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What Can/Can’t Be Changed to Help


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They could have a fun crowd pleasing show with it. Make performing the thing a whacky time in front of a crowd that eats it up.  The MMs could have a blast

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3 hours ago, C.Holland said:

yes. im aware of those costs, the operations, the legwork.  I'm also aware that staying at a school for a day with fields, all the rooms needed to separate membership, showers, heating, cooling, security, admin costs can charge the corps now $3000/day.   No longer is it "everyone go to the gym".  

So trading the ability for show ops to make more money, and gambling that against elevated costs might be a way to get the corps to monetize the students less, and encourage more show operators to sponsor.  

However, the current state of the activity has created a situation where the governing body (DCI) would be happier having less shows but all managed under their umbrella.  Controlling the event for QC is fine, but it also limits outflow of cash, and puts more burden on the individual corps for the rest of the season. 

Thanks for providing a number. 3k a day roughly, and how many days is this done? Just as a very rough guess, 6/28 to 8/12 is the tour length. About say, 45 days just to rough it out. About 135k. That's real money, but in the scale of the overall budget, what percentage?

We're dealing with Fuel/Transportation/logistics.

Food. Assuming this is procured at places like Sam's Club/Costco/Aldi's to save a good amount already and provide good food.

Uniforms, equipment, props, instruments. Not all of this is free for every corps... is it?

And, costs to pay salaries of Administration and staff as well as design. It came out awhile ago in one of the Morning Call articles IIRC that the leader of one organization had a @100k a year salary, which led others to flip out, and the response from knowledgeable folks here was that for the leader of a non-profit of that size and scale that was quite reasonable. Add to that the staff, which is pretty large now as well as the administration.

Thinking about that, it might well be that the budget is similar to a School district, in which 60-70 percent typically goes to employee salaries and the rest to buildings and such. I don't know. Does anyone have a guess or knowledge?

 

While 135k is a chunk- it may only be not even ten percent of the overall budget. Yes, costs would be cut down- but is that enough to even make things more manageable?

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42 minutes ago, BigW said:

Thanks for providing a number. 3k a day roughly, and how many days is this done? Just as a very rough guess, 6/28 to 8/12 is the tour length. About say, 45 days just to rough it out. About 135k. That's real money, but in the scale of the overall budget, what percentage?

We're dealing with Fuel/Transportation/logistics.

Food. Assuming this is procured at places like Sam's Club/Costco/Aldi's to save a good amount already and provide good food.

Uniforms, equipment, props, instruments. Not all of this is free for every corps... is it?

And, costs to pay salaries of Administration and staff as well as design. It came out awhile ago in one of the Morning Call articles IIRC that the leader of one organization had a @100k a year salary, which led others to flip out, and the response from knowledgeable folks here was that for the leader of a non-profit of that size and scale that was quite reasonable. Add to that the staff, which is pretty large now as well as the administration.

Thinking about that, it might well be that the budget is similar to a School district, in which 60-70 percent typically goes to employee salaries and the rest to buildings and such. I don't know. Does anyone have a guess or knowledge?

 

While 135k is a chunk- it may only be not even ten percent of the overall budget. Yes, costs would be cut down- but is that enough to even make things more manageable?

think 90 days.  Because you have to have all these spaces for move ins when you're learning the show.  And you need space to hold camps.

you're charged by amounts of the rooms needed.  so you need to separate membership by gender, and also by age group, and then staff, and admin, and on tour for drivers (cause their sleep schedule is different from the rest).  you also have all the other costs from the school. admin fees, security fees, utilities fees, trash fees.. etc etc etc.    Let's assume that 1 free place to stay with a couple fields is provided per show day.    However, additional fields  you want is a la carte. And then the stadium, and then the stadium with lights after 7pm for ensemble.  On non show days you cover the entire cost of the facilities.  

100k for an Exec Director of a non profit, especially in areas with high living costs, isn't unreasonable.  For the amount of work an ED does, its low.  ED's of opera, theatre, dance, arts schools all make much more.  True they have larger budgets and full time staff and facilities to manage, but the work is still relentless, the hours are long, and there's few 40 hour weeks.   

The majority of budget is spent on housing, moving, and feeding the corps.  The rest is less than %20 of the overall budget.  Often MUCH less. 

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58 minutes ago, BigW said:

Thanks for providing a number. 3k a day roughly, and how many days is this done? Just as a very rough guess, 6/28 to 8/12 is the tour length. About say, 45 days just to rough it out. About 135k. That's real money, but in the scale of the overall budget, what percentage?

We're dealing with Fuel/Transportation/logistics.

Food. Assuming this is procured at places like Sam's Club/Costco/Aldi's to save a good amount already and provide good food.

Uniforms, equipment, props, instruments. Not all of this is free for every corps... is it?

And, costs to pay salaries of Administration and staff as well as design. It came out awhile ago in one of the Morning Call articles IIRC that the leader of one organization had a @100k a year salary, which led others to flip out, and the response from knowledgeable folks here was that for the leader of a non-profit of that size and scale that was quite reasonable. Add to that the staff, which is pretty large now as well as the administration.

Thinking about that, it might well be that the budget is similar to a School district, in which 60-70 percent typically goes to employee salaries and the rest to buildings and such. I don't know. Does anyone have a guess or knowledge?

 

While 135k is a chunk- it may only be not even ten percent of the overall budget. Yes, costs would be cut down- but is that enough to even make things more manageable?

