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BranchHill

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Everything posted by BranchHill

  1. Pull out videotapes from the 80s, hope that the player will still work, and relive the early years of my almost half-century following drum corps. The "Tube," too; catch 'em while you can. Read more, certainly. (Hope there is a high school band season ... and FLO : )
  2. If you care about the future of The Cadets, support them now. Deduction or not. If you contribute philanthropically merely for the deduction, perhaps you should mindfully reconsider your giving. The 501c3 filing will come through.
  3. Thirty years in fund-raising. Confirming: the #1 reason people say they do not give, "I was not asked." (Indirect communication -- brochures, e-mail, et al -- are simply that: indirect communication. They are not "asks.")
  4. I'll bite. Blue Devils will earn its first three-in-a-row championship this year in 2021. It will complete the corps' historic standing among drum and bugle corps of all time. And likely will never be replicated. I do hope that 2-3 corps make the final summit an arduous task for the Devils. The pinnacle will feel that much more celebratory! (And my posting about it, correct.)
  5. Director of Member Experience is a relatively new title, with expanded responsibilities, for any number of positions: Membership Director is one. Recruit, Engagement, Customer Service, are other position titles that could come under this new metric. Whether this position with the Blue Knights is merely a title change, or will include new approaches, it does keep up with industry evolution. An all-around good thing! Here is just one way to look at the position: "Member experience is how someone sees, uses, and interacts with your association. It's also one of the most important tools at your disposal. How members deal with an organization shapes their view of it, so to keep them coming back, you want to engage them through their experience."
  6. Do I recall correctly; isn't The Troopers Alumni Corps (they are calling it "Project") working towards championships in 2023, the 65th anniversary of the corps? I greatly enjoy the alumni corps when they perform at championships. That's plenty reminder-of enough for me.
  7. A season away from my 50th -- 2021. While the competition matters -- yeah, I still gripe to friends if my favorites don't get the numbers -- here is the single most important thing I want these days: For the entire slate to be as entertaining as it was last year! Since this is the prediction thread: I'll be surprised if Blue Devils don't make it 20-in-20. If they don't, I am sure that I will be thrilled with the winner! (I have two possibilities tucked into my back pocket: blue and green)
  8. Perhaps this? More smaller stadiums, like Middle Tennessee State and, yes, Whitewater. Acknowledging the weather implications. Thing is: they would be less costly, and because they are smaller venues, might sell out more readily. Nothing boosts crowd interest like a SOLD OUT sign. For me, both sight and sound vantages are better in smaller stadiums.
  9. Just a slight pushback to Misters "Garfield" and Ream; while supporting "WaxDCIFan's" comments. Perhaps long-range thinking ought be applied to marketing the organization, just as you gentlemen, both long-time posters, followers, fans, and leaders often suggest. Neither DCI, nor Drum Corps International, encapsulate the activity today. While thought and consideration is being given to the continual remaking of the product itself, why not do the same thing -- finally -- to the public facing image? They are already halfway there.
  10. Sticking to my guns on this one: now is the time -- especially with the woodwind vote rebuke -- to rename the organization its tagline now for several years. MARCHING MUSIC'S MAJOR LEAGUE DCI is a well-known brand, to a small subset of people. The activity should be perceived at a higher level than it is. I contend (and have for some time) that a new name, coupled with an aggressive marketing plan and its application over time, can begin to forge both the concept, and the product, in the minds of middle America. As the product continues to change and morph, also over time, the basic premise of a "major league" offering will hold true.
  11. The new name for the organization is already in use, as a tagline: MARCHING MUSIC'S MAJOR LEAGUE Sadly, it might fit this new iteration of the activity even better than it does today.
  12. Continued good holiday seasons, everyone! Dinosaur here; 48th year into drum corps fandom. Have to say, for me, I have never enjoyed the activity more than right now. Certainly I can still conjure the initial, youthful goosebumps reliving shows from my early decades, but as long as the performance levels are as high as they continue to be, I'll be a half-centurion! Only potential downside to the woodwind addition; many of the most competitive bands just-might-almost-perhaps score in the upper teens now. Beef up percussion packages and guard performance, and -- cough, cough -- what's to say they have the ability to be finalist caliber?
