N.E. Brigand Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 3 hours ago, cixelsyd said: I doubt anyone thinks woodwinds will sell more tickets. But they will be added for other reasons. Legitimate reasons, like DCI's leaders believe it has a mission to serve as many potential members as possible and therefore needs to expand to include woodwinds? Or nefarious reasons, like DCI's leaders have been told by instrument manufacturers that they'll personally get kickbacks? Or something in between, like DCI's leaders believe that DCI and the corps will benefit from increased membership (which probably helps with ticket sales) and more sponsorships, and more income to the corps is a good thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 3 hours ago, E3D said: If we go back to the end of the 80's - look at the amount of shows and corps - compare that to now does it tell us anything about the Drum Corps activity? It will not be long until the number of corps is down to about 40 , oh wait. ummm err. Drum corps Canada might not be around ,,,, ummmm errrrrrr It tells us there were a lot of poorly run drum corps back in the 80's. Mike 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 51 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said: Legitimate reasons, like DCI's leaders believe it has a mission to serve as many potential members as possible and therefore needs to expand to include woodwinds? Quote Or nefarious reasons, like DCI's leaders have been told by instrument manufacturers that they'll personally get kickbacks? I doubt that personal bribery is involved. It is more likely... Quote Or something in between, like DCI's leaders believe that DCI and the corps will benefit from increased membership (which probably helps with ticket sales) and more sponsorships, and more income to the corps is a good thing? Increased support from the marching music industrial complex to both DCI and their corps in the form of advertising dollars, sponsorships, joint promotions, and so on. If you have not been to https://www.dci.org/static/about-drum-corps-international in the past year, you should check it out now. Read their strategic plan... it has been posted publicly. When you see how many committees they have formed to do this-and-that by x quarter of 2019 for anticipated implementation in FY 2020, you discover that there is A LOT going on behind the scenes. Scary stuff, like new governance structure, enhanced member benefits, and other G7-ish concepts. Much of it is merely trying to squeeze that-much-more blood from a stone... sell more tickets, grow profit margins, increase existing sponsorships, find new sponsors. Those last two... adding woodwinds would undoubtedly increase advertising from existing "corporate partners" who supply those instruments, and it would serve to attract other woodwind suppliers not already partnering with DCI to give that consideration in the future. Oh, regarding the "increased membership"... no, woodwinds do not increase membership. Corps have to do that themselves. In a DCI with so many full-size corps, that is done in two ways - either field another corps like BD/SCV/Cadets/Colts, or raise the maximum limit (as DCI has done several times). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 59 minutes ago, cixelsyd said: Increased support from the marching music industrial complex to both DCI and their corps in the form of advertising dollars, sponsorships, joint promotions, and so on. If you have not been to https://www.dci.org/static/about-drum-corps-international in the past year, you should check it out now. Read their strategic plan... it has been posted publicly. When you see how many committees they have formed to do this-and-that by x quarter of 2019 for anticipated implementation in FY 2020, you discover that there is A LOT going on behind the scenes. Scary stuff, like new governance structure, enhanced member benefits, and other G7-ish concepts. Much of it is merely trying to squeeze that-much-more blood from a stone... sell more tickets, grow profit margins, increase existing sponsorships, find new sponsors. Those last two... adding woodwinds would undoubtedly increase advertising from existing "corporate partners" who supply those instruments, and it would serve to attract other woodwind suppliers not already partnering with DCI to give that consideration in the future. Oh, regarding the "increased membership"... no, woodwinds do not increase membership. Corps have to do that themselves. In a DCI with so many full-size corps, that is done in two ways - either field another corps like BD/SCV/Cadets/Colts, or raise the maximum limit (as DCI has done several times). That's a very thoughtful post. So to recap: it is your belief, based on a close reading of the strategic plan on DCI's website and consideration of past statement by DCI leadership and corps directors about what they think is necessary to advance DCI, that there are committees who may be considering all sorts of changes to the activity, and this perhaps includes allowing woodwinds or increasing membership size, as well as some restructuring of the board and "enhanced member benefits", whatever that could mean? And much of this (if it happens) was predicted right here on DCP ten or more years ago. Interesting. I guess we'll know more come January. And of course, even if they have panels who plan to make these proposals or other changes, I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean they will be passed by the full membership at that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybersnyder Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 (edited) Can they raise the maximum membership limit much higher? The field is looking cluttered at the current level. Edited August 22, 2019 by cybersnyder 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 1 hour ago, cixelsyd said: I doubt that personal bribery is involved. It is more likely... Increased support from the marching music industrial complex to both DCI and their corps in the form of advertising dollars, sponsorships, joint promotions, and so on. If you have not been to https://www.dci.org/static/about-drum-corps-international in the past year, you should check it out now. Read their strategic plan... it has been posted publicly. When you see how many committees they have formed to do this-and-that by x quarter of 2019 for anticipated implementation in FY 2020, you discover that there is A LOT going on behind the scenes. Scary stuff, like new governance structure, enhanced member benefits, and other G7-ish concepts. Much of it is merely trying to squeeze that-much-more blood from a stone... sell more tickets, grow profit margins, increase existing sponsorships, find new sponsors. Those last two... adding woodwinds would undoubtedly increase advertising from existing "corporate partners" who supply those instruments, and it would serve to attract other woodwind suppliers not already partnering with DCI to give that consideration in the future. Oh, regarding the "increased membership"... no, woodwinds do not increase membership. Corps have to do that themselves. In a DCI with so many full-size corps, that is done in two ways - either field another corps like BD/SCV/Cadets/Colts, or raise the maximum limit (as DCI has done several times). I'm curious what you mean by "scary stuff". And to whom are these things scary? Your statement about "...other G7-ish concepts"... are you seeing these things in the Plan? "...sell more tickets, grow profit margins, increase...sponsorships..." All that sounds pretty good. What scary stuff am I missing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E3D Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 1 hour ago, MikeN said: It tells us there were a lot of poorly run drum corps back in the 80's. Mike Not 100% correct especially when you consider the Canadian corps. Prob back in 85 there were 40 corps from up there maybe 20 from Ontario province and 20 from Quebec. They had other hurdles to navigate besides the way they were run. One being the public school funding for band programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 (edited) 10 minutes ago, garfield said: I'm curious what you mean by "scary stuff". And to whom are these things scary? Your statement about "...other G7-ish concepts"... are you seeing these things in the Plan? "...sell more tickets, grow profit margins, increase...sponsorships..." All that sounds pretty good. What scary stuff am I missing? Maybe I have PTSD from the G7 days. But when I look at that strategic plan, I notice two stark contrasts against the business plans DCI had developed ten years ago (just before G7). One is the recurrence of topics like "new governance structure" and "enhanced member benefits". The other is the removal of any consideration to growing the overall activity. It seems as if they are losing their resolve about growing the pie, and are once again focusing only on making their own slices bigger. Edited August 22, 2019 by cixelsyd 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 1 hour ago, cybersnyder said: Can they raise the maximum membership limit much higher? The field is looking cluttered at the current level. Many, many marching bands field more than the current 154 DCI allows. If DCI is to align itself with "band" and its associated programs, then figuring out how to design well for 250, 300, 350 kids would be a useful challenge to the DCI designers. And now, with A&E, who cares if the reeds are stuck in the rear corner? With the turn of a dial, the fans can hear them as if they were standing on the front sideline. I'm thinking "mosh pit" a MM from endzone to endzone. 😁 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 6 minutes ago, garfield said: I'm thinking "mosh pit" a MM from endzone to endzone. 😁 Already been done. See Allen HS, TX. 😶 Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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