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Corps Fees


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No summer job 40 hours x 12 weeks x $8.00/hr = $3840.00 (some may make much more).

I marched and would let my children march, but let's not look at just corps fees when coming up with the cost of marching a summer of drum corps. Through in spending money and travel to and from camps and I am guessing a year of drum corps costs approximately $8000 minimum.

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Where did you live that the corps was 800 miles away from you?

Take out ALASKA and other OUTLYING areas.. LOL....

There ARE corps in EVER area.

Washington and Portland service WA,OR,ID,MT

California and hteir 800 corps- CA NV

AZ has Academy and serves that area and NM

CO- Knights serving UT CO KS WY

WY Troopers - WY, ND, SD, NE, KS

Texas- TX, OK, AR

WI- MN, WI,IN, MO

GA (spirit)- MS, AL, LA

TN (music City) TN KY MO

SC- NC SC VA

NC (plat) NC VA TN KY

FL- (Teal) FL GA SC

I mean come on I could go on...

There are Drum Corps in EVERY neck of the woods....

Granted YES there is the travel money. But look at it THIS way.... Someone is always coming through, one driving 4 people going to camps.... $40 in gas turns into $10.

I know times area hard, but these ARE kids HENCE a YOUTH event. There is a time limit on the activity. We can all argue that they need to be out MAKING money, but some kids IF NOT ALL OF THEM, work in the off season to PAY for Drum Corps. If they are serious they will find sponsors or fund raise.

I totally understand and get it costs money to do EVERYTHING! I think the point of Drum Corps and marching has went to far and to an extreme. No one wants to march a smaller corps anymore, which takes more effort, because you are only as good as your weakest link, and smaller units EVERYTHING stands out.

If you are speaking of corps rehearsing in DIFFERENT states, ie Glassmen and Boston in Florida. there is a reason why these corps have went there. BECAUSE a large portion of their members come from those areas. They were trying to make it more accessible, plus the weather factor. But the SPARTANS still practice in the North East, as does Radiers, and 7th Regiment and Cadets.

Like I said there ARE close corps to everyone. it just sucks when you live in northern NORTH DAKOTA and have to drive to Casper or Denver.

STAY local, carpool, and march more local corps..... Its more cost effective. ESPECIALLY if people are local marching, the need for overnight housing at camps can be eliminated IE the old SCOUTS method. OWN HOUSING at camps.

I marched with the corps nearest me....800 miles away. I had to fly to every camp due to time constraints. "Travel" was a necessity for me to march drum corps.
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I'm from Far West Texas, and I marched in 2003. At the time, Academy was not yet a touring corps and Crossmen were still in the East.

Closest to me? Blue Knights, 800 miles. Next up? Troopers, 910 miles. After that it was probably SCV and Blue Devils at 1200 miles and then Bluecoats and Glassmen at 1700 miles. So yes, I marched with the corps nearest my home.

Trust me, I did my homework.

Edited by Flyboy1177
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Where did you live that the corps was 800 miles away from you?

Take out ALASKA and other OUTLYING areas.. LOL....

There ARE corps in EVER area.

I mean come on I could go on...

There are Drum Corps in EVERY neck of the woods....

Like I said there ARE close corps to everyone. it just sucks when you live in northern NORTH DAKOTA and have to drive to Casper or Denver.

It sucks big time when you have to fly over from England (or Japan as in my daughter's corps).

That bumps up the cost of weekend camps just a little bit. And adds to the cost of the family attending finals. As does her mum helping out at move-ins for a week.

I don't even want to think about it.

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Don't travel? What if your "area" WC corps has camps half way across the country? :laughing:

I don't recall any corps from VA (where I was from when I marched) or KS (where I live now)

traveling is a requirement for some.

I drove 9.5 hours to camps. (mom always used to ask why I didn't march bluecoats, as we'd pass the exit for Canton each time we went up.) :thumbup:

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I think corps fees are a deal...I just always wonder if there is a way to decrease corps spending and give the kids more of a break.

If fees have to cost $2000 (which is "cheap" to some....I had to scrape to save $700 when I marched DCI and I didnt even age out 10 years ago) then so be it. But if some sort of arms race epidemic (not mentioning anything specifically) causes corps to increase fees to cover costs that arent really practical, then I have a major problem with that.

I always admired how Scott Stewart kept corps fees to an absolute minimum when he was in charge of the Madison Scouts. I remember a friend from college who freaked out after he (Stewart) left because the new regime told him his corps fees where essentially going to triple!

Maybe I'm not in the know but from what I understood at the end of the 2002 season, the Scouts were very stable from a financial standpoint...so what makes a corps dramatically increase its fees like that? My friend's opinion was that it was all the new designers and uniforms and instruments. (Yes, I know that corps get great deals from suppliers and manufacturers). Who knows...

Also, everyone is complaining that the price of gas has increased corps fees. Then why do corps travel so much in the early season? I really think DCI should go back to a regional/national tour model. This may not be an option for some corps (Blue Knights, Troopers, The Academy) though.

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2003 revolution was in Texas.. San A... That wouldn't be 800 miles from you.

Again this brings my point to the for front. People want to march the BIG corps, they are NOT caring about the smaller corps. You might have had more fun and a better experience marching with Revo in 2003.....

I'm from Far West Texas, and I marched in 2003. At the time, Academy was not yet a touring corps and Crossmen were still in the East.

Closest to me? Blue Knights, 800 miles. Next up? Troopers, 910 miles. After that it was probably SCV and Blue Devils at 1200 miles and then Bluecoats and Glassmen at 1700 miles. So yes, I marched with the corps nearest my home.

Trust me, I did my homework.

