Weaklefthand4ever

Agreed. Before is probably not the answer. I think the week after is a more viable possible solution to look at. Perfect? No. Worth putting actual thought towards? Possibly.

And see I thought about that too. Where my inner struggle came in was when I started to think "then we just shift to every weekend a month earlier." It pushes the corps themselves to recruit harder, be more organized and prepared. That seems to be the model the Buccs use and none of us can argue with the results.

Sometime between the last week in July and the 2nd week in August there has to be some flex room. It doesn't necessarily HAVE to be the week on DCI finals. It could be the week before in say, Pittsburgh. Or, if the money is right...which it could be with DCI's marketing, etc., then have it a week after finals. I don't think Finals week is the best case scenario given the current schedule. But surely there is something better than the model that we have now. I would LOVE to have the Open and World Class crowds there for DCA Prelims and Finals but I don't think the logistics work out. So what's the solution?

I would need to look at the schedule. I would agree that WC isn't going to budge on anything that makes money unless presented with something that makes MORE money. I think it would have to be something that would be almost a prequel to what is already going on. I'm sure there is an answer that works for everyone.

I think he at least a couple more for Suncoast didn't he Jeff? I remember Dad saying something about it later on after I had aged out.

1985 Florida Suite if I remember right. I wasn't a huge fan of that particular show but it did have a cool vibe to it.

It was definitely an interesting show to march in. I think with some tweaking, it would be a great finals venue.

Snare line + hangover = 6 years of "NOPE" in retrospect lol

If it was anything like when I was at UA, he could have been "hammered" before he got hammered... Not saying that's what happened...LOL.

Not if they take the "Run up and hit the #### thing" approach to the instrument....That being said, the cat barely even flinched.

Cru had some well written stuff. It wasn't as clean as it could have been but I'm not bagging on them in any way.

I would agree with this statement 100%. And I would truly believe that there are probably folks who are currently or formerly involved that would throw their talents into the volunteer pool to help make that digital marketing take off if DCA would simply ask for the help. I also think you're right in that individual corps should be doing their own marketing in lieu of DCA taking it on. Corps seem to be far more secretive in the last 4 or 5 years. I'm not expecting digital diaries but SOME sort of buzz would be better than not seeing anything until a week before finals.

Certainly not perfect timing LOL. I would just like to have finals a little closer to home than 12 hours.

Thank you for that last paragraph. This shows the true problem with the DCA model from an outreach and sustainability standpoint. I know MANY people have volunteered to help in any way that they can but DCA seems to be deaf to it. If nothing else, I would think the existing corps would demand some accountability of DCA to the future of their tour. I knew NOTHING about DCA until 2003. I marched my last year of DCI in 1991. I followed drum corps pretty regularly, so I was on the inside and still knew absolutely nothing. That's scary and quite frankly, flat out wrong. A governing body which seemingly has no concern for it's own sustained existence needs serious change. If it wouldn't have been for outreach at CV, I would have not had the opportunity to march again. One of the other reason that I think the DCI and DCA combined model works is touched on in your comments regarding retention. If members of DCI don't know there IS a DCA, they have no idea of options after age-out. Combine the associations and have the tours run parallel. Then the current MM's know there are options out there and DCA get's members that may fall off due to not being able to meet the financial or time obligations of DCI plus you get the members who just aren't quite ready. Trust me, even if they leave their DCA corps when they finally get their spot in Open or World class, they WILL remember who helped them get there.

There were musical for certain and I think they got rewarded within reason. It's still a system that rewards demand in content (most non-percussionists can read this as ramming notes,) over musicality IMHO. The best example that I've seen of heavy demand (both battery and front ensemble) along with great musicality was 2010 PR. But I will again say that I VERY much enjoyed their book this year and the MM's did a #### of a job delivering it.

Good point. I was lucky enough to be 2 hours away for both my DCI and DCA days. "The South" is a much harder nut to crack at the moment because we have so few corps. The west coast has no DCA corps since the departure of Renegades. This is where I think DCI could be a huge help because of Soundsport. Grow the business (and it IS a business) organically through both branches. We don't have any Soundsport groups here, but plenty of WGI. I do see tons of groups in Cali and Texas. There's a solution here somewhere (or at least the beginnings of one.) We just have to figure out what exactly it is and then have someone willing to give #### enough to listen. P.S. - I'm exceedingly grumpy today because I didn't get to work in the shop at all this week. Sorry if I offend anyone with my exceptional grump

Yep. Now move it to Atlanta, come under the umbrella of DCI and you can play in the dome! Weather be da####!

