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Glassmen have an opportunity to reinvent the way things are done


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Yes. Most banks say small businesses are companies with rev under $10m.

For the record, a "business" is a company that is engaged in business activities. "Company" means "corporate entity," and can be a corporation (subsection C or S), limited liability company, limited liability partnership, limited partnership, professional corporation, etc. A "non-profit organization" is one of these corporate entities (usually a corporation) that has filed form 1023 with the IRS and had the application approved.

Thank you for the correction of definition. Nevertheless, it is still true that many DCI drum corps are Million to Multi Million Dollar Per Year Corporations. And as such cannot work within the framework of 'skilled staff' as being all volunteer.

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We demand the best teachers for our students in schools, and we now insist on the best available instructors for the members of our corps. We celebrate and pump our fists when a corps picks up a top-notch instructor or designer/arranger...we have threads about that all the time.

These top people never come free, and neither do those who aspire to reach the same level of success

I'm not comfortable today mentioning to a prospective instructor, "You've worked hard developing your craft. You've been professionally trained and you want to share your knowledge of many years with others. We want you aboard our staff and we'll work you into the ground. And don't worry about placing in a higher tax bracket, because we think you should work for free. But to honor your experience and training, we'll feed you and give you a floor to sleep on and we'll schlep you around the country at our expense. Heck, you'll think you're on a paid vacation, except for the paid part!"

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IT CAN BE DONE. You just won't be top 12, or even World Class, and you will most likely be two million dollars and 40 points behind the G7. But it can be done.

In the early 90's I was part of an all volunteer staff at a DIV 2 drum corps. If you wanted to drive a bus, the corps would pay for your license. If you instructed, the corps you got to play drum corps and travel during the summer (weekends only with a short tour at the end of the season). If you wanted to help on support staff you might get a tour discount for a child in the corps.

We had several veteran instructors and superior writers/designers volunteering their time and talents. Most of the staff where young kids that had marched and wanted to teach, many older instructors had YEARS of experience but now had families and just wanted to give back to the activity. The parents were just great, and some gave YEARS (and still do) to the corps....free of charge. The corps director loved drum corps so much he pumped thousands of dollars out of his own pocket. For the love of the game.

The corps has grown, and has out grown this model. But it was fun and it worked.

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We demand the best teachers for our students in schools, and we now insist on the best available instructors for the members of our corps. We celebrate and pump our fists when a corps picks up a top-notch instructor or designer/arranger...we have threads about that all the time.

These top people never come free, and neither do those who aspire to reach the same level of success

I'm not comfortable today mentioning to a prospective instructor, "You've worked hard developing your craft. You've been professionally trained and you want to share your knowledge of many years with others. We want you aboard our staff and we'll work you into the ground. And don't worry about placing in a higher tax bracket, because we think you should work for free. But to honor your experience and training, we'll feed you and give you a floor to sleep on and we'll schlep you around the country at our expense. Heck, you'll think you're on a paid vacation, except for the paid part!"

Then we must firmly set ourselves in Dan's (Ray) camp, as the 990's show for most corps an enormous proportion of the cost for top-flight outlay falls squarely on the members. Other revenue streams are going to have to be found, and not just by corps lucky enough to have bingo games at their disposal.

Mike

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Maybe have the whole staff work for free and then pay all the money to me? I'd love $1,000,000 salary!

In all seriousness, "all-volunteer" is probably the worst idea I've ever heard with regards to building an organization that's supposed to last. The kids have to eat. Who's going to pay for food? The busses need gas. Who's paying for that? The kids need instruments. What companies are going to shower them with thousands in free instruments?

So, besides all the missing wages the volunteers would be losing, they have HUGE costs that need to be covered. I don't think you'll find many people that want to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours doing something like this. They're not saving lives by helping world hunger or building houses for disaster victims; they're helping some kids move around the country and play music for strangers.

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And ALL of this goes to show that this IS NOT JUST A GLASSMEN problem. When you need 1 to 2 million dollars to fund a drum corps to go on tour and exist for ONE year then Houston we have a problem. The national tour model, the expense of housing and rehearsal sites, the high paid staff and instructors req'd now are slowly killing drum corps period. And don't tell me about how corps has changed over the years and we can no longer be local based and such etc. I know the modern reality but would challenge the assumption that it has to keep going down that path. With localization you go back to getting a better chance of local support of businesses that would have a dog in the race (they would know the corps and the kids), volunteers that don't have to take a summer off, staff that would not have to FLY in every month (OR kids),and so on and so on. With ALL the corps staying local or regional until the World Championships the cost would drop dramatically. There WAS a reason there were thousands of corps back in the day. And for the most part the instuctional staff & mgmt did not make a "living" off of corps.

