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Recruitment Problems, Financial Stress, and Poor Leadership, Oh My!


How will you support drum corps?  

67 members have voted

  1. 1. How will you support drum corps?

    • Do Volunteer Work for Corps
      18
    • Make a Financial Donation
      41
    • Recommend a Friend to a Drum Corps
      8


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12 hours ago, Dchristian125 said:

Teal Sound wants to return back to DCI. However, because of what happened with YEA, they feel that now is not the time to return because the atmosphere is very unstable. Besides the issues of finances and recruiting, they feel that they could be subject to poor choices being made by poor leadership.

Maybe you've answered this but, if not, would you please share your understanding of exactly who's leadership could be poor in the reference from your second sentence?

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1 hour ago, Prtzdle said:

In addition to the choices above, I am a souvie swag investor. Plus attending a few shows each year....that mostly supports YEA! since they run shows that are local to me!

 

AS I am not as connected, does anyone feel the rise or several Open Class Corps to World Class the past years hurts recruiting efforts of these smaller groups? Kids wanting to be on the "bigger" stage, if you will? Just asking...

I know two directors of OC corps and both are aware that some marching members want what Open Class offers: a solid drum corps experience that is less costly and not as intensive (tour, time commitment , etc) as WC, and others are marching hoping to get experience so they can march in a WC corps. Departures for the “bigger stage” are expected. I’ve been told the biggest recruitment challenges some OC corps face is a belief it’s “drum corps lite” and when the kids realize the work involved, they bolt. Also, the OC corps that have moved up to WC have planned on it. What I hope we see is that when one OC corps moves up, another is ready to take its place.

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2 hours ago, DAvery said:

I've always wondered why more of these types of groups do not utilize WGI winds as a restarting point.  Chances are there are more performance opportunities than even being a Soundsport group, as almost every region of the country has a winter guard circuit.  I realize not all guard circuits allow wind groups, but alot do. Also, you could conceivably start with 10-12 players and be competitive. Admittedly the season is different, but it would not seem to difficult to transfer from a Jan-April season to a June-Aug season.  

On a similar note, if I was wanting to start a drum corps in today's environment I would start with WGI winds.  In my experience it is a healthier, more positive and lower cost option to DCI, or even DCA. 

some Soundsport groups do both

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I'm the director of the Spirit of Sunnyvale SoundSport team (Sunnyvale, CA). We're always fighting for membership, but we do local parades and our standstill SoundSport shows (we compete in the Virtual SoundSport World Championship) regardless of how many people we have, usually around 10-20 members. We get who we can and have fun.

I know it's hard, the recruiting, financials, etc. but if you keep the expectations in check, anything is possible.

I would recommend that these groups come back as SoundSport teams.

Edited by helmsm
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8 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

risk taking is the fools way. You do what BD or Boston have done....you build up a solid support system and infrastructure. You find ways and ensembles to help make the organization money. Too many drum corps ran on risk, and where are they now?

 

this isn't Wall Street where risk can be parlayed and losses made up fast.

Good Point

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7 hours ago, garfield said:

Maybe you've answered this but, if not, would you please share your understanding of exactly who's leadership could be poor in the reference from your second sentence?

Teal Sound wants to return. However, after the events involving YEA! occured, they feel that the atmosphere is unstable right now. Also, before they make an annoucement on their return, they are looking over all aspects of their plans regarding recruiting, finances, staff members, etc. They are waiting for the right moment to return. 

 

They want to make sure that they have everything set. They don't want to make any mistakes.

Edited by Dchristian125
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20 minutes ago, Dchristian125 said:

Teal Sound wants to return. However, after the events involving YEA! occured, they feel that the atmosphere is unstable right now. Also, before they make an annoucement on their return, they are looking over all aspects of their plans regarding recruiting, finances, staff members, etc. They are waiting for the right moment to return. 

 

 Don't hold your breath.

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In my area we have high schools with graduating classes of 300-450 and you'll see 30 member marching bands. Some of the schools dropped their marching bands completely and just have pep bands. For the most part, band isn't seen as a good resumé builder for college applications, sports are seen as more beneficial. I don't know if this is happening elsewhere, but I still see huge bands from Texas and elsewhere.

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