jimpjorps

Maybe there's just some critical magic bullet that I'm missing, but recruiting at band shows and engaging with circuits and band directors doesn't seem like it's working to any significant degree, based on my experience burning shoe leather on recruitment for a couple years now. Almost every NE corps has tables at a show every weekend in the fall, and the return on investment is minimal to nil -- after they've performed, kids avoid corps recruiters because they're too busy or too tired or just want to eat dinner before the concessions line gets too long, so the most we manage is cajoling a page of email addresses that never reply to any of our follow-up blasts. Directors don't let us get a foot in the door and throw out the promotional materials we send them instead of sharing them with students, and a fair number actively discourage their students from even thinking about corps. Word-of-mouth from existing members seems like the much better recruitment tool in my experience (though for a new corps, then you get into the catch-22 of how do you get new members without any existing members and how do you retain members if you don't have any coming in the door yet). Staff can be pretty good at bringing a kernel of members in, too, though that varies depending on what other positions they have during the year and how far away they're coming from.

Yeah, it was my post. Schools still operate over the summer even if class is out, and this is especially true of colleges.

Schools still run summer sports when there's no classes in session, and a lot of marching bands have camps during the summer too.

One lean year and everybody's threatening to run for the hills, I guess. I don't think anyone would argue that it's a smaller activity than it used to be, but the landscape's changed significantly in 40 years, and DCA's settled into its niche in response. Kids are busier with school and work and a spectrum of hobbies and interests that didn't exist a generation ago, budgets (both household and charitable giving) are tighter, corps operating costs are higher, and people who see show ads posted in their neighborhood don't really feel like sitting in high school bleachers in mid-July weather unless it's to see their kid or friend perform because they have so many other entertainment options available to them. Something I think might be worthwhile for corps is exploring partnerships with colleges that don't have marching music programs or high schools that don't compete in the local marching band circuits. Beyond that, I'm not really sure what DCA or the corps ought to be doing in this new environment.

They were on-track to Open Class enough to be making plans for a tour and wider recruitment this season, at least. They seemed to have assurance that they would not have a hard time qualifying.

They're a SoundSport member, and that's still under the DCI umbrella.

Mix-ups can happen, especially in complex group booking situations like this. At Indy this year, those of us playing brass with FREE Players were supposed to pay for our own rooms in the larger group block, but this wasn't communicated to us and the front desk staff didn't take our payment info because they assumed our rooms were pre-paid. Three weeks later we got a panicked call from their director asking us to get in touch with the hotel manager ASAP because they got a surprise bill for a few thousand dollars from the hotel, and realized what happened.

I'm starting to think it's time to start ending DCA's season sooner, too. Even one week earlier would help resolve the situation that's developing lately where high school marching bands are required to have a halftime show ready to go on Labor Day weekend for the football season opening game in "Week 0", as well as college move-ins and a whole bunch of other conflicts.

As someone involved in one of the two corps you're thinking of, it's not an unfair criticism, even if it stings a little. It was an uphill journey to get our show on the field at Williamsport at all, and it involved a fair number of compromises, cuts and late-season recruitment to get it to a point we felt would be acceptable to present to the public. There's also a lot of personal responsibility in a 15-person horn line that's playing an arrangement that puts one person on most of the parts; it makes mistakes or people laying out that much more obvious. I know that it doesn't retroactively make the show more entertaining, but I hope it at least explains some of the things you thought were missing or unacceptable. It is definitely something we are already trying to address for 2019.

Sky didn't want to go on first and Tri-Valley Brass did, so they've swapped spots. I think the schedule is otherwise the same.

Highland is at Indian Park (104 Park Rd) in Montoursville on Saturday.

Like Kamarag said, we'll be in Reading tomorrow. We had a tough time with scheduling this year because of the timing of our approval and because of some longstanding member scheduling conflicts. We were bumped from the Clifton show, couldn't do the Jefferson Township show because about a half-dozen of us had already committed to being in Indianapolis volunteering with the Free Players the year prior, couldn't do Peckville because the roster was already full, and decided not to do Woodbridge so that we wouldn't be doing three show weekends in a row. It wasn't our preference, but that's how it shook out, and I think we're going to be plenty ready for our debut.

The combination of the timing of our approval, our ability to travel far afield and some member scheduling conflicts have made our scheduling difficult this year. We're confirmed for the Reading show and finals; we're trying to get into another show currently but I don't want to preemptively talk about anything that isn't confirmed.

Highland Regiment has passed their evaluation.

There were a few low brass I&Es on upright euph, trombone and concert tuba last year. The top two in the bari/euph/trombone category and the winner of the tuba category all played on non-marching instruments.