Housing Issues...

[Carolina09Spirit]

http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=b...80-1170e112937a

With everything the way it is today, I'm not surprised much by this article. I don't know all the details to how housing sites are chosen, etc...but this problem doesn't really surprise me at all. I know everything will work out, and eventually each corps will have their housing site no problem.

It would help if I did know what DCI tends to require for a school to host a corps?

[Lance]

http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=b...80-1170e112937a

With everything the way it is today, I'm not surprised much by this article. I don't know all the details to how housing sites are chosen, etc...but this problem doesn't really surprise me at all. I know everything will work out, and eventually each corps will have their housing site no problem.

It would help if I did know what DCI tends to require for a school to host a corps?

We used a Boys & Girls Club for one of the corps we hosted.

[Carolina09Spirit]

Alright to add to my question. I just read where BD got kicked out of their housing site...which brings me to the question:

Why do corps get kicked out at the last minute? Isn't that a bit unfortunate for any corps? And pretty bad on the housing sites behalf?

[soccerguy315]

i read that a corps recently got kicked out of a housing site on the southern tour this year. Sounded like they were already there (possibly rehearsing?) and then they had to leave... fortunately they were able to call ahead and check in to their next housing site early, but obviously that is far from ideal.

[Carolina09Spirit]

i read that a corps recently got kicked out of a housing site on the southern tour this year. Sounded like they were already there (possibly rehearsing?) and then they had to leave... fortunately they were able to call ahead and check in to their next housing site early, but obviously that is far from ideal.

But what do they get kicked out for?

[perc2100]

Alright to add to my question. I just read where BD got kicked out of their housing site...which brings me to the question:

Why do corps get kicked out at the last minute? Isn't that a bit unfortunate for any corps? And pretty bad on the housing sites behalf?

In my school district, any outside group can get kicked out by a district group/administrator for any reason whatsoever. For example, say Blue Devils checked out the field, and the local marching band wants to use it as well: the band checks out facilities and Blue Devils get bumped. Also, who knows what happened: sometimes school staff give a verbal commitment to a corps and don't go through the proper channels and when an administrator finds out they put their foot down and disallow the corps to stay/rehearse. Sometimes things happen completely out of the control of a corps and DCI that have to do with bureaucracy and school district nonsense.

Of course, there's also the possibility of shenanigans on the part of corps members or staff members that might cause a school site to expel them from a housing site. Or maybe they got complaints from local neighbors about noise, and the principal doesn't want to deal with upset locals. Or maybe it was OK'ed by the site principal, but the principal's boss wasn't happy with the idea of young adults (i.e. not local HS students) using facilities. There are PLENTY of reasons why a corps loses housing, and many of them have nothing to do with the corps themselves.

[perc2100]

But what do they get kicked out for?

Here's a quote from the article posted above:

As DCI Housing Coordinator Jeff Cox can attest: "From ongoing construction projects and related delays to shifting school district maintenance schedules and even weather-related circumstances affecting school buildings, there are a number of reasons why our corps housing process remains in a somewhat fluid state, often times right up until just a few days prior to the scheduled arrival of a corps in a given city or town."

I know that on my campus over the summer, there are several site maintenance duties that occur over the summer (classrooms get carpets steam-cleaned, gym floors get waxed, sometimes construction, etc) and often the schedule changes weekly based on needs and availability of staff. There have been times when even the local summer hs marching band rehearsal schedule is disrupted because of a small window of time for custodians to do work on facilities. The administrators typically say, "sorry it worked out this way, but there wasn't any other time for the custodians to perform the required maintenance work."

DCI annually treads thin ice, being an activity that is so reliable on local schools for housing and rehearsal sites. I know that scheduling my own high school and middle school musical groups for rehearsals and concerts IN OUR OWN SCHOOL is an annually difficult job, and that's when I'm dealing with administrators that I have a good relationship with. I can't imagine how difficult it is for DCI to do this on such a large scale with virtual strangers, or bosses of friends of friends or something. Each year I imagine that task is harder and harder, and it's not surprising that they run into problems at times.

[Peel Paint]

If there's a more thankless job in DCI than Housing Director, it's a puzzler to me. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I cannot imagine the agita that goes with this one.

Kudos, Jeff Cox! Hang tough! Karma's a ##### but it all evens out in the wash!

[Taylor]

http://www.crossmen.org/2010-crossmen-weekly.html

Look at July 27th if you want to read about how Bosier City, LA rode us out of town on a rail. I wouldn't be surprised if they had tar and feathers ready.

[BloooTubaDad]

I do the housing for our local DCI show, Soaring Sounds, in Centerville, Ohio. I have done the housing for the past 4 years. We usually have 6 world class corps and one or two open class corps.

Only our high school can handle all the needs of a world class corps. I think all we are required to supply them are a place to sleep, a place to practice and a place to shower. All the top corps want more. They want 3 football fields, all with elevatio and lights, even if they are not in town over night. They want a dozen rooms to sleep in. The want an ice maker, etc.

Now all of the corps I have dealt with have been very flexible. We normally house the Bluecoats at our HS. They are from Ohio and we have people on our staff who are on their staff. We also have several recent grads who are marching with them, including my son. They come to our show every year.

The other corps are housed at local schools. We do a ticket exchange. We give the school band progam X number of tickets in exchange for housing a corps. One school has an open class show a week after our show and we exchange housing with him. He houses a couple of world class corps for me and I house a couple of open class corps for him.

In the 4 years I have done this I have house the Blue Devils twice, the Cavs once, the Bluecoats 4 times and the SCV once. I have never had a problem with how the corps leave the schools. In fact I have been able to convince admins to let us house at their schools once, and once they have, they realize how good the corps are.

My biggest problem is that many schools are taking out showers as they remodel. All my middle schools used to have showers and now only 1 does.

msquared