C.Holland

Inclusive… sure, mostly. Diverse? Not even close. It’s not affordable enough to promote diversity. And all the corps who were actually bringing diversity to the activity are gone. I marched 96-01, I can count the members who weren’t white in all groups I marched on my fingers and toes. I can count non white educators on 2 fingers. as an educator, I’m not the diversity drum corps needs. But While numbers are better, in the decade I taught I can still count non white members on fingers and toes, and non white educators I’ve worked alongside on 8 fingers. is it better? Sure. Is it good enough? Nope.

Worse, let’s relive the 80s and 90s. You get to tour time and the bus company isn’t paid. So no one gets to go on tour. Or your tractor rentals aren’t paid, so the semis can’t go on tour. Or worse yet… Suppose they get 30-45 days on the road and it all falls apart. There’s no money for food. (Oddly This isn’t an uncommon problem in drum corps.. seriously) Perhaps they hit Charles city, IA and have to shut down, and then everyone ends up ubering to the podunk airport (should Uber operate there…. or worse… no Uber in bumble**** nowhere) and then everyone just gotta find their way home. kids… get a lawyer. Always get a lawyer when your corps falls apart and leaves you out to dry. (In both literal ways, as well as proverbial)

Old habits hang around as long and board members keep them.

how far back can we go and find issues that compounded on issues? Is it 5 years? or 10? or more?

they had a decade of chances. and they continuously blew it. but what's worse, is that many students are owed money. and even before that debacle there are many students who were monetized to fund what was left before this collapse. cmon man. they made the statement about honesty and transparency, and done much to exemplify these ideas. this is the bad ex, that needs rehab, but instead comes to live off of you.

this corps has a decade of blunders behind the scenes. remember that BoD's hire the director. Not the director hiring the BoD. So its the same cycle of blunder here, because the same circumstances exist that this corps has operated under just with a new face for the marketing material. Its already been stated in this forum in regards to the "Transparency" and "honesty" and yet nothing the corps has posted touches on the predicament which the corps is in. So until that happens, this is all just fancy marketing work, which I hope the person making these billboards got their check in advance.

probation? there's not one bit of info about fixed finances. wonder if any auditionees got their refunds?

spirit, troopers, cadets, xmen, cascades... yup. DCI surely has looked at every line of every itemized number, while in the middle of finding a new ED of their own. yeah. totally got this covered.

whats his non-profit finance and law experience? seams like he's a good music director.

yup. lots of CYA here, plus consistency of introduction, branding, and keeping MC's from "creative last minute surprise thoughts". you don't really want a Brockmire moment when you've got both gramma and little bro/sis/x in the stands.

open class is the BOAT of drum corps. its a hole in the field that corps admin and members are expected to throw money into for enjoyment, expecting not a darned thing in return, and DCI treats it as such. $0 payed out to open class for open class shows. minimal payout for mixed class shows. and diddly squat for anything else. So going to open class is a great feat, and also an awful punishment. You now have expectations to field a longer show, do some minimal touring, and fund it all yourself. yes that's right. welcome to Open Class, now go Fund Yourself.

that would defeat the purpose of all-age. weekend only. you can't get everyone there for fri. so you have to put it all on saturday.

Designers are an extension of the Prog Coord. Designing in a bubble is when you get a haphazard show of thrown together pieces. The PC who gets them all on the same page, who aligns the ideas into one path, will be successful. Boerma is great... but when it all doesnt work together it doesnt matter. I had a couple groups buy Todd Ryan drill, but the PC had it all designed in different bubbles. So it all was just not a good show in the end. Its the vision at the top that makes it all work. Same as we do on broadway.

well. 8.5 to 11 min per performance groups at 17 min a group. with a 30 min intermission. Even if they start at 11 they'll be done by 3 with reserve time. Anytime you get a second or third show... you take it.

doh! so you're saying watchmen, southwind, guardians, RHR, and CS have used this program to foster a program into a drum corps? that's not bad.

There are a few things to remember. Indy on Saturday is hopping. The soundsport food truck fest outside is like a carnival barker. So people will be out. And nearby. The stadium is already paid for. DCI attendance for prelims, semis, and finals has already made the profit without walk up sales. Staffing for the (half stadium) event may be able to be kept under 6-8k if they don’t have all doors open. They won’t. Most of the staffing is low cost compared to what concerts or conventions require. doing some quick math from my days as a venue director of production… If DCI sells $15 general admission tickets and $20 reserved down center tickets, and gets even 600 tickets sold, they’ve paid for the event staffing, and near broken even. If they sell 1000 tickets at $15 they’ve made least 7k. The local bands in Kentucky and Indiana are all through at least their first week of camps, and often bring students to either Fri or Saturday event in bunches. So there’s likely a group discount for DCI and the All Age. 4 local bands from the Indianapolis suburbs will make those sales easy. Getting all the others will be nothing but $$$$$$. It’ll sell. And it’s almost too easy money to be made. People are in town for this event. And Indy, ain’t much to look at once you get past Broadripple. (Good restaurants there.. ask me for recommendations) so they’ve nowhere else to go.

