Tenoris4Jazz Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 1 hour ago, Jeff Ream said: Just the A corps or both? I wish I could say for certainty Jeff, but it could have been both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 4 hours ago, 2muchcoffeeman said: Trying to solve the cost problem on the backs of props and uniforms and front-ensemble equipment is like trying to balance the federal budget on the backs of foreign aid and ethanol subsidies -- politically potent moves, but financially meaningless. The big timber is in transfer payments -- Medicaid, Medicare, etc. In DCI, the timber is the housing, feeding and moving of 200 people across 4 times zones in the span of 10 weeks. It's the tour model. And like the federal budget, every line item on the drum corps balance sheet now seems to have a constituency ready to shriek at the mere thought of trimming that cost. But there will be no prize for saving that line item if this whole thing goes belly-up because no one was willing to cut any cost anywhere, large or small. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjohn76 Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 9 hours ago, ironlips said: Staff Bloat is also a major factor, particularly if they are flown in and out for a couple of tour days at a time, provided rental vehicles, and housed in hotels. A corps really can get by quite nicely with fewer than 7 or 8 brass techs, for instance. Much of the staff bloat is a byproduct of the shift in having professional (or at least aspiring) educators on staff at all times. Most of them have other commitments over the course of the summer and have to take time away to fulfill those obligations. The corps rotate people in & out to accommodate those obligations. Another shift is in member expectations. Members expect to have a tech on hand at all times for their section, so the corps rotate people in & out as needed to meet that expectation. Gone are the days of having the sketchy full-time tech that's present for the entire tour, and then delivers pizza during the off season to make ends meet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 7 hours ago, Tenoris4Jazz said: I wish I could say for certainty Jeff, but it could have been both. yeah i mean even with staff in and out, i dont ever remember seeing that many names on the A corps site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 47 minutes ago, rjohn76 said: Much of the staff bloat is a byproduct of the shift in having professional (or at least aspiring) educators on staff at all times. Most of them have other commitments over the course of the summer and have to take time away to fulfill those obligations. The corps rotate people in & out to accommodate those obligations. Another shift is in member expectations. Members expect to have a tech on hand at all times for their section, so the corps rotate people in & out as needed to meet that expectation. Gone are the days of having the sketchy full-time tech that's present for the entire tour, and then delivers pizza during the off season to make ends meet. most staff on tour now would make more delivering pizza 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slingerland Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Busses/trucks, food, fuel, and insurance for a group of 150 performers and 30 to 40 adults as support staff (instructors, drivers, cook truck volunteers, etc) puts you at roughly $450-500,000 before you hit spring training. So even if the tour fee just covered those expenses, you're at $3,300 in tour fees per member. That number doesn't include any admin/office expenses, hiring a design and production management staff, housing for the tour, rights for music, show-specific props/costumes (typically a relatively minor budget item), or any capital outlays for rolling stock, instruments, etc. DCI pays $2800 a show for performances, which, even if you did 30 a year (no one does anymore), puts you at $80k in earned revenues - covering $550 per member's expenses. Honestly, the fact that most corps' Boards are able to come up with an outside money to make tour fees only $4400-6000 is impressive. How we did it back in the day was simple. Most corps were made up of 50-80 local kids (more high school than university age) who lived with mom and dad, rehearsed a couple nights per week in summer, were able to pack the show gear into a bread truck or a 22 foot straight truck and rode school busses on Friday night to shows 50 to 100 miles away, getting back home late Sunday night. Maybe there was a 2 to 3 week tour that took in some big regional shows starting early August. No adults got paid for their admin efforts (even at the big corps - Don Warren and Jim Jones made nothing at Cavaliers or Troopers), and if the instructors got $300-500 for the summer, that covered some gas money to get to rehearsals, and they were fine with it (gas, it should be noted, was 30 to 80 cents a gallon, depending on when in the 70s you look). It worked because there were enough adults wanting to volunteer and enough local kids to make a 50-80 member corps make sense, so there were dozens in every region to compete with. Also, travel teams weren't a thing, and a lot of the kids (this matters) were NOT involved in their school band programs or had no school music programs, so drum corps was the only outlet. 1960s Dads were highly likely to be military vets, and liked the idea of their kids being in organizations that used military ethos and discipline. None of those things are true anymore. Figure out how to make the activity affordable and achievable without having to spend $1m plus on equipment, how to keep the membership local, and how to make it easy enough to do that adults don't have to work full time jobs PLUS have enough bandwidth to manage running a drum corps, and you're on your way. OR.... ...make Open Class all instrument and encourage high school band programs to put together summer competitive programs that can be on the same ticket as DCI drum corps. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSnareDrummer Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 6 minutes ago, Slingerland said: How we did it back in the day was simple. Most corps were made up of 50-80 local kids (more high school than university age) who lived with mom and dad, rehearsed a couple nights per week in summer, were able to pack the show gear into a bread truck or a 22 foot straight truck and rode school busses on Friday night to shows 50 to 100 miles away, getting back home late Sunday night. Maybe there was a 2 to 3 week tour that took in some big regional shows starting early August. No adults got paid for their admin efforts (even at the big corps - Don Warren and Jim Jones made nothing at Cavaliers or Troopers), and if the instructors got $300-500 for the summer, that covered some gas money to get to rehearsals, and they were fine with it (gas, it should be noted, was 30 to 80 cents a gallon, depending on when in the 70s you look). It worked because there were enough adults wanting to volunteer and enough local kids to make a 50-80 member corps make sense, so there were dozens in every region to compete with. Also, travel teams weren't a thing, and a lot of the kids (this matters) were NOT involved in their school band programs or had no school music programs, so drum corps was the only outlet. 1960s Dads were highly likely to be military vets, and liked the idea of their kids being in organizations that used military ethos and discipline. All so true. Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironlips Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 "..make Open Class all instrument and encourage high school band programs to put together summer competitive programs that can be on the same ticket as DCI drum corps. " Some variation of this is feasible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 3 hours ago, Slingerland said: ...make Open Class all instrument and encourage high school band programs to put together summer competitive programs that can be on the same ticket as DCI drum corps. Most high school band programs take that portion of the summer off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllianaLancerContra Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 26 minutes ago, cixelsyd said: Most high school band programs take that portion of the summer off. True, but there are quite a few HS band programs out there; even a small percentage participating could lead to several dozen units. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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