Jeff Ream Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Interesting that people complain so much about various methods of trying to keep drum corps afloat at all. It is an absolute miracle it even exists today at all (90's were ROUGH). Drum corps should have been dead almost 20 years ago. If in 10 years there are even 20 corps left (who even cares about performance level)... miracle number 2. Drum corps and economic realities/cultural shift... don't exactly mix. People need to start to get a dose of realism and become pretty #### happy for where things are at now... with a quickness.... and stop ####### complaining. It lacks perspective of reality and smacks of petty first world problems. There is far more important #### going on in the world to get hung up on G7 conspiracies or that sort of thing. yes the G7 directors should be happy things are where they are. After all, when they were on the BOD, they put it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Amen. the number of schools in my area that will not house anymore is mainly because of G7 corps. A shame. It was cool coming to "band camp" at my high school in 1988 to find a bunch of people sleeping on the gym floor: the Garfield Cadets, who none of us had heard of. (And they were back in 1989.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Mike, it's not like you to purposely misrepresent the facts, so I'm going to assume you haven't looked at that interview in awhile, and are allowing time to blur your memory of it. Please take another look. You will find: 1. Corps could travel wherever they wished. Their gripe was that appearance fees were not equal from region to region. 2. Said director speculated that one event was probably running at a loss in the one year anecdotally mentioned. 3. There was a difference of opinion among DCM directors about the degree and rate to which new technology should be embraced. Laptops were still luxuries, and smartphones a thing of the future, so relying on e-mail for correspondence even during tour was nice for some and unworkable for others. There were other criticisms about the timing of show contracts and housing arrangements, and vague derision directed at the bookkeeping practices, but to say that the whole circuit was "run on sheets of notebook paper out of the trunk of a car" is just not accurate. And frankly, it was philosophy that prevented any sort of compromise. The director interviewed, speaking on DCI's behalf, contended that granting the all-age corps any kind of membership or voting rights in the DCI-operated region was not even on the table for negotiation because of some sort of philosophical belief that DCI-the-youth-organization could not legally allow that. Having actually been at the meeting (as a corps rep) where discussions and the ultimate vote by the DCM corps were cast....there was substantially more at issue and the above mentioned items were either relatively minor in nature or simply non-existent. One has to remember what the fundamental ultimate vote was about; to continue allowing DCI to operate the DCM shows as DCI Central (as was done on a "trial basis" the direct previous season), or not. There were "bells and whistle" issues (that could had been possibly worked out) but the bottom line had to do with governance (and shared revenue, in part). In DCM every corps, no matter how big or small and no matter what classification, had an equal vote. In addition, each corps were part of a shared revenue (profit) program; all equal in distribution based on a participation of events (if I recall correctly) from the direct previous season and/or the profitability of the DCM Championship in DeKalb. As a sidenote; a corps' performance/appearance fee for the coming season was based off a formula considering score and number of members (on the field) at the previous championship. Bottom line, it was about governance. Folding DCM into the DCI central division would had eliminated Div II, Div III and all age voting rights. Phantom had left DCM the season before, and 48 hours (or so) after the meeting/vote all the Division 1 corps (less Pioneer) left. .....and all that info and 47 cents still only gets you a senior cup of coffee at the local McDonald's. :blink:/> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 ....having been involved in running shows one way or another for almost all of my life,...I can tell you that tickets sales alone have NEVER covered all expenses,............you need a LOT local sponsors/partners that take years to develop the base group, and then continue to pursue more each year,..........also, you need the program book adds, concession proceeds, bake sale donations, plenty of show staff/volunteers,........all of this is had enough to pull off with local, on the ground folks, let alone trying to do it by remote control,........ That's exactly what I was thinking; I can't imagine the difficulty of cultivating an entire mini-tour while also managing a World Class organization that, for some, involves multiple performance groups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowtown Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Interesting that people complain so much about various methods of trying to keep drum corps afloat at all. It is an absolute miracle it even exists today at all (90's were ROUGH). Drum corps should have been dead almost 20 years ago. If in 10 years there are even 20 corps left (who even cares about performance level)... miracle number 2. Drum corps and economic realities/cultural shift... don't exactly mix. People need to start to get a dose of realism and become pretty #### happy for where things are at now... with a quickness.... and stop ####### complaining. It lacks perspective of reality and smacks of petty first world problems. There is far more