FanLib Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 what I know is extremely limited, so bear in mind. but over the last few weeks I've wondered why corps stay where they stay and for how long/short of a time. I'm sure this is complicated. but, if they stay say 1.5 or 2 hours from a competition site, you automatically lose that time for members to adequately take care of themselves. a lot of rushing around. some cleanliness is going to be missed in that situation. multiply that by the number of days that same situation occurs. I'm definitely of the mind that working smarter and not harder is a good idea and should be investigated by more sports in general. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyWonder1911 Posted July 18, 2014 Author Share Posted July 18, 2014 From what I understand - on competition days, corps get housing sites that are booked by DCI. The corps really doesn't get much of a say in it, except for certain competition sites, if a corps stayed at School X last year, they might likely get to stay at the same place the next year. Granted that the corps cleans up its mess before it leaves and doesn't tick off the school administrators. On non-competition days, corps are responsible for finding their own housing sites. This can often be one of the most stressful jobs for the tour director and his helper. Sometimes a school cancels, or the facility is found to be inadequate, etc. Most of the time it works out, but there seems to be at least an issue or two throughout the tour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elephanttalk Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 First off... so sorry to hear that a corps got sick enough to not be able to perform. These guys & gals work extremely hard at all levels to perform and when they don't get to it is tough to swallow. I've been involved in some of the planning this year for our corps so in the interest of sharing I thought I'd say what I know. I can tell you that the housing stuff is really one of the hardest parts of this activity. Schools are becoming less and less willing to open their doors during what would be low usage times, because of increased costs and scrutiny for everything involved. I'm not sure I know why yet but in general the "good old days" of getting a nice school to stay in as a low cost / community service are going by the wayside. So... that makes it hard on the show hosts (if you host a show, you have to source the places for the attending corps to stay) and it makes it harder on the corps tour directors. Because schools are so hard to get into now... this is forcing corps to generally stay further away from the venue and in lower quality facilities (vets... please refrain from playing a game of can you top this on bad housing sites... I've heard it). This adds significantly to the sickness risk. Certainly the fatigue factors in, no question. I know corps have a lot to do, in a short time. It takes discipline from everyone to get near the amount of rest but... that's not always the reality. In terms of water... there are many corps that could not afford the bottled water approach. We're one of them. Our corps has worked hard to install filtering systems both in our cooking facilities and our box truck to filter the source water. Cleanings are pretty regular but not perfect. Corps members are encouraged not to use the facility water to drink but rather drink from our tanks/equipment and we have pre-made Gatorade from taps available all of the time. Hand sanitizer is at EVERY MEAL... and out in the open all day. Also, when possible it is available at all entrances to the sleeping areas, and buses. It DOES help. While in an ideal world... we'd be disposable plates & cups from a sanitary perspective, the reality is... we can't afford it, and in our neck of the woods it's seen as being less than eco-friendly. So, we have reusable plates and cups. Silverware is currently disposable but we are considering going reusable on that as well. Wash stations are setup and with a diligent process, dishes are washed thoroughly (5 step process rather than the 3 step that you learn in food safety class). We ask all of our volunteers who are preparing food, to carry a food preparation certificate from their state (volunteer coordinator actually collects them from volunteers). This isn't mandatory... but it is strongly encouraged. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyWonder1911 Posted July 18, 2014 Author Share Posted July 18, 2014 First off... so sorry to hear that a corps got sick enough to not be able to perform. These guys & gals work extremely hard at all levels to perform and when they don't get to it is tough to swallow. I've been involved in some of the planning this year for our corps so in the interest of sharing I thought I'd say what I know. I can tell you that the housing stuff is really one of the hardest parts of this activity. Schools are becoming less and less willing to open their doors during what would be low usage times, because of increased costs and scrutiny for everything involved. I'm not sure I know why yet but in general the "good old days" of getting a nice school to stay in as a low cost / community service are going by the wayside. So... that makes it hard on the show hosts (if you host a show, you have to source the places for the attending corps to stay) and it makes it harder on the corps tour directors. Because schools are so hard to get into now... this is forcing corps to generally stay further away from the venue and in lower quality facilities (vets... please refrain from playing a game of can you top this on bad housing sites... I've heard it). This adds significantly to the sickness risk. Certainly the fatigue factors in, no question. I know corps have a lot to do, in a short time. It takes discipline from everyone to get near the amount of rest but... that's not always the reality. In terms of water... there are many corps that could not afford the bottled water approach. We're one of them. Our corps has worked hard to