Here's the items that are often either a wash OR a fundraiser for the corps. 
uniforms, instruments, props.  - all are often bought, and then sold to make up the cost, or used as a fundraiser for the corps.  So on brass, they'll often get them deeply discounted and then sell them to bands for profit or at least breaking even.  Props and uni's are the same.  Often donated as a marketing pitch for the top 16 groups, or bought at a discount and sold with a slight markup if possible.  

Staff are paid pittances for the amount of time they spend teaching.  

 

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1 hour ago, C.Holland said:

Here's the items that are often either a wash OR a fundraiser for the corps. 
uniforms, instruments, props.  - all are often bought, and then sold to make up the cost, or used as a fundraiser for the corps.  So on brass, they'll often get them deeply discounted and then sell them to bands for profit or at least breaking even.  Props and uni's are the same.  Often donated as a marketing pitch for the top 16 groups, or bought at a discount and sold with a slight markup if possible.  

Except that is why the group needs a full-time year-round $100,000 director, to follow through on all these fundraisers and resales.

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1 hour ago, cixelsyd said:

Except that is why the group needs a full-time year-round $100,000 director, to follow through on all these fundraisers and resales.

there's much more to it than that.   in non profits the board of directors fuels the machine and the ED drives it.  organizing of people, space, equipment, overseeing that grants are applied for on time, continuing to build on existing donor relations, working to find new donor relations  (teeing it up, so the board can collect), as well as tirelessly working for other steams of revenue.  Yes, in drum corps, buying and selling these items is part of their job, its also part of their job to deal with merch, appearances, scheduling the season, hiring and scheduling staff, finding space for (sleeping, eating, ensemble, sectionals, showering, storage...the list goes on).  

Organizing people, space, and equipment, is a full time job on its own.  When your organization has to find other revenue streams besides grants (and unlike theatre/dance/opera who sell tickets to an existing facility or a few choice facilities and have lots of similar expenses year to year) and your expenses can be erratically different from the previous season, it becomes two jobs slapped on top of each other.  No one does any of these jobs alone, but they do require more than one person to complete them.  

If you have someone doing this part time, its gets completed part way.   

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6 minutes ago, C.Holland said:

there's much more to it than that.   in non profits the board of directors fuels the machine and the ED drives it.  organizing of people, space, equipment, overseeing that grants are applied for on time, continuing to build on existing donor relations, working to find new donor relations  (teeing it up, so the board can collect), as well as tirelessly working for other steams of revenue.  Yes, in drum corps, buying and selling these items is part of their job, its also part of their job to deal with merch, appearances, scheduling the season, hiring and scheduling staff, finding space for (sleeping, eating, ensemble, sectionals, showering, storage...the list goes on).  

Organizing people, space, and equipment, is a full time job on its own.  When your organization has to find other revenue streams besides grants (and unlike theatre/dance/opera who sell tickets to an existing facility or a few choice facilities and have lots of similar expenses year to year) and your expenses can be erratically different from the previous season, it becomes two jobs slapped on top of each other.  No one does any of these jobs alone, but they do require more than one person to complete them.  

If you have someone doing this part time, its gets completed part way.   

Interesting POV.  As we know corps BOD’s vary greatly in size, roles, expertise and so on.  What are the sizes of the leadership/admins of the top 12 for instance and what are the sizes of their BOD’s ? What is the relationship of the corps leadership/admin with the BOD’s?  How much crossover?  How is a corps structure similar to or different from a business setting?

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19 hours ago, LabMaster said:

Interesting POV.  As we know corps BOD’s vary greatly in size, roles, expertise and so on.  What are the sizes of the leadership/admins of the top 12 for instance and what are the sizes of their BOD’s ? What is the relationship of the corps leadership/admin with the BOD’s?  How much crossover?  How is a corps structure similar to or different from a business setting?

I can tell you from both my own homelife in an entertainment family, and as an employee in the industry of too many years, that in drumcorps/theatre/opera/dance/ballet/arts camps...etc etc etc  this is pretty much the standard config.  Board fuels the machine, ED operates it.  Because its simply too much to do for one person, or even 5.  

The boards main task... is money.  find money.  keep that 51% or more unearned revenue coming in.  Because the more unearned revenue you can find, the more earned revenue a non profit is allowed to earn elsewhere.

Boards range in size.  Their give/get (what you have to donate to be on the board) varies as well.   However, 51% has to be unearned revenue for a group to maintain non profit status.  How everything is claimed as earned vs unearned i won't dig into, because i don't know everyone's books.  

I will say that often you'll have 8-20 members on a BOD.  (depends on how many voices you want in the room.  (or how rich/poor your board members are) Some of these positions are "In-kind" meaning they offer their services for a voting place on the board.  Webmaster and social media for example.  That's a pretty daunting task that can be done from almost anywhere AS LONG as you have someone on tour providing great content for the webmaster/social media chair.  Otherwise that role is on tour, constantly updating.   You also may have a person for "Alumni Relations" who offer their networking and bookkeeping time to manage the old farts and are constantly begging them to donate more, as well as planning gatherings, building beer bongs, and trying to maintain morale when things go bad, so that they can get alumni to again... donate more. 

The rest, not only offer their expertise in any number of fields (law, operations, logistics, fundraising...etc) AS WELL as offer a sizable donation and promise to beg/borrow/steal/amputate to come up with.  Mainly, their role is for legal compliance and fundraising, with oversight that the organization is adhering to its mission, assisting with strategy and structure, and that the ED is facilitating this.  

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