important #### going on in the world to get hung up on G7 conspiracies or that sort of thing. I’m not sure it’s drum corps or DCI that's broken, it may be the model of the G7 corps that’s broken. That they spend too much money putting out shows and they need to feed more, more, more It will be interesting to see where the other corps spend on the 990s thread It may be the G7’s advantage is bought and on their own, will inflate even more Perhaps DCI can’t support 30 corps spending at G7 levels but they might do a good job supporting corps that spend more modestly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 My complaint is that they're hijacking DCI and taking advantage of the goodwill of the other corps in order to run an experiment that is designed to benefit only them. Feel free to experiment, but don't abuse DCI's and the fans' good faith to do so. How exactly are they hijacking DCI and taking advantage of the goodwill of other corps? Conversely, I wonder why the other corps & DCI a) let them host their own shows that could compete with DCI shows and b)don't just "force" the G7 corps to choose one venue/circuit or the other. If the G7 corps are truly only benefitting themselves while also costing the DCI members corps money in show revenue & merchandise revenue, don't you think DCI would step in? There are more non-G7 corps in DCI than G7 corps, so surely if this endeavor is negatively affecting profit margins of DCI and its member corps the majority of its member corps directors could change the situation, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowtown Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 How exactly are they hijacking DCI and taking advantage of the goodwill of other corps? Conversely, I wonder why the other corps & DCI a) let them host their own shows that could compete with DCI shows and b)don't just "force" the G7 corps to choose one venue/circuit or the other. If the G7 corps are truly only benefitting themselves while also costing the DCI members corps money in show revenue & merchandise revenue, don't you think DCI would step in? There are more non-G7 corps in DCI than G7 corps, so surely if this endeavor is negatively affecting profit margins of DCI and its member corps the majority of its member corps directors could change the situation, right? None of that could be known I could see a situation where DCI allows the G7 in some shows. Finals for one, so DCI could sell the media other shows, it’d still be nice to have the draw but I’d guess DCI would need some concessions from the G7 – perhaps, no voting rights, associate member status, payments based on profits, not guaranteed, a non-compete agreement for show scheduling and then different performance orders for G7 corps, split them up through the show to promote the others corps, get people in their seats earlier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 None of that could be known I could see a situation where DCI allows the G7 in some shows. For sure; I'd argue that keeping the G7 corps in DCI would be mutually beneficial to all parties involved (including us fans). I suspect revenue on merchandising & audio/video products would plummet without participation of the Top 7 corps, and conversely without the higher profile of being an elite DCI corps the G7 could lose a lot of publicity and hype: though, again, that didn't seem to hurt Star to much in Brass Theater and later Blast -> obviously that was a completely different venture from drum corps, and if the Music in Motion groups prefer to continue down the drum corps route, they could lose interest with fans who want to see the DCI groups. Also, from a publicity standpoint, I'm sure DCI wouldn't be too hyped about a sub-par World Champion. It REALLY loses relevance if they crown a World Champion who can't break 90, or way over-inflate scores to give a Box 4 group Box 5/mid-90's scores. I really think all parties flourish with all current DCI corps staying in DCI: and I think that all parties, at the end of the day, understand that as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 A shame. It was cool coming to "band camp" at my high school in 1988 to find a bunch of people sleeping on the gym floor: the Garfield Cadets, who none of us had heard of. (And they were back in 1989.) It is. One corps in particular has a bad rep, but being good friends with a former show sponsor, he always said 95% of the drama came from big name corps...demands, behavior/trash etc. The other 5 came from neighbors of the school not ready for the noise since it was summerand the band hadn't started yet. I'm amazed when I see how far away people are staying for Allentown now....yet several awesome fqacilities right there sit unused. Why? people abused their priviledges and the facility Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 How exactly are they hijacking DCI and taking advantage of the goodwill of other corps? Conversely, I wonder why the other corps & DCI a) let them host their own shows that could compete with DCI shows and b)don't just "force" the G7 corps to choose one venue/circuit or the other. If the G7 corps are truly only benefitting themselves while also costing the DCI members corps money in show revenue & merchandise revenue, don't you think DCI would step in? There are more non-G7 corps in DCI than G7 corps, so surely if this endeavor is negatively affecting profit margins of DCI and its member corps the majority of its member corps directors could change the situation, right? lines are quietly being drawn in the sand. My hunch is more becaomes known as time goes on......as both sides dig in their heels, DCI will have it's own "fiscal cliff" issue with eacdh side polarized. The key is who wins the PR battle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.