LabMaster Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 1 hour ago, dbc03 said: This is true, but just because other activities are more expensive doesn't mean drum corps isn't pricing out anyone below the upper middle class. It's not like poor kids are choosing between ballet camp and drum corps, they are both unobtainable for a growing portion of the population. Well then I guess other kids will do other things. Any kid who wants to and can get contracted, will find a way, through working or finding a sponsor to help with tuition. The education they can get at the top 12 level is really really good with professional music educators, dance instructors choreographers. s. Some only do it for a year because that's all they can afford; some can do it for more years. They find a way. It is not unobtainable. The experience of being in a competitive top corps is worth it for these kids. There are many things a kid can do these days and many kids choose to do other things that they have a passion for or can afford to do. My daughter DID make a choice to pursue ballet versus drum corps. She was happy with that choice. Look beyond drum corps as well to see what costs a kid to do these days be it sports or arts or other hobbies or recreational activities. Especially when you reach the top level of that activity whatever it may be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 20 hours ago, IndigoDemonFan said: As a current parent covering the costs of a World class member, here's a short summary of where the majority of tuition $$ goes from my perspective (my 2 cents 😉 ). Not in any particular order. 1. Instruments - New ones every other year ish 2. Uniforms 3. Food 3. Transportation 4. Staff 6. Housing during camps and tour. I don't think those high schools are free. 7. Equipment maintenance (Trucks, trailers, instruments) 8. Props 9. Maybe some music licensing? I'm the former Board President for an Open Class corps. Here were our <generalized> budget priorities, using your categories. 1. Transportation 2. Staff / Volunteers 3. Food <much smaller amounts from here out> 4. Housing 5. Instruments 6. Flags 7. Props 8. Licensing 9. Uniforms <members paid for their own> Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbc03 Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 1 hour ago, LabMaster said: Well then I guess other kids will do other things. Any kid who wants to and can get contracted, will find a way, through working or finding a sponsor to help with tuition. The education they can get at the top 12 level is really really good with professional music educators, dance instructors choreographers. s. Some only do it for a year because that's all they can afford; some can do it for more years. They find a way. It is not unobtainable. The experience of being in a competitive top corps is worth it for these kids. There are many things a kid can do these days and many kids choose to do other things that they have a passion for or can afford to do. My daughter DID make a choice to pursue ballet versus drum corps. She was happy with that choice. Look beyond drum corps as well to see what costs a kid to do these days be it sports or arts or other hobbies or recreational activities. Especially when you reach the top level of that activity whatever it may be. This is incredibly out of touch with reality. In the past 15 years drum corps cost for members have more than doubled and college tuition costs have more than doubled as well (tripled for the relatively cheap state school I went to). There isn't just an ever increasing pool of money for poor kids to access to march drum corps. I paid $2k 15 years ago to march, at minimum wage I would have had to work about 9.7 hours per week just to pay for drum corps (This is excluding additional costs like getting to camp, and assumes that I work every single week of the year except for during the drum corps season). The same corps today costs $5k, at minimum wage kids today have to work 17.2 hours a week. Again, that's assuming no costs except for drum corps and doesn't include the cost of actually getting to camp. Drum corps is becoming less and less attainable for poor kids today. I came from a poor family, and drum corps was barely attainable for me 15 years ago. I was incredibly lucky to get some financial help for college or it wouldn't have been. If I was in the same position today? Forget about it, there is no way I could do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabMaster Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 33 minutes ago, dbc03 said: This is incredibly out of touch with reality. In the past 15 years drum corps cost for members have more than doubled and college tuition costs have more than doubled as well (tripled for the relatively cheap state school I went to). There isn't just an ever increasing pool of money for poor kids to access to march drum corps. I paid $2k 15 years ago to march, at minimum wage I would have had to work about 9.7 hours per week just to pay for drum corps (This is excluding additional