tubajake Posted July 24, 2009 Author Share Posted July 24, 2009 Wow - nice work! How many people on tour?Using the $10 per person per day figure and even going with the smallest possible competing corps (30)you're looking at $300 per day just for the members. Add staff, drivers, volunteers and my $10 /day/person would get up to around $450 per day or $3150 for the one week tour in year two, or $115 of each member's dues. Seems like I'm over-estimating (better than under-estimating when it comes to food, but still....) EDIT - true confession time - I'd LOVE to start a corps here in Guelph, but my wife would be packing my bags for me, and I don't mean for tour..... Its easy for the food, now the big biter is paper plates and cups that can drain a budget. When I marched we were simply asked to wash our own plates (we had plastic). Its just a matter of knowing smart college students like me have an acquired taste for cheap yet delicous food lol. We shopped for 85+ members and staff Is magic direct anywhere around? How much would buses be for two weeks going from lincoln nebraska to murfreesboro back to omaha and following the rest of open class to indy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyboy Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 I'm not trying to stir the pot or anything. I'm serious here with some background helping to get Capital Regiment started, V.P. of Kilties and was the final Vice Chairman of DCM (I got to deal with that mess). I "get" the finanial side, what it takes to start up, to maintain, ins-and outs of fundraising, bingo, taxes, PR, recruiting... Seriously? I would go the DCA route with all-age, weekend corps. Keep the dues under $400. Mostly volunteer staff (members don't get paid, why should instructors?) Everyone doing it for the love of the activity. Does that sound insane? Utopian? Can't be successful? That's what's going on at Kilties. $300 dues, Scott Stewart as director (for free), with a show he feels is one of the best he has ever designed, members that are really stepping up, staff that is happy to largely do it for "love of the activity", some member-instructors, high school and college kids that can still work a summer job on weekdays, and youth marching side-by-side with some "legends" of the activity with decades of experience... some marching members are band directors, music teachers... and it's a hell of a lot of fun. Think about it. Start a DCA corps. Or change into one. The finances make far more sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kusankusho Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 (edited) Dan - nothing insane about it. I mean - we were in the DCI forum here so that's how the conversation is going, but to me weekend only is the way to go, especially for a startup. If it can't be done in DCI at present (I hope someday again, but not right now) then DCA is the only option. It has a plus of not restricting your membership pool to the under 21s..... And I would FAR sooner see a DCI corps go all-age rather than fold up. Edited July 25, 2009 by kusankusho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jocko the Wonder Llama Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 30 shows.We have jets not busses. We pay the marching members. Costco follows us on tour. Staff would be the only expense and our budget is around 2 mill. And we are all in tip top shape, we don't need no stinkin' doctors. Still working on a name though!!!! Don't Bogart whatever it is that you're smokin' - pass it on down here. The ony way that I see this scenerio happening, is if you call yourselves: "Bill Gates presents: Windows 8" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImperialSound_Director Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 (edited) How much would buses be for two weeks going from lincoln nebraska to murfreesboro back to omaha and following the rest of open class to indy? If you are chartering, I would say: $800 per bus, per day (Through Elite Couch) So, say you have one bus and a staff bus: $1600X14= $22,400 for two weeks. This, of course doesn't cover an equipment truck and a van or mobile kitchen. BTW- This topic is highly amusing, much better than 99% of corps-bashing and ignorance that goes on around here. Edited July 25, 2009 by ImperialSound_Director Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kusankusho Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 OK - this is getting interesting. Can we get some "total costs" on this? Let's go with the one week tour posed for the second year as mentioned above, let's say a modest corps of 45 members, 9 staff, 6 volunteers cooks, etc for a nice round figure of 60. I'm going to say one of those passenger vans instead of a second bus for the staff and cut the cost of the second bus by 3/4 (not sure if that's accurate). What are we looking at to get this corps down the road? bus and van - 800 + 200 = 1000 * 7 days = 7,000 food on the 10/day/person = 10 * 60 * 7 = 4,200 (this seems high - on the $300/day = 2,100) gas - anyone have a guess? We're talking one bus, one passenger van, equipment truck and a cookie wagon housing - I have no idea other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tubajake Posted July 25, 2009 Author Share Posted July 25, 2009 OK - this is getting interesting. Can we get some "total costs" on this? Let's go with the one week tour posed for the second year as mentioned above, let's say a modest corps of 45 members, 9 staff, 6 volunteers cooks, etc for a nice round figure of 60. I'm going to say one of those passenger vans instead of a second bus for the staff and cut the cost of the second bus by 3/4 (not sure if that's accurate). What are we looking at to get this corps down the road?bus and van - 800 + 200 = 1000 * 7 days = 7,000 food on the 10/day/person = 10 * 60 * 7 = 4,200 (this seems high - on the $300/day = 2,100) gas - anyone have a guess? We're talking one bus, one passenger van, equipment truck and a cookie wagon housing - I have no idea other? Truck rental I do not know, but gas wise for a food truck similar to a uhaul its abouit $120 to fill it up and goes about 400 miles. cookie wagon could probably be hitched onto the staff van? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kusankusho Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Truck rental I do not know, but gas wise for a food truck similar to a uhaul its abouit $120 to fill it up and goes about 400 miles. cookie wagon could probably be hitched onto the staff van? At Dutch we hooked one on to the equipment truck. I think it was Bandettes that had a nice arrangement in a converted school bus which made a lot of sense to me. There may be too many variations on the cookie to nail it down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tubajake Posted July 25, 2009 Author Share Posted July 25, 2009 At Dutch we hooked one on to the equipment truck. I think it was Bandettes that had a nice arrangement in a converted school bus which made a lot of sense to me. There may be too many variations on the cookie to nail it down. Okay so right now we are looking at our 45 members, how much do we charge them? 7000+4200=11,200. 11200÷45= approx 250 a head. Now that is touring at cost with no emergency fund, housing costs, staff reimbursement, trailer cost, and instrument repair/replacements (drum heads, sticks, flags, mouthpieces etc) Okay so let's hit the trailer... do we get a rental semi or an owner operator? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kusankusho Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Okay so right now we are looking at our 45 members, how much do we charge them?7000+4200=11,200. 11200÷45= approx 250 a head. Now that is touring at cost with no emergency fund, housing costs, staff reimbursement, trailer cost, and instrument repair/replacements (drum heads, sticks, flags, mouthpieces etc) Okay so let's hit the trailer... do we get a rental semi or an owner operator? Because of the special setups you need to safely transport DC equipment I think the equipment truck is something you have to own and modify yourself. That's an up front purchase along with the equipment and unis that we haven't even discussed yet. Man - how does anyone start a corps these days????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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