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Minnesota Brass


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1 hour ago, corps8294 said:

It's just odd because Minnesota Brass has been a DCA force for years, as far back as the '80s, from what I remember. They never had problems with membership when the St. Croix Rivermen were around. One always has to wonder when a corps goes from being huge to being really small. Hope they can get back to where they were because the climb back up takes time is always tough. 

I don't know the issue with MBI, but I do know from experience with Westshore that sometimes, a corps can have a situation where a lot of long time members just decide they need to get out/take a season or two off for whatever reason(s) that year and they can't replace all of them.

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1 hour ago, BigW said:

I don't know the issue with MBI, but I do know from experience with Westshore that sometimes, a corps can have a situation where a lot of long time members just decide they need to get out/take a season or two off for whatever reason(s) that year and they can't replace all of them.

Bingo.

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2 hours ago, BigW said:

I don't know the issue with MBI, but I do know from experience with Westshore that sometimes, a corps can have a situation where a lot of long time members just decide they need to get out/take a season or two off for whatever reason(s) that year and they can't replace all of them.

Perhaps that suggests that corps need to always be cultivating new streams for talent, in case one of them (temporarily) goes dry.

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11 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Perhaps that suggests that corps need to always be cultivating new streams for talent, in case one of them (temporarily) goes dry.

Sometimes, there's not much one can do to replace a large outflux.

It may not be anyone's fault. In my case when I got out then got recalled for the "6-week Wonder-Corps" for my sixth season, it wasn't the corps' fault. I was changing majors and colleges and felt I needed to get my act tighter and focus on that as hard as I could. There were other issues I could maybe peg, but I just needed to get myself together and make sure my new direction was solid.

 

Now, in 1988 and 1991... that was different when I put feelers back and got some "interesting" replies. In 1988 when i had things together, they wanted to put a Mellophone in my hands. Anyone who knows me knows what would have happened with that. People would have evacuated the stands with their ears bleeding. It just wouldn't have been a good thing, nope, nope, nope, nuh-uh. In 1991, well... all I'll say is that door was closed in my face and better doors opened for me.

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Not blaming anyone. Just saying that if, as appears, MBI lost 45 members this year, that should be a warning to all corps, no matter how successful (they weren't lower than third for nine years straight, and my impression is they've been in a good financial position), to always be making contingency plans.

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It's really a multi-tier issue that I see.

1) Their region has nine corps (Brass, Govies, Chops, RCR, Shadow, Colts, Colt Cadets, Blue Stars, and Madison) which draw from the Twin Cities Metro. A few dozen of Brass' members march these corps, or are on their staff. Not counting the numerous other non-metro pulling corps Brass' members are apart of (Oregon Crusaders, Bluecoats).

2) They relied too heavily on the 25-35 year olds to boost their numbers...While this is usually a good thing, it just so happened that many of these members all joined around the same time... They've all been apart of the corps for five-ish years, and were ready for that break. In addition to, many of them are getting married, starting grad school, and having children.

3) Brass has always had to rely on vets to recruit in the hornline; my assumption is that their want for a larger hornline, versus balancing realistic/obtainable numbers, has burnt out a large swath of their membership. Between having to teach the mid-season recruits drill/music, and balancing their own load... It's easy to see burn out. 

4) I've always been curious about their Wednesday night rehersals. I would assume this impacts potential membership, as I know I couldn't commit to Wednesday evenings as a working professional. 

Whether there are more internal issues at hand, I'll never know. 

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I think the more amazing story is how MBI was able to keep this story our of DC headlines through the off-season, allowing them to be focused on preparing a show for a smaller corps ... kudos to them ... many top flight corps have faced the dilemma of diminished #'s - quickly sometimes ... takes time to till the soil and get a new crop ... or corps in this case ...

Good Luck to them whatever their numbers are ...

:-)

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1 hour ago, ajlisko said:

I think the more amazing story is how MBI was able to keep this story our of DC headlines through the off-season, allowing them to be focused on preparing a show for a smaller corps ... kudos to them ... many top flight corps have faced the dilemma of diminished #'s - quickly sometimes ... takes time to till the soil and get a new crop ... or corps in this case ...

Good Luck to them whatever their numbers are ...

:-)

Do we every really know what they're doing in the off season out there in the frontier? 

:)

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