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It is time for the business of the activity to evolve


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1 hour ago, cybersnyder said:

Drum Corps International EIN - 36-2754480

Charity Navigator has they 2017 990, but not their 2018 filing

 

2017 is the most-recent filing.  Typically, 990s are filed 13 to 15 months AFTER the year being reported.

We should see the 2018 post around the first of the year, I'd guess.

 

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1 hour ago, Slingerland said:

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/362/754/2017-362754480-0f86aa61-9.pdf

Good lord, that took all of 5 seconds.

It's like a bad version of Oliver Stone's JFK around this place today (or should I say an even worse version of JFK, since it's uniquely bad in its own right). No conspiracies, no drama, just a somewhat dull but predictable business model.

Kids!  Sheesh!

It's like my Dad used to say "I've taught you everything you know, but not everything I know".

Everything is new the first time you walk around the barn.

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38 minutes ago, garfield said:

Unnecessary cheap shot.

 

39 minutes ago, garfield said:

I think there are some leaders of some very big entertainment organizations who would take umbrage with your claim that they "just some old Band Directors".

Yes, and even "they" know they need "new blood" on the DCI BoD.

Dan's long experience is valuable currency and his tour management capabilities, not to mention his ability to wrangle herds of unruly cats into playing well together, are proven, demonstrable, and evident in fact.

I'm sorry, but the last sentence of your first paragraph is insulting, unproven, and likely not even close to true.  This activity, and the leadership qualities of its leader, are unique to darn-near any other you can name.  I would challenge you back to find this 22-year-old straw person and introduce him/her to us.

Non-profit corporations are still corporations.  To put it succinctly, DCI is run as a "not for profit" and each drum corps is run as a non-profit.  Specifically, DCI returns all of its "profit" to the corps each year and keeps little or nothing for itself.

All of the other bits you list are common data points easily found.  Jeff Fiedler has done a bunch of stuff in the activity since he was Board Chair.

"Up to date Tax Fillings (sic)"?  See Guidestar for a three year history of DCI's, and each corps', 990s.

DCI files their 990s under Drum Corps International.

 

You seem to know Dan Personally and perhaps that is having an influence on your views of the Leadership in DCI, but they have old ideas, using old methods. How much has the Model changed from the 90's? You say that they are aware of it, but outside of having a Person from the Dept of Agriculture on their board, they only have Corps Directors on their Board.

Of those Corps directors who has had business training? They know the business of Drum Corps but don't know the business of Show Business. And that is the point of this discussion. Moving DCI from a Mom and Pop (amateur) Organization into Professional entertainment. They pay two sports marketing companies a total of $250,000 a year to run their marketing but outside of our little niche, who knows about Drum Corps? Why isnt Drum Corps seen at the level that professional Entertainment is? It's roughly the same amount of Money to take your family to see a Baseball game, or a Cirque Show. We as paying DCI customers only pay that much because we have a personal relationship to the Marching arts activity. What about Joe-smoe on the corner looking for something to do on a Wednesday night in Iowa.. Why couldn't he come to the show and spend some money?

There is money being left on the table that a person with an actual education in the business of making money could implement to make DCI more profitable. 

And yes introducing a 22 yr Old would be a hard Ego hit for someone who's been around for 40 years to understand that a 22yr old might have new ideas that might be better for the Organization, but its absolutely possible that a young person, Maybe even a recent age-out with College accredited Business experience might have some connections and could present a business model different from the current one to make DCI and all of its Corps more money. Outside of the Politics in DCI, a good idea is a good idea, no matter who's mouth it comes from.. 

Edited by Glenn426
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Just wondering because I never heard it mentioned at Indy this year any of the days. Maybe the Flo crows know:  What was paid admission for each of the days in Indy this year?  Are the numbers up/down/about the same for the last ten years?  Were costs for championships up/down/about the same? please cite your sources rather than mere rumors. Thanks.

The answers to these may have a imput on whether DCI admin. is effective, failing, or past retirement. 

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3 hours ago, LabMaster said:

No one is trying to "fix" anything.  I believe SuperSaderFan is proposing an opportunity to leverage procurement for many elements a drum corps needs.  The premise being a smaller corps (World or Open) may have the same buying power a larger organization may have; whether through direct purchasing because of volume or financial stability or backing,  or sponsored discount purchasing.  Vendors would offer optimum pricing for exclusivity in being the provider of uniforms/costume, operational materials and supplies. transportation, lodging and so on.  DCI could do this or some forward thinking corps with a strong business acumen and supportive BOD,  could develop a process to be a distribution center or logistics team or Procurement house for corps that don't have this or don't do it well.

When I worked for a growing retail company building new stores, I didn't have much buying power on my own.  But when I could fall back on the parent companies power, my buy for a chain of 5 stores, quickly became a chain of 200 stores and I was in a much better position to procure best pricing for goods and services.  Significantly better.

