DCI's Next Director

[kdaddy]

What will the job pay? Maybe $150K or so?

[troopers1]

Deion Sanders

[Algernon]

3 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

i'm torn. institutional knowledge of what drum corps actually is is incredibly important. look at SCV's hires recently...lack of drum corps knowledge was part of the issues that got them where they are

Trust me, the person that is taking over has no experience in drum corps at all.

[TenHut]

26 minutes ago, Algernon said:

Trust me, the person that is taking over has no experience in drum corps at all.

Not a fan of this approach at all. 

[Jurassic Lancer]

44 minutes ago, Algernon said:

Trust me, the person that is taking over has no experience in drum corps at all.

You know this as a fact? 

[Boss Anova]

48 minutes ago, Algernon said:

Trust me, the person that is taking over has no experience in drum corps at all.

 Motivation coach hearing . 

[Tim K]

Personally I thought the tribute Dan Acheson received at finals was well done and well deserved. At the time he was hired DCI faced many challenges and its survival was questionable. When drum corps folded in the late 70’s to 80’s, many of the corps had seen better days, music instruction in schools had improved, and there was a wider variety of sports and youth activities available. The decrease in corps was understandable. When it continued in the 90’s and newer corps were few and far between, I really thought the end was near and when attendance at shows kept decreasing, I was certain the end was near. I am very happy to say I was wrong. In a very 90’s/early 2000’s leadership manner, Dan Acheson got the activity on solid footing. He could be very diplomatic and handled the tumult of the G7 threats well or so it appeared to me. That being said, how more recent challenges were handled was problematic, namely safety issues and abuse issues. Perhaps if he had more authority things would have been different. 

The person selected will be important and there are excellent people out there, some who have been named in this thread and other threads, some not. I do think moving forward that we need to look at the job description. The director needs to have more teeth especially when the unforeseen situations arise. There were times Dan A should have taken more decisive action, but there were also times where it seemed his hands were tied. In an activity that is competitive and where quite often each corps looks out for its own interests first, the director’s position needs more authority but without becoming a dictator. 
 

[Tim K]

2 hours ago, kdaddy said:

What will the job pay? Maybe $150K or so?

I have no idea of what Dan Acheson makes right now, but given DCI’s budget and the responsibilities