And don't come at me saying well then you'll be left in the dust by the G7...Seems like Cavies,Sac,Boston and all of the top 12 BITD had at least 25 to 30 corps at any given time knocking on the door. And for the most part the top people were either local in IN the region. I know I'm an old dino...but this old dino has been marching corps since 68 up to and including this year. I've seen a tremendous amount of change and not all for the best. We all know the good stuff that has happened because of DCI, but seem to want and ignore the bad...and that 800lb gorilla in the room is going to kill corps. Nuff said.

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Many years ago a business partner said to me, "I like to hire people who work for things other than money."

What she meant is that no matter how much a person is paid, sooner or later it won't be enough. Ask yourself that question, am I being paid enough? Unless you are a CEO of some fortune 500 company I'll bet that the answer is "no".

As demostrated by the 990's thread, typical drum corps operators must raise $500,000 to $2,000,000 anually. This is a tremedous burden on any organization and it doesn't go away. It is year after year after year. Is it time to move to an all volunteer activity? Is it possible to have an all volunteer administration, an all volunteer staff...bus drivers, truck drivers, seamstresses, cooks, fund raisers, etc.? Clearly some of these positions are and have been all volunteer and some used to be. Does a competent business manager have to be paid? Can one find talented and dedicated instructional people who do not require salaries? Do administrators need 401K and health care packages along with a salary? Do bus and truck drivers need to be paid. At one time, none of these postions was paid, they all volunteered. People worked for other thngs than money. They did it for the love of the activity and for the benefit of the youth.

I encourage the Glassmen to restart the organization as an all-volunteer corps, no pay to anyone. There will be dedicated, hard working and caring people show up and they will show up because the activity and not the paycheck is most important.

Not only is it impractical, it also supposes that those "instructional" people don't deserve a return on what they've invested in education. How do you expect "administrators" to feed their families, assuming it is a full time job? If today's corps could hire all volunteer truck drivers don't you think they would already do it?

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How many corps have to close operations before the remaining corps propose a change?

Nothing will change until one of the G-String corps can't come out. Even then, the rest of them won't care. It will just turn the G7 to G6.

Last years proposal has parts that can work, other parts will destroy more corps (especially in OC). Unfortunately, all of it is about the G7. Be like them or die.

For those who think instructors salaries are needed to be competitive, I believe we can figure out who the top 14 are by San Antonio. I say top 14 because it's rare when the top 10 do not make finals and the 11-14th place corps has a shot at finals. When it comes to the G7, if you're not one of the top 3, your not winning either. For the exception of Phantom 1 year, if your name is not BD or Cadets, its a good chance your not going to win. So if your budget is overtaxed by instructor's salaries, I would rethink are the salaries worth it?

The corps who are always in 15th and down have figured out to get kids to come to their corps and stay. It's not always about the competition.

Since Transportation and Food takes up most of any corps budget, anyone notice the price of gas is going back up and that food prices are suppose to jump up dramatically this year?

Now that one of the better WC corps gone for the year, are there be any others who are on the fence of doing the same?

I wouldn't be surprised.

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IT CAN BE DONE. You just won't be top 12, or even World Class, and you will most likely be two million dollars and 40 points behind the G7. But it can be done.

...

The corps has grown, and has out grown this model. But it was fun and it worked.

For those of us who marched years ago, we weren't in drum corps because of our "world class" status (didn't exist back in the day). We were in drum corps because we got a chance to make friends, perform, and have fun. Sure there were elite corps (maybe some of you marched in them). In my corps, we looked up to the elites - not because we thought we'd ever be as good as them, but to enjoy them for the performance stature they attained. The top corps didn't have any more fun than we had - just scored a heck of a lot higher. I'm also sure that our expenses weren't as high either. We were a local group of kids who traveled much less. The difference today is many corps are regional/national/global. The touring model doesn't work for all corps. We need to find a way to encourage the development of small, open class corps, regional travel, and recruit more effectively at the local level.

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