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It is time for the business of the activity to evolve


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3 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:

Fwiw I wouldn’t see a dci food truck concept to necessarily be all consuming. Corps could supplement as they see fit and also for one off events like parades maybe the corps could rent a truck.

There's a whole culture of food truck foodies out there, and just about every city has a central, organizing committee where food trucks can register to do gigs.  Making contact with that org in every city or town where a corps will eat could seem quite daunting but, in reality, there are only about 100 shows in the season.  Making 100 phone calls to 100 food truck organizers in 100 cities would take, oh, about a week or so I'd guess and maybe another 2 weeks to organize.

The cool thing about food trucks is that they can go to housing sites, too.  I had 6 trucks at our show and 6 WC corps in the show, and I required that, to serve at the show, each truck had to set up at a host school for lunchtime on the day-of-show, too.  Every single one was happy to do so and I never had a single problem with logistics or follow through.  We gave each truck a chance to make money twice in one day and they "ate it up".  Heh.

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On 8/22/2019 at 10:29 AM, SuperSaderFan said:

If DCI is the major league of the marching arts, why don't we approach it that way? In other major leagues:

Uniforms & Equipment are bid out and awarded to one company for all teams. This provides for economies of scale and financial benefits.

It's time that we run the activity with the smarts of a business and the heart of a non profit.

 

 

 

Your first mistake was trying to attach a marketing slogan to a business model. It kinda works in reverse. 

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2 minutes ago, garfield said:

There's a whole culture of food truck foodies out there, and just about every city has a central, organizing committee where food trucks can register to do gigs.  Making contact with that org in every city or town where a corps will eat could seem quite daunting but, in reality, there are only about 100 shows in the season.  Making 100 phone calls to 100 food truck organizers in 100 cities would take, oh, about a week or so I'd guess and maybe another 2 weeks to organize.

The cool thing about food trucks is that they can go to housing sites, too.  I had 6 trucks at our show and 6 WC corps in the show, and I required that, to serve at the show, each truck had to set up at a host school for lunchtime on the day-of-show, too.  Every single one was happy to do so and I never had a single problem with logistics or follow through.  We gave each truck a chance to make money twice in one day and they "ate it up".  Heh.

I think this would be a great service to provide to all corps and would seem to also be a great perq for parents who worry about their kids eating well.

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11 minutes ago, garfield said:

The cool thing about food trucks is that they can go to housing sites, too.  I had 6 trucks at our show and 6 WC corps in the show, and I required that, to serve at the show, each truck had to set up at a host school for lunchtime on the day-of-show, too.  Every single one was happy to do so and I never had a single problem with logistics or follow through.  We gave each truck a chance to make money twice in one day and they "ate it up".  Heh.

Neat idea.  Next time Madison Scouts go without their mobile kitchen for the last week of the season, we should alert the food trucks as to their itinerary.

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22 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

Neat idea.  Next time Madison Scouts go without their mobile kitchen for the last week of the season, we should alert the food trucks as to their itinerary.

The problem, though, is two-fold.  First, even cheap food truck eats are likely more expensive than what the cook truck spends per MM and, generally, MMs don't carry cash to buy food. 

There are ways around these issues, of course, and the first is more pressing than the second, but I was never able to get a food truck meal as cheap as what the corps cooks could make.

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1 hour ago, garfield said:

  We gave each truck a chance to make money twice in one day and they "ate it up".  Heh.

Ba dum dum <cymbal crash> 

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1 hour ago, garfield said:

There's a whole culture of food truck foodies out there, and just about every city has a central, organizing committee where food trucks can register to do gigs.  Making contact with that org in every city or town where a corps will eat could seem quite daunting but, in reality, there are only about 100 shows in the season.  Making 100 phone calls to 100 food truck organizers in 100 cities would take, oh, about a week or so I'd guess and maybe another 2 weeks to organize.

The cool thing about food trucks is that they can go to housing sites, too.  I had 6 trucks at our show and 6 WC corps in the show, and I required that, to serve at the show, each truck had to set up at a host school for lunchtime on the day-of-show, too.  Every single one was happy to do so and I never had a single problem with logistics or follow through.  We gave each truck a chance to make money twice in one day and they "ate it up".  Heh.

That's creativity!  One concern might be that MM's through tuition, have already paid for food.  How were the food truckers paid when they visited the schools?  Like the idea though.  Maybe for corps who sponsor more than one show it might work even better.

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2 hours ago, garfield said:

There's a whole culture of food truck foodies out there, and just about every city has a central, organizing committee where food trucks can register to do gigs.  Making contact with that org in every city or town where a corps will eat could seem quite daunting but, in reality, there are only about 100 shows in the season.  Making 100 phone calls to 100 food truck organizers in 100 cities would take, oh, about a week or so I'd guess and maybe another 2 weeks to organize.

The cool thing about food trucks is that they can go to housing sites, too.  I had 6 trucks at our show and 6 WC corps in the show, and I required that, to serve at the show, each truck had to set up at a host school for lunchtime on the day-of-show, too.  Every single one was happy to do so and I never had a single problem with logistics or follow through.  We gave each truck a chance to make money twice in one day and they "ate it up".  Heh.

My question is '"capacity".

I can see having food trucks available for a show where your serving is

"staggered".

I don't know if food trucks would be capable of serving one,let alone multiple 

meals to a full corps and staff.

 

 

 

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6 hours ago, garfield said:

Pretty simple math to verify your 990 observations:

$6 per day per MM for food x 40 days on tour (or in camp) equals about $36,000 per year.  I think it's safe to add that most food prep and planning includes extras to the normal menus that takes the average per MM up to $8 or so.  Times 150 kids and 40 days equals $48,000.  There are corps who field a season for $600,000 or a little less so food quite easily takes up less than 10% of the budget.

And, don't forget housing costs.  No matter who is running the show, it's not uncommon for a corps to spend $1000 per night to house a corps in the gym.  Whether that's paid directly by DCI, by the corps, of "absorbed" into the cost to the show host the price is still there.  40 days on tour could easily cost $40m in bedding space; imagine what it might mean if schools continue to deny housing requests and corps start housing in hotels.  For example, a national contract for hotel beds could mean, what, $75 per night per room sleeping four?  That's 38 rooms per corps and the cost almost triples.  Suddenly, an almost $900m annual expense becomes an almost $2.5mm cost.  Could a central contract at, say Comfort Inns be arranged cheaper?  33,000 seasonal room nights at $50/room/night is still a $1.65mm seasonal contract.   That's not chicken feed, and the difference in negotiating $50/night instead of $75 would take the weight of the whole activity to get long-term contract terms.

 

 

If housing goes away and they need to "house" in hotels / motels, that's either the end of drum corps or the end of long tours. 

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7 hours ago, Newseditor44 said:

Your first mistake was trying to attach a marketing slogan to a business model. It kinda works in reverse. 

I admit, I've read, and re-read, this post all afternoon and I just now got the wit. 

Right, a marketing slogan is just an empty suit.  One begets the other but it starts with the business model.

 

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