OldBones Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 A couple of years ago a college student from West Chester PA tried to start a drum corps. After two years and a lost of some bucks, the dream never materialized. I know another person who poured a good bit of money to start a corps to have the same result. I commend both for trying. We also read how Drum Corps this and Drum Corps that is starting up and will be out the next summer. You rarely see anything come from those announcements either. If this is your dream, spend a couple of years with a drum corps (preferably an Open Class Corps)and watch how it is run. Then wait till you hit the lottery. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troon8 Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 Alot of this advice has already been shared in various threads by others, but I thought I'd lend my own voice of non-experience to the mix. When I was about 19 (a year or two older actually, but close enough) my drum corps experience consisted of cheering at a handful of shows and living vicariously through the stories of a roommate that was away marching that summer. I got in my head that I wanted to make a fictional movie about DCI, and that it would be the BESTEST THING EVER. I wrote a few rough pages of scripts and notes, but decided eventually that this wasn't the endeavor for me. (Trust me, it's best this script never saw the light of day ;) What I did not do was put out a press release, start thinking about producers who would be willing to give me millions to make it, and announce that I had already cast a number of top Hollywood stars. What would I have done if instead I wanted to manage a corps? I'd make a few phone calls, and see about volunteering locally. Get some behind the scenes exposure and try to intern in a corps office, and along with them on tour. Maybe even send out some emails and see if I could sit down to lunch with a director. See if they'd let me sit in on board meetings. Learn as much of the nuts & bolts of the admin and business side as I could. Many on this board would probably love the chance to be handed the keys to a new Ferrari of a corps and get to design their dream shows for them (I mean, I certainly would!) Many would love to be able to say "I direct a drum corps." and be the one giving those inspirational pre-show speeches at the gate. But you just can't start that way, whether you want to be DCI director, an astronaut, a NFL quarterback, or a Fortune 500 CEO. Dream big, of course, and don't give up...but even dreams have to begin with small steps, and I'm not talking about creating a Facebook page for your brand new World Class Finalist corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWonka Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It's awesome to dream. But reality is a #####. The kid needs to go just march somewhere or volunteer if he has never been involved in the day to day operation. I saw where he listed Issac Lee "on staff". Issac is a good kid who was DM at Forte and later a DM at BD. So he knows what is going down. Hopefully they don't do the standard, "He we are starting a new corps" and then never heard from again. Go ask Chris if you can have a job a Genesis and learn. They are doing their own thing and seem to be doing it well. I bet he wouldn't turn away some help. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griego4m Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 I digress... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetalTones2012 Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 Like almost anybody on here I marched in several different drum corps over the years, but out of all of them only one had anywhere close to a "perfect" situation. When I say these corps were imperfect I mean things that seem little, like old/broken equipment or too much dependence on member fees. All of the corps were stable and had fantastic management, it was more of a matter of long-term stability. If one small thing went wrong they would go inactive. Only one corps I marched with didn't run that risk, and even they had other issues. My point in saying that is that it's hard to run a drum corps, even if you do everything right. Genesis, Music City, and other recently starting corps would be lying if they said their success wasn't at least 80% based on luck. I know nothing about The Guardians' management and (with all due respect) I know better than to look on here for accurate information, but whether this guy knows what he is doing or not he has a long road ahead of him. That being said, I noticed a difference in recent start-up corps that have succeeded (even if only for one or two seasons) and corps that never made it to the field. When Genesis and Music City came out, they started having camps before I even knew they existed. Obviously planning for these corps had been going on for a long time beforehand, but they never told a soul that didn't absolutely need to know what was going on. They only started making announcements after they had already begun recruiting for their well-prepared first seasons. Magic of Mobile, Imperial Sound, and now The Guardians were all advertising themselves before they even had a plan. Sure they had ideas on how to meet their goals, but they barely started implementing them if they even did at all before everybody knew who they were. So my advice to someone who wants to start a corps, besides using common sense and doing research, is to assume your corps will not make it to the field. Do not build hype until you're 100% sure there is something to hype about. At the most, focus all of your efforts on recruiting members and staff after you've worked out definitive deals on equipment, a budget, sponsors, rehearsal sites, etc. And also, experience is nice but if you don't have it find someone that does. There's nothing wrong with founding a corps and putting someone else in charge of it. It's happened before and will happen many more times. