Let's make this local

[cixelsyd]

I see that corps are gearing up for the 2013 season. Most audition camps start at 8:00 p.m. on Friday night of camp week-ends. What would happen if a corps (Pioneer or Spirit for the sake of argument) focused their recruiting efforts within a three to four hour drive of their camps?

Nothing, really. A number of corps already do perform locally focused recruiting efforts. I would guess those two corps are among them.

The reason I'm asking is because I have the impression most corps are not making an effort to recruit locally.

Easy to see where one would get that impression, but it may not be accurate. For one thing, the stories of kids circling the globe to join a corps are better publicized than the stories of local marchers - that gives an exaggerated impression of just how geographically diverse the corps memberships are. And then, the membership demographics say little about how hard a corps tries to recruit locally.

I am just glad when corps fill their ranks. If they find it necessary to stage camps away from home and recruit there, or have non-local staff members recruit from their own areas, or run an exchange program with South Africa's drum corps circuit like Pioneer does - whatever works.

[Kevin Powell]

This information is completely anecdotal and I do not have any research numbers at all. With that disclaimer:

When I marched Troop in the mid-80's, the tides of Trooper membership were just beginning to turn in Casper. Out-of-towners like myself were becoming more numerous, and we were housed in homes of marching members. This remained the case until after my staff year in 1992. I do not know when the tide completely turned to the "move-ins" model that the corps now has of setting up camp for 3 week pre-tour at a set location, but I know it's been that way since we returned to competition in 2007.

Now, this brings me to the point of the OP to begin with:

Recruitment for Troop does occur in "local" areas such as Idaho, Colorado, etc. But as I've said before, a corps from a remote area (like Troop) has to recruit from where the majority of talented musicians are, period. From what I've seen, recruitment is often based on where the staff is located during the off season. Last year Troop had four winter camps in Waller, TX where a staff member is the band director. It was near Houston at a HUGE high school within decent driving distance of the bigger major airport. (about an hour) So we had a fairly sizeable "team Texas." But there were many other "teams" too, and maybe they'll chime in here.

So, how will a corps like Troop build a more local base? Well, the first step for Troopers is to do what they can to align once again with music educators, and they have started doing that. They've paired up with the All-State marching band (Western Winds), they've started a winter guard program, and in the past they've hosted a regional marching band festival. (I'm assuming it will happen again this year but I haven't checked yet.) But as burgerbob said, there are few PEOPLE. It's not just schools. Have ya'll been to Wyoming???? Beautiful country - thousands upon thousands of acres of beautiful country! And.... very few people. They live in wide open spaces and small communities... and that means small music programs and small budgets. There's probably not a lot of drum corps alumni working with those band programs. At least not YET. And that also means few marching band events, few winter guard (if any) events, etc.

So, when people start being annoyed with world class corps for not being more local, I simply think such folks need a monster reality check. Communities have "local" things like scouts, and soccer, etc. A "community" drum corps and a "world class" drum corps may not always be able to serve the same purpose. (That's why a "B" corps or another feeder organization that stays closer to home is a good investment. It gives the community a little more connection to the organization.)

It makes a huge amount of sense for Boston to have winter camps in Florida (weather) and Troop to have winter camps in Texas (weather). Until someone builds those corps a fully equipped indoor climate-controlled football field, guard rehearsal space and showers, they'll be better off wintering in more temperate locales, period.

Now for my last word: I would love nothing more than for Troop to have a giant local base of kids who are capable of marching a world class show. ("local" meaning within 0-10 hours drive) That would be AWESOME. And maybe that will happen some day. But it's not going to happen in a year, or even two. It may take a decade, or more.

cool. thanks for the great post.

[Daave]

Terri hit the nail on the head.

Just not a large enough population base to sustain a world class corps. To the east there are bunches of midwest corps and to the west are all the west coast corps. Nothing to the north and everyone recruits from Texas.

The biggest problem here is what Terri and I have said, there are basically no corps alumni (from any corps) teaching music in the state. This explains the horrendous marching bands and the fact that none of them even know what drum corps is.

It would appear that since the "comeback" in 2007, there have only been 10 Wyoming kids in the corps in the last six seasons.

[Kevin Powell]

It would appear that since the "comeback" in 2007, there have only been 10 Wyoming kids in the corps in the last six seasons.