Nike and Addidas  became exclusive providers of professional team's uniforms, gear and other equipment by offering attractive costs for the items to the teams,  and through the leagues got the access and approval.  They provide the teams their gear and get the licenses for souvie merch to their own stores, web sites and other retailers.  Any one of the number of uniform/costume companies would love to be the exclusive. provider of their merch for all World Class or Open corps and have that business opportunity and the trickle down to schools.  What if all corps purchased fuel at Mobil stations or routed all flights to Jet Blue, or bought all supplies through Amazon or Costco or in some cases direct form a manufacturer.  Organizations trapped for cash or with limited funding or fundraising,  I would believe would be very interested in iopportunities like this.  At the very least, it could be researched for feasibility.

so is FJM or Wish Come True ready to pay millions to be THE sole provider? Nope.

UA has been approached about things. We are band. colleges may get gear, but thats because most major college marching bands are part of the athlectics department budget. Penn State Blue Band for example gets all that cool Nike gear...because they fall under the atheltic department for budgeting, and it's the same way at pretty much every major sports school. 

Major college sports and pro sports get billions from TV revenue......they draw millions of viewers.

 

and to major companies...we are band

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4 minutes ago, xandandl said:

Just wondering because I never heard it mentioned at Indy this year any of the days. Maybe the Flo crows know:  What was paid admission for each of the days in Indy this year?  Are the numbers up/down/about the same for the last ten years?  Were costs for championships up/down/about the same? please cite your sources rather than mere rumors. Thanks.

The answers to these may have a imput on whether DCI admin. is effective, failing, or past retirement. 

usually that stuff is announced in mid September

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2 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

usually that stuff is announced in mid September

I thought so too but already some posters (and mature and usually accurate posters in fact) have alluded to the numbers this year being down. Perhaps any of them might cite their sources rather than let rumors be rampant.

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1 hour ago, Glenn426 said:

 

You seem to know Dan Personally and perhaps that is having an influence on your views of the Leadership in DCI, but they have old ideas, using old methods. How much has the Model changed from the 90's? You say that they are aware of it, but outside of having a Person from the Dept of Agriculture on their board, they only have Corps Directors on their Board.

 

Not accurate. Out of nine directors, three corps directors/exec directors (Komnick, Tabuchi, & Frost, soon to be resigning), with the other six either affiliated but not CDs or EDs, or outsiders completely, including the Board Chair.

Edited by Slingerland
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1 hour ago, Jeff Ream said:

so is FJM or Wish Come True ready to pay millions to be THE sole provider? Nope.

UA has been approached about things. We are band. colleges may get gear, but thats because most major college marching bands are part of the athlectics department budget. Penn State Blue Band for example gets all that cool Nike gear...because they fall under the atheltic department for budgeting, and it's the same way at pretty much every major sports school. 

Major college sports and pro sports get billions from TV revenue......they draw millions of viewers.

 

and to major companies...we are band

I agree it wouldn't be millions, but it might be what the market bears.  It might require corps unifying their purchasing power to get a vendor to participate in improving pricing for each group.  As part of DCI, there is already unity in the needs for for performance product.  Maybe not all corps go to a single source (that not always a good thing anyway) but a group of corps get together to select a vendor,  rather than each corps having individual relationships with suppliers, then set up group purchasing.  If the vendor wants more business, they can approach more corps to increase their market share.  

Companies like Nike have HUGE marketing budgets and can take some financial hits to gain more business in several areas.  When you earn $25b plus each year you can do this.  And NCAA football is a cash cow for many schools.  But I don't want to start a debate on that subject.

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4 hours ago, Glenn426 said:

I think that DCI is starting to be exposed as being run by Old people that don't really have the business acumen to properly monetize this activity. Just some old Band Directors who dont really understand Show business. They need new blood on the board to really take this activity into the future. Hell Dan was the Director of Glassmen in 85 and ran Glassmen for 10 years before being elected as CEO of DCI. There's a 22 year old Marketing major and a 24 year old MBA graduating College this year that could do a better job at running DCI and making it more money than it currently does. 

This got me going down a rabbit hole to try and figure out if DCI is a Corporation or if its operating as a Non-Profit.

And I found this searching FL Corporations;

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchResultDetail?inquirytype=EntityName&directionType=Initial&searchNameOrder=DRUMCORPSINTERNATIONAL F970000033810&aggregateId=fornp-f97000003381-fd75e58c-14cc-41a0-8337-ed45308e057d&searchTerm=drum corps&listNameOrder=DRUMCORPSENTERPRISES N419160

and on the IL Corporation search;

https://www.ilsos.gov/corporatellc/CorporateLlcController

Some interesting things.

The EIN Was revoked for non filing in 2005 in Florida

The Corp was Revoked in IL in 2008

Jeff Fielder was listed on the 2004 Filing as a Chairman of DCI. 

Anyone have any up to date Tax Fillings for DCI? Any idea what name they are filing under?

Exactly right.  I've been saying this for 15 years.

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