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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, C.Holland said:

good design is good design.  Bux set their membership up for success months before they even get to camp. Music and a show storyboard go a long way in understanding components and what to teach when.   But if they needed to make a trip to the midwest, they'd pass that cost along to the membership.  Dues for next season will be known when the performance schedule is estimated before the season starts in november (and subtracted from whatever development marks that the organization itself has raised via grants, and donors) which then allows groups to set their rehearsal schedule.  If they have to rent buses to get everyone to MN, or Columbus, or anywhere else, they'd know that cost per person cost, and up the dues as needed.  Incidentally, if a 3-4 day trip on a charter bus costs about 2200-2500, the fees passed along to the membership result in around $50 if you can fill all seats on the bus. 

Thanks for laying this argument out very clearly.

What I'd love now is to hear from someone with MBI or Cincinnati Tradition or one of the other corps who's dissatisfied with DCA: do you agree with C.H.'s claim that the financial challenges of traveling to the northeast for championships every year, which are borne by your corps but not by corps in the northeast, is having no impact on your product?

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2 hours ago, lcarlton said:

I love Tradition; being an alumni myself, but there are bands in Ohio that exceed their ability. Central Crossing comes to mind, along with a few others. Regardless, none of that matters because the first OMEA competition is labor day weekend which directly conflicts with DCA Championships so for a lot of schools it's a no-go because the members would miss the game and competition. 

Thanks for that very helpful reply!

(Obviously we disagree on this last paragraph, but I've already explained in my response to BigW about how I think Ohio bands stack up (as regards Central Crossing: they had an annoying but eventually impressive show two years ago before slipping last year -- although I gather there were some extrinsic circumstances at play). Until two years ago, I would have said that some twenty or more Ohio high school competition bands were better than CT -- even though their DCA placement jumped from fourth to first (merited, compared to the competition) and their score from 73 to 80 in 2016 (not merited, in my view). But in 2017, CT showed what I thought was great improvement, earning the score they'd received the year before, and last year they were, if anything, a bit underscored. As for OMEA, as shown here (you have to navigate Menu > Calendar of Events > Search > Type > Marching Band > Marching Band Local) their first competitions this year (at Circleville, Cloverleaf, Licking Heights, Philo, Springfield, and Troy) aren't until Sep. 14 -- and in none of the past five years, which is as long as I've been following OMEA super closely, have they had a competition scheduled on Labor Day weekend. BOA doesn't have any events until Sep. 21. Are you perhaps thinking of MSBA, the circuit in southwest Ohio / southeast Indiana / northern Kentucky? They do have, and have long had, one show on Labor Day weekend: the "premiere" event at Northmont, where bands receive comments but not scores. Though at the moment, no band from the greater Columbus area is signed up for that contest.)

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2 hours ago, Fran Haring said:

Yep... Brenda's back in Monday.

She's a student aide in PA.... her student is starting his first year in high school, and is going to be in the marching band. Front ensemble.

So we might end up being surrogate band parents and going to a show or two this fall. :laughing:

 

Texas is mostly finishing week 2 of classes this week, and the first football games are next Friday.  I'd estimate little to no chance of kids getting released to go to DCA from here.

Mike

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39 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Thanks for laying this argument out very clearly.

What I'd love now is to hear from someone with MBI or Cincinnati Tradition or one of the other corps who's dissatisfied with DCA: do you agree with C.H.'s claim that the financial challenges of traveling to the northeast for championships every year, which are borne by your corps but not by corps in the northeast, is having no impact on your product?

I think the real disadvantage is the extra travel day for any show they need to travel to outside of their region.  While everyone in the northeast is already rehearsing, the midwest/south else is still on a bus. 

Edited by C.Holland
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12 minutes ago, MikeN said:

Texas is mostly finishing week 2 of classes this week, and the first football games are next Friday.  I'd estimate little to no chance of kids getting released to go to DCA from here.

Mike

Man I miss the Vigilantes from Richardson. Made Finals with a fun baseball show and had nice time talking to some of them.

And very young corps from what we could tell

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12 hours ago, lcarlton said:

I'm in Ohio; and do video shoots for some WGI World, Open and A Class lines and travel with them throughout the season along with running a winterguard; its' pretty consistent at every venue in KY, IN, and OH. The biggest benefit is, you never have to worry if it's raining inside 🙂

I judge in PA, DE, NJ, MD and WV. ya know why the Eastern Regional bounces around so much? Trying to find a decent facility. 

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10 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Bucs would do well, always, but I'm not convinced they would do as well if they had to shoulder the costs that MBI has. That might mean cutting a staff member or two, and that loss in teaching could be enough to drop them a place.

they lost their long time rehearsal facility in the last few years, and had to make structural changes, and may have had to incur costs they haven't had for decades for facilities.

Hasn't slowed them down a bit. The key is planning. If Bucs knew they had to do it, they'd find a way to get it done. It's been 19 years now, but i was there, I saw the planning the Committee does, and saw the work they did at that point to bring them back from the mid 90's era of just hanging on. I was surprised it took til 05 to get the ring to be honest. Even with upper administration changes the last ew years....Snook sat at Jimmys right hand and learned before he took over...and he was replaced by Lou who sat Jimmys right hand for YEARS before Snook took over and Lou was doing stuff for DCA.

a well thought out business plan and team that makes it work, as well as the team involved on the creative/performance end...and boom. You have what Jimmy gruber started putting into place 25 years ago. They made Rochester work. They made Annapolis work. They made Scranton work. They've made Williamsport work. And if they had to, they'd make MN work. Admin has changed, staff has changed, equipment purchased when older stuff died, lost Buc Field...the beast keeps on chugging to what...they've lost maybe 10 shows since finals in 04?

Just like BD continues to pretty much be #1 or #2 since 2006 finals. Planning, consistency and making it all work. It ain't rocket scicence.

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1 minute ago, Jeff Ream said:

. Planning, consistency and making it all work. It ain't rocket scicence.

But it's treated methodically, like scicence. 

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5 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:

I expect doubling-down. 

i'll probably already be down the hill when the corps are lined up for retreat, and probably close to Lewisburg til it's all announced. 

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12 hours ago, C.Holland said:

All of this.  The groups in the top box have fri 7pm -10pm, sat 9-9, and sun 9-6 rehearsals.  They have full or nearly full corps by feb or march. They have the show storyboarded and fully designed by   April.  And aren’t teaching in August, but are refining and changing show chunks as needed. 

It’s a pretty grueling schedule when you think about how the 3-day rehearsals happen from May to Sept. no wonder 25+ year olds don’t come out like they used to, that’s an incredible time suck. 

 

Add in transportation on both ends and needing a place to stay. I looked at the Bucs a few year ago and decided that I liked my "life".

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