That's amazing. Hat's off to the Troop for making things happen.

[craiga]

I was not clear in my first post and have edited what I wrote. By local presence, I am referring to a corps that might not have all of its members hail from the area it calls home, but still contributes to the community. My thought is that this is already happening.

Blue Devils has a Diablo Wind Symphony for local high school musicians and makes sure scholarships are available so talented young people have an opportunity to perform. Carolina Crown reaches out to many local high school programs in its home base and does the same on tour. Phantom Regiment performs free concerts prior to leaving on tour, one of which can be seen on Youtube. One, two, and three who do recruit nationally also give back to their local community and it obviously didn't hurt their standings.

Also, without sounding cynical, DCI probably encourages corps to give back for an important raeson. Non-profits do have to show they are truly non-profits. I belong to a camera club and we are asked to submit to the club proof charitable acts we do using our photography skills: volunteering to teach kids to use a camera, photograph a public or church event for free, donate photos to be sold to raise funds for a charity, etc. In Massachusetts it helps keep the club from having to pay property tax on the building. Reaching out may not just be a good deed. It may be essential to tax exempt status.

Boston Crusaders, despite their winter camps in Florida, also engage in a good deal of local outreach. As I've mentioned recently on another thread, BAC does in fact hold a "local" audition in Lynn, MA every year, generally a week before the Florida and Texas auditions. The corps truck is there, staff for every caption is there, corps management, admin, and board members are there, and even after sending full color recruiting posters and flyers to virtually every high school in New England with a music program, we generally see 25-35 prospective members show up. There are fewer than 40 active high school marching bands in all of New England these days, and except for a couple heavy hitters down toward the Cape, most groups have under 50 members. The Florida camp a week later will see 150-200 attendees, by comparison.

Something else which is gaining a great deal of attention recently are the Mass Bay Music Festivals. Created by BAC three years ago, these Springtime jazz festivals have exploded in popularity to the point where we now have a full time Director of MBMF. She has an office within the corps office in Woburn, and does an amazing job with these events. Unlike the marching band activity, the New England Jazz Ensemble scene has a couple hundred high schools involved.

The bottom line here is that in order to survive, you go where the interest is. Much I as might pine for the good old days, we will never again see tough kids off the streets of Dorchester and Hyde Park joining BAC.

One last note: believe it or not, the current members of BAC still sing the Dorchester High School song on the buses.... :)

Edited August 27, 2012 by craiga

[warsawstory]

Thanks to everyone who has responded to this thread. I've been assembling information on different recruiting techniques and would like to eventually send them off to a corps director.

Here are some more ideas I was mulling over. Have at 'em.

Offer to make lunch for a H.S. marching band that might be pulling an all day Saturday rehearsal. A corps food truck would be an impressive sight and corps certainly have experience putting out food. What kind of a budget would you be looking at for lunch? You could post a typical corps rehearsal day on a whiteboard to give the kids an idea of what to expect.

I feel many college band directors are touchy about having corps recruit their marching bands members. Here's a way around that - Get in touch with the music fraternities on campus and offer to do a pizza party/recruitment session, thus avoiding a director who turns his/her nose up at marching drum corps.

What other kind of "out of the box" ideas can you come up with?

[IllianaLancerContra]

Thanks to everyone who has responded to this thread. I've been assembling information on different recruiting techniques and would like to eventually send them off to a corps director.

Here are some more ideas I was mulling over. Have at 'em.

Offer to make lunch for a H.S. marching band that might be pulling an all day Saturday rehearsal. A corps food truck would be an impressive sight and corps certainly have experience putting out food. What kind of a budget would you be looking at for lunch? You could post a typical corps rehearsal day on a whiteboard to give the kids an idea of what to expect.

I feel many college band directors are touchy about having corps recruit their marching bands members. Here's a way around that - Get in touch with the music fraternities on campus and offer to do a pizza party/recruitment session, thus avoiding a director who turns his/her nose up at marching drum corps.

What other kind of "out of the box" ideas can you come up with?

Everyone applies to DCI & DCI assigns them to specific corps based on geography

[warsawstory]

Everyone applies to DCI & DCI assigns them to specific corps based on geography

I would love to see those gerrymandered districts!