Has the time come?

[Ghost]

1 hour ago, fireshane1 said:

 Watching Regiment take the field with 30 contras would be bad-### though...just a thought.  

And put the adult working the board out of work?

[Stu]

1 hour ago, littlejaw said:

Any increase in corps size would require the addition of another member bus. Currently at 150 members, there are 3 busses for the corps. Think of all the extra costs associated with that. Bus driver, gas, insurance, bus rental, etc. doesn't make economical sense to me for drum corps.

A bus typically can haul around 50 people and costs around $1,000 per day. There are around 52 days needed for the entire summer tour. That comes to around $52,000 to add a 4th bus. The typical dues for a mm is $3,000. So an additional 18 mm would Garner $54,000 to pay for the bus lease, and with 50 additional mm that would Garner $150,000. So as long as the corps can indeed secure 168 mm the bus lease is paid for, and the extra food and supplies would be covered if a full 200 mm were secured. Therefore the bus 'in of itself' is not that much of an issue. What also needs to be factored in are the other items which may cause this to not be feasible, such as extra performance equipment and an extra truck/trailer for that equipment.

Edited July 24, 2017 by Stu

[jeffmolnar]

150 member corps still look huge to me. 

[FTNK]

18 minutes ago, Stu said:

A bus typically can haul around 50 people and costs around $1,000 per day. There are around 52 days needed for the entire summer tour. That comes to around $52,000 to add a 4th bus. The typical dues for a mm is $3,000. So an additional 18 mm would Garner $54,000 to pay for the bus lease, and with 50 additional mm that would Garner $150,000. So as long as the corps can indeed secure 168 mm the bus lease is paid for, and the extra food and supplies would be covered if a full 200 mm were secured. Therefore the bus 'in of itself' is not that much of an issue. What also needs to be factored in are the other items which may cause this to not be feasible, such as extra performance equipment and an extra truck/trailer for that equipment.

Seems like Economies of scale work in favor of corps 

[George Dixon]

a standard coach holds 55 or 56 capacity 

so 4 buses is STAFF/volunteers plus 3 x 50 = 150

5 buses gives you staff/volunteers plus 4 x 50 = 200 

200 is the next logical step

It's actually a more economically viable model for 200 member world class corps as the fixed costs don't go up much other than the extra bus & food

for 200 probably most corps would use a 3rd tractor/trailer which does get a bit expensive

composition - 

Brass - 120 (Sop -32, Mello - 24, Bari-16, Euph - 24, Contra - 24)

Battery - 20 (Snare - 10, Tenor - 5, Bass - 5)

Pit - 14

Guard - 42

DM - 4

Total - 200

Drill gets interesting with this number on the field. Can't really do whole brass company fronts (as an example)

Guard would be 30 out 12 away except for major impacts

4 DM allows 2 on the 35 front and rear or 1 50 and 2 35 front and 50 rear

Instructional staff would be almost the same as today except probably 4 extra brass techs

Visual staff would go up by 25%

I would imagine 4-6 roadies (props) plus 2-3 electronics team vs. 2-4 and 1-2 now

You would need 2 extra food volunteers per day and 2 additional drivers per day

Edited July 24, 2017 by George Dixon

[Stu]

1 minute ago, FTNK said:

Seems like Economies of scale work in favor of corps 

Only as it applies to looking specifically just at the cost to lease a bus. Factor in 'everything' and the total cost per mm is way more than their dues can cover. So more mm does not actually equate to really working in the financial favor of a corps.

[George Dixon]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

Only as it applies to looking specifically just at the cost to lease a bus. Factor in 'everything' and the total cost per mm is way more than their dues can cover. So more mm does not actually equate to really working in the financial favor of a corps.

there is a revenue vs. expense per member - the ratio improves as the size of the corps increases, but yes the gap between the revenue and the expense is probably larger (or at least just as large) as a 150 touring model

Sometimes these differences as not as great as one would assume. A 33% larger corps may cost 20% more to operate IMO

[Stu]

1 minute ago, George Dixon said:

there is a revenue vs. expense per member - the ratio improves as the size of the corps increases, but yes the gap between the revenue and the expense is probably larger (or at least just as large) as a 150 touring model

Sometimes these differences as not as great as one would assume. A 33% larger corps may cost 20% more to operate IMO

True, but my point is that it is not just the bus lease, many other things must also be factored in, and the dues collected from each mm do not cover 'all' of the per/ person cost.

[George Dixon]

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

True, but my point is that it is not just the bus lease, many other things must also be factored in, and the dues collected from each mm do not cover 'all' of the per/ person cost.

Correct the gap may be larger as dollars but as a % of operational budget may be smaller 

back to the economy of scale 

[desertrat68]

Another bus, another semi especially if a corps only has one for equipment (and leasing the tractor and paying the CDL), more staff to teach, more uniforms to buy/launder (if you've ever done uniform laundry day on tour you know what a chore it is to do 150 - 200 is frightening!), probably more volunteers needed to take care of uniforms and feeding the additional numbers.  More people to go through showers could mean less rehearsal time. More people getting sick & injured on tour and needing to see a doctor. More volunteers to vet and recruit.

When the size of the corps were expanded from 128 to 150 the logic was that you didn't need an additional bus. That was incorrect because they lost the spots adults took on those buses and the equipment trailers were not big enough. Most corps right now are trying to stay financially stable. The corps that don't get free instruments and/or uniforms would be struggling to keep up. I would also think that many food trucks would need to be replaced to feed the additional 50-60 people. Maybe if they voted for an increase in size to be implemented few seasons in the future it would give the corps enough time to build the fleet infrastructure to be ready. I just don't see it happening in the near future. 

Plus you'd need to recruit more kids to fill in the 1200 new world class corps spots. What might that do to open class corps?

Edited July 24, 2017 by desertrat68
typo