When will Eastern corps travel (Mid)West?

[goalieguy]

One street was under construction (Memorial, should be all done now); the other two streets and one blvd. that actually surround Horlick were fine. In addition, all the corps park and warm-up a short block away at Gilmore Middle School. AND Demark's Bar is only 1/2 block away. BTW, Demark's has selections of tunes on their jukebox of the Kilties (tunes covering several eras, actual recordings)...... :thumbup

Sorry Bill:

I want to apologize for missing the gig this summer..I had oral surgery on Thursday of that week to pull what upper teeth I had left and to try and fit me with a new denture..I was unable to make my trek for Kringle and Kewpies..All I heard from Gwynne was the horror story of the Midwest's "2nd Season" wreaking havoc around venerable Horlick..

for the uninformed - that "2nd season" is known as "Road Construction"...the other season is Winter

It's been so long since I've been "downtown" in Racine, I forgot that Gilmore was that close..

Oh let's all go there..Then the Eastern folk can see 2 "parking lots".. I-80/94 between where Mikey Boo lives and Chicago..and that stretch of I-94 between Chicago and Milwaukee..might make the ride MUCH more entertaining..LOL

Pat

[N.E. Brigand]

Let's keep things in perspective here. "DCA" is the 10 voting members, which lately has changed more than other years. It is not some overseeing lord of the land. It is 10 corps directors voting on the rules of the competitive circuit.

Quick question. Do I remember correctly that the membership is composed of the ten highest-scoring corps at Prelims who (a) are North American (thus not Kidsgrove Scouts last year) and (b) have appeared in at least one other DCA-sanctioned event in the season (thus not Renegades last year)? And is the new membership immediately effective following championships weekend? I.e., are the ten current DCA members:

Buccaneers (97.98)

Minnesota Brass, Inc. (96.70)

Caballeros (96.18)

Empire Statesmen (94.10)

Cadets2 (93.55)

Atlanta CV (92.25)

Fusion Core (91.38)

Bushwackers (87.75)

White Sabers (85.95)

Govenaires (85.13) ?

And if so, as someone else asked: did Empire Statesmen decline/resign DCA membership? And if they did, does that move Hurricanes (83.98) into the group?

[drilltech1]

One street was under construction (Memorial, should be all done now); the other two streets and one blvd. that actually surround Horlick were fine. In addition, all the corps park and warm-up a short block away at Gilmore Middle School. AND Demark's Bar is only 1/2 block away. BTW, Demark's has selections of tunes on their jukebox of the Kilties (tunes covering several eras, actual recordings)...... :thumbup

Sorry Bill:

I want to apologize for missing the gig this summer..I had oral surgery on Thursday of that week to pull what upper teeth I had left and to try and fit me with a new denture..I was unable to make my trek for Kringle and Kewpies..All I heard from Gwynne was the horror story of the Midwest's "2nd Season" wreaking havoc around venerable Horlick..

for the uninformed - that "2nd season" is known as "Road Construction"...the other season is Winter

It's been so long since I've been "downtown" in Racine, I forgot that Gilmore was that close..

Oh let's all go there..Then the Eastern folk can see 2 "parking lots".. I-80/94 between where Mikey Boo lives and Chicago..and that stretch of I-94 between Chicago and Milwaukee..might make the ride MUCH more entertaining..LOL

Pat

I remember the one time I was at Horlick field and Racine for a contest back in the years when I teched L.I.K. We awoke the next morning to the most horrible stench of a fish die-off along the shores of Lake Michigan nearby.

We thought it was from the playing card factories for which Racine was famous.

ER

Now that I see what the big fundraiser is for the Kilties has become, I understand the uniform. It saves on zippers between rounds.

[BigW]

Seems to me MBI has it's act together. Why not have them hold clinics for the other Corps and startups in an effort to make everyone stronger. For that matter, I'm sure the Renegades have some good ideas on how to develope and market a brand. I've heard Chops Inc. does some creative stuff to maximize funds from parades.

Share the recipe for success.

I don't think they have any "secrets", I would think asking anyone at MBI would get you very helpful and insightful answers as to how they make it happen and how they worked to get where they are.

Keep in mind MBI has been around for 35+ years, and it took a long time for the tree to grow. I remember seeing them at the pre-Championship exhibition playing "Pinball Wizard" in '78. They then had to finally crack into finals, I don't remember when their first finals appearance was. I think it might have been later than 1984. They seemed to be terminally in 11th and 12th, If my memory serves me correctly.

Then... they had to break out from the 8-9-10 spot they finally cracked into. Glimmers of that happening started in 1992 when they clearly had a dynamite and very capable brass section, but still needed a better show vehicle. That's 14 years later from when I first saw them as a kid in Allentown the year before I started performing.

