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When will Eastern corps travel (Mid)West?


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They can't do a whole season of underwear run throughs. But it would be different :blink:

Well I just texted a friend to see where we were going for lunch today. And then I read this. Oh you just helped out the diet with the vision that came with that.

:crazy::alien::help::wacko::lol:

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OK, put this thread with the "Is Finals Too Expensive" thread.

I figured the Eastern DCA Corps were loaded money powerhouses.

Ask them to travel outside their area and it's suddenly a big problem.

I would think George Hopkins would tell you C2/YEA! is not a loaded money powerhouse. :wink:

Fiscal prudence is important, Planning for the future existence and long term stability of a corps is. IMHO, based on what happened to my corps it takes precedence over just about anything else. Nothing, I repeat nothing should risk that, period. Ask any ex-Westshoremen. Long term stability wasn't a goal. DCA Champs 1996, finished by 2000. Some of it involved a long distance trip.

Will discuss the thread more, dinner calls, many interesting ideas.

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I would think George Hopkins would tell you C2/YEA! is not a loaded money powerhouse. wink.gif

Fiscal prudence is important, Planning for the future existence and long term stability of a corps is. IMHO, based on what happened to my corps it takes precedence over just about anything else. Nothing, I repeat nothing should risk that, period. Ask any ex-Westshoremen. Long term stability wasn't a goal. DCA Champs 1996, finished by 2000. Some of it involved a long distance trip.

Will discuss the thread more, dinner calls, many interesting ideas.

if memory serves westshore all the way back to the bonnie scots could never hola a corps together for all that long. i always wondered what the problem was. they were here then they were gone and so on. what was up with all that? i mean going way back to the 50's.

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if memory serves westshore all the way back to the bonnie scots could never hold a corps together for all that long. i always wondered what the problem was. they were here then they were gone and so on. what was up with all that? i mean going way back to the 50's.

Up until 1985 (end of my time) the corps went inactive tiwce that I'm aware of. After 1972 Prelims the corps did not do anything until early 1974 when Larry H get it back together. 1984 went thru a change of management (IOW - Larry left) and corps was disbanded/inactive (pick one) for a few weeks (which most people didn't notice in those pre-Internet days).

Westshoremen and Bonnie Scots merged 1959 because neither corps had enough warm bodies to be viable. WSM-BS were around until 1972 Prelims but really under the radar a lot of those years as far as DCA was concerned (hello RCA and Interstate circuit).

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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OK, put this thread with the "Is Finals Too Expensive" thread.

I figured the Eastern DCA Corps were loaded money powerhouses.

Ask them to travel outside their area and it's suddenly a big problem.

I don't mean to be a dick, and I'm sure people outside of the NE may get mad at me, but....and I am a fan of corps traveling....but..

If I can go out every week I want within a say 4/5 hour drive, why the #### would I want to drive 22 hours? I mean I get the idea, I think it'd be cool...I hauled my ### down to NC in 2005 to see the show. But let's be logical here for a second.

if what I get for a show doesn't cover the bus fee going from say Reading or Hawthorne up to the Boston show, why the hell would I want to haul ### all the way to Chicago?

Sure, it'd be great if people did it "for the good of the activity". But the good of the activity also means being smart with your finances. So say for Reading to haul all the way out to whatever midwest example was trotted out for 4 th of july parades and a show, will they make as much as they would going down to the Baltimore area for the day/days? No. Because the bus bill would explode.

So while I know everyone has their dream show scenarios, the reality is.....money doesn't always make dreams come true.

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Bottom line, for the most part, the finances of many corps (as with many other non-profit organizations) are an annual "hand to mouth" existence.

A drum corps organization, as with any business, should not place at risk it's short term or long term future if it does not have the wherewithals to meet the expenses of any venture decision; be it travel, purchasing new toys, etc.

There is a graveyard full of corps who placed the emphasis on all the wrong things without financial accountability. Membership enrichment comes from within coupled with wallet wisdom, not how many miles a group travels, how many new toys they may have, or who's the compensated staff de jour'.

Amen

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200 more butts in seats is something like $3 - $4000 more in revenue, and while that is more than the minimum DCA open class performance fee, it certainly does not cover the cost of MBI coming in,...........If I were on the Buccs board, I would strongly advocate to somehow return the favor and head west,...........Doesn't DCA somehow subsidize MBI coming east prior to finals weekend?,............if so, they should also throw out some funds to send others out of the north east

yes but you do see where she said advertising also went up as well. so the revenue was offset by added expenses.

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I would think George Hopkins would tell you C2/YEA! is not a loaded money powerhouse. :wink:/>

Fiscal prudence is important, Planning for the future existence and long term stability of a corps is. IMHO, based on what happened to my corps it takes precedence over just about anything else. Nothing, I repeat nothing should risk that, period. Ask any ex-Westshoremen. Long term stability wasn't a goal. DCA Champs 1996, finished by 2000. Some of it involved a long distance trip.

Will discuss the thread more, dinner calls, many interesting ideas.

um, we paid for those long distance trips. the problem, which I'm not going into here, was how other funds were used or not used.

that's a different story for a different day when I can have a lawyer proofread everything before I hit "add reply"

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I figured the Eastern DCA Corps were loaded money powerhouses.

Ask them to travel outside their area and it's suddenly a big problem.

This isn't sudden...

Traveling has always been a huge challenge for DCA corps. I'm happy to be corrected on this, but the only corps in my drum corps lifetime (i.e. since 1960) that has traveled without fear of it causing near-bankruptcy was Hawthorne, who made it to AL Championships year after year and never seemed worse for the wear.

Ask someone (like Ironlips for example) from 1969 Sunrisers about travel to New Orleans. The stories are the stuff of legend. The "aircraft" is still discussed 40+ years later. With reverence, or perhaps fear.

I applaud the corps that have traveled to the East to make DCA viable. Some, like Chicago Connection in 1977 seemed to be virtually done in by the travel (again, feel free to correct me if I have that wrong). They were great fun, and Chicago is just far, not F A R ! ! ! ! But it had it's affect.

I don't have any answers. Even the East Coast Juniors have operated on lower budgets, and with higher stress levels vis a vis finances (if Crown is the exception that's great).

A Cross-Country DCA would be great! DCA finals in Indianapolis or Chicago or (yeah baby) Dallas would be a blast - can you picture DCA heading to New Orleans? Keep your Police scanners on!

But it's not sudden. A big trip was always hit the road before dawn, pull into a rehearsal site in time to get 3 or 4 hours in, shower and perform.

Even more respect for Minnesota, Atlanta, Florida, California corps that have made it work.

But not simple and not sudden.

Edited by rayfallon
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if memory serves westshore all the way back to the bonnie scots could never hola a corps together for all that long. i always wondered what the problem was. they were here then they were gone and so on. what was up with all that? i mean going way back to the 50's.

history forums. long thread.

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