UNCGQ

I can say that if you requested the rights to "Wicked Game" from Tresona during the time period when Boston used it this was the response you would get from Tresona . . . "Wicked Game appears to currently be in transition from one publisher to another and we expect a very long delay with this request." It's possible that since that time Tresona has acquired the song.

Agreed. I can't speak for more than a handful, but at various times in the past decade the BoD did receive written notice as to why employees decided to leave from the employees themselves. Failing to take any action on multiple reports I would also argue was negligent. So, pretty obvious that they didn't want to hear it and when they did hear it, they ignored it.

Carolina Gold as well.

This is a point that goes largely un-noticed in the 'who made Finals discussion'. There are no shortage of pluses to making Finals versus performing in 11th as the exhibition corps when viewed through the admin eyes (more money, voting membership), but if we're all about member experience, performing in the exhibition at the end of the night under the lights, with zero pressure, is a much better experience than going on at 6:45 pm, especially if you're several points away from the 9th place corps. We were in Finals in 2013 and 2014, and without looking I can't tell you the placement and I'm the Executive Director. On the contrary, I remember every detail about the night in 2015 when the corps went on as the 'exhibition corps' at the end of the night. It's an experience we still talk about because of how great that 'last corps of the night' feeling is. In terms of the 'if KS didn't come so and so would have been in or out' in any given year discussion, I won't speak for other groups, but quite honestly it's not really anything we think about, more so because we don't really see much of the 'direct competition' anyway before Championships. If they hadn't come this year we would have landed that 11th spot I just mentioned loving, but I don't think we ever really consciously thought about it. You do your best show, you hope it works out. If you don't like the result, go back and figure out what you need to be doing to get a better number. -Larry

Carolina Gold - Rothfuss Park - 1648 Five Mile Line Rd, Penfield, NY 14526 Friday - 9:30 am - 7:00 pm Saturday - 8:15 am - 11:15 am

Not to 'derail' the discussion from the turn it took, but just wanted to chime in regarding why we're not at the CV show in a couple of weeks and choose to go to Reading to end the season for those that like the 'inside baseball' type of discussion. Most out there who have been involved at the admin level of various corps over the years know that a million different 'non-obvious' reasons factor into why a group does or doesn't do a particular show and this is one of those. We love the guys 'down the road' in Atlanta absolutely to death as Dan and crew will attest, but for us, with Champs in Rochester the next weekend, we're able to leave both equipment trailers and renal truck in the PA area after the show saving on transport costs of those and 'wear and tear' on the trailers and drivers, and although there are many other smaller 'contributing factors', that one is the most significant. We perform in Charlotte Pride the following day and anything we can do to make trip a little more tolerable before heading north a few days later factors large into the discussion when we piece together a schedule. The loss of the Downingtown show hurt and the lack of a performance opportunity at the end of July that we normally have hurt as well. But with that said, there wasn't much anybody was able to do between the loss of the stadium for the PA show, the lack of the dome for the DCI show, etc. We'd of course like more performance opportunities for the members, more scores and additional input from the judging community but the season thus far has turned out how it has turned out, and that's not the fault of any of the show sponsors of those two events. Some years are just like that. We'd of course love to just post the video of the run from our Friends & Family show last weekend, but as you all know, it today's world of Copyright litigation, those days are long over. With that said, we have our last full rehearsal weekend coming up and look forward to seeing everybody in Reading and Rochester to close out the season before our three Independent Open indoor groups get rolling a few weeks later. Best wishes to all and see you on the 50! -Larry Harper, Jr.

Carolina Gold - "So into you . . . "

As many have said, it's not so much just the bottom line asset number, or what direction it's going, but 'how' each org chooses to interpret it's numbers that they submit to the IRS. You could change the person/firm who prepares your 990, and it may look like a completely different picture the next year depending on how you classify expenses and income. For those who have experience with the budgets of these things, the most interesting reading is deeper inside the filing. It's also interesting to see a rough idea of 'total organizational cash flow' and to just mentally try and match up to our 'perception' of the organization based on anecdotal evidence. If our resident expert returns, I'd love to see a compiled sheet of the corps, after all the entire activity is built on volunteer labor ;) -Larry

Carolina Gold: Rothfuss Park 1648 Five Mile Line Rd. Penfield, NY 14526

When a DCA corps goes to a DCI show, DCI judges are judging the corps on DCA sheets. As a DCA director, I greatly appreciate their comments and appreciate the 17 minutes DCI gives us on their stage, but honestly, their numbers could be in Mandarin, because for the vast majority of the judges, we are the only DCA corps they'll see all year, and quite honestly, at a show like ATL, they have 20 something DCI corps to judge that day. I don't expect them to be able to accurately place DCA corps within the proper context of the entire circuit.

Regarding the Carolina Gold uniforms, these are jackets that were first used for the Carolina Gold Winds group this spring in WGI, and are now being used with the drum corps. I think all will notice the trend towards 'non-traditional' uniforms across the entire activity, and this is just another example of that. Also, for a corps who usually suits up and performs in the sunshine instead of later on under the lights, and does most of it's shows in the south, it's a much physically cooler experience for the members. We have a perfectly good set of those hanging on the rack that we may use again one day.

