ripper Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Youth per family household is down from that time period as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooldbc Posted August 23, 2009 Author Share Posted August 23, 2009 How about total operating budgets of various corps as an indicator? That's pretty close to my fifth criteria: The percentage of corps which are profitable (i.e, finish the year with more income than expenses) But let's go with that. DCP has an article from 2006, where Kevin Smith states that CC's cost rose 150 percent in four years. See the article here. That's not good. Obviously, much of that can be attributed to factors totally outside of his control - the rising cost of food and fuel, for one thing. And instructor salaries. And insurance, instruments, uniforms, etc..... Prices for all these things are going up and up. But Kevin build a world-championship caliber corps very quickly. He clearly had to spend a lot of money to do this. Did he need to start racking up these huge budgets, in order to have any shot at the title? And what if he hadn't spent all this money? Would his corps have foundered, like Magic/Southwind/Capital Regiment? Is the intense competition in DCI today driving up much of the cost of the activity? So far, I haven't found any criteria that are encouraging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooldbc Posted August 23, 2009 Author Share Posted August 23, 2009 Youth per family household is down from that time period as well Well, largely true. But the overall population base in this country has grown since 1972. Admittedly, there percentage of the population that is under 22 has gone down since then. This is because of the Baby Boomer generation growing older, and lower fertility rates than in the Postwar years. But there are still plenty of young people who can - and would - participate in this activity, but aren't. The population of youths in this country has not gone down by 70% since 72 - but the number of youths participating in drum corps has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyfromhowardst Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 (edited) True. Those organizations simply could not survive in the environment that DCI created. They could not survive in the economic and financial model that became drum corps. If you could not tour 10,000 miles, and do 35 shows a year, you were winnowed out. And at some level, that's really, really sad. I haven't found a way to calculate the numbers for criteria 2 - the number of performers participating in drum corps. But I can provide some rough estimates. There were 46 active junior corps this year, and let's assume an average number of performers per corps is 110. That's 5,000 performers, approximately. In 1972, there were 442 active junior corps. Let's assume 40 performers per unit - a very conservative number. That's 17,600 performers, approximately. So in in 1972, there were 3 1/2 times more performers than there were today. Now that's really depressing. That's 12,000 kids who will never get to know the joy of drum corps, in any shape or form. Sorry, as I continue to tick of the criteria in the ILDCI, none of them are looking very good. Those are staggering stats. And sad. Forgive my ignorance, but what about major corporate sponsorship? I mean big time. The Nissan Coronados, the IBM Royals, Deutschebank Muskateers. Like Rollerball (the original) Truly put the International in DCI. Have a world music olympic every 2 or 4 years. I know there's some big sponsors now, but you get 50 world wide monster sponsors like that--now you truly have Marching Music's Major League. (Then again, with that many heavy weights, DCI might get popped like a tiny zit.) Obviously someone must have thought of this already. Just have to get the right marketing to the general public. Let's face it, DCI audiences are made up of ex corps members, their families and friends. Not a whole lot of off-the-streeters. Do more shows in big cities--in the city, not the burbs. Larger venue. Last show I saw in Chicago was 1972 at Soldier Field. Wtf? Daniel Burnham, chief architect of the 1893 Colombian Exposition said "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood." He's got a point. Blue Devil's don't think small. Cavies either. There has got to be more than 5,000 kids world wide that would march if given the chance. That's what--1 out of every 1,200,000 people? We gotta' do better than that. Again I'm not familiar with what DCI has been doing financially these last 20 years so please, if you can shed some light to help me or anyone understand better, I'm all ears. Edited August 23, 2009 by tommyfromhowardst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Also have to consider the growth of scholastic marching activities over the years. If you add donations into the equation, then any money spent may be better calculated based on the total number of members/staff/miles traveled. Would need the brain of a decent statistician to crate a viable equation for all this. If you're looking for 501c3 info, it's all on the internet at guidestar.org. You can find most 990 forms on there from the previous fiscal year (maybe other years too if you're a contributer to the service). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntheMood Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Many folks are decrying the overall trend in drum corps. They think the activity is deteriorating - or even dying. If this is the case, then we need to take swift action. But in order to determine if this is true, we need a series of criteria, to track what is really happening in this activity. These criteria need to be objective, verifiable, and indicative of the state of the activity. We can use these critiera, to track whether the governing bodies of drum corps, and the leadership of these activities, are effective at doing their jobs. There is already a similar set of criteria, in the world of economics. It is the Index of Leading Economic Indicators. It is published on a regular basis, by an institution called the Conference Board. They are used by economists to track the overall trend in the economy, and the effectiveness of economic policies. The current components of the ILEI can be found Here. Here are my proposed Index of Leading Drum Corps Indicators. The number of active touring drum corps The number of performers participating in drum corps The number of drum corps shows in a given year The total attendance at the shows in a given year The percentage of corps which are profitable (i.e, finish the year with more income than expenses) The total amount of revenue from fundraising in a particular year The total net proceeds from appearance fees in a particular year The number of new drum corps that begin touring in a particular year The total number of drum corps that fold or go inactive in a particular year I have given nine criteria. The Conference Board uses ten indicators for their ILEI. For the Leading Drum Corps Indicators, I would like your suggestions for a tenth, and final criteria. This is more than an intellectual exercise or curiousity for me. I think this information could be really valuable, to decisionmakers in drum corps. If the activity really needs radical change - as some of us think it does - then hopefully, the ILDCI can be used to expedite this change. Who or what entity controls the open class div.? Who calls the shots? Who makes and votes on the rules for open class? Dean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntheMood Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 I just read the article you posted, interesting indeed. Because I read on DCI.org yesterday that Crowns donations are down 67% from last year. And the events and Shows they put on were down 9%. Dean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Who or what entity controls the open class div.? Who calls the shots? Who makes and votes on the rules for open class?Dean the directors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobG Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 True. Those organizations simply could not survive in the environment that DCI created. They could not survive in the economic and financial model that became drum corps. If you could not tour 10,000 miles, and do 35 shows a year, you were winnowed out. And at some level, that's really, really sad. I haven't found a way to calculate the numbers for criteria 2 - the number of performers participating in drum corps. But I can provide some rough estimates. There were 46 active junior corps this year, and let's assume an average number of performers per corps is 110. That's 5,000 performers, approximately. In 1972, there were 442 active junior corps. Let's assume 40 performers per unit - a very conservative number. That's 17,600 performers, approximately. So in in 1972, there were 3 1/2 times more performers than there were today. Now that's really depressing. That's 12,000 kids who will never get to know the joy of drum corps, in any shape or form. Sorry, as I continue to tick of the criteria in the ILDCI, none of them are looking very good. The activity has shifted its focus over the years. Its former focus as a an enrichment activity for youth has largely been taken over by school music programs. Comparing drom corps in 1972 to drum corps of the present is like comparing apples and oranges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntheMood Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 the directors WC and OC directors or just OC directors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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