  13. DCIBands is a great name! But I thought the activity all but renamed itself -- correctly -- a few years ago. They just didn't go all-in on marketing it: Marching Music's Major League All encompassing.
  14. Thank you for the clarification. Clearly I did not fully research the program. My apologies. I read a great piece on AXIOS' website earlier today, about "giving circles." The gist is that "Philanthropy tends to center on a small number of affluent donors, but a grassroots movement known as "giving circles" — in which more modest donors pool their resources — has been gaining popularity. The big picture: Giving circles are still a drop in the philanthropic bucket, but proponents say they open the field to younger and more diverse donors — and broaden the reach of giving." Might work well in drum corps, in any non-profit pageantry organization. (I tried to include a link to the story, but three strikes -- attempts -- and I was out. Sorry.)
  15. These are all pertinent questions. Questions that, I fear, were not vetted internally before the "challenge" was issued.
  16. Let me weigh in on the $500-per-vote "challenge" from the Scouts. I was a fund-raiser for 30 of my 40-year-career; nothing good comes from this. I am not vindictive, but honestly the idea that alums pool their resources to grab board votes is not a bad one. At least, if you want to show leadership just how wrong-headed this is. Does the gift/vote have an expiration date? Does the vote include board membership, indeed every decision made? Has not anyone considered the ethical fundraising breach built into this? We are all familiar these days with "quid pro quo." Like the incident in the national news, this version of it is rife with the worst kinds of outcomes. The industry needs fundraising help; you good folks on here report regularly about the less-than-handful of organizations that are solvent. I hated reading about this "challenge," but then, I have hated most of the last several years of the beloved Madison Scouts organization. I'm old; I want to hold onto this corps mattering.
  17. Reagan, and Blue Springs, another likely BOA finalist, are in Macy’s parade next week.
  18. Over-produced? You betcha; often. And those programs do not compete as well. Focused intent competes. Always has. As to this weekend's BOA Championships: there are 91 entries. Some will not be competitive at all. I remain fascinated by trends. New ones often show up on summer fields. Love to know the source material. One man's observations.
  19. I was just about ready to give up on this topic thread (thanks MINT for the comprehensive staff change list in another thread), when I read this story in The New Yorker on fans, and their potential for impact on the mediums they follow. Made me wonder about all of the folks here, come together, for a united cause. I read logical explanations of business models, of inclusion, of safety protocols, even some plausible, if unlikely, notions about desired music and show themes. I read that in Drum Corps International's latest post-season survey, Drum Corps Planet is mentioned as an information source. What if, I have been thinking, consensus was gained around some/any of these over-arching topics, and presented as entree to a DCI board seat? Representation. Official recognition of the minds, and efforts, expended here 365/24. To the article: “When it comes to stans (Eminem's moniker for stalker fans) and how they operate on social media, it’s crazy to witness,” .... “These people really think that they’re doing some due diligence by the (medium).” Are you? Are WE? Is our pastime, arm-chair quarterbacking, back seat driving, unsolicited advice, due diligence? Might it resonate if coalesced, and presented professionally? "Now that couch potatoes have social media, they have risen up and become active, opinionated participants. As a result, movie studios and TV showrunners have to cater to subsets of diehard devotees, who expect to have a say in how their favorite properties are handled." Us, too? More of this? Less of that? Eliminate. Add. Multiply. Can we? Could we? "Fandom ... "is born out of a mix of fascination and frustration. If you weren’t drawn to it on some level, you wouldn’t be a fan. But, if it fully satisfies you, you wouldn’t need to rewrite it, remake it, re-perform it.” That's why I'm a fan; that's why I have followed drum corps for 48 years. You, too? All of us? Together? “There’s a fine line to tread on how much you listen to fans, because fans aren’t always right, either. But there are certain things where you should listen to them, because they’re smarter than maybe the super-high-up execs are going to think.” Or ... as it played out at Comic-Con: “One of the things I think we all love about Comic-Con so much is the fact that we all accept each other,” (the speaker) said, to groans. “Think about it! We all accept each other’s fandoms. We all accept each other’s idiosyncrasies.” More groans. (Bold type is mine.) Coalesce. Emerge. Present as a unified DCP brigade? Possible? Even desired? Or ... do we just love flexing our ideas, our connections, our "knowledge base" to each other? I have been wondering about these things a lot of late. I'd love to see the "pros" here become our collective mouthpieces to the organizations that matter most.
