for many.

Apples and forks mate. Different systems of evaluation, different demands, it’s a very different era.

That only works if you’re not starting out below 15% contingency. The two concerns (with world class specifically) are the known money in. You know at least 95% of the money coming in from member dues. You then have to gamble that plus whatever else the board raises and your other revenue streams bring in against costs of food, travel, housing, which you many not know the full costs of (or at least 90%) until 90-120 days out from tour start. I have a feeling that the overall shortened tour (without seeing reduced member dues) is how the corps are forcing contingency money into the overall season budget.

You generally know your designer costs, while they do escalate they don’t rise much year to year. You have a budget for props and equipment refurbish or replacement. You have a budget for any trailer refurbishment/inspections needed. Those costs, unless you’re in dire situation, are pretty easy to plan for. And props, horns, elex, wardrobe, can all be used as fundraisers for the corps. So those are a wash at worst, and free money at best. Travel is a lump sum rental, based on time and mileage estimates, with plans for contingency and overages. However, what might be $500k this season, may be $750k next season depending on your total distance, fuel, insurance, driver cost, available models of equipment, etc. However that is all rolled up into a lump sum rental with the trucking company. housing, is a gamble. the more schools cost to operate the more they charge renters. But you may not need to be in schools for some parts of tour so you can supplement with private rentals spaces, or hotels. So while you can allocate $650k, there’s a good chance you may end up needing $750k depending on where you are and how schools fiscal year updates their costs.

a minimum of 30min a day. concentrate on the basics. make sure you work to become consistent with articulations, being able to use air and give direction to it. take 30 min and break it down into articulations, 1 scale, slurs, technique (tongue/air/valve coordination), and something melodic. so you can work on dynamics on the horn.

grad school teaches you how to teach yourself. World Class Drum corps is defining show needs. Its very much like Broadway. They're not teaching you how to (dance, play, spin, drum, etc) they're teaching you what the show needs. The less time you spend teaching the basics, the more time you get to define, and elevate the design. IF world class was actually about education, you wouldnt see corps ads for "We are searching for YOU (Lead trumpet/feature dancer/percussion feature...etc)" and instead they'd elevate the performers who auditioned to in the first place. not have to search and create a "deal" with a feature which the show cannot live without.

I used to manage a dodgeball league. We rented an elementary gym 4 nights a week when the league was at its strongest. We paid… a lot of money for one gym. It’s good that we had a bud light sponsorship to help pay for everything else that league gave back to the players for social events.

Who cares? It’s a cool parade, it’s a lot of fun for those in London, and it’s how they celebrate New Years Day.

It’s a plug in Electronic Piece of Plastic with pickups and circuits. You can make it sound like a sax, barking dogs, an olds man’s “wind”, G bugles… whatever. But it’s a synth you blow into.

Building management systems that help keep emergencies under control also help to quantify every utility used per sq ft of a facility. So they can understand where efficiency can be improved in operations. while it’s unfortunate that schools are no longer free, it’s also now that we can see just what stress a drum corps puts on a building. And that how much everyone took for granted for decades of all the costs involved. (Elex, water, sewage, security, cleaning… etc) How much does your water and elex bill go up when your in-laws and their 3 kids come to stay over the holidays? Now multiply that by 30. That’s hosting a drum corps.

I think there needs to be a rebuild of show sponsors. Let’s stop paying out appearance fees. Make EVERY corps work like open class. However every show operator should be required to provide housing and two fields per ensemble. (You want a third field? Cool, hit up your board to fund it) That paltry $500, or even $1500 isn’t worth it when the other expenses are so great, and your membership funds the activity anyway. Your corps may lose $15-20k in appearance fees, but can save 75-100k (or more depending on show quantity). Let show sponsors keep every dime they make. But since shows provide housing, more show operators means more free housing and fields. More shows means less housing costs, more performance opportunities for local groups to startup, less mileage in your equipment rental sum, and with operators keeping all moneys, it becomes more incentive for the sponsor to gamble show costs. Bonus for the operator if they can get sponsors to front costs in return for advertising.

Schools are charging as much as they can. You don’t rent one gym, you rent enough rooms as you need according to how many students you have for each gender divided also age by group under and over 18, as well as staff and support staff. You are also passed ALL costs of using the facility back onto the renter. School Security, any required school staff to be present, custodian services, heating, cooling, water, etc. Everything in a school runs via building management system, and thus can be quantified and charged back to the renter. An open class corps out east here was recently quoted near $3000 for an 8 hour sunday to hold an experience camp. That was for the gym, band room, and cafeteria. Only to be used for space. Not sleeping showering, or staying beyond the 8 hour day. This price was escalated from what they paid only a year ago. school rooms and fields are rented a la carte. If fields aren’t already reserved for school sports. They start at 500 each, and can go as high as 2500 depending on turf, condition, stands, lights, etc.

This is the same group which strung along a student until move in, then cut her. This was after all the camp fees and flights from November til June. It wasn’t the first time they’ve monetized students.

It’s an EWI. Electronic Wind Instrument. Not a sax.

It’s cheaper for housing a corps in a hotel than a school. This was confirmed to me by more than one OC Director.

Goodell is not responsible for each teams individual operations. Should the New Jersey Jets go bankrupt, he may step in to help facilitate sale of that team, relocation of that team, or liquidation of assets. When the Walla Walla Wallabees want to start a team. He helps to facilitate their integration into the league. However. his job is oversight of the league's football operations and officiating, as well as supervised league business functions, collective NFL Ventures, which oversees the league's business units, including media properties, marketing and sales, stadium development and strategic planning. His world is contracts, operations of games, media agreements, commercial sales (sponsors and advertisement of sponsors) season operations, and the CBA with the NFLPA. Its a lot of planning, cost control, contract negotiations, and assembling/coordinating the owners to agree on season operations, and schedules. Which, many of the same responsibilities are placed upon Dan Acheson and his small team. With the added component of they have a few flagship events to operate during the season. There is no circumstance where either Goodell, or DA operates a team, manages a team, or sticks their nose into their operations UNLESS there are certain grievances which affect the collective group. (such as reports received from MAASIN, which, while they affect one specific group per circumstance, collectively can affect the entire group of member corps) Collectively they vote and manage the season. They do not interfere in each individual groups operations.

Do you expect the corps directors to run each other’s groups for them? If you’re a corps director or board member FUNDING IS YOUR JOB. Budgets are your job. Balancing said budget is your job. Fund your corps or fund off. They can make suggestions but you can’t do someone else’s job for them. if DCI (meaning the world class member corps directors) really wanted to grow DCI, they’d find better ways to entice show operators, and help out open class. Seriously. OC has no safety net. Show ops have no reason to gamble money against a rain out. Fix that. Stop crying over the big corps and help out the ones who create local connections. The world class member corps directors should already know how to run their corps successfully. That’s why they were hired.

My tone was a bit Eff’d when I came back from tour. So whatever we did in summer after the first summer season, I never carried into normal life.

you can't cap costs when everyone's situation is different. location and costs associated with location are most of it.

I was the last of the G bugle era. And I'm a trombone for funk, blues, jazz, etc. Lead trombone in a big band setting. I wouldnt play in any of these groups like I played in dci. it wouldnt fit the group sound.

I think there's tricks each arranger has to maximize certain cords for outdoor punch. We've heard these progressions a millions times over. Plus some horns have better output in certain partials. So you try to not put too many notes in certain areas on the horns. Bari's for example have a great sweet spot just above the staff. One you get below a certain point its all mush and gets covered up by the rest of the ensemble.