Santa Clara Vanguard 2023 Announcement Thread

[scheherazadesghost]

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Edited June 13, 2023 by scheherazadesghost

[Terri Schehr]

1 minute ago, RiverCityAndTroopersFan said:

Got it.

I don’t think any of them are rolling in a pile of money. I got a begging letter yesterday that somehow found me in Florida after 18 months. 

[jameseuph]

3 minutes ago, 2muchcoffeeman said:

Every corps does its books differently, so use caution when looking at one corps vs another, but yes, this activity is, financially speaking, skin and bones.

It’s been skin and bones forever. It’s a miracle most of these groups made it this far. 

[Terri Schehr]

Just now, scheherazadesghost said:

Aw... a "warm body"? That's such a sad term. I never looked at students/members who have a steeper learning curve than others in that way. Never. Seriously, never. How Pollyanna am I? 😅

I understand the shift from student to performer, which mostly I appreciate... except when we're treated like meat. I don't like that at all.

If corps want to operate like Broadway then do it and don't look back... just don't hide behind service missions anymore. It's really weird when you try to do both, given my other work experiences.

You’re not pollyanish.  My kid marched in a Division 2 (open) corps for five years and I loved that they trained kids and took exceptional kids and taught them to be contributing members of the corps.  It was very satisfying to see and I enjoyed it far more than his four seasons in the world class corps. Those Cap Sound kids stayed with it.  Because they loved the experience for what it was. This casting performers bulljive kind of nauseates me, TBH. 

[C.Holland]

24 minutes ago, perc2100 said:

Right, there was at least another corps in 2022 that was looking for housing that week, and even pre-COVID housing with schools could be difficult to come by.  By no means am I an insider, and I don't want to imply such; that being said, the fact that even I know that housing is problematic (and, to be fair was problematic/sometimes difficult to find when I marched drum corps in the late 1990's) leads me to think this is a substantial hurdle.  I know the school district I work in has increased their requirements of outside groups that want to book facilities in the COVID age, and I've been told those restrictions will likely increase rather than decrease over time, making it difficult/impossible for what amounts to a traveling young adult roadshow to find cheap housing that suits all the needs a modern DCI corps has.

its hard to get a room to rehearse a community orchestra or big band in the east out here, simply because schools are concerned with security, and their method of operations and cost control is now automated.  everything is quantified. heat,cooling, space, cleaning, and its all part of a metric of controlling costs. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by C.Holland

[84BDsop]

35 minutes ago, MarimbaManiac said:

 

 

They betrayed their mission statement, and their community, and they are reaping what they've sown. 

You DO realize you just proved his point, right??   That just because it's on the website doesn't mean they follow it?

[C.Holland]

10 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

As one person here likes to (correctly) point out, DCI is the Corps. 

The problem is that they cannot bring themselves to discipline others within the club.  Consider what it took to get GH removed?  Yes, they handled Pioneer/RB, but that Corps didn't fit the current brand, & they didn't like RB too much, so easy decision there.  SCV is different - they are in the club.  And DCI did nothing (visible anyway (happy to be wrong here)) to stave off the implosion.

DCI IS the corps directors who vote on the sheets, the season, the tour, the payouts, everything.  Technically ONLY the member directors.  Everyone else gets to buy into it, or move along.  

But not dealing with things is what they're good at. 

However, as much oversight as a peer organization can provide, they still can't run the individual corps for the Exec Dir.  Thats the ED's job.  their only job in some cases. 

[IllianaLancerContra]

2 hours ago, mingusmonk said:

So, after my 1987 experience, I was not able to catch the revolutionary 1988 Vanguard live at all. The annual dice-roll of living deep in DCM territory put more than a handful of shows within easy travel distance, but zero SCV appearances. I absorbed everything I could through Drum Corps World and word-of-mouth osmosis. I went to a lot of shows but remained an incredibly frustrated SCV fanboy. The first time I saw the show was when SCV performed it for the final time on PBS.

Then comes 1989 and they are doing Phantom of the Opera AGAIN?! And they are unstoppable? Somehow the Midwest tour dice still kept them at a distance from me. My friends and I had been overnight to Bloomington, plus a few close shows. Some of us already had tickets booked for Finals night in Kansas City. But there was a show in Centerville Ohio on August 10th ... a 3+ hour drive ... that would have SCV and Star of Indiana (where we had friends and relatives that were marching). I was an insistent pest and somehow our parents relented and allowed us to take a day-trip on our own. Which is crazy in retrospect. 1 day after going to a show 30 minutes away. 3 days before we had to leave for band camp (which was an off-site band camp at a college). And we would be leaving straight from the band camp parking lot on a 9 hour car ride straight to Kansas City for finals. 

We drove the last minute trip to Centerville and hung out with our Star of Indiana friends after rehearsals. We watched SCV warm-up. Finally got to experience Phantom of the Opera up close and personal one time. Not knowing that a snare drummer had been kicked out of that very rehearsal site when Gail Royer had become aware of the fraudulent birth certificates.  😯 Then watched them win a week later in Kansas City from the nosebleeds. Including this encore.

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1278747992160998

 

That was my final experience of being a fan of drum corps before marching drum corps. And I often lament not being able to just be a fan. Being behind the scenes and part of how the sausage is made takes away some of the fanatic magic. I still love the activity, but it is different after you've been behind the curtain. And SCV will always have been a  big part of that magic to me. 

First time I saw SCV was early 1970s in Michigan City (old Ames Field).  Main thing I remember was that there were general admission seats around the field; spectators were warned to stay out of the end zone, but someone didn't.  I distinctly remember a SCV guard member marking time on a picnic in the end zone, thoroughly destroying a bucket of KFC.

[IllianaLancerContra]

1 hour ago, RiverCityAndTroopersFan said:

Drove my Chevy to the drum corps but the drum corps was dry

 

 

[C.Holland]

12 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Aw... a "warm body"? That's such a sad term. I never looked at students/members who have a steeper learning curve than others in that way. Never. Seriously, never. How Pollyanna am I? 😅

I understand the shift from student to performer, which mostly I appreciate... except when we're treated like meat. I don't like that at all.

If corps want to operate like Broadway then do it and don't look back... just don't hide behind service missions anymore. It's really weird when you try to do both, given my other work experiences.

thats not meant as a dig.  just a reference for everyone reading along.  i was a good player, not as great a mover.  but you understand what i mean.    

all the student in the top 12 are meat.  monetized performers, sold an experience to tour.   

the mission statement is required to be non profit.   loosely followed to be able to cherry pick "this is how we help "students" when they file taxes, accept grants and donations.