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Its not been 10 years YET for me either, although this next one will mark that. And you are right, I actually paid $550 to march....

The "National" model is what caused the fees to go up. Each November when I sat in the corps office and saw the proposed tour schedule to put in the "shows we wanted" suggestion list, I always asked "why even do that show, that is really 300 miles out of the way" or better yet, "not going there will save use close to a grand. Now granted a grand isn't alot in the scheme of things, but when you start saving amounts of money like that HERE AND THERE, it really does add up.

Another expense was flying staff members all over the country and into rehearsals. Another area I worked hard in to cut the cost of travel was staff travel. We started making a list of what was ACTUALLY necessary, and although we loved the staff to death, having 8 techs and 3 co caption heads at every event (sometimes MORE staff than kids) was crazy. We saved close to $30 grand there.....

Scott Stewart did do an AMAZING job at being frugal, but the need for bigger more expensive has ALWAYS been something people do when they see they can make more money. YES REGIONAL touring tours and show schedules make MORE sense (that's how the scouts made their money) from the REGION because people loved and still do those good ole boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the need to be "seen" and the need to do the "smoke and mirrors" trick give people big egos and they will try and prove to the DCI community that they can do it to. When in the end what they need to prove is they can have a rockin corps, travel all summer (in the region) and do it for under a grand per member. To ME that shows how awesome the organization is. Who cares if the corps from Canto can go to California, that is NOT their recruiting base, and although they may have fans out there, those fans are NOT paying for the cost to come out there, and its cheaper for the fans just to fly out to the midwest to see the corps!!!!

I also find it hard to pay a caption head (that doesn't even spend a WHOLE summer with the corps) nearly $31 grand as a salary... REALLY? Just food for thought, all of the years I worked on Drum Corps staff, and did MUCH more than 5-10 other staff, I NEVER made that kind of money and my gig was YEAR ROUND!!! not just for camps and the summer!!!!!!!

Regardless I love drum corps still, always will. The cost is just getting crazy and if some people had their way they would charge $10 grand a member to join and then beg for another $5 per member to take care of them.!!!!!

I think corps fees are a deal...I just always wonder if there is a way to decrease corps spending and give the kids more of a break.

If fees have to cost $2000 (which is "cheap" to some....I had to scrape to save $700 when I marched DCI and I didnt even age out 10 years ago) then so be it. But if some sort of arms race epidemic (not mentioning anything specifically) causes corps to increase fees to cover costs that arent really practical, then I have a major problem with that.

I always admired how Scott Stewart kept corps fees to an absolute minimum when he was in charge of the Madison Scouts. I remember a friend from college who freaked out after he (Stewart) left because the new regime told him his corps fees where essentially going to triple!

Maybe I'm not in the know but from what I understood at the end of the 2002 season, the Scouts were very stable from a financial standpoint...so what makes a corps dramatically increase its fees like that? My friend's opinion was that it was all the new designers and uniforms and instruments. (Yes, I know that corps get great deals from suppliers and manufacturers). Who knows...

Also, everyone is complaining that the price of gas has increased corps fees. Then why do corps travel so much in the early season? I really think DCI should go back to a regional/national tour model. This may not be an option for some corps (Blue Knights, Troopers, The Academy) though.

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to be fair, you are missing some of the costs for BD:

$2100 tour fee

$100 registration fee

$X plume fee

$X shoe fee

$X responsible for your own housing, each camp

$X responsible for finding a place to live during spring training

Vanguard has at least another $100 thrown in with the $2100 you listed.

again, missing some of the costs:

$1900 tuition

$400 camp fees

$200 uniform fee

$300 spring training fee

obviously any travel you are doing is added into that.

I just quoted the what the sites posted. I know there are other misc. fees depending on the corps and those fees are variable.

The fee my daughter paid for participating in BDB included some form of insurance for corps members while on tour, uniform, touring shirt, shoes, beautiful gym accomodations while on tour, and feedings by wonderful corps. volunteer. Also, one year her air mattress died unexpectedly while on tour and the corps replaced it for her at no extra cost. Camp fees are posted separately because they usually happen preseason.

Also, I give my daughter a little extra spending money when she tours so she can buy souvies or eat out. But quite honestly, for cost, she is getting an outstanding music education/summer vacation much more economically than if she stayed home all summer and took private lessons and did usual teenage summer activities like going to the mall or movies (which in my area is $10.00 a showing). When she went to regular summer camp, it was $1000 for just one week of camp.

Don't let cost be the one consideration for doing drum corps. Many corps have fund-raising opportunities and/or allow for parents/members to make payments over the course of a season. My daughter saves money all year to march and I match funds. The Blue Devils organization and the overall drum corps experience has had a tremendously positive impact on her life so whatever the cost it has been well-worth it.

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I'm from Far West Texas, and I marched in 2003. At the time, Academy was not yet a touring corps and Crossmen were still in the East.

Closest to me? Blue Knights, 800 miles. Next up? Troopers, 910 miles. After that it was probably SCV and Blue Devils at 1200 miles and then Bluecoats and Glassmen at 1700 miles. So yes, I marched with the corps nearest my home.

Trust me, I did my homework.

We live in Far West Texas also and many of the kids in our area march Blue Knights. I do know one who is marching Forte this year and now with the growth of Texas based drum corps more kids might get to have the experience you had and my daughter with BDB, but it is difficult because even with these corps, DCI events are so far away. The closest event happening this year to my residence is in Odessa. Dallas, San Antonio and Houston are 10 to 12 hours away and come with travel expenses. I hope with more the growth of more corps in the southwest area, more events will be added to this portion of the country, perhaps with events in New Mexico and Southern Arizona.

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