BRASSO Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 (edited) Well, good point and another possible reason for the demise of friends members this past decade, but I would have to ask did friend's membership decline from, say, 1995-2005? I mean, there were a TON of ho hum shows during that period, particularly 1995-2000... ( IMHO, yes there were gems in there too). It's all speculation really as to why the DCI Donors list and revenues are down. Unless one had access to the data, it's really difficult to come up with the plausable reasons. I would assume that DCI does periodic surveys with their Donors to determine what the Donors like or dislike regarding DCI operations and so forth. Without acess to data and survey feedback from Donors over this period, it's just all pure guesswork on our behalf as to the reasons for this decline. Edited March 9, 2011 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 The economy boomed from '04 to '07. I don't expect a direct correlation between this graph and the US economy. But the economy does have something to do with it. I just wonder why Lower tier donors dropped off so dramatically after 2005 and upper tier donors increased and maintained relatively steady since... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 (sorry for the blur) 25% decline in a decade. Bad economy or bad marketing, or...? Discuss... hmm. the big drop really started before the economy was tanking. Interesting 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 I don't expect a direct correlation between this graph and the US economy. But the economy does have something to do with it. I just wonder why Lower tier donors dropped off so dramatically after 2005 and upper tier donors increased and maintained relatively steady since... I left Friends in 03. did prices go up after 05? I could see that affecting it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 The economy boomed from '04 to '07. December 21, 1976 report on the global economic crisis and the bubble that was ready to burst. Note the collapses of Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac were predicted due to defaults on housing loans. But even more telling...in this Wikipedia article... Fall 2005: Booming housing market halts abruptly; from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of 2006, median prices nationwide drop 3.3 percent. February–March, 2007: Subprime industry collapse; several subprime lenders declaring bankruptcy, announcing significant losses, or putting themselves up for sale. These include Accredited Home Lenders Holding, New Century Financial, DR Horton and Countrywide Financial. April 2, 2007: New Century Financial, largest U.S. subprime lender, files for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Clearly, the economy was NOT booming from 2005 on, and this quite possibly affected people trying to decide if they should dispose of their disposal income or hold on to it in the event the nation had to ride things out for awhile. This would expectedly affect travel to major drum corps shows, and getting the best seats at these shows is a major reason many join Friends of DCI. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 (edited) December 21, 1976 report on the global economic crisis and the bubble that was ready to burst. Note the collapses of Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac were predicted due to defaults on housing loans. But even more telling...in this Wikipedia article... Fall 2005: Booming housing market halts abruptly; from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of 2006, median prices nationwide drop 3.3 percent. February–March, 2007: Subprime industry collapse; several subprime lenders declaring bankruptcy, announcing significant losses, or putting themselves up for sale. These include Accredited Home Lenders Holding, New Century Financial, DR Horton and Countrywide Financial. April 2, 2007: New Century Financial, largest U.S. subprime lender, files for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Clearly, the economy was NOT booming from 2005 on, and this quite possibly affected people trying to decide if they should dispose of their disposal income or hold on to it in the event the nation had to ride things out for awhile. This would expectedly affect travel to major drum corps shows, and getting the best seats at these shows is a major reason many join Friends of DCI. Mike, I worked in mortgages from 04 til now. the market was not hurting until 2007,and the sub primes that folded were because they got caught doing illegal things and making loans people couldn't afford. that report is soooo misleading of the real truth Edited March 9, 2011 by Jeff Ream 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 (edited) December 21, 1976 report on the global economic crisis and the bubble that was ready to burst. Note the collapses of Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac were predicted due to defaults on housing loans. But even more telling...in this Wikipedia article... Fall 2005: Booming housing market halts abruptly; from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of 2006, median prices nationwide drop 3.3 percent. February–March, 2007: Subprime industry collapse; several subprime lenders declaring bankruptcy, announcing significant losses, or putting themselves up for sale. These include Accredited Home Lenders Holding, New Century Financial, DR Horton and Countrywide Financial. April 2, 2007: New Century Financial, largest U.S. subprime lender, files for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Clearly, the economy was NOT booming from 2005 on, and this quite possibly affected people trying to decide if they should dispose of their disposal income or hold on to it in the event the nation had to ride things out for awhile. This would expectedly affect travel to major drum corps shows, and getting the best seats at these shows is a major reason many join Friends of DCI. Maybe... then again... maybe not. If we do a corresponding comparison with College Football, College Basketball, NFL, MLB, NBA, NASCAR etc and similar sports attendance and revenue figures( rates of increases or decreases in similar tiome frames ), and donor list revenues and comparisons, we might be able to determine the level of the economy's effect on DCI Drum Corps attendance and Donorship. One would have to look at the typical demographic of each as well. I don't know the demographic breakdown of the typical DCI fan, but I would think that we'd probably find them to be more educated, more older, more white, more afffluent, more suburban, have higher disposable incomes, etc than the typical ( for example )college and pro sports traveling fan. If so, then the typical DCI fan should have been able to weather an economic downturn much better than these other sports. The fact that these sports attendance figures seemed to have weathered the downturn in the economy better seems to make specious the position that " the economy " was as big an influence in DCI attendance and donorship level drop offs as some might have us believe it to be. Edited March 9, 2011 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 cool graph. i tried to make one once, but i'm not computer literate enough. 3D and stuff. cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rifuarian Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 It's bonkers to argue that the economy had anything to do with the initial decline, but it surely had something to do with the lowest ebb in 2009. It'll be interesting to see if the number of donors continues to recover alongside the economy (if the economy does recover) in 2011. DCI is facing several long-term dangers, the worst danger being the decline in the number of marching members. Maybe that has had some effect on numbers of donors, but it looks like short-term factors might be more important here. The rule changes in the middle of the decade no doubt had an impact, and perhaps some change has been made to the Friends program to make it less worthwhile. I remember some Friends (or former Friends) occasionally complaining about the program over the past couple of years, but I can't remember any specifics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4181jay Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 (edited) cant speak for others but i didn't renew my friends membership this year due to getting 'top class' seats OUTSIDE the 40 for finals last year.I was led to believe the seats around the 50 were reserved for friends members and looking at the numbers now I wonder why I was so far out. At the time I just thought that there must be a 1000 or so friends so I just lived with it. Now I'm quite ticked off! Knew a couple of people who were nearer the 50 for finals who bought their tickets really late too, without friends membership. The 'newsletter' sent out is a small e-mail with not as much info on as the normal DCI e-mail. All in all just not good value or service for the lower level friends member. I would have renewed this year if it wasn't for the above points as there is a chance I may venture over the pond again to catch a late regional. I'll just spend my money on merchandise from the corps websites instead. Edited March 9, 2011 by 4181jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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