EASY FIX to increase Open Class participation

[Barifonium]

Stick to what you know, recruit, run a good business and stop posting on DCP that you have 45 horns in January.

If it's the truth I don't see why not...

Edited September 2, 2010 by Impuls!vebari

[CT-Horn]

If it's the truth I don't see why not...

Because you end up marching 21 in June.

[Gbassman5]

Because you end up marching 21 in June.

been there, done that...

[mobrien]

Adding a year of eligibility wouldn't do anything to spur growth in the segment - if anything, it could make it less appealing to parents of 13 and 14 year olds.

What COULD grow the class, I believe, would be modifying the rules of Open Class to specify a smaller field, shorter shows, a high-school schedule friendly-season (meaning that they don't interfere with band camp in early Aug), and limited membership sizes, so that it's easier for a small or start-up corps to compete on a level playing field.

The idea of putting 40 members on a full football field for 11 minutes is self-defeating, since OF COURSE those corps are going to look less impressive than the WC corps that follow them. What does this do? It creates a stigma around Open Class, marking most of them as being less entertaining than the big corps, thus less appealing to potential members.

If Open Class is going to grow, it's going to need to start over by creating a new type of drum corps competition, specific to the needs of smaller, younger organizations with local membership. And the model shouldn't be DCI World Class; it should be WGI. Call it "DCI Show Corps", and give it its own identity.

- the shows should be shorter (7 to 9 minutes)

- the field/stage should be made smaller (50 yards by 25 yards deep)

- the size of the corps should be such that a small town high school could still put together a competitive unit (60 members or less)

- the corps should work to put together regional "leagues", with a focus on regional competition

- and the regular season should go early June to late July, so you don't interfere with band camps, with only the top 4 or 5 corps, the champs from each region, going head to head during Finals week ON Finals night.

The current model of "just like world class, but sparser" doesn't work. Those corps show up at competitions where BD or Cavaliers or Cadets are performing, and the crowd sees them as doing "tiny" versions of what the big corps do. Not an effective concept.

Screw that; create a separate style of drum corps that focuses on the music rather than visual, with sheets that reward performance excellence on the field and overall "entertainment" (rather than "general effect") up in the box, and start making a pitch to high school band directors to put together their own "Show Corps" (whether in-school, or as stand-alone units).

The whole activity, from the major corps down, has to start recognizing that we've been trying the same old solution for 20 years with regards to little corps, and it's not working to grow the participation. It's time to try something radically different, and that means giving locally based organizations a format they can maximize in ways that the biggest corps can't. Don't compete with the big guys head to head; be a totally different style of drum corps, and see what happens.

Edited September 2, 2010 by mobrien

[Richard]

I appreciate what you’re trying to do here, but I question the feasibility of many of these ideas.

- the shows should be shorter (7 to 9 minutes)

They already shortened the show length requirement to something like 9 or 9:30. If corps still insist on putting on 11 minute productions with 35 members…well that’s probably not very intelligent design from a competitive or entertainment standpoint.

- the field/stage should be made smaller (50 yards by 25 yards deep)

This I don’t understand. Why confine the designers? If they can effectively cover the field, and many of them can, why stop them? There was very good field coverage from most Open Class finalists this year.

- the size of the corps should be such that a small town high school could still put together a competitive unit (60 members or less)

This I really don’t understand. You think that by limiting BDB, OC, Spartans, Revo etc. to 60 members that more people will want to start drum corps? Because that’s the only way that this actually increases participation instead of decreasing it. If OC groups can effectively recruit more than 60 kids, then they should be able to provide those kids with the experience of marching.

- the corps should work to put together regional "leagues", with a focus on regional competition

The regional touring model is a nice concept, but it’s not really possible without more corps. Obviously there’s a good concentration of corps in California so I could see a regional circuit working there. And I guess you could do an east coast circuit with everyone from Platinum up to Les Stentors and maybe encompass 7 or 8 corps over 900 miles, if you even consider that regional. But where do the northwest corps compete? Or the corps from Texas? What if a corps starts up in Florida?

- and the regular season should go early June to late July, so you don't interfere with band camps, with only the top 4 or 5 corps, the champs from each region, going head to head during Finals week ON Finals night.

Except many schools here in the Northeast don’t get out until mid-to-late June so you’re getting squeezed on the other end.