As with most things, some aspects can be chalked up to the new world we find ourselves in, and I can only speak for one corps so . . . We have a Dec and Jan camp for brass and percussion and then we don't see anybody again until the last weekend in April after WGI wraps up. We currently have two indoor groups, and alongside all the kids who do indoor somewhere else, the weekends of 'allhonorsomethingdistrictstateband', you take a weekend or two to solidify who you have and get rolling in May just in time for the weekends of college graduation and high school graduation. Our average age across the org is 17.5, and I'd love to tell everybody to stop missing rehearsal or else, but we all know that that's not realistic for a circuit where a significant number of corps struggle with just staying 'full'. So you take who you have each weekend and keep pushing forward even though you have a large number of folks out each weekend. This for sure is not the case for all corps I'm sure, but that's the case for many. The influence of scholastic and indoor had risen and there are only so many weekends in a year, so somebody has to lose out. Nothing is the way it used to be, a point no more clear than the fact that I'm posting this on a phone that could blow my first computer out of the water.

Whatever does or does not happen . . . the short answer is laws and lawyers. -Larry Harper, Jr. Executive Director Carolina Gold

Thanks so much for the kind words Dan! The two 'DCA' indoor guards did quite well this weekend with MBI and Legacy presented by Carolina Gold both as Finalists. MBI came in 10th and Legacy placed 3rd overall out of the 70-ish Independent color guards in class. We're also happy to thank MBI for coming down after their Finals run to help with 'floor duty' for Legacy's Finals run! Legacy is on their way home today and Carolina Gold Winds will be coming up to compete in WGI Winds World Championships next weekend. As Dan alluded to, I'm sure there is a huge participation by DCA corps members in the various WGI Championships this weekend. Some sights from the weekend. -Larry https://flic.kr/p/G9M5ST https://flic.kr/p/G9M6E4 https://flic.kr/p/FevVQa https://flic.kr/p/G1BKFu https://flic.kr/p/Fek871 https://flic.kr/p/Fek5kj https://flic.kr/p/FevTzP

Why should they change their age rules? Is there a shortage of other corps in the Eastern PA/NJ to march for other than C2? Our corps sets a 'lower age' (and I'm sure many other corps have had their own age rules in the fifty year history of DCA). Why should C2 not be allowed to have whatever membership they want? If somebody really wants to participate in the DCA activity there is no shortage of other corps to march with who would be glad to have them, it's not like every corps is maxed out on membership. I haven't met anybody yet who can give me a reason other than, 'they're good and we don't like that', as if they opened the floodgates to all those 42 year olds who have been dying to march C2 over say, Bucs, Cabs, Fusion, etc., and the corps would get worse. The activity is getting much, much younger and lots of people don't like that. Bending organizations by force of will isn't going to change the economics or dynamics of the activity.

That is correct, although I do believe that all who are producing the live stream content are doing so in the hopes that they are able to go back one day and release the content if the situation at large were to change in the future. They're not simply throwing the content away because you never know if a breakthrough happens.

This as well. No other major circuit (BoA/WGI/DCI) still sells the physical products due to the crazy world of copyright we currently live in. The future is streaming video, and unless something major changes, I don't foresee a return to the physical products anytime soon across the activity.

Carolina Gold launched its latest program offering on October 18th, 2015, Carolina Gold Winds. Look back with us at some of the moments from the birth of our latest ensemble. Audition camp will be November 21st and 22nd, please visit www.carolinagold.org to register or for more information. https://youtu.be/4Xn6Xt3Ht1Q As an added note regarding 'getting out there', our periscope of small chunks of this morning's visual block had around 175 views so, given that it was several random chunks of live video of a Sunday morning basics session, that's a completely different way to grab a ton of eyeballs, especially given that it takes no more effort than hitting the live button on your cell phone. -Larry

Can't like this enough ;)

As the average corps member age trends significantly downward, the audience age must follow. Every year we trend closer to a 'WGI-age' demographic in membership, but we keep the same average fan age (or possibly even increase it). To look at those two things on a 15-year graph would be startling. To be at WGI Championships and looking at a rocking, packed arena where even back side seating is highly utilized and then coming to DCA Championships, it's quite a disconnect even though all we've done is re-arrange the parts and put it on a field. Some of it of course is the 'boutique/specialized' nature of the activity, the fact that there are 100+ performing groups at Champs who aren't in Finals but still go to watch, but at the end of the day, the 'marching arts' as a whole seem to be trending upward with general interest and butts in seats. It's easier than ever to put something in front of somebody to try and get their interest. In less than five years WGI Winds will have a higher paid attendance at it's Championships than DCA does and that's a disturbing trend given the huge costs needed to keep a drum corps circus 'on the road'. We logged somewhere around 7,000 miles this summer and we're by far not a corps with the longest tour schedule and this is 'weekend corps'. For that we performed in (4) DCA sanctioned shows (one of which was our home show) and Championships. We likely performed in front of more eyeballs at the 2:00 pm slot at DCI Atlanta than we did the rest of the DCA season, combined. I don't have any of the answers to any of the problems, but the solution begins with making the audience look like the membership.

We miss you guys dearly! Would have been great to have you and your crew around last weekend to dance in the rain!

Dan is correct, there was a boundary violation in the show for Carolina Gold. The show was presented in its entirety.

+5,000!

The easiest way to think about the current rules is: If it's music that you hear, you should be able to see somebody, somewhere playing it, note for note. If it's an 'effect', it can be triggered (thunder, wind noise, etc.).