And considering there was never an "annoyance" clause put in place......

DCA (and drum corps in general) needs a face lift. Marketing has to be there not only for the fans to know that DCA exists but also to let parents, directors of HS programs and the like, to know what DCA is about and how the potential MM's can help their programs. If the activity at the tables is good, then we have one piece of the puzzle...curiosity. Now how are the corps (let's face it...it's going to be their little red wagon since DCA doesn't market,) then reaching out to the school programs to say "Here is what we can give you." If there is no return on the potential investment, why would they support the activity? If the outreach is good, then slowly but surely, we should see more MM's and fans at the shows. It seems that in your case, the corps is pushing recruitment. However, are other DCA directors having their recruiting chairs go out to the local schools with a presentation from DCA and the corps itself? We had someone from Spirit come out to my HS back in 1984 or 1985 and talk to the band about DCI and Spirit. Several of us ended up marching with Spirit or Southwind and we had some SOA folks even do some instruction for us as well as discounts at some of the Spirit camps. There was a solid connection there (possibly because of Joel Denton, Perry Vandergriff or Jim Gladson,) to DCI and specifically, SOA. So are the corps now doing this type of thing? If not, why not? Maybe it's a perception thing that we have talked about before (Corps stealing members from HS programs etc.) DCA, to my knowledge, does not offer group discounts at shows. I would hope that most corps buy out a block of seats at their home shows for the band members of the hosting school and their parents to see the show. Expand that. You lose nothing by having extra people in the stands. Frans comment about the Bucs makes perfect sense. I'm not saying you have to bus them in, but at least buy them tickets. DCA should then be working on a deal with Box 5 to offer FREE streaming of Prelims or Finals to band directors. They did that at one of the local HS's here for DCI finals. A band director paid for a Flo subscription for Prelims. He got the school to agree to let him use the auditorium on Thursday and called some of the other band directors to have their bands come too for a watch party and they projected Prelims on Thursday night. How much buzz do you think that generated? I work with a lot of "band parents" and because of our job we put in a LOT of hours together. They know my DCI and DCA background because I wear some sort of corps alumni swag almost every day. I've gotten a whole lot of questions since DCI prelims. I truly believe in my heart of hearts that DCI and DCA should merge or have some sort of symbiotic relationship. DCI could easily look at what an All Age class would, look like. Unify the schedule and add a day to finals week. It would be no different than when we had A-60 and A-90. I don't know how the logistics would work but I would think that there are plenty of Open Class shows that corps can attend or World Class shows. The audience is ready built. DCI has the staff in place to help with the advertising, recruiting, housing if needed etc. DCA does not. Again, this is only my opinion. I'm just a former MM. I have never been on the staff end of a DCI or DCA corps so I will fully admit to my ignorance on that front. I do, however, have a background in mass marketing because of instructional design (ID consultants often get pulled into the media department to help with marketing campaigns.)

Probably so LOL. I know my wrists got sore just thinking about the book that the Bucs and CV drumlines laid down last night. Maybe there should be an award for the dance off LOL. I love full retreats. Trying to explain to Britt what it's like for both DCI and DCA is kinda tough.

I watched the live stream from the DCA Facebook page of the retreat. It was a long time but I did enjoy the Cabs Alumni quite a bit. Britt was a little bored with it, but she doesn't have 35 years of drum corps history to look back on. The dance off between Bucs and CV guard was pretty funny.

Very much so. DCA has a lot of tradition that might not quite connect with the current band mom / band dad mentality.

If you have read ANY of my other posts supporting the survivors of the GH incident as well as other incidents of predatory behavior, you would realize that you're barking up the wrong tree with me. I don't expect you to pay attention to what I've said in the past because it seems that you have an itchy trigger finger and the mindset to react before you actually think. Try reading before you fling mud please. I responded to a comment regarding the number of times that GH is mentioned across multiple threads that have literally NOTHING to do with him.

I think it's more of a game than a requirement at this point. The goal is to see how many times you can mention GH in unrelated threads and try to make the reference relate-able. It's kind of like the "meow" game meets the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.

T-Mobile is the devil