costs like getting to camp, and assumes that I work every single week of the year except for during the drum corps season). The same corps today costs $5k, at minimum wage kids today have to work 17.2 hours a week. Again, that's assuming no costs except for drum corps and doesn't include the cost of actually getting to camp. Drum corps is becoming less and less attainable for poor kids today. I came from a poor family, and drum corps was barely attainable for me 15 years ago. I was incredibly lucky to get some financial help for college or it wouldn't have been. If I was in the same position today? Forget about it, there is no way I could do it. Like I said, they will do something else and there will still be plenty of kids doing Drum Corps. That is a reality. Look back to what minimum wage was 15 years ago. Kids today (and these may be 20 and 21 year olds) can make much more than minimum wage. My local Target is paying $15/hr. Starbucks pays $15./hr. Walgreens pays my daughter, a high schooler, $10/hr.. A local supermarket pays time and a half for Sunday work. That gets my son in college over &17/hr. He could work 9.5 hours on Sunday for 30 weeks and pretty much pay the entire tuition. No one says to enjoy drum corps you have to march with a group that has a $5K tuition. There are plenty of lower cost corps where a "poor" kid can have a great experience. It is not unobtainable. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoValves Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 (edited) These lists are leaving off: -Staff travel -Insurance -Workers Comp Insurance -Medical supplies and equipment -General Business expenses like software, postage, rent, utilities -Other equipment like computers, ATVs etc for hauling equipment, mics and speakers for rehearsals, podiums, -Advertising and Marketing -Training costs (corps now must do extensive training of staff on all sorts of safety, health, and conduct issues) -Credit card processing fees (10s of thousands) For the most part, at a bare minimum, the total of tuition collected covers anywhere from 30% to 50% of what it costs to run a corps. Edited March 12, 2020 by TwoValves 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supersop Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 On 3/9/2020 at 8:44 PM, Skeletor '96 said: One time I was talking to my sister-in-law, who is an accountant, about drum corps costs. She said we should have a fund-raiser! I emailed her my workup of a balance sheet of what goes in and out to run a drum corps. My budget was $2.5 million. What is the real figure? $2.5 mil is all the bells and whistles. If you're running a full corps for a full tour with 10 vehicles, you can get by on $1.6 mil (lean) to $2 million (somewhat comfy and probably still run your own souvies). At 2.5 mil that's an average of $16,234 per marching member in costs. Most corps try to keep that cost closer to the 10k-12k range (which is 1.5 - 1.8 mil) Meaning "tuition" only overs 1/3 to 1/2 of the operational budget. In simpler terms - if your cost per member goes up by $650 .... you just increased your budget by $100 thousand. That's a new set or horns OR A new pit with new sound equipment OR a new equipment truck OR ......... insert expenditure here. In the case of Cadets or Boston at roughly $5k per member, that only covers $770,000 of the operational expenses for the year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 4 hours ago, supersop said: In the case of Cadets or Boston at roughly $5k per member, that only covers $770,000 of the operational expenses for the year. In recent years, Boston's (Inspire Arts and Music) Concert in The Park has earned around the 770 you calculated. Their seventh one will be held on June 15th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Land_Surfer Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 30% could easily be knocked off if all corps would revert back to the core competency of drum corps, the human factor... less props and no electronics. Nope, the staff would rather they pay more to play less, dance more and let the amp take all the credit. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dog Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 Wow, I am very glad I was able to have the experience in the 80's that I did. My parents back then, nor I now, could afford that kind of tuition these days. Speechless. Hats off to those who are sacrificing on alot of levels to have this experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supersop Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 On 3/12/2020 at 8:39 AM, Ghost said: In recent years, Boston's (Inspire Arts and Music) Concert in The Park has earned around the 770 you calculated. Their seventh one will be held on June 15th. Soooo that along with tuition get's them to about 1.5 mil. Where is the rest coming from? My bigger worry is, if some of these events get canceled this year due to the CVD19. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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