A Modest Proposal

[Land_Surfer]

I’m glad most (if not all) posting about housing procurement and their fees are not corps affiliates.  Talk about complicating matters and trying to frighten.  I hope no one is taking most of your posts serious.      

Edited January 3, 2023 by Land_Surfer

[Land_Surfer]

On 12/20/2022 at 5:09 PM, ContraFart said:

1. They cost the same

2. I would say that bigger names get more money

3. Travel and housing are the largest costs, period. Production costs are practically nothing in the grand scheme of things. They are fixed and predictable. Tour costs are not

How can production costs be more predictable than travel and housing? 

[ContraFart]

33 minutes ago, Land_Surfer said:

How can production costs be more predictable than travel and housing? 

You only have to pay for the props once, You can easily predict your payroll, Instruments are cost neutral. You are only talking about 10-25% of your budget when it comes to production. 

You cannot predict July gas prices when you budget in December. Same with inflation when it comes to food. Housing may be a bit more predictable since I believe that is done in conjunction with DCI and show promoters, but I am wondering how much corps have control on where they are housed. When you talk about the most variable costs from year to year, you are talking about Fuel, Food and Housing. 

[JimF-LowBari]

3 hours ago, Land_Surfer said:

I’m glad most (if not all) posting about housing procurement and their fees are not corps affiliates.  Talk about complicating matters and trying to frighten.  I hope no one is taking most of your posts serious.      

I find it enlightening. More info on why running a corps is so #### expensive.

As for taking it seriously I know one poster personally and he hasn’t BS’ed me yet

Edited January 3, 2023 by JimF-LowBari

[C.Holland]

6 hours ago, Land_Surfer said:

How can production costs be more predictable than travel and housing? 

You generally know your designer costs, while they do escalate they don’t rise much year to year. You have a budget for props and equipment refurbish or replacement.  You have a budget for any trailer refurbishment/inspections needed.  Those costs, unless you’re in dire situation, are pretty easy to plan for. And props, horns, elex, wardrobe, can all be used as fundraisers for the corps. So those are a wash at worst, and free money at best. 

Travel is a lump sum rental, based on time and mileage estimates, with plans for contingency and overages.  However, what might be $500k this season, may be $750k next season depending on your total distance, fuel, insurance, driver cost, available models of equipment, etc. However that is all rolled up into a lump sum rental with the trucking company. 

housing, is a gamble.  the more schools cost to operate the more they charge renters. But you may not need to be in schools for some parts of tour so you can supplement with private rentals spaces, or hotels.  So while you can allocate $650k, there’s a good chance you may end up needing $750k depending on where you are and how schools fiscal year updates their costs.

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by C.Holland

[Tenoris4Jazz]

1 hour ago, C.Holland said:

You generally know your designer costs, while they do escalate they don’t rise much year to year. You have a budget for props and equipment refurbish or replacement.  You have a budget for any trailer refurbishment/inspections needed.  Those costs, unless you’re in dire situation, are pretty easy to plan for. And props, horns, elex, wardrobe, can all be used as fundraisers for the corps. So those are a wash at worst, and free money at best. 

Travel is a lump sum rental, based on time and mileage estimates, with plans for contingency and overages.  However, what might be $500k this season, may be $750k next season depending on your total distance, fuel, insurance, driver cost, available models of equipment, etc. However that is all rolled up into a lump sum rental with the trucking company. 

housing, is a gamble.  the more schools cost to operate the more they charge renters. But you may not need to be in schools for some parts of tour so you can supplement with private rentals spaces, or hotels.  So while you can allocate $650k, there’s a good chance you may end up needing $750k depending on where you are and how schools fiscal year updates their costs.

 

It's cliché, but Dave Ramsey it... have an emergency reserve that can only be accessible, by vote of the BoD, to get the corps through tour and home if the money runs out.  Once you tap it, the first revenue that comes in refills the reserve until it's full again.  That's how my family has survived my wife working less than 40% of the time the last 3 years.

[C.Holland]

1 hour ago, Tenoris4Jazz said:

It's cliché, but Dave Ramsey it... have an emergency reserve that can only be accessible, by vote of the BoD, to get the corps through tour and home if the money runs out.  Once you tap it, the first revenue that comes in refills the reserve until it's full again.  That's how my family has survived my wife working less than 40% of the time the last 3 years.

That only works if you’re not starting out below 15% contingency.

The two concerns (with world class specifically) are the known money in. You know at least 95% of the money coming in from member dues. You then have to gamble that plus whatever else the board raises and your other revenue streams bring in against costs of food, travel, housing, which you many not know the full costs of (or at least 90%) until 90-120 days out from tour start.  I have a feeling that the overall shortened tour (without seeing reduced member dues) is how the corps are forcing contingency money into the overall season budget.  

[Tenoris4Jazz]

40 minutes ago, C.Holland said:

That only works if you’re not starting out below 15% contingency.

The two concerns (with world class specifically) are the known money in. You know at least 95% of the money coming in from member dues. You then have to gamble that plus whatever else the board raises and your other revenue streams bring in against costs of food, travel, housing, which you many not know the full costs of (or at least 90%) until 90-120 days out from tour start.  I have a feeling that the overall shortened tour (without seeing reduced member dues) is how the corps are forcing contingency money into the overall season budget.  

Maybe it's the accountant in me, but if I'm the CFO of a drum corps, we don't tour without the cash in the bank to pay for the season.  If that's impossible to do now, then the entire business model of DCI needs to go in the trash.  If the local food bank runs out of money, they just don't feed people.  If a corps runs out of money, they do what the Bridgemen did... leave people stranded next to a crashed bus with no idea how to get home.  There is no excuse for that.  I might be harsh in saying this, but DCI has gone so far beyond what drum corps was supposed to be that it's coming back to bite them in the ###... and I think they deserve it.  Banks were "too big to fail" back in '07... well, so was Vanguard.

[C.Holland]

The situation of drum corps, and situations adjacent to it have changed. Schools cost a fortune to use, you rent equipment to move the group for safety reasons and better service, the costs of feeding and caring for membership costs much more than how we ate 20 years ago, and certainly in the 80s and 70s.   
 

Perhaps development is something that the activity needs to figure out.  Colleges, theatres, ballet, music programs, art camps, and a million other activities for youth find ways to do it.  Drum corps is coming to a point of finally thinking about this, though it may be too late for many. 

[jjeffeory]

On 12/29/2022 at 12:47 AM, C.Holland said:

Schools are charging as much as they can. You don’t rent one gym, you rent enough rooms as you need according to how many students you have for each gender divided also age by group under and over 18, as well as staff and support staff.  
 

You are also passed ALL costs of using the facility back onto the renter. School Security, any required school staff to be present, custodian services, heating, cooling, water, etc.  Everything in a school runs via building management system, and thus can be quantified and charged back to the renter. 
 

An open class corps out east here was recently quoted near $3000 for an 8 hour sunday to hold an experience camp. That was for the gym, band room, and cafeteria. Only to be used for space. Not sleeping showering, or staying beyond the 8 hour day. This price was escalated from what they paid only a year ago. 
 

school rooms and fields are rented a la carte.  If fields aren’t already reserved for school sports.  They start at 500 each, and can go as high as 2500 depending on turf, condition, stands, lights, etc. 

Well, the East coast has always been pretty expensive for all those things compared to the Midwest, Plain States, and South. I wonder what the price differential between regions is...