2012 DCA Rules Congress - Baltimore, MD

[donincardona]

Bill, just for the memories (and a bit of trivia) I was there for your reviewing stand production. I just finished marching with 3 local buddies as the Main Guard for CorpsVets. It was CV's first time at DCA and they had no color guard. Tom Walsh of CV (a good friend) asked if I could come up with something to help them. We did!

So . . . in a peculiar kind of way, I am proud to say I marched CorpsVets! I also drank real moonshine gin at their Post in Atlanta! Keep that a secret.

in 1969 we went to A.L. nats in atlanta. the man in charge of us at the stone mountain inn hotel hooked me up with a moonshiner and i bought a quart of white lighting. i had no idea i was supposed to mix it with other alcohol and drank about 6 oz. what a BIG mistake.

Edited January 9, 2013 by donincardona

[bill]

Just a passing thought as I have been catching up on this thread......

I wonder if the shows were designed only to entertain the fans and performances were not judged or scored, would they 1) cost less to produce; 2)be more entertaining to the layman at a show; 3) grow a larger fan base of people that do not care who wins or places 11th; and 4) would people still be interested in marching?

Like I said, just a passing thought......

Well, I certainly cannot, or ever would attempt speak for others......in particular any other drum corps'; but with that being said, I can speak for The Kilties. We attempt to design our show about fan entertainment and membership fulfillment.

In scheduling to perform in/at events we look at a variety of subjects:

A) Is it relatively local (within 150 miles) and the appearance able to cover expenses. (one way or another with expenses; will souvie sales make up for a lower performance fee, etc.)

B) Is the potential there for a big appreciative crowd! After-all, that's why we do this, don't we? To be seen, to be appreciated for all the hard work and sweat it takes, to entertain!

C) Will the membership enjoy the experience?

If the answer is "yes" to those qualifying questions....we GO if the performance can be fit within the schedule and the sponsors would like The Kilties.

We do full corps field performances at competitive band shows, football halftimes, DCA shows, DCI shows, concerts for other non profit fundraising events (Madison Scouts "Rockin for a Cure", Racine Symphony Orchestra, etc.), parades.

In short..we go to the people, as best we can and as the schedule allows.....to.......entertain and try to work hard and strive to be as excellent as we are able.

The membership loves the variety and adventure, and the challenges it brings from time to time. Ever try to entertain a football crowd one night and the symphony orchestra crowd the next? Through the membership's dedication and thirst for variety and entertaining the fans....so far, so good.

As a side-note: I found it comical when doing the Govies show a year or so a go, the other corps were intensely warming up for their respective field performances, and The Kilties were reading down (stands and all) "1812 Overture" to ready for a combination corps/symphony orchestra concert coming the next Friday evening. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

PS: The concert went very well the next week, and the fans in St Peter were presented with a good performance as well (and Patrick's was a blast).

[MikeD]

right. and DCI and DCA make the most money on those big shows...for DCA, it's DCA finals weekend.

and what happens to that money? It gets sent out to the corps.

So imagine the DCA payout if they got 14k instead of 7k. or for DCI, if they got 30k instead of maybe 20k.

Yeah, that money would help the corps.

As I said, not much of a factor. 10K difference in a million dollar organization is just not a big deal.

[Fran Haring]

As I said, not much of a factor. 10K difference in a million dollar organization is just not a big deal.

Yes... but to paraphrase the late Sen. Everett Dirksen:

10K here, 10K there... pretty soon, you're talking real money.

[Kyle B]

Jeff, at the present time, there is only 1 corps that can confidently plan for a full corps of 128. That would be Bucs. By the way, I just heard Bucs are well on their way this year with 65 smokin' brass players, and 6-8 others standing on the sidelines.

I assume having too many members would only be a problem for Bucs right now. Those 'unneeded" folks can probably go to Fusion, Cabs, etc. just as easily as going to Reading.. Who knows? An organization like the Bucs might field 2 groups of 90! Just kidding! My point is, the only way to reduce expenses is to downsize in some manner. That could be less travel, less equipment needs, less staff, lower bills for buses, fewer practices, etc. Who knows?