  20. What absolute fun this has been, N.E. Brigand. Thank you, again, for extending our drum corps season a few more weeks!
  21. Each generation must get on the same old merry-go-round, only disguised in a fresh coat of paint. American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist, Katherine Anne Porter, had the best-selling novel of 1962. It pertains here: "Ship of Fools." And I am not talking about staff changes. I expect the top six corps, stable or with "lifts and tucks," to amaze. Nothing less than jaw-dropping (it is amazing when they do not, and more often than anyone wants to admit, they do not) will be acceptable. I hope for shows to challenge the top six who bewilder. From the Blue Knights and Stars, from the revival corps Cadets and Phantom. I look forward to innovations that delight from Mandarins and Crossmen. What I am excited about: the rest of the field that amazed this season in ways that we often don't witness from non-finalists and at least the top of the Open Class. Staff changes here matter the most. Annual fresh coats of paint help no corps, but that is often the route taken -- by choice, by circumstance -- among 13-25th place units. It's the rite of passage here. But think of it: last year's off-season musical chairs yielded Pacific Crest's triangulated triumph, the Trooper's gorgeous musical relaunch, Jersey Surf's water wonderland, and the Spartans' goosebump/smile inducing championship. Among others. So don't *yawn*, please, when I am excited about a recent James Logan High School alum taking over as guard caption head; nor *dismiss* a percussion section that will be lead by an up-and-coming indoor group's designers and educators. This roster; found, recruited, hired, and given space to grow will shape the activity's future. (Bless your hearts when long-time, top six staff begin to retire. It's coming, likely sooner than you can imagine.) Oh, and the single thing I am most excited about: the prospect of a 2020 summer season as scintillating, as sizzling, as this one! Amaze us: one and all.
  22. I am going to be a contrarian, both to myself and to the general consensus of this board. First to myself, and the 1980 championships. The Blue Devils' redo of its remarkable championship and record-scoring 1979 show was tepid in comparison; this was to be the Lancers' year! But nerves got to 27th, and the finals night performance was robotic, rote. IF ... the millions of "ifs" in the history of drum corps ... the judges had realized it, just possibly The Bridgemen won the night. And I was no fan of Bayonne, at the time. (Read my thoughts on it, here.) As for 1989, I cry a little every time I watch both Vanguard and Phantom. Kind of like watching the Blue teams at the top of this year's leaderboard. All four shows are championship caliber, if only. Vanguard's revival of "Phantom" was, as has been said here, a "monster." And to me, so far superior to the year before, there is simply no comparison. The dramatic through-line was clearer, and certainly the performance was at a higher level. So then to Phantom, and the signature Dvorak: It has always seemed to me that the luxuriousness of the production, and the music, came to a dead stop three-quarters of the way through, for a drum break. It killed the forward motion of the finale that followed. That has, for me, been the difference in the two. Kingsmen, 1974. Please.
  23. For me, the words that mean the most here are: Denise Bonfiglio, Corps Director. One of only 6 women in the DCI Hall of Fame; out of 130. Her father was an inaugural member. This is drum corps royalty come back to the Northeast. I hope that this relationship sticks, because it has the ability to erase memories and mentions of .... (As for the numbers 6 and 130; Women in DCI has a long way to go to even be on an even field. I continue to wish the effort -- no matter how it came to be formed -- godspeed.)
  24. Here the five that led the Devil-of-a-decade, at least for me: 5/ "E=mc2" (Carolina Crown 2013) Signature championship show. 4/ "Ghostlight" (Blue Devils 2019) Championship by a thousand cuts; chipping away to victory just as they did with "Ink." 3/ "Down Side Up" (Bluecoats 2016) When this drum corps phenomenon dominated the season, I was just sure it would have been at the top of this kind of list. 2/ "Babylon" (Santa Clara Vanguard 2018) Speaking of season-long domination. (Horn snap) 1/ "Felliniesque" (Blue Devils 2014) Drum corps of this era at its masterful peak! Either the first, or second, best drum corps production I have seen in 48 years. (Give me two more years to weigh in with a half-century of favorites. Please ; )
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