It's really a multi-tier issue that I see.
1) Their region has nine corps (Brass, Govies, Chops, RCR, Shadow, Colts, Colt Cadets, Blue Stars, and Madison) which draw from the Twin Cities Metro. A few dozen of Brass' members march these corps, or are on their staff. Not counting the numerous other non-metro pulling corps Brass' members are apart of (Oregon Crusaders, Bluecoats).
2) They relied too heavily on the 25-35 year olds to boost their numbers...While this is usually a good thing, it just so happened that many of these members all joined around the same time... They've all been apart of the corps for five-ish years, and were ready for that break. In addition to, many of them are getting married, starting grad school, and having children.
3) Brass has always had to rely on vets to recruit in the hornline; my assumption is that their want for a larger hornline, versus balancing realistic/obtainable numbers, has burnt out a large swath of their membership. Between having to teach the mid-season recruits drill/music, and balancing their own load... It's easy to see burn out.
4) I've always been curious about their Wednesday night rehersals. I would assume this impacts potential membership, as I know I couldn't commit to Wednesday evenings as a working professional.
Whether there are more internal issues at hand, I'll never know.