I DO NOT think the answer should be higher member fees, higher ticket prices, higher prices on booster table items, etc.

Fred,

We are currently planning a trip for my entire music department to go to a theme park, perform, have fun for the day and then come back.

The costs are the festival, theme park tickets, paying for chaperones, 4 coach buses with tolls/gas/tips, food and a t-shirt.

We are doing this all ourselves so we needed to know how much to charge the kids. We have a maximum amount of 180 people going.

The cost per student if everyone goes is $92.

If only 150 people go and we need 3 coach buses, then the cost per student is $93.

If only 100 people go and we only need 2 coach buses, then the cost per student is $92.

My point is that although the costs overall are more if more people attend, they are spread throughout more people. If less people go, then yes, it will cost less, but it will be spread over less people.

We have worked on these numbers a lot and were very shocked to find that there was no fluctuation.

Although I do not think my analogy I used is perfect, it does model how costs can be even keel with how big your corps is, because more people can support them through dues.

Now, a corps of 40 who uses the same amount of props for a corps who have 128 members, those 40 people will have to front a lot more money towards those than if it was $128.

I hope I made sense.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Kyle B

[MikeD]

Yes... but to paraphrase the late Sen. Everett Dirksen:

10K here, 10K there... pretty soon, you're talking real money. :tongue:/>

[Jeff Ream]

Jeff, at the present time, there is only 1 corps that can confidently plan for a full corps of 128. That would be Bucs. By the way, I just heard Bucs are well on their way this year with 65 smokin' brass players, and 6-8 others standing on the sidelines.

I assume having too many members would only be a problem for Bucs right now. Those 'unneeded" folks can probably go to Fusion, Cabs, etc. just as easily as going to Reading.. Who knows? An organization like the Bucs might field 2 groups of 90! Just kidding! My point is, the only way to reduce expenses is to downsize in some manner. That could be less travel, less equipment needs, less staff, lower bills for buses, fewer practices, etc. Who knows?

I DO NOT think the answer should be higher member fees, higher ticket prices, higher prices on booster table items, etc.

I could say looking back to last year, Bucs, MBI, Cabs and Kidsgrove could be ful...Empire and Hurcs close, I'd say only Fusion and Bush in Open Class were under 100...maybe Kilties.

So in essence, most corps would have to cut 20-48 people.

Where do they go? Like someone else said, people will want to be in the best, and in DCA, for some that means driving many hours. They won't do that just to be in the 6th best, and there's no new corps starting or old ones coming back for them to go to. so by your plan, enough people to fill 3 corps on your size limit, have nowhere to go or the desire to go anywhere else.

While your goal may be to make drum corps more inclusionary, it in fact makes it even more exclusionary

[Jeff Ream]

As I said, not much of a factor. 10K difference in a million dollar organization is just not a big deal.

10,000 people at $say $30 a head for a regional=$300,000. ........just say over World Class, thats over $14k a corps.

Now do finals at a ticket price of $75...$750 grand.....thats like $35k to a corps.

now to you maybe it's not much, but if I'm a corps director in todays economic climate, thats manna from heaven man.

[Fred Windish]

Kyle,

Your bus illustration makes sense. Corps members being expected to pay for transportation is not something I dealt with "back in the day." The point I stress is this, in today's climate, I would prefer budget savings tied to some form of downsizing rather than increased fees to participants and higher ticket prices. I believe the saturation point for those two has already passed. I don't know exactly the best approach to take as DCA moves forward, so all suggestions provided here on DCP are important.

I am hopeful DCA is preparing to expand the amount of revenue it receives from the pay-per-view market. Since we can't control the rising price of fuel, hotels, food, tolls, etc., the segment that would instead opt for pay-per-view might be a growth area.

[drumlaw80]

Amplification is not enough financial hardship on the drum corps.

To legally compete, I think every DCA corps should have to purchase a brand new Mercedes equipment truck and have a minimum staff budget of $ 75,000 USD.