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Drum Corps in the Post-Covid World - What Role Does DCI Have?


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14 hours ago, garfield said:

And your comments among many - who is charged with fixing this?  The corps?  Stand in (insert your favorite corps director's) shoes and ask if they're promoting the activity or their corps?

This is the crux of the issue and, I think, why the wise founders created the central DCI to begin with.

Should DCI promote the activity or should the corps?

Who funds DCI if it is to do it?  How much should the corps dedicate to fund DCI or its own, central tour manager?

Not sure you are asking the right questions.  But you also said this... 

14 hours ago, garfield said:

I truly hope others chime in to your post.  It is, in its spirit if not its specifics, the central and core question to who gives how much power and money to DCI to accomplish the goals.

This time, you let the word "power" slip in there.  That is key.

The real "power" in DCI has always been with the member corps, and still is.  It is written into the bylaws.  Dan Acheson, the hired staff, even Kathy Black and the current DCI BOD... they only serve at the pleasure of the member corps.  Until/unless the member corps decide to cede overriding power to the DCI BOD, and change the bylaws accordingly, there is nothing anyone can do to change that fact.

So I guess a better answer to the initial question of your thread - what role should DCI have - would be that the DCI role should expand from a mere agency to becoming the governing authority, precisely so that DCI can become a mission-driven organization instead of a semi-cooperative gang of competing member corps (i.e. herd of cats).

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12 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

ok....what corps get the most coming to audition? what corps get the good deals from manufacturers?

Different ones from time to time... whichever ones are at the top of the DCI standings.

If you have any more branding questions, be sure to let us know.

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3 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Not sure you are asking the right questions.  But you also said this... 

This time, you let the word "power" slip in there.  That is key.

The real "power" in DCI has always been with the member corps, and still is.  It is written into the bylaws.  Dan Acheson, the hired staff, even Kathy Black and the current DCI BOD... they only serve at the pleasure of the member corps.  Until/unless the member corps decide to cede overriding power to the DCI BOD, and change the bylaws accordingly, there is nothing anyone can do to change that fact.

So I guess a better answer to the initial question of your thread - what role should DCI have - would be that the DCI role should expand from a mere agency to becoming the governing authority, precisely so that DCI can become a mission-driven organization instead of a semi-cooperative gang of competing member corps (i.e. herd of cats).

I believe this is what the majority of people around these parts have been clamoring for since, well, forever.  Most of them just didn't know it.

The question is, of course, do the corps feel the same?

And the other question is, if they do feel the same, how much cash are they willing to funnel out of their own coffers and into DCI's to accomplish a mission-driven organization?

 

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3 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Different ones from time to time... whichever ones are at the top of the DCI standings.

If you have any more branding questions, be sure to let us know.

i have no questions...because i'm not trying to parrot a worn out and disproven company line.

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3 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

i have no questions...because i'm not trying to parrot a worn out and disproven company line.

Yes you are.  If you believe that the top corps are the draw, then you're trundling out a trope that was disproven a decade ago.

You sit through all the corps; why is it so hard to believe that others do, too?

You admit you've not been to finals in years.  But we have and each year the quarter-finals crowd is bigger earlier.  Are the stands as packed as they are Saturday night?  No, but how much of that is because the other two nights of the competition, essentially, require travel and/or taking the day off?  I contend fans DO come to see the O-13 corps.

Cixel's point is the valid one: without the O-13, the "Top Corps" are the top of a small performance group with little relevance to the typical marching band potential MM.  Everyone knows the challenge to the lower placing corps is hanging on to talented kids chasing a championship instead of an experience.  But, by definition, it means that the most talented kids rise to challenge in auditions at those "top" corps.  This is generations old. 

There are very few "Top" corps that grow their own champion performers.  

 

 

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Hmmm... if potential members are less likely to go to a specific corps but looking for a “DCI corps”..... Is it possible corps individual identities are decreasing and getting more alike?

Note: my experience with corps individual indentites goes back to 1975

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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3 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Hmmm... if potential members are less likely to go to a specific corps but looking for a “DCI corps”..... Is it possible corps individual identities are decreasing and getting more alike?

Note: my experience with corps individual indentites goes back to 1975

As someone who does many auditions,it's all just language.When a potential member  says he or she wants to March DCI they actually just mean drum çorps.We said drum corps they say DCI, nothing more.

Edited by GUARDLING
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1 hour ago, GUARDLING said:

As someone who does many auditions,it's all just language.When a potential member  says he or she wants to March DCI they actually just mean drum çorps.We said drum corps they say DCI, nothing more.

Sorry but you misunderstood me. What I’m reading above sounds like today people would  march in any corps and it doesn’t matter where. So instead of wanting to march BD, Cavies, etc it’s anyone would do.

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4 hours ago, garfield said:

Yes you are.  If you believe that the top corps are the draw, then you're trundling out a trope that was disproven a decade ago.

You sit through all the corps; why is it so hard to believe that others do, too?

You admit you've not been to finals in years.  But we have and each year the quarter-finals crowd is bigger earlier.  Are the stands as packed as they are Saturday night?  No, but how much of that is because the other two nights of the competition, essentially, require travel and/or taking the day off?  I contend fans DO come to see the O-13 corps.

Cixel's point is the valid one: without the O-13, the "Top Corps" are the top of a small performance group with little relevance to the typical marching band potential MM.  Everyone knows the challenge to the lower placing corps is hanging on to talented kids chasing a championship instead of an experience.  But, by definition, it means that the most talented kids rise to challenge in auditions at those "top" corps.  This is generations old. 

There are very few "Top" corps that grow their own champion performers.  

 

 

because DCI HQ and the manufacturers market them that way! I believe there is often better at the bottom of the rankings, and my ### is in the seats to watch them....but the place is half full til INT. No one markets those first corps on like they do the corps at the end of the shows, and you get that straight on DCI's site, Facebook, DCP, Twitter, Reddit...pick your poison. let me know when Vic Firth in the Lot covers Surf ok?

and the corps with the power continue to make it stay that way, as opposed to working for the good of all. without the other corps, the top dogs will wither and die, but they still don't believe thats the case. granted Phantom and Cadets aren't exactly lighting the world on fire these days. But DCI themselves allow this to happen, at the expense of those corps not at the top. You'd think marketing would see thats not best for business. They claim they want more corps...but do they actually do anything to promote that? Nope. Soundsport kinda gets lip service, but mostly towards finals week. Open Class is shuttled off to a high school stadium an hour away, the tour goes outside of major markets, and of course you have more people selling food than buying it at 9 am on Thursday in Lucas Oil.

 

because the top dogs want it that way. and this is why the corps themselves need less say, because their track record on member safety alone dictates it....here we are two years later, not active in a pandemic, and still stuff comes out...stuff reported by kids pre-Hopghazi...that now gets addressed.

 

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22 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Sorry but you misunderstood me. What I’m reading above sounds like today people would  march in any corps and it doesn’t matter where. So instead of wanting to march BD, Cavies, etc it’s anyone would do.

Kids do actually look to those corps. I hear it all the time..but i got ya..i was just talking about the DCI  name with kids was like us  saying we march drum corps

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