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Is DCI broken?


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. . .so you've identified a problem.

What do you suggest, specifically, the organization DCI (or its member corps) should do to prevent this from occurring again?

Rather than turn this into a laundry list of DCIs issues (which sometimes happens here), how can we institute fiscal safeguards into the activity while still giving corps the autonomy to run their organizations effectively?

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Teal Sounding folding mid-tour is sad, but by definition, the ball had to have been dropped by both DCI and the Teal Sound board of directors for something like this to happen out of the blue DURING the DCI tour.

This sucks for everyone, including the show sponsors. But DCI should have been on top of this before it happened. If DCI is somehow "not" supposed to be aware of a bad financial condition of a member corps, then the DCI system is broken, and it should get out of the way of the activity before it kills it off.

Point of fact, those Teal Sound kids should have never went on tour. They should have had a chance to march somewhere else, -- in January. How many DCI age outs just had their last season of drum corps ruined?

I'm sorry, but this is low rent business organization at its finest. How many corps do we need to lose to wake up here?

Lee Rudnicki

First of all, considering the typically low average age at Teal, I'm guessing there aren't a ton of age outs in the corps.

Second, while it is tragic to see something like this happen, until we have all of the facts, its premature to say anything about who dropped the ball, or who is to blame.

Third, how exactly is DCI responsible for the management of its membership? Are there DCI officials on the board of directors for every corps? Do we really want DCI micromanaging member corps, or should member corps be allowed to decide their own course. The argument for DCI intervention is dangerously close to the "for your own good" big brother kind of management. DCI is there to host shows and provide judges. What member corps do and how they manage their business is between the corps management and their members.

Lastly, there is already a thread discussing this very issue.

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Perhaps their needs to be a more realistic approach logistically (less touring), sharing of expenses, amongst corps, group discounts on food purchasing for coros touring together. The biggest issue has been a dismal economy for 4 years which strains income through donors. I'm surprised we haven't lost more corps. BTW, not sure if the Internet age has helped DCI with people watching you tube or webcasts of shows vs actually going buying tickets, shirts, caps etc.

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As unpopular as the G7 proposal was a couple years ago, if the policies there were implemented would Teal Sound have had the financial struggles it currently has?

Because I think many people here like to think the problems of DCI are related to marketing and show-content but I think the problems are more complicated than that.

I'm not in anyway trying to open a can of worms and I'm not stating an opinion about the G7 proposal.

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Since the moderators is their infinite wisdom somehow decided that this was to be placed in teal sound thread when clearly they (TS) were only used as an example, i have pasted my thought/question below

I am sure this has been talked about before, so bear with me.

After hearing of yet another corps folding today, I looked at Teal Sounds web site under the heading of instructors.

Including administration, there are 40 people under this caption.

My question... who on this list is paid? All 40 of them? 1/2? none.

If they are all paid, is it necessary to have 10 instructors for brass? Yes, I can be considered a dinosaur, but seriously? I remember when there were 2-3 per section. All volunteers. Add in costs of synths, amps, extra trucks to haul...so much.. Have we really lost our selves and as drum corps? thhis is all getting out of hand.

I forsee one day in the not too distant future that there will be 12 corps left and finals will be top 5

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Since the moderators is their infinite wisdom somehow decided that this was to be placed in teal sound thread when clearly they (TS) were only used as an example, i have pasted my thought/question below

I am sure this has been talked about before, so bear with me.

After hearing of yet another corps folding today, I looked at Teal Sounds web site under the heading of instructors.

Including administration, there are 40 people under this caption.

My question... who on this list is paid? All 40 of them? 1/2? none.

If they are all paid, is it necessary to have 10 instructors for brass? Yes, I can be considered a dinosaur, but seriously? I remember when there were 2-3 per section. All volunteers. Add in costs of synths, amps, extra trucks to haul...so much.. Have we really lost our selves and as drum corps? thhis is all getting out of hand.

I forsee one day in the not too distant future that there will be 12 corps left and finals will be top 5

To be fair to the moderators, it wasn't at all clear that Teal Sound was only being used as an example. You asked about who on the list was being paid. You were talking about the Teal Sound list and nowhere did you specify that this question of yours applied to the entire activity. You kind of got there in your last paragraph when you reflected on what your remembered was the norm. And the question you asked, "Have we really lost our selves and as drum corps" was worded in such a way that I (and I suspect others) did not have any idea what your really meant. Can you reword that for us?

Referring to the moderators "in their infinite wisdom" implies that somehow they are stupid. They aren't.

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Since the moderators is their infinite wisdom somehow decided that this was to be placed in teal sound thread when clearly they (TS) were only used as an example, i have pasted my thought/question below

I am sure this has been talked about before, so bear with me.

After hearing of yet another corps folding today, I looked at Teal Sounds web site under the heading of instructors.

Including administration, there are 40 people under this caption.

My question... who on this list is paid? All 40 of them? 1/2? none.

If they are all paid, is it necessary to have 10 instructors for brass? Yes, I can be considered a dinosaur, but seriously? I remember when there were 2-3 per section. All volunteers. Add in costs of synths, amps, extra trucks to haul...so much.. Have we really lost our selves and as drum corps? thhis is all getting out of hand.

I forsee one day in the not too distant future that there will be 12 corps left and finals will be top 5

What you may need to understand about staff is that not all are present all of the time. They may only be on tour for couple weeks, couple days, or not at all! They may switch out with other staffers.

Edited by charlie1223
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As unpopular as the G7 proposal was a couple years ago, if the policies there were implemented would Teal Sound have had the financial struggles it currently has?

Because I think many people here like to think the problems of DCI are related to marketing and show-content but I think the problems are more complicated than that.

I'm not in anyway trying to open a can of worms and I'm not stating an opinion about the G7 proposal.

are you asking if Teal Sound would be better off if they were banned from performing on Fridays and Sundays? because I'm pretty sure the answer to that is no...

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