Jeff Ream Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 18 hours ago, cixelsyd said: "A revenue problem". I love this. If we just had more money... problem solved. Eureka! But most of the ideas for "revenue" are either charitable giving, or squeezing (dare I say, exploiting) existing sources for more. Or looking at other corps to see how they’ve diversified 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 (edited) 11 hours ago, GUARDLING said: Ive said it millions of times but worth saying it again. People need to put their butts in seats for the smaller corps instead of complaing.$$$$$ will always speak louder. OC members literally play to nothing.....often. Some have said that the sched. and place doesn't allow for people to get to. Well that may be true now but wasn't always like that. Even where some smaller corps appear with the so called big guys people file in for the biggies and spend the other time in the lot ( which i never understood) WGI HS A class never had a say BITD until WGI figured out that it was where the money was in fees etc etc.Worldclass may fill the arena but the little guys fund the activity the entire year. Let the little guys show $$$$$$ you watch how fast equal status follows. A class gets token representation at the table tho. Top 3 only unless that changed for A and open but every world class finalist gets a seat. and there’s an open class show within reasonable driving distance from me this summer and 4 months out tickets still aren’t available yet. I check daily as I’m ready to hit the button Edited March 18, 2023 by Jeff Ream Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 53 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said: I would only nudge back to say that if the big dogs genuinely wanted to invest in sustainability and longevity of the activity as a whole, then appearance fees should be split evenly, no matter who brings more folks to the yard. This is a downside of the competitive nature of the industry, it endures beyond the actual competition when perhaps it shouldn't. Especially if they fees are as paltry as this thread is leaving me to believe, relative to other revenue streams. They're hoarding crumbs. This, this, this! Every word of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 (edited) . Edited June 11, 2023 by scheherazadesghost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 44 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said: Wish I had Dan Acheson on speed dial. I'm sure he doesn't. Nonetheless, LET THEM IN! I think the Board sets the membership criteria, not Dan. Convince the folks in the Board seats from <checks website> Boston, Mandarins, Crown, Troopers, Blue Stars and Madison. Mike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 (edited) . Edited June 11, 2023 by scheherazadesghost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 (edited) 4 hours ago, Jeff Ream said: A class gets token representation at the table tho. Top 3 only unless that changed for A and open but every world class finalist gets a seat. and there’s an open class sow within reasonable driving distance from me this summer and 4 months out tickets still aren’t available yet. I check daily as I’m ready to hit the button thats great unfortunately not everyone is like you. More of what I said and saw 1st hand....................I thought that was you with your hot dog and popcorn....lol Edited March 17, 2023 by GUARDLING 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 2 hours ago, cixelsyd said: And I have said this what seems like millions of times. When DCI places corps into an essentially immutable placement order and segregates top corps from bottom corps (and for decades, it was the stated mission of DCI to segregate intentionally "to showcase the top corps"), more fan attention will go to the top corps by design. The fans are not to blame for that. If you are looking to place accountability, go to the second word in this paragraph. well I guess the corps dont seem to have value on their own then...I could agree that maybe making it a little easier for fans to support BUT lets face it, evenBITD you always heard about the hot dog corps sadly. Not a new thing or problem BUT in that respect DCI should have figured it out long before now how to make it easier for the fans as well as a great supportive experience for those kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 3 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said: Heard. And I was a lot-to-SCV-only audience member last season so I'll take that on the chin. In my case, I was taking a respectful, but highly critical look at my own corps's underpinnings in the lot. And that is proving to have been a better use of my time, given the hiatus. That time is now very sacred, precious, and irreplaceable to me. But my experience seems to be an outlier though, so I take this as an excellent point overall. I would only nudge back to say that if the big dogs genuinely wanted to invest in sustainability and longevity of the activity as a whole, then appearance fees should be split evenly, no matter who brings more folks to the yard. This is a downside of the competitive nature of the industry, it endures beyond the actual competition when perhaps it shouldn't. Especially if they fees are as paltry as this thread is leaving me to believe, relative to other revenue streams. They're hoarding crumbs. This is where I believe more professional presenter experience outside of the industries might be helpful. In dance and theater, if you don't like how audiences are reacting to the format, you change the format. The presenter makes that call and the performance groups have to accept the new show order or they don't perform. In this way, why not intermix the varying levels, and interrupt the grind of competition? TY for this. So, if fees are small anyway, then it should be easy to split them evenly as a gesture of good faith and will? Ok, in VMAPA's 990 from 2020 here's what I see: Gov grants: 302k "All other contributions, gifts, grants, and similar amounts not listed above": 245k Parades, Contests: 10k Investments: 45k Net income from gaming: 2.4 M ((hard to call this a side hustle!!)) Misc: 61k Grants are low in comparison to best practices which recommends 20% of your overall budget be covered by them. That total's higher than I expected tho. Parades, Investments, and Misc, I don't have much to say. Every little bit helps, but I'm hoping not too much people power was used to generate revenue there. That would indicate a little waste. Assuming that "all other contributions..." means member fees, that feels percentage-wise reasonable I suppose. But again, I'd argue that relying on your primary internal stakeholder for that giant chunk is not sustainable or an effective application of the NP model. This number probably also includes fundraising efforts, which, if it does, then I'm more concerned. Just looking back at the American Dance Festival's example I provided earlier, their top tier of corporate sponsors alone were bringing in $500k for a comparable budget. With hundreds of others listed as donors in subsequent tiers. So again, I'd argue that drum corps, for some reason, are offloading the work of nurturing other standardized NP revenue streams onto their primary internal stakeholders. No bueno in the charity world, amigos. Other ways of approaching and calculating finances in the NP space: https://warrenaverett.com/insights/nonprofit-ratios/ https://thefundraisingauthority.com/strategy-and-planning/analyzing-fundraising-strategies/ supporting your corps is totally understandable . As far as $$$ ,it might be a thing of chicken and egg Believe me wGI only got it that $ were all coming from the lower , especially HS class. Fees over fees over fees and hundreds of them. For finals at least they do have the HS class and independent classes within the same show. Short story: several years ago I went to the head of WGI at WC finals about how could they sell tickets to HS and other classes and the seats were backside which is fine BUT a huge black curtain totally blocking any view. This really didn't affect me because my guard was in the WC finals but felt the need to say something for them, well the answer was " at least they are in the building if they don't like it there was several doors they could leave by...I was floored! I think They learned alot since then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keystone3ply Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 3 hours ago, Jeff Ream said: A class gets token representation at the table tho. Top 3 only unless that changed for A and open but every world class finalist gets a seat. and there’s an open class sow within reasonable driving distance from me this summer and 4 months out tickets still aren’t available yet. I check daily as I’m ready to hit the button That's because there's a new guy in charge of tickets, admission, & gates. (I call him "Skippy") He's still trying to get everyone through the Verizon East Gate at Lucas Oil... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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