They may. The Open Class champion gets an exhibition.

someone should poke Kevin Gamin on this. He was there. I can say that last year at Bush's show the stands were filled with families and youth friends of the NJ teams. So I felt not young, but also not the oldest. (That's the guys 4 rows behind us who couldn't stop "this isn't drumcorps... " crap throughout the entire evening)

you should check the others retention rates. if you only lose 20 to another corps that's a good year. My students who marched Phantom, Bloo, BAC, Colts, Xmen, Crown, Cadets, all went to other places the next season. Simply because they felt as they could only afford another season, why not try to see what the grass is over there? They wanted the different tour experience and the different staff experience. (usually from the caption head name) Most of those who went to Spartans stayed at least 2 seasons if they could. Though many aged out there.

welcome to 2023. if you're going to give 5-7 peoples in polos the ability to "interpret others reactions" and assign a number to it, you should just remove the number. Its not accurate. stop worrying about the person in the stands giving you the "correct" number. the majority of people in the stands are now friends, family, and those adjacent to each group, while the old fans who were unaffiliated are literally dying off. the students in the stands these days are so savvy that you need to stop treating them like they don't know anything. this is a marketing issue, that if DCI can fix, it will, and it'll market this circuit to the actual ticket buyer... the future member. That's who pays the majority of the bills for corps, that's who get's catered to. if this is supposed to be "the fun circuit" or the "viewer friendly circuit" then it needs to actually be resonant with the attendees, and do something better in accordance with it. Otherwise is the same smoke and mirrors as DCI... just wrapped up with a different bow.

in this "more expensive than a used car" era of DCI... even finalist corps get lots of turnover simply because members get much fewer seasons now due to costs, than 15-20, and certainly less than 20+ years ago. anyone who can keep 50% or better is doing things correctly in terms of member care and feeding.

ohhh cmon. you know that's all malarkey. caption in caption is malarkey. if fan experience was actually considered instead of estimated, this circuit would be different. the shows would be different, the key elements of performance style would be different, the usage and components of "layered demand" would be different. its as much malarkey as the achievement numbers being capped by design numbers. you'll never see an 18 achievement of a 14 design.

Guardians, Columbians, Arsenal, Battalion all came from soundsport

Look at the intended programming and market ( meaning who pays the tour fees) for each group. world class - mostly college students and high level high schoolers who want to and can afford to go away all summer open class - mostly high schoolers and some college students who can afford to be away all summer but can’t afford the world class tour. And those looking to get their chops before worlds all age - mostly high school students with less disposable income or time but are shooting for world class. soundsport - this is for everything that doesn’t fit anywhere else. It’s actually more for admin seeking to create ensembles. It’s designed to be less strict on rules, a smaller performance area, and only 7 min max show. You’ve already seen it help DCA Groups grow (RHR), DCA Mini Corps (Star United), Open Class (Guardians, Battalion, Columbians), and it’s given MN Brass a place to perform. So this is the true starting point for lots of options depending on what your admin want to do and wheee they want to grow. It’s specifically programmed to be nothing more than a day trip. Touring is an entirely different model and there’s a bunch of administrative and financial targets groups have to meet to be allowed to do so. This is to prevent the Div 3 issues that happened in the 90s. drumline battle - is anything goes. No age limit. Just street beats and riffs. It’s meant to bring everyone together old young, slick, dull, and to be very unbuttoned as compared to everything else that is very regimented and programmed. It’s super fun to watch from even my standpoint as a non drummer. they’re not going to cut programming they’ve spent decades building. But they may use soundsport to help facilitate growth of All Age and Open Class. Bluecoats already have an all age soundsport that looked very fun. Who knows they may grow that into an all age group and really #### people off with their thoughtful use of technology on the field. Madison had a soundsport that fed into scouts as well.

I watched this as a staff member of both dci and dca. One circuit, even the scraps of open class had much more support behind it than dca. Not that I’m saying dca is a dumpster fire, but I am saying that the difference between part time volunteers,and a full time office is noticeable. And the details are noticeable even on the websites.