Can the Star of Indiana Model Work.....Again?

[ibexpercussion]

Would the Star of Indiana model that worked so well when they started in 1984 (first DCI season summer of '85) work again today?

Would someone be willing to put up the money needed to get a corps going, and keep the member fees dirt cheap, and no camp fees as well?

If so, what do you think would be the major obstacle for this group to overcome to be a major success in world class?

[Shadowtron]

"If I were megarich, this is what I would do"

- every DCPer

[gbass598]

A wealthy person could easily donate 1-2 million dollars a year to a non-profit organization established and use then have it claimed as a donation from their personal or their companies taxes.

I can point anyone in the direction of Toledo if they would like to do that.

[bernie_VKpit]

Good question! The costs of fielding a drum corps these days is light years more than it was back when Mr. Cook started Star of Indiana. As I recall, they owned all of their busses, equipment trucks, food trucks, etc, as well as their own school that they used for camps, etc. I could someone doing that again ala Star, but they would need to have a pretty large disposable income, coupled with a strong affinity for drum corps.

Because of the high cost of member fees in this day and age, I could see members from other corps flocking to this new corps. Especially if the staff was the creme de la creme, like it was for Star. But, would this be morally good for drum corps? That's the question!

I think the biggest obstacle for it to be a success would the scrutiny of hard core fans and some DCP'ers!

[mingusmonk]

Good question! The costs of fielding a drum corps these days is light years more than it was back when Mr. Cook started Star of Indiana. As I recall, they owned all of their busses, equipment trucks, food trucks, etc, as well as their own school that they used for camps, etc. I could someone doing that again ala Star, but they would need to have a pretty large disposable income, coupled with a strong affinity for drum corps.

Because of the high cost of member fees in this day and age, I could see members from other corps flocking to this new corps. Especially if the staff was the creme de la creme, like it was for Star. But, would this be morally good for drum corps? That's the question!

I think the biggest obstacle for it to be a success would the scrutiny of hard core fans and some DCP'ers!

The biggest obstacle would be finding a historically successful corps that is on the verge of financial collapse from which to hire the departing staff and having them bring a solid group of starter-kids with them.

Edited August 15, 2013 by mingusmonk

[MelloMatt]

The biggest obstacle would be finding a historically successful corps that is on the verge of financial collapse from which to hire the departing staff and having them bring a solid group of starter-kids with them.

That seems pretty easy right now IMO.....

[skywhopper]

While this would certainly be a fun thing to do with our imaginary millions, I think drum corps as an activity is better served by developing self-sustaining operations like the corps we have now. They generate revenue from fan interest, tour and camp fees, side-businesses, performance fees, and lots of fundraising.

Perhaps a wild-eyed drum corps lover with millions to burn would be better off finding ways to help existing struggling corps with one-time needs, perhaps debt relief for corps with that particular issue (hopefully with a promise from the corps to avoid debt in the future) or establishing some kind of endowment for future operational expenses, in particular insurance on equipment, busses, etc, stuff that could wipe out a corps if it were lost or damaged.

Beyond that, some money could go towards need-based scholarships for kids to help ensure as many interested kids as possible can be part of the activity.

Once you have those issues addressed, then perhaps it's time to start finding the brash, motivated youth on fire to run a drum corps, and help them get started. Invest in companies that provide services for corps management/inventory/personnel/websites/uniforms/whatever and establish a pattern for drum corps aspirants to follow. Then seed three to four new corps each year with enough to get started and start building a fundraising and volunteer network. Expect 80% of them to fail within 3 years, and 95% within 5-7 years, but some of them will survive and thrive.

You've started new corps and strengthened others. Now we need more shows! So start establishing new shows or resurrecting old ones. If you have money to throw around, venue and housing providers will become a lot more interested in hosting a drum corps show, and perhaps once they've gotten started and had some success, they will continue on their own.

Perhaps an even better idea would be to donate a few million directly to DCI. Have them invest in the Fan Network and DCI online store and website. Put the complete score and event history, and every bit of geeky data you can find on the dci.org. Update the Fan Network to make it look great and work even better. Start adding more archival footage and recordings, and producing more media products. Sell as much of it digitally as possible. If they have a better product to sell on the Fan Network, they'll get more subscribers and can sustain a higher quality of service.

All that would be way better than throwing millions at starting and sustaining another Star for 8-10 years, IMO, and it would cost about the same amount of money.

[mingusmonk]

That seems pretty easy right now IMO.....

OK. So what corps from 2013 are today's 84 Bridgemen? Persistent high-placing finalists. Having won multiple high caption awards at finals. 1 year removed from making finals. With an elite staff.

Edited August 15, 2013 by mingusmonk

[cixelsyd]

While this would certainly be a fun thing to do with our imaginary millions, I think drum corps as an activity is better served by developing self-sustaining operations like the corps we have now. They generate revenue from fan interest, tour and camp fees, side-businesses, performance fees, and lots of fundraising.

Perhaps a wild-eyed drum corps lover with millions to burn would be better off finding ways to help existing struggling corps with one-time needs, perhaps debt relief for corps with that particular issue (hopefully with a promise from the corps to avoid debt in the future) or establishing some kind of endowment for future operational expenses, in particular insurance on equipment, busses, etc, stuff that could wipe out a corps if it were lost or damaged.

Beyond that, some money could go towards need-based scholarships for kids to help ensure as many interested kids as possible can be part of the activity.

Once you have those issues addressed, then perhaps it's time to start finding the brash, motivated youth on fire to run a drum corps, and help them get started. Invest in companies that provide services for corps management/inventory/personnel/websites/uniforms/whatever and establish a pattern for drum corps aspirants to follow. Then seed three to four new corps each year with enough to get started and start building a fundraising and volunteer network. Expect 80% of them to fail within 3 years, and 95% within 5-7 years, but some of them will survive and thrive.

You've started new corps and strengthened others. Now we need more shows! So start establishing new shows or resurrecting old ones. If you have money to throw around, venue and housing providers will become a lot more interested in hosting a drum corps show, and perhaps once they've gotten started and had some success, they will continue on their own.

Perhaps an even better idea would be to donate a few million directly to DCI. Have them invest in the Fan Network and DCI online store and website. Put the complete score and event history, and every bit of geeky data you can find on the dci.org. Update the Fan Network to make it look great and work even better. Start adding more archival footage and recordings, and producing more media products. Sell as much of it digitally as possible. If they have a better product to sell on the Fan Network, they'll get more subscribers and can sustain a higher quality of service.

All that would be way better than throwing millions at starting and sustaining another Star for 8-10 years, IMO, and it would cost about the same amount of money.

What an excellent post.

I keep saying we need more adults to run corps. When I read the sentence I underlined in your post, it dawned on me that we have a lot of recent college graduates with time on their hands (i.e. no job). Hope some get involved via internships, mentoring, or just by getting a copy of the DCI "how to start a drum corps" manual.

[Tim Coffey]

I seem to recall that part of the business model for Star of Indiana was that it obtained a good deal of its funding form the Star bus lines. So a lot of the Star 'start up' money was actually to get the Star bus lines up and running, which then helped fund the corps after that point. Pretty clever.