Corps Directors

[soccerguy315]

Your statement is both flawed and terribly oversimplified.

Tuition increases arent done so that economically disadvantaged kids can have their bills subsidized by rich students.

Scholarships usually come from endowments, not tuition payments.

Money is fungible. If the school is paying the scholarship, they got that money from somewhere. Whether you want to say they are using the endowment to fund scholarships and tuition to fund operating expenses is irrelevant because they can easily be flip flopped. It's the same money.

Person A has $100 and the School has $100 (endowment). Person B has $0.

Person A gives $100 to the School. School has $200. Person B still has $0.

School gives $100 to Person B. Person A has $0, School has $100, and Person B has $100.

Person B gives $100 to School. School has $200, and Person A and Person B both have $0.

Now, you see that this school has 2 students, and made $100, which is $50 a student. But both students didn't pay $50. One paid $100, and the other paid zero (only accepting $100 from the school, and then returning that money, for a net gain of $0 for the school).

If someone is paying less, and someone is paying more, for the same service, that the actual cost of the service is the average of those numbers, and that therefore, the person paying more is obviously subsidizing the person paying less.

drum corps is not a college or any kind of tax payer funded activity.

every year, in every corps, I bet there are people that don't pay all their dues. When this happens, it drives the dues higher. Because the corps have operating expenses. If only 130 people are paying full tuition, than tuition just got higher than it would need to be if 150 people were paying.

[thirdcoast]

There is a difference between being stupid and out of touch. For the record, I don't think that most of the directors are stupid. But I really do think they, as a group, are oblivious, isolated, and clueless as to what is taking place in this activity, and this nation in general. And unfortunately, people in this country are no longer willing to blindly follow those who are in charge, because they are the "experts", and we should "just trust them".

The last presidential election was a clear example of this. I really think that a lot of people simply voted against John McCain, and not for Barack Obama. Why was that? Because McCain was clearly the candidate of the existing political establishment in Washington. People were simply tired of what the "experts" in Washington were doing, on a number of fronts, but particularly with the economy. And much of that sentiment is probably behind the Tea Party movement in this country as well - even though those folks are in the opposite political spectrum from Obama.

McCain may be a genuine American hero....spent years in a Vietnamese POW camp....and may have a distinguished record in the Senate. But honestly, with many voters, that probably carried little or no importance, because that only served to cement McCain as the candidate of the establishment. And with many voters, they wanted the establishment pushed out. What mattered to voters was simple: who would best run the country for the next 4 years, not who had the best life and career for the past 40 years.

Want more examples? Bobby Bowden was recently pushed out as head coach at Florida State University, where he had coached for 33 years. He is 2nd on the NCAA football victory list, and won 2 national titles during his stint there. But the President at that university pushed him out. The leadership at that school simply wanted someone who would make them more successful now - not who had been successful in the past.

Michael Eisner was arguable the most successful CEO at Disney; he saved that company from mediocrity in the 1980's, and helped remake it into a top-notch American corporation. But Disney's performance since the turn of the millenium really deteriorated, and in 2004, he was essentially voted out of office by the shareholders.

To summarize: just because someone is smart, has a great pedigree, a great list of experiences, and a great track record, does not mean that they are the choice for the job today. Maybe you were great twenty years ago, but what about today? If you perform poorly, and cannot guide your organization in the future, you do not deserve your job. If you do not have a plan to guide your organization in the future, and the skills to make it a reality, then you really need to step aside, and let someone else take the lead.

This is true in politcs, business, sports - and drum corps. I hate to say it, but there's more than one leader in this activity, who I think should quietly step aside. Their time has come and gone, and quite frankly, they need to be replaced with new, dynamic leadership, that can take this activity in a new direction.

We as an activity need to remember that all the directors out there are doing there best each and every year. And I have to say it is really easy to post about things, at least they are doing Drum Corps and keeping it alive and kicking.

[Rifuarian]

Money is fungible. If the school is paying the scholarship, they got that money from somewhere. Whether you want to say they are using the endowment to fund scholarships and tuition to fund operating expenses is irrelevant because they can easily be flip flopped. It's the same money.

Person A has $100 and the School has $100 (endowment). Person B has $0.

Person A gives $100 to the School. School has $200. Person B still has $0.

School gives $100 to Person B. Person A has $0, School has $100, and Person B has $100.

Person B gives $100 to School. School has $200, and Person A and Person B both have $0.

Now, you see that this school has 2 students, and made $100, which is $50 a student. But both students didn't pay $50. One paid $100, and the other paid zero (only accepting $100 from the school, and then returning that money, for a net gain of $0 for the school).