Looking at it, from my perspective, MBI is a product of long term planning, long term thinking, and a really well thought out plan to get where they are now. This all started before I was 16. I'm 50 now. This isn't a flash in the pan story here.

[bill]

I remember the one time I was at Horlick field and Racine for a contest back in the years when I teched L.I.K. We awoke the next morning to the most horrible stench of a fish die-off along the shores of Lake Michigan nearby.

We thought it was from the playing card factories for which Racine was famous.

ER

Now that I see what the big fundraiser is for the Kilties has become, I understand the uniform. It saves on zippers between rounds.

Regretfully, no one in the organization (members, volunteers, etc.) is allowed to partake of the craft brews at all. It's a work day for the entire corps (in our civies), then a performance (in full battlegear) to end the event. Long hard work-filled day; but so worth it, and fun!

Stench? Fish die-off? Hmmm? You sure L.I.K didn't have some brats and beans?

[dustyboo]

A short term way to spread the DCA brand outside of the northeast may best be served to a DCI Regional crowd in say Atlanta. Have a limit of 3 DCA corps (minimum for a DCA sanctioned show) so fans get introduced to DCA and to corps outside of that particular region. Instead of say Minnesota Brass going out east they could perform at the regional in Atlanta. The next year or same year say CorpsVets could do the same and travel up to DCI-Minnesota. One year travel could be to Denver or California by other non-eastern corps to continually grow the brand outside of the northeast. The idea is that you can introduce DCI fans to DCA in a considerably safe way to the largest audiences to generate interest in DCA and DCA shows outside of the northeast. Ideally then northeast corps would have time to consistently generate enough revenue to travel outside their region to other DCA shows. Or maybe I'm just crazy and none of this makes sense...

While I'm all for growing DCA in other parts of the country, having a few DCA corps at a DCI regional is essentially how it used to be when DCM was around. At times there were three and I think even four DCA corps that competed in prelims at DCM. I know in addition to the three current midwest DCA corps we had Chicago Vanguard for awhile and a corps out of Kentucky (Bluegrass Brass??) for a few years. Even with all that exposure it really didn't and still hasn't grown the DCA activity in the midwest all that much.

I think part of the issue and I know I will get dinged for this but I do think it is a factor is that the DCA corps don't get really good until late August. It is almost a disservice for DCA to be exposed to the DCI crowd too early in the season as they just don't realize how good these corps really do get by Labor Day. But, because the shows are getting harder and there are only so many weekends to practice it takes them longer to perfect their shows.

I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but when I was marching in DCI in the 80's and as a spectator after that, we enjoyed the "senior corps" for their entertainment value but didn't really think they were that good. Since I started following DCA 5 years ago, and I mentioned this in my Racine review, I'm still amazed at how good they get and how much they improve in the last few weeks of the season. I took some friends of mine that I met through DCI to Annapolis this year and they were all amazed at how good these corps are. Some had seen some of the midwest DCA corps before at a DCI show so they were a little familiar with the DCA side of things but they were amazed at what they were putting on the field by championships.

Now, if you could get a regional close to the end of August that would be awesome but then you have the issues of days off work a week or two before everyone starts needing time off to head to championships.

[Fran Haring]

Quick question. Do I remember correctly that the membership is composed of the ten highest-scoring corps at Prelims who (a) are North American (thus not Kidsgrove Scouts last year) and (b) have appeared in at least one other DCA-sanctioned event in the season (thus not Renegades last year)? And is the new membership immediately effective following championships weekend? I.e., are the ten current DCA members:

Buccaneers (97.98)

Minnesota Brass, Inc. (96.70)

Caballeros (96.18)

Empire Statesmen (94.10)

Cadets2 (93.55)

Atlanta CV (92.25)

Fusion Core (91.38)

Bushwackers (87.75)

White Sabers (85.95)

Govenaires (85.13) ?

And if so, as someone else asked: did Empire Statesmen decline/resign DCA membership? And if they did, does that move Hurricanes (83.98) into the group?

I think a DCA official posted here or on FB several weeks ago that there is no "one show a year" or "two shows a year" (or aything like that) requiremnent in DCA anymore.

Edited September 13, 2013 by Fran Haring

[N.E. Brigand]

I think a DCA official posted here or on FB several weeks ago that there is no "one show a year" or "two shows a year" (or anything like that) requiremnent in DCA anymore.

Interesting! Does anyone know if that changed before or after last year? Were Renegades ever officially a DCA member? If so, when they were banned from competing in this year's DCA events, was their membership also revoked? Were Govenaires not a DCA member based on last year's scores until Renegades were booted?