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quad-Spider Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 after 3 years of trying,Including one year of working with a corps that Dcp ripped us a new one for until they ran the kid into hiding for a while,i've worked the next 2 years with a lot of good people to form a corps. i did a ton of research, and focused all of my efforts on recruiting members and staff after i've worked out equipment, a budget, sponsors, rehearsal sites, etc. And also,as previously stated, There's nothing wrong with founding a corps and putting someone else in charge of it. That's what I, simply because last year was my age out, which i marched. But even with gaining the horns, drums, trailer, a few sponsors, including innovative percussion, a staff and a few members... the corps was just impossible to maintain in wisconsin. We did everything correctly, we we're really lucky because we took over a drum corps organization that used to be around in the 70's and 80's who actually went to DCI events and dcm events, Eau Claire girls and sundowners, we had the 501 3c, we had a board of directors, the corps actually even hosted DCI open class shows. Even with all of that said, the Chippewa valley crusaders folded. Starting a drum corps is a really hard task and i've spent 3 Years ofmy life starting one. I'll probably try again in the. next 2 years. that being said, it's not impossible for a young person to start a corps, he just has to realize how hard this endeavor actually is, and be prepared for failure and hard times to come ahead, but don't give up your dreams, maybe he'll be the lucky one 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 after 3 years of trying,Including one year of working with a corps that Dcp ripped us a new one for until they ran the kid into hiding for a while,i've worked the next 2 years with a lot of good people to form a corps. i did a ton of research, and focused all of my efforts on recruiting members and staff after i've worked out equipment, a budget, sponsors, rehearsal sites, etc. And also,as previously stated, There's nothing wrong with founding a corps and putting someone else in charge of it. That's what I, simply because last year was my age out, which i marched. But even with gaining the horns, drums, trailer, a few sponsors, including innovative percussion, a staff and a few members... the corps was just impossible to maintain in wisconsin. We did everything correctly, we we're really lucky because we took over a drum corps organization that used to be around in the 70's and 80's who actually went to DCI events and dcm events, Eau Claire girls and sundowners, we had the 501 3c, we had a board of directors, the corps actually even hosted DCI open class shows. Even with all of that said, the Chippewa valley crusaders folded. Starting a drum corps is a really hard task and i've spent 3 Years ofmy life starting one. I'll probably try again in the. next 2 years. that being said, it's not impossible for a young person to start a corps, he just has to realize how hard this endeavor actually is, and be prepared for failure and hard times to come ahead, but don't give up your dreams, maybe he'll be the lucky one Please realize that I say this with all respect to you as a person... but no, with what you wrote you did not do things correctly; and you will not do things correctly in the future by continuing to think of this as a musical venture. Except in the revenue/expenditure and qualitative sense the person wanting to 'form' or be a 'founder' of a corps should not concern himself with what drums, horns, staff, stick sponsors, music, etc the corps will use; leave all that fun stuff over to the designers, caption heads, and instructors. The person wanting to 'form' or be the 'founder' of the corps should only be about one thing and one thing only: the business side of running the Corporation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecoats88 Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Please realize that I say this with all respect to you as a person... but no, with what you wrote you did not do things correctly; and you will not do things correctly in the future by continuing to think of this as a musical venture. Except in the revenue/expenditure and qualitative sense the person wanting to 'form' or be a 'founder' of a corps should not concern himself with what drums, horns, staff, stick sponsors, music, etc the corps will use; leave all that fun stuff over to the designers, caption heads, and instructors. The person wanting to 'form' or be the 'founder' of the corps should only be about one thing and one thing only: the business side of running the Corporation. yep that's what killed the corps that I was on staff with trying to start. The staff was there, the kids were there, but the Director didn't make sure the money was there and we only made it to late march. The hornline had 3 tunes and the drumline was learning the second tune when we pulled the plug. If the Director had stayed out of the show design and planning aspect and left that to the staff and concentrated on nothing but finding money we would have been good to go with a decent sized open class corps back in 1996. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 yep that's what killed the corps that I was on staff with trying to start. The staff was there, the kids were there, but the Director didn't make sure the money was there and we only made it to late march. The hornline had 3 tunes and the drumline was learning the second tune when we pulled the plug. If the Director had stayed out of the show design and planning aspect and left that to the staff and concentrated on nothing but finding money we would have been good to go with a decent sized open class corps back in 1996. I couldn't agree more. There's a huge difference between a band director and a Drum Corps director. Band directors are hired for their musical knowlege and teaching abilities whereas Drum Corps directors are there primarily for their admistrative skills. Leave the technical matters to the instructors. That's what they're there for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griego4m Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share Posted December 30, 2012 I couldn't agree more. There's a huge difference between a band director and a Drum Corps director. Band directors are hired for their musical knowlege and teaching abilities whereas Drum Corps directors are there primarily for their admistrative skills. Leave the technical matters to the instructors. That's what they're there for. Unfortunately, this wont happen. supposedly this kid runs his own marching design website... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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