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requiring open class experience first


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Let's revisit an old topic, one that was triggered by the "red shirting" thread.

With all the G7 talk of a few months ago, it seems that too many folks were focusing on building up the already competitive and very popular corps in hopes to drum up (no pun intended) interest in the activity. "We must market our top corps to build DCI."

This, in my opinion, was short-sighted. Work to make all corps as good as possible, thereby giving the audience several corps to watch for their ticket price. No showing up late to shows - all corps are talented, competitive, and hopefully entertaining.

To assist in this, let's force some parity. How about instituting a "one year of required open class participation" rule?

PROS

- Perhaps more corps deemed "good" by HS students and other potential customers may generate more general interest in the activity.

- Perhaps more competitive smaller corps may dispell the notion of "top or nothing."

CONS

- Perhaps the notion of "top or nothing" never gets dispelled, and such a rule would cause less participation.

More thoughts?

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As many have said here, and I agree to a point, many high school programs are as intensely competitive as open class.

If a student comes from one of those programs can he "free agent" his way into WC?

And how many high-caliber kids would choose to participate if they are forced into open class?

Wouldn't it end up cutting the ranks?

Edited by garfield
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And how many high-caliber kids would choose to participate if they are forced into open class?

Wouldn't it end up cutting the ranks?

Exactly why this wouldn't work. As long as marching members are paying to participate in the activity, they should have the freedom to choose what corps they march.

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Let's revisit an old topic, one that was triggered by the "red shirting" thread.

With all the G7 talk of a few months ago, it seems that too many folks were focusing on building up the already competitive and very popular corps in hopes to drum up (no pun intended) interest in the activity. "We must market our top corps to build DCI."

This, in my opinion, was short-sighted. Work to make all corps as good as possible, thereby giving the audience several corps to watch for their ticket price. No showing up late to shows - all corps are talented, competitive, and hopefully entertaining.

To assist in this, let's force some parity. How about instituting a "one year of required open class participation" rule?

PROS

- Perhaps more corps deemed "good" by HS students and other potential customers may generate more general interest in the activity.

- Perhaps more competitive smaller corps may dispell the notion of "top or nothing."

CONS

- Perhaps the notion of "top or nothing" never gets dispelled, and such a rule would cause less participation.

More thoughts?

Another con would be that there are a few students who aren't able (or aware that they're able) to march until their age-out year. They may have the talent (and even experience, if they marched at a competitive high school and kept marching in college) to make a WC corps, but this rule would force them to only compete in Open Class. Shouldn't they have the opportunity to audition for any corps they wish?

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Through simple calculations of my own, I will have one, with a potential MAX of two years of opportunity for WC (unless I can somehow get my parents to budge and let me do it my senior summer after graduation, but very unlikely).

I come from a high school where the staff all marched with DCA and DCI corps, meaning we have a very corps-oriented feel. I know that I have the marching and musical experience to make it (I am in the honor band stuff, gotten pretty deep into it all). I would be a perfect example of the struggle to get to a WC corps due to inexperience with DCI/A in the past...

I don't know if I shed any new light on the situation, but coming from someone who MAY suffer from this, I would not be pleased.

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I got to be honest. While there are some well run OC corps out there, too many of them (especially the ones always on the verge of collapse or the ones that do collapse and come back only to collapse again) are NOT quality institutions and the "experience" any kid would get there will likely be a waste of time and money. Even worse it very well might turn that kid off to marching all together. We've all heard the stories that are far too common but no one really talks about.

so...

Want to march DC but can't afford a WC corps? Need to work on your chops and test the waters before marching a WC corps? By all means, OC is perfect and you should put just as much time and thought into choosing a quality group to march with.

Mandating people march OC would guarantee a bad experience for far too many students.

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What about people living in Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, or Kansas, whose local corps are Academy, Troop and BK?

What about people with prior DCA experience because they don't have a DCI corps within a few hours?

What about an amazing ______________ player with no prior experience?

What about all of the amazing pianists/guitarists that'll join DCI as their instruments become more popular?

What about a soloist/section leader from Avon/LD Bell/Marcus/Tarpon Springs/*insert awesome BOA group here*?

It looks good on paper, but there are a lot of holes with it.

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What's going to be next, a drum corps draft? How can you tell someone that they have to march maybe their only year in the activity with a corps that they really do not want to march in? This sounds like you are trying to create parity in the activity and all you would create would be chaos and a mediocre level of competition. :thumbdown:

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