garfield Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Is something like this possible for corps? Fed and State grants for music education and excellence?? http://www.ehow.com/...-musicians.html IMO, the only thing worse and less predictable than begging for contributions is taking money from a bunch of politicians. There's no doubt exceptions, but I think this is a sound general rule of thumb. Can you imagine what drum corps would look like under the wing of a government agency? :shutup:/> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 IMO, the only thing worse and less predictable than begging for contributions is taking money from a bunch of politicians. While perhaps true. I could think of something worse " taking money from a bunch of politicians ". Giving them money comes to mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKT90 Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 1376766079[/url]' post='3313870']IMO, the only thing worse and less predictable than begging for contributions is taking money from a bunch of politicians. There's no doubt exceptions, but I think this is a sound general rule of thumb. Can you imagine what drum corps would look like under the wing of a government agency? /> Not so sure about that...it's worth a directors due diligence to look into it, especially at the state level as a corps serves as an ambassador to that state. Grants are non-repayable funds disbursed by one party (grant makers), often a government department, corporation, foundation or trust, to a recipient, often (but not always) a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal or an application is usually required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrivateEyeDCI Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 What's also interesting is that $214m of what they spent to field a corps came from "Student Fees", while only $4,400 came from "Performance Fees" and barely over $32m came from contributions. I don't presume to know what went on in Mr. Hall's rationale to end the corps, but it seems to me that maybe he should have focused more on actually performing the corps for appearance fees, and given his now full corps a few more years to build that performance income, he would have seen his way to continue. Someone else can figure out how many DCI shows they performed in 2011 and got paid for, if any, but to source less than 2% of the corps' income on appearance fees doesn't seem right. Perhaps he did a lot of freebies to grow name recognition. Perhaps he relied strictly on the schedule of shows that DCI provided to him. In five years' time he built a nothing into a something and quit right when his group got to the size needed to attract attention. Perhaps he was just short-sighted about how many years it would take the organization to become more independent of his financial contributions. Many here know my fascination for the 990's, and I wish this one were up to date to this year so we could attempt to figure out the riddle. For all we know, it could be that, in order to reach "full-corps" size, the org had to go into substantial debt to Mr. Hall. I suppose we'll know in about 18 months, presuming MC files it's last 990 for 2013. It's so not obvious as to make it a mystery worth solving. Great analysis! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownStarr Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Looks like Crown spent $300,000 more on its drum corps operations in 2012 than in 2011, an increase of 30%. Those cubes must've been expensive! My guess would be the three or four orchestras' worth of bass drums, gongs, timpani, and crash cymbals. We also had to get an extra small trailer to haul everything, and redid a fair portion of the equipment truck (then they tore out everything and rebuilt it in 2013). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Here is the actual statement from the Music City Director, whatever that's worth. Hello drum corps fans! This is Keith Hall, executive director of Music City Drum and Bugle Corps. The announcement concerning the folding of Music City can be found HERE. After reading some of the posts on a couple of threads here I thought I should offer the following. It is very expensive to operate a drum corps. Music City received a couple of small grants this year and a smaller amount in appearance fees. The corps' expenses not covered by these and the membership fees were covered by a VERY small circle of individuals. Music City has no debts. We tried to time the announcement the best we could for the sake of the members. By the way, I'm the same Keith Hall as The Band Hall which provided all uniforms, flags/guard equipment for the corps. On a sidenote, I do not think the open class system is serving the activity well. Certainly the elite corps should receive tons more compensation and receive far more performance opportunities, but the current arrangement is not going to grow the activity. I would like to add that I believe Dan Acheson is providing the best possible leadership for the activity. He has a great vision for the future of drum corps. His hands are unfortunately tied it seems by the unfortunate need to "get along" with certain others. The unflattering posts I've seen here regarding Dan Acheson are unfortunate and uninformed I believe. I invite everyone to support the corps or corps (plural!) of your choice. Make a donation, buy a t-shirt or best of all, help them raise money, LOTS of money. Today would be good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 (edited) And props are not synonymous with a championship. 2013 - no props Crown had the most expensive props ever put on the field. How much do all those extra bass drums, gongs and timpani cost? How's that compare to something you can slap together from Home Depot? Edited August 17, 2013 by danielray 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Dixon Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Crown had the most expensive props ever put on the field. How much do all those extra bass drums, gongs and timpani cost? How's that compare to something you can slap together from Home Depot? Probably nothing - other than transportation. Sponsor supplied I would imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 But this question still stands: If DCI is not a 'sport', and the Summer Music Games - Marching Music Major League monikers are not intended to evoke 'sports in the minds of those who read them, why did DCI market their broadcast to ESPN (a 'sports' network) and not to A&E, or Bravo, or VH1, or any number of non-sports networks? First don't put words in my mouth. I never said the moniker was not intended to evoke sports. I said it was a MARKETING slogan not a literal description of the activity. As for why... Because when marketing an unfamiliar product to a new audience, you attempt to link your widget to a high quality product they ARE familiar with. Do I really need to explain the marketing value of using "Major League" in the slogan? Just as Major League baseball players are the very best at what they do, so too "Major League" marching musicians in the DCI are the best at what they do. The fact the the relationship hinges on that single fact (and that DCI and MLB share virtually nothing else in common) proves that this is commercial language. I have no idea what possessed the decision makers at DCI choose ESPN. Perhaps they saw all the ridiculous "sports" with which the network filled their air time. Perhaps someone's brother's cousin's in-law worked for the network. Perhaps they thought ESPNs target demographic aligned with DCI's. No freaking idea. And pretty clearly a bad one in hindsight. Huge investment with tiny returns. Nevertheless the point remains: it's a MARKETING slogan not a literal descriptor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Crown had the most expensive props ever put on the field. How much do all those extra bass drums, gongs and timpani cost? How's that compare to something you can slap together from Home Depot? ACTUALLY most of them weren't "props" -- they were all played in various parts of the program. The time portals were props. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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