Michael Boo Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 This WILL NOT HAPPEN without corporate sponsorship. Drum corps CANNOT GROW without corporate sponsorship. Can anyone say, "Bill Cook was a visionary"? DCI needs to stop hiring people that know anything at all about drum corps. This is not who they are trying to market to. Hire people that know nothing at all about it. That's how I got my job as Staff Writer and I continue to prove them correct about me every time I write something. One on the topic... DCI's salaries are way too low. Raise the salaries of people in revenue responsible positions... provide COMPETITIVE financial incentives for them based on performance, and you will see numbers dramatically improve. To what address do I send the thank-you check? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 (edited) 1993 DCA had 13 corps show up for Prelims.... yes PRELIMS and told my parents it would be gone by 2000. Instead DCA changed its way of operating to match the times and became more open to smaller corps on the competitive field. They also added Mini and Alumni corps to Finals Weekend to apeal to more fans. Now things are a lot better, but could still be a lot better.... Lot of Alumni corps first started as former members only groups then went to people with corps experience as the well of former members started to dry up. Now some have to gone to being totaly open and dropping the "Alumni" tag as it is a hinderance/confusing to potential members. Bottom line: You're not going to change circumstances to fit you, you have to change to use what's going on to your max benefit. <$1 to info session I had on dying city churches> My guess (and I was really off on my 1993 prediction) is any new corps will be of the smaller size as just too #### expensive to start full sized. Now the question is can DCI/DCA/anyone else come up with a plan to USE this. Note to self: coffee first, THEN type.... Edited April 21, 2011 by JimF-LowBari Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Drum Corps will be around for awhile. There will always be people who want to bang things and toot things and throw things. It's just human nature. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvs me sum mello! Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Recessions come and go. The Philadelphia SO will survive the recession and so will DCI. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Ahh yes.. I do recall, reading about 100 times a year that drum corps will die now. Lol. So I see your point. But do we actually have more reason to worry about things now given the state of arts programs across the country? Arts programs were being cut back decades ago. The late 70's was a big era of cutbacks here in NJ. They are always kind of on the edge, sad to say, as being seen as an 'extra' in many places. Whenever the economy goes bust, and districts look to cut back, they look at art and music first. It takes vigilant parents within a district to fight that perception. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Recessions come and go. The Philadelphia SO will survive the recession and so will DCI. Question is what form will DCI have to take to survive. And my big concern is the lack of new corps being created that actually stick around for more than a few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BozzlyB Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Drum corps is a niche activity. This is both it's saving grace, and it's shackles. It will always be here, but it will never mainstream and appeal to the masses in any sense much greater than it does now. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawker Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Recessions come and go. The Philadelphia SO will survive the recession and so will DCI. Pretty much this. Drum corps, as an idiom, will survive, even if DCI doesn't. There is (IMO) the distinct possibility that some of the junior stuff may not be the same thing we're used to after a while . . .I do foresee the next ten to fifteen years moving the activity away from smaller, outdoor venues and more towards an indoor, all-instrumentation allowed kind of "Cirque" experience. I think the G8 is the first move towards that, and that some of the groups . . .Cadets and Blue Devils especially . . .will strike out on their own without DCI sooner than later. Once the infrastructure to book larger venues is in place, and without the bigger "draw" names, some of the other DCI corps may become regional entities @ DCA and/or totally shift away from outdoor brass/percussion in order to focus on winterguard or winter drum line. Or, stuff stays relatively the same. The trajectory of change doesn't match up with that to me, though. . .but all of this is spitballing on my part, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiodb Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 To borrow from the political rhetoric of the day....drum corps has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Adapting to the challenges of today's economy (particularly if fuel prices stay high) will require some sort of change to the operating model that addresses the cost of operating a drum corps. If the majority of DCI has the guts to make those changes, and the intelligence to identify what those changes should be, they will survive (perhaps even grow) over the long term. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiodb Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Arts programs were being cut back decades ago. The late 70's was a big era of cutbacks here in NJ. They are always kind of on the edge, sad to say, as being seen as an 'extra' in many places. Whenever the economy goes bust, and districts look to cut back, they look at art and music first. And is that a problem for drum corps, or an opportunity? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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