In my opinion, the best way to increase Open Class participation and sustainability is for more intelligent people to start new drum corps. Getting this to happen is something else entirely. Handicapping the stronger groups isn’t much of an impetus to start a new corps I don’t think. Are there prospective corps directors out there saying “well I would start a corps, but I don’t want to compete with SCVC so forget it”. Are those types of people really the ones you want starting corps anyway?

Music City and Legends are two of the newer corps that have been steadily rising through the ranks of the class. They’re showing that you can start and build a competitive group with the current model if you’re intelligent about it. But too many groups expect to beat BDB and SCVC in their first year, or even in their 5th year, and they’re setting themselves up for failure by doing that. Set reasonable goals. Recruit hard. Be conservative with your expenses. Run it like a business. Sounds easy, right?

[mobrien]

Why confine the designers? If they can effectively cover the field, and many of them can, why stop them?

But they don't. It doesn't make sense to think that the same density and visual intensity that it takes the big corps 140-150 people to get across can be approximated on the same size field by a group 1/3 their size. But sticking those corps in a wide open football field, the size of the stage only highlights just how small they are; pull in the boundaries of the staging area to be more size appropriate to the number of bodies on the stage, and you start giving them the chance to create shows that have a different type of visual impact, where fewer bodies becomes an advantage rather than a liability.

Drum corps season used to start in early June all across the country. It has been done, and could be done again.

Go back and look again at what I said; the model isn't "drum corps" - it's WGI. A lot of the units competing there are high school units, so there's a model for how this could work.

Shows should be shorter because younger kids with limited rehearsal time can only learn so much, and because it would make the earlier season start possible. Put the focus on the musical program, use the smaller staging area so that the visual program is necessarily contained, and emphasize creativity.

Re: your suggestion (just start corps), I think that's been the plan for the last 30 years ; it doesn't seem to be working too well. The format needs to be radically updated into something appropriate for the time and budget constraints of local "hey kids, my dad has a barn!" type corps managers and band directors.

Current open class corps who are 90+ strong should be competing in World Class, since there are a number of World Class corps they could probably be beating anyway. But if you want to increase the number of overall participants, you have to make the cost of entry cheaper, the rules of engagement simpler, and the commitment of time less than it is now. Switching to a totally different format for Open Class can do that; doing "more of the same" won't, imho.

Edited September 2, 2010 by mobrien

[GDinnes]

I don't think raising the age limit one year in WC only is going to do anything. If you just aged out with BD, Crown, Cadets SCV (and so on), are you really going to want to march BDB, SCVC or any other OC corps?

Also Id on't think bringing back A-60 will do much either as stated previously that would limit participation, and if you were bring back both A and A60 well there wouldn't be enough corps to sustain either.

It really is just 'a sign of the times' to use a cliched response. Alot of the WC corps rely on donations, corps dues and fundraising. Things have become alot more expensive then in the glory days.

[fleurghost]

Adding a year of eligibility wouldn't do anything to spur growth in the segment - if anything, it could make it less appealing to parents of 13 and 14 year olds.

What COULD grow the class, I believe, would be modifying the rules of Open Class to specify a smaller field, shorter shows, a high-school schedule friendly-season (meaning that they don't interfere with band camp in early Aug), and limited membership sizes, so that it's easier for a small or start-up corps to compete on a level playing field.

The idea of putting 40 members on a full football field for 11 minutes is self-defeating, since OF COURSE those corps are going to look less impressive than the WC corps that follow them. What does this do? It creates a stigma around Open Class, marking most of them as being less entertaining than the big corps, thus less appealing to potential members.

If Open Class is going to grow, it's going to need to start over by creating a new type of drum corps competition, specific to the needs of smaller, younger organizations with local membership. And the model shouldn't be DCI World Class; it should be WGI. Call it "DCI Show Corps", and give it its own identity.

- the shows should be shorter (7 to 9 minutes)

- the field/stage should be made smaller (50 yards by 25 yards deep)

- the size of the corps should be such that a small town high school could still put together a competitive unit (60 members or less)

- the corps should work to put together regional "leagues", with a focus on regional competition

- and the regular season should go early June to late July, so you don't interfere with band camps, with only the top 4 or 5 corps, the champs from each region, going head to head during Finals week ON Finals night.

The current model of "just like world class, but sparser" doesn't work. Those corps show up at competitions where BD or Cavaliers or Cadets are performing, and the crowd sees them as doing "tiny" versions of what the big corps do. Not an effective concept.