Edited September 13, 2013 by N.E. Brigand

[Reeses0316]

Then you lose the incentive for those corps to travel long distance. Sure, its helping spread the DCA brand (which is the argument here) but do you think MBI travels just to be nice? No. They travel to go head to head with corps of their caliber and to get a mid season read by DCA judges. Same can be said for CV. No coincidence that one of these corps is holding strong at the top and the other is on the move.

If you take away that DCA show and make them do a DCI regional with few DCA corps and DCI judges... whats that really going to accomplish for their competitive success? Not to mention corps that travel far tend to have holes for the first trip... what kind of message is that going to send the DCI fan base when they watch a corps with 5-10 holes.

Im more into the idea of working in an Ohio show at some point. Yes there would need to be creative marketing and there would be risk but its a decent middle ground for corps to meet up mid season. Then again... I might just be selfish in hoping to have a DCA show in my backyard.

It would be a sacrifice from a direct competition point of view but that didn't prevent Brass from doing it before. Does that sacrifice in the short-term lead to success for all of DCA in the future? The current DCA fan base in the northeast isn't getting any younger and when will you start seeing many of them not going to shows or championships because they're not physically able, or even some willing to make it?

After DCM those of us in Brass wanted the opportunity to have performances in July/ early August. So travel outside of Minnesota/ Wisconsin became essential to the membership and the corps. '99 was Madison (we performed after the Blue Devils which is still an awesome memory). 2000 something we traveled to the DCI Indianapolis Regional to perform. We received a very positive reaction from young and old and it was great introduction to many in the crowd to what was becoming the all-age corps movement. I believe this was before the concept of DCA-Central when regional performances in July and August started. Consistently performing in DCA events outside of championships started in 2003 for Brass. The impromptu travel to Scranton which we fundraised for at the last minute (included a Twins game in the dome!) was a huge risk but the corps came out ahead and had a great performance.

Holes are going to happen with or without travel. A portion of those holes were either filled and that person dropped during camp so it was a hole anyway or a select few couldn't make the trip do usually to family obligations.

The point is to create interest in the all-age activity from those that are gen x, gen y, etc. in terms of fan base and potential members, and what better way to do that than a DCI Regional? Its hell of a lot of fun to perform in front of large crowds and DCA has enough caliber corps now then there was 10 years ago that I personally believe DCI crowds would take interest in.

Edited September 14, 2013 by Reeses0316

[Reeses0316]

While I'm all for growing DCA in other parts of the country, having a few DCA corps at a DCI regional is essentially how it used to be when DCM was around. At times there were three and I think even four DCA corps that competed in prelims at DCM. I know in addition to the three current midwest DCA corps we had Chicago Vanguard for awhile and a corps out of Kentucky (Bluegrass Brass??) for a few years. Even with all that exposure it really didn't and still hasn't grown the DCA activity in the midwest all that much.

I think part of the issue and I know I will get dinged for this but I do think it is a factor is that the DCA corps don't get really good until late August. It is almost a disservice for DCA to be exposed to the DCI crowd too early in the season as they just don't realize how good these corps really do get by Labor Day. But, because the shows are getting harder and there are only so many weekends to practice it takes them longer to perfect their shows.

I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but when I was marching in DCI in the 80's and as a spectator after that, we enjoyed the "senior corps" for their entertainment value but didn't really think they were that good. Since I started following DCA 5 years ago, and I mentioned this in my Racine review, I'm still amazed at how good they get and how much they improve in the last few weeks of the season. I took some friends of mine that I met through DCI to Annapolis this year and they were all amazed at how good these corps are. Some had seen some of the midwest DCA corps before at a DCI show so they were a little familiar with the DCA side of things but they were amazed at what they were putting on the field by championships.

Now, if you could get a regional close to the end of August that would be awesome but then you have the issues of days off work a week or two before everyone starts needing time off to head to championships.

I would argue that DCA corps in mid-July and August are definitely better now then they were 5-6 years ago and it's an idea that would work. Sure they peak in September but that's the nature of the beast. Honestly the idea wouldn't have taken hold even 7 or 8 years ago for the reasons you explained above when you compare the two. However, DCA corps are now "good enough" to showcase at mid-season DCI shows. Time off is a personal choice. If members know ahead of time and it's planned for at the beginning of the season it can work. It comes down to the desire of the membership. The idea is to help plant the seed. You have to start somewhere for those to gain interest in DCA and what better then a DCI Regional? Who isn't interested in seeing a corps they may have never heard of before or seen live?