install filtering systems both in our cooking facilities and our box truck to filter the source water. Cleanings are pretty regular but not perfect. Corps members are encouraged not to use the facility water to drink but rather drink from our tanks/equipment and we have pre-made Gatorade from taps available all of the time. Hand sanitizer is at EVERY MEAL... and out in the open all day. Also, when possible it is available at all entrances to the sleeping areas, and buses. It DOES help. While in an ideal world... we'd be disposable plates & cups from a sanitary perspective, the reality is... we can't afford it, and in our neck of the woods it's seen as being less than eco-friendly. So, we have reusable plates and cups. Silverware is currently disposable but we are considering going reusable on that as well. Wash stations are setup and with a diligent process, dishes are washed thoroughly (5 step process rather than the 3 step that you learn in food safety class). We ask all of our volunteers who are preparing food, to carry a food preparation certificate from their state (volunteer coordinator actually collects them from volunteers). This isn't mandatory... but it is strongly encouraged. Wow. Fathom the alumni/fan/volunteer base required to have enough to volunteer enough time to get through a season, and having the extra work load of not only cooking and preparing the meal for 200, cleaning up the mess afterward, both inside and outside, and then washing 200 dishes in a 5-step process on top of that, not to mention the "food preparation certificate from their state" thing. It's hard enough for a lot of corps to get enough help for the 12 weeks, without all the extra hoo-haw as it is. So for that, I can have a lot of respect for a corps who has that kind of a dedicated volunteer base in their ranks. Drum corps are truly run by the volunteers. On another note, a disturbing image came to mind earlier while thinking about the topic and what had been said. Fathom being on the bus an hour after the percussion line stopped into Taco Bell at the truck stop and got some seriously nasty food. I think one could get the picture without me having to describe it. Talk about unsanitary conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos001 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Wow. Fathom the alumni/fan/volunteer base required to have enough to volunteer enough time to get through a season, and having the extra work load of not only cooking and preparing the meal for 200, cleaning up the mess afterward, both inside and outside, and then washing 200 dishes in a 5-step process on top of that, not to mention the "food preparation certificate from their state" thing. It's hard enough for a lot of corps to get enough help for the 12 weeks, without all the extra hoo-haw as it is. So for that, I can have a lot of respect for a corps who has that kind of a dedicated volunteer base in their ranks. Drum corps are truly run by the volunteers. On another note, a disturbing image came to mind earlier while thinking about the topic and what had been said. Fathom being on the bus an hour after the percussion line stopped into Taco Bell at the truck stop and got some seriously nasty food. I think one could get the picture without me having to describe it. Talk about unsanitary conditions. Not all burritos are created equal. Some burritos are more equal than others. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyWonder1911 Posted July 18, 2014 Author Share Posted July 18, 2014 LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTNK Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Forgive my ignorance but which corps pulled out of which show? 2009 was the worst for this if I recall...Crown, Blue Stars... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 You can't even trust BOTTLED water. Back in '86 Phantom Regiment had to pull out of the Stillwater, MN show when dozens of their members got sick from bottled water they bought in Wisconsin. Where the water was bought is different from where it was bottled. No one gets ill in Wisconsin---and if they do, we lay no claim to them and they are deported to another state. Same goes if a Wisconsin resident is not a Packers fan..........BAM...deported!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Where the water was bought is different from where it was bottled. No one gets ill in Wisconsin---and if they do, we lay no claim to them and they are deported to another state. Same goes if a Wisconsin resident is not a Packers fan..........BAM...deported!!! No, we all know that the stuff people drink in bottles in Wisconsin isn't water. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Here's my controversial statement, which I obviously believe, but I invite you to maintain your own beliefs: No one (repeat no one) on tour sleeps enough, except hopefully the bus drivers. Finally and this is waaaay into just my opinion, when one of the kids finally succumbs to a bug, there is a domino effect - if Janey is sidelined then the stigma is lifted for Johnny Joanie Jackie, and Georgie. (yeah, I know, but work with me). Well, the bus drivers have all that time sitting in comfy seats behind the wheel to catch up their sleep! When driving at night we used to station a member on a rotating basis to sit on a water cooler up near the bus driver to chat with him in order to keep him awake and alert. Talk about the good ol' days!!!! The second statement flashed me back to my Garfield days pre-DCI...this topic is not new. We stayed at a school in Northbrook Ill for a weekend of shows in the area. The football field seemed like it was a mile away from the school...and it moved to feeling like it was two miles away when much of the corps got some sort of intestinal 'thing'...there was a steady flow of members running back and forth from the practice field to the bathrooms in the school the entire weekend...not a very comfortable weekend, for sure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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