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Will DCA be around in 5 years?


Will DCA be around in 5 years?  

99 members have voted

  1. 1. Will DCA be around in 5 years?

    • Yes
      33
    • No
      66


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1 hour ago, Poppycock said:

Doesn’t change the placements. Why pretend to be something they’re not? I’m now understanding the problem. No one wants to really change anything. 

I don't think a disagreement about this one small point means "no one wants to really change anything".

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1 hour ago, Jeff Ream said:

as all age corps are mostly weekend, you'd see corps breaking 40 at finals....getting medals

I take your point, but I think this is an exaggeration.

In 2017, both The Company and Kidsgrove Scouts appeared in competitions here, the former in DCI on Aug. 10 and the latter in DCA on Sep. 3.

Then they went on to compete head to head in DCUK and DCE later in September -- where their scores were just 0.3 apart.

In DCI, The Company's final score was about 70. In DCA, Kidsgrove Scouts' final score was approximately 92.

In all circuits, corps tend to improve by 2-3 points per week.

So we can say, roughly, that a range of 76-79 in DCI = 92 in DCA.

Again, roughly.

Which suggests that the DCA Open Class medalists would be scoring somewhere in the 80s in DCI. Maybe pushing 90 for the very best shows.

That doesn't mean I think the same sheets should be used. The different circuits have similar but not identical criteria. Some DCA shows are more entertaining than some DCI shows that would far outscore them on DCI sheets.

Edited by N.E. Brigand
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8 hours ago, Poppycock said:

Why pretend to be something they’re not? 

Who or what is trying to pretend? 

If talking about different sheets if it isn’t DCI sheets if “ain’t real drum corps”? Ok just having fun with a phrase I hate. Was in 3 different Sr circuits and sheets all slightly different. What works for that circuit works so why sweat out the differences

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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8 hours ago, Poppycock said:

Why! What’s wrong with the DCI sheets? Logic dictates that both criterion and evaluation would be consistent with all corps completing in a DCI show. DCI sheets are fine for Open and World Class, they should  be fine for DCI all age too. Scores would remain relevant to all classes.  An Open Class corps could out score a World Class corps, so the same would apply to all age. 

That's fine as well. As long as an actual score is given and the corps are judged like for like against other DCA corps.

Edited by Weaklefthand4ever
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8 hours ago, Musicman1084 said:

I don't think they're pretending to be something they're not.  DCA Corps =/= DCI corps. Shows simply do not read to the sheets. Much more straight forward march + play from what I've seen.

One question I've always had is what is the average age of DCA corps? I was under the impression that while they're "All Age," the majority of corps pull from the high school and college-aged pools.  With that in mind, I'm not sure why recruiting is so difficult given the concentration in the  Mid-Atlantic/New York areas and two large HS circuits to draw from in TOB/US Bands.  Is any recruiting actively done at these shows?

I'm not certain. Given the push back that corps  aparently gets in the HS world, I wpuld doubt there's a tremendous ampunt od recruiting. But I could be off base as I don't go to HS band competitions. 

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5 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Who or what is trying to pretend? 

If talking about different sheets if it isn’t DCI sheets if “ain’t real drum corps”? Ok just having fun with a phrase I hate. Was in 3 different Sr circuits and sheets all slightly different. What works for that circuit works so why sweat out the differences

Is DCI interested in managing these types of groups that have practically no national footprint or aligned with the DCI mission statement? It would surprise me if they were. 

I understand if these types of groups need local DCI show performance opportunities, and it’s been stated that DCI allows this even though there is no official DCI Class for all age groups. IMO that in itself should help control cost.

As an alternative competitive all age circuit SoundSport and WGI Winds might be their better options, if their circuit is truly failing due to the dynamics previously stated by others. I don’t know for sure only speculating but unlike DCI the DCA corps don’t seem to have as much influence on the direction or operations of their circuit. However if that’s not true then they only have themselves to blame for its demise. 

Have no more to share. 

Edited by Poppycock
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30 minutes ago, Poppycock said:

Is DCI interested in managing these types of groups that have practically no national footprint or aligned with the DCI mission statement? It would surprise me if they were. 

I understand if these types of groups need local DCI show performance opportunities, and it’s been stated that DCI allows this even though there is no official DCI Class for all age groups. IMO that in itself should help control cost.

As an alternative competitive all age circuit SoundSport and WGI Winds might be their better options, if their circuit is truly failing due to the dynamics previously stated by others. I don’t know for sure only speculating but unlike DCI the DCA corps don’t seem to have as much influence on the direction or operations of their circuit. However if that’s not true then they only have themselves to blame for its demise. 

Have no more to share. 

Always good to see opinions of someone outside of the area as less exposed to “same old same old” thinking. I marched when MD was the southern border of DCA and after 1978 southern PA was it. Then MN (until recently) and IL (few years) came on board and people got excited for a bit. Ye olde ups and downs since then...

And time in those two non DCA Sr circuits that basically folded due to decreasing corps and increasing costs. Shame as they really helped the non top corps to get shows and expose drum corps to more people.

IMO I’d like to know causes for problems of corps outside of the northeast and what DCA can try to do to help. Don’t know what goes on at DCA meetings but heading back to northeast only (except for CV) from what I see with fewer corps and shows outside of the area.

 

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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2 hours ago, Poppycock said:

 

As an alternative competitive all age circuit SoundSport and WGI Winds might be their better options, if their circuit is truly failing due to the dynamics previously stated by others. I don’t know for sure only speculating but unlike DCI the DCA corps don’t seem to have as much influence on the direction or operations of their circuit. However if that’s not true then they only have themselves to blame for its demise. 

Have no more to share. 

The DCA member corps... 10 or 11 corps have voting membership, I'm not sure what the current rules are... have a good deal of say in how the circuit is run. 

So...yeah, IMO you're correct in saying that if the corps make the rules, then whatever happens is ultimately on them... for better or worse. 

 

 

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12 hours ago, Poppycock said:

Doesn’t change the placements. Why pretend to be something they’re not? I’m now understanding the problem. No one wants to really change anything. 

Wrong. Lots of changes need to be made. But who wants to compete for a championship score of 39.95?

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3 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

IMO I’d like to know causes for problems of corps outside of the northeast and what DCA can try to do to help. Don’t know what goes on at DCA meetings but heading back to northeast only (except for CV) from what I see with fewer corps and shows outside of the area.

Been discussed here over and over.

Travel. LONG travel. The main corps in the NE never have to travel outside PA, NJ, and fringes of NY and do not. You have to play their game and it's not easy. A LOT of friction there. I don't think it was as bad as it was in the 70's, in that corps even in PA (Westshore, Erie) had trouble booking DCA contests unless one was a finalist... but it's still not easy.

Labor Day championships conflicting with membership adding to travel issues.

Outside the NE... "WTF is DCA!?"

There's some starters, Jim.

Edited by BigW
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