Screw that; create a separate style of drum corps that focuses on the music rather than visual, with sheets that reward performance excellence on the field and overall "entertainment" (rather than "general effect") up in the box, and start making a pitch to high school band directors to put together their own "Show Corps" (whether in-school, or as stand-alone units).

The whole activity, from the major corps down, has to start recognizing that we've been trying the same old solution for 20 years with regards to little corps, and it's not working to grow the participation. It's time to try something radically different, and that means giving locally based organizations a format they can maximize in ways that the biggest corps can't. Don't compete with the big guys head to head; be a totally different style of drum corps, and see what happens.

Well the whole field thing, do we dig up the football field? How are you suppose to make it smaller. Make them march in a small box? They will still look the same size..... So that will not work.

Schools in the Midwest (and I'm a teacher and know) get out in mid June... June 12th for a matter of fact, and go back Aug 10th.... Making the band camp star about July 20th. And maybe being out for 4 weeks in enough. But many of them do that anyways, you are just not paying attention to the scheduling of the Open Class tours... I'd encourage you to look at when they come out for just a weekend and go back, means they are touring for less time.

Limiting a corps is rather silly. If you say that, then theoretically you should just limit BD and Cadets and Cavies to 60 members. How can anything grow if you limit it?

The answer is get directors that are not out to stroke their own egos..... And people that are able to answer calls and emails in a timely fashion. INSTEAD of blogging about baseball games and using their time to focus on creating band circuits and other guards circuits, those directors should focus on their corps nad the development of THAT unit.

Wanna cut costs? Cut expensive "toys" or better yet question why staff is being paid in access of $30 to be a caption head. QUESTION THAT!!!!! Spending 60-70 grand in travel for staff is something else you need to question. We tend to want to have a million ideas, but if you want real change, you start from the top down, not the bottom up as the bottom is NOT the problem, the top is.

[mobrien]

Oh. Yeah, you're right. Let's just keep doing everything EXACTLY the same, but just try a little harder.

I live in the midwest too (Chicago area), and my business is primarily geared toward selling programming to schools, so I know the schedules. Schools up here in the Lake County usually get out the first couple of days in June. Chicago public schools get out a little later, but are still done by June 10. WGI drum lines and guards are getting their shows ready to perform during the school year, so clearly high school kids CAN learn a 7 or 8 minute show and go to school at the same time.

And, again, when I started marching in the mid-70s, the first show of the season was usually the first weekend in June, for corps big and small. It has been done, and could be done again, as long as the shows aren't so complex that they require 4 weeks of everydays just to teach the visual program.

Re: making the field smaller, look at BD this year. You know what was interesting about the mirrors? They made the field smaller, hence making the corps appear bigger. Not rocket science to do the same thing for much smaller corps with rolling masking flats. Next question.

What's going to kill drum corps is thinking that just doing the same thing as we're doing now is a key to success. It's not. In order for the activity to grow, it will have to start by looking for new formats that can be mastered without the kids having to spend 16 hour days, 30 days in a row just to learn the drill. Right now, we're sentencing kids who can't afford to march a WC corps to appearing in limp, under-rehearsed, overly-long shows where they necessarily look small and weak next to the WC corps (in part because they're stuck using the same format).

Put any self-respecting kid in a situation where they can FEEL how much weaker they are than the kids on the other teams, and he will lose enthusiasm for what he's doing. Put him in a position where he is competing head to head with others in a different, freer, more 'fun' sport, where his form of drum corps is markedly different than what the World Class corps do, and he'll feel plenty good about what he's doing and give that enthusiasm to his peers.

Right now, the kids in Open Class have to be able to recognize how hard they have to work to make an impression. Give them an alternative version of drum corps that is all about THEIR size corps, with freedom to do things that the big guys can't do, and you create a guerilla mentality that makes Show Corps its own animal rather than a tepid version of World Class.

Edited September 3, 2010 by mobrien

[keymodf]

Wanna cut costs? Cut expensive "toys" or better yet question why staff is being paid in access of $30 to be a caption head. QUESTION THAT!!!!! Spending 60-70 grand in travel for staff is something else you need to question. We tend to want to have a million ideas, but if you want real change, you start from the top down, not the bottom up as the bottom is NOT the problem, the top is.

Yikes, I hope you're missing something. I know people who got paid more than $30 for blocks at camps. $30 an hour? $30 a day? $30k?