Santa Clara Vanguard 2023 Announcement Thread

[Jeff Ream]

1 hour ago, frachel said:

I can't find many people in my circle that feel the front ensemble "blend" has ever been good.. year-after-year of "thunderous goo" posts and complaints about ear-piercing pits. 

Depends on where you sit. Higher is better 

[Jeff Ream]

49 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

Agree w/ proper technique argument.  That was basis for allowing amplification in mid 2000s.  But, the question I have is:  Are there 6 different marimba parts, thus requiring 6 marimbas? If there are only, say 2 parts, why not have (& haul around) 2 marimbas, and use the amps to balance it w/ rest of ensemble?

There can be 6 sure. 

[Jeff Ream]

41 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

They don't pay to transport themselves.  

If we are serious about bringing down costs, we need to look at every part of the activity.

Most of the time the buyers come get them.

 

and yes every single facet needs looked at. But there is no one size fits all fix and the majority of stuff floated here to cut costs are negligible in the grand scheme of things

[Brian Tuma]

1 hour ago, mingusmonk said:

A Reddit user was kind enough to compile all recent corps 990 filings into a single spreadsheet. 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ja39zeGtJSWFTu3rejDFLo0aSydUs-t0oioukYk8U34/edit#gid=0

 

Off topic but what’s up with those numbers from Golden Empire in Open Class?

[MikeN]

24 minutes ago, gbass598 said:

I don't get why front ensemble continues to be singled out regarding transportation costs.

You want to save transportations costs, cut members in all sections. It was 128 when I marched. What is it now? 160? Less equipment, less busses, less food. less staff.

The big boys who run the activity kept pushing for more. 128, 135, 150, 154, 160. Where does it end?

I mentioned this earlier, but the member changes have neatly coincided with an expansion of charter bus sizes.  Most charter companies use 55-seat coaches now, thus the increase to 165.  Going back to 128 just creates empty seats on buses and deprives you of the associated revenue.  If you're going to force cuts, it would have to be back to 110.  That said, 55 members x $5,000 tuition = $275k, which is way more income lost than the savings of that third bus. 

My wife was CFO of a DCI corps - her short answer input: gotta cut expenses, sure, but not by cutting revenue.  Otherwise you're trying to fill a larger hole with a smaller shovel.

Mike

[Jeff Ream]

here's really after 48 pages where we are:

 

other than some financial docs and a statement from SCV, we don't know the full financial picture, and i doubt we'll ever get that level of transparency.

alumni fighting with each other. sadly this is not new when a corps hits a rough patch or makes a big change.....and usually doesnt end well.

a lot of information here about what really drives costs and doesn't. a lot of ideas thrown out, some with merit, some unrealistic in todays age. and of course a ton of misinformation.

We all...myself included...are armchair quarterbacking, yet we have no say, few have ties to SCV, and face it, DCI in general laughs at DCP. So battling back and forth and throwing out ideas here does nothing. Sure some DCi folks read here, but the SCV issue is finally the financial wakeup call the activity needed...kinda like the bomb that exploded in April of 2018.

 

Will the DCi corps really dive in and look? there's some validity in many of the ideas floated here and elsewhere, but none of them is the cure all people think. Some of everything thrown together isn't bad. I do believe the higher membership size has definitely not helped, especially at the lower levels. I also think it's time Open Class stands up for themselves and gets treated seriously, especially financially. 

 

but nothing done on social media or here will solve it. if DCi truly card about the passionate and vocal fanbase, they'd have been listening in the RAMD Days when a lot of what we see now was floated out there by a now no longer involved director ( who i am sure is commenting somewhere, probably totally not self aware of how their group was run)

but of course today DCI drops the rules proposals. Interesting to see Madison involved in many of them.

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Jeff Ream

[Jeff Ream]

9 minutes ago, MikeN said:

I mentioned this earlier, but the member changes have neatly coincided with an expansion of charter bus sizes.  Most charter companies use 55-seat coaches now, thus the increase to 165.  Going back to 128 just creates empty seats on buses and deprives you of the associated revenue.  If you're going to force cuts, it would have to be back to 110.  That said, 55 members x $5,000 tuition = $275k, which is way more income lost than the savings of that third bus. 

My wife was CFO of a DCI corps - her short answer input: gotta cut expenses, sure, but not by cutting revenue.  Otherwise you're trying to fill a larger hole with a smaller shovel.

Mike

exactly.

[IllianaLancerContra]

12 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

Most of the time the buyers come get them.

 

and yes every single facet needs looked at. But there is no one size fits all fix and the majority of stuff floated here to cut costs are negligible in the grand scheme of things

OK - You have a magic wand & can make Drum Corps into at least a financially break-even activity.

What do you change?  How do you fix Drum Corps?

[Terri Schehr]

“I do believe the higher membership size has definitely not helped, especially at the lower levels. I also think it's time Open Class stands up for themselves and gets treated seriously, especially financially.”

 

If history is a teacher, that’s never gonna ####### happen. They don’t give two ##### about open class and they never have. 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Terri Schehr

[gbass598]

4 minutes ago, MikeN said:

I mentioned this earlier, but the member changes have neatly coincided with an expansion of charter bus sizes.  Most charter companies use 55-seat coaches now, thus the increase to 165.  Going back to 128 just creates empty seats on buses and deprives you of the associated revenue.  If you're going to force cuts, it would have to be back to 110.  That said, 55 members x $5,000 tuition = $275k, which is way more income lost than the savings of that third bus. 

My wife was CFO of a DCI corps - her short answer input: gotta cut expenses, sure, but not by cutting revenue.  Otherwise you're trying to fill a larger hole with a smaller shovel.

Mike

I think the problem is the $5k tuition that has skyrocketed in recent years. I have no problem with member sizes increasing or the uses of the instrumentation. The problem is not having enough revenue sources to cover those costs without putting the bearing of that on the members themselves. 1 dollar in 1998 = 1.83 in 2022. My member fees were $750. in 2022 that means member fees would be a bit less than $1400. Instead member fees are 600% higher than they were 25 years ago. As corps bring in more members, they also expect them to provide more of the funding out of their own pocket instead of creating additional revenue streams.

But yes, as you pointed out, that 275k in revenue makes up for having a couple of marimbas on the field.