If someone is paying less, and someone is paying more, for the same service, that the actual cost of the service is the average of those numbers, and that therefore, the person paying more is obviously subsidizing the person paying less.

every year, in every corps, I bet there are people that don't pay all their dues. When this happens, it drives the dues higher. Because the corps have operating expenses. If only 130 people are paying full tuition, than tuition just got higher than it would need to be if 150 people were paying.

My experience working in higher ed has led me to believe it looks more like this:

Person A has $100. School has $1,000,000, most of which comes from returns on investment, fundraising, grants, and so forth and not tuition. Person B has $0.

Person A gives $100 dollars to School. School has $1,000,100. Person B has $0.

School gives $5 to Person B (promptly giving it back to the university), who funds the rest of his education with usurious student loans. Person A has $0. Thanks to kickbacks from Person B's loan companies, School has $1,000,205. Person B has negative $100.

Somehow I'm just not sure that these things work the same way in drum corps. But it's good to see you did well in your undergrad econ classes.

Edited October 23, 2010 by Rifuarian

[mckdan]

I am so sick of hearing individuals constantly bringing up racism, sexism and any other kind of -ism that is in vogue for the day. When I marched drumcorps it only mattered the member or staff had the drive and/or talent to make the corps better. I never saw any individual be denied either a spot in the corps or the staff if they had the skills needed! Drum corps does not know color, religion or race, it knows only talent and drive! I am sick and tired of any "minority" thinking that they should get special treatment because they are "under represented" and deserve to be able to either march in a corps for free or become a corps director without paying their dues.

Have you ever noticed that there are absolutely no fat, 47-year old, balding men marching in BD's colorguard? This is a scandal and must be brought to everyone's attention and immediately fixed!!!! I guarantee that if any eligible trumpet player could hit a triple high C at the drop of a hat there would be no shortage of corps interested in their services even if they were a 3 foot, African-American, lesbian, cross-dressing individual with a lisp!!! The same goes for instructors and directors, if the talent is there the results will sooner or later come forward!!

[DrillmanSop06]

I am so sick of hearing individuals constantly bringing up racism, sexism and any other kind of -ism that is in vogue for the day. When I marched drumcorps it only mattered the member or staff had the drive and/or talent to make the corps better. I never saw any individual be denied either a spot in the corps or the staff if they had the skills needed! Drum corps does not know color, religion or race, it knows only talent and drive! I am sick and tired of any "minority" thinking that they should get special treatment because they are "under represented" and deserve to be able to either march in a corps for free or become a corps director without paying their dues.

Have you ever noticed that there are absolutely no fat, 47-year old, balding men marching in BD's colorguard? This is a scandal and must be brought to everyone's attention and immediately fixed!!!! I guarantee that if any eligible trumpet player could hit a triple high C at the drop of a hat there would be no shortage of corps interested in their services even if they were a 3 foot, African-American, lesbian, cross-dressing individual with a lisp!!! The same goes for instructors and directors, if the talent is there the results will sooner or later come forward!!

If only that were actually the case. There are much larger societal issues involving privilege, access, and power at work here. Whether it's a "major problem" or not is debatable but you cannot possibly deny that drum corps in and of itself is an activity of privilege and as such, is inherently problematic from this perspective.

[Jeff Ream]

drum corps is open to all who want to join. No one is turning away anyone based on any kind of gender, sexual orientation or race.

[DrillmanSop06]

drum corps is open to all who want to join. No one is turning away anyone based on any kind of gender, sexual orientation or race.

Drum corps isn't open to all who want to join. Under-resourced individuals will have a very difficult time finding access to the activity in general. I'm not suggesting that drum corps openly discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, or race. I am saying that there are inherent, unchangeable qualities of the activity which do make it problematic from certain perspectives.

Edited October 28, 2010 by DrillmanSop06

[Jeff Ream]

Drum corps isn't open to all who want to join. Under-resourced individuals will have a very difficult time finding access to the activity in general. I'm not suggesting that drum corps openly discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, or race. I am saying that there are inherent, unchangeable qualities of the activity which do make it problematic from certain perspectives.

and you will have that with many walks of life. you cant impose rules to make everything equitable for all people. it's just the way life is, and if you look at history, often times trying to impose those rules makes it worse.

[corps8294]

I'd like to protest on this topic, too. There simply are not enough martians as corps directors in this activity! What about all our cosmic friends and foes from outer space?

[scottgordon]

The tone of the posts on this thread is telling. A surprising number read like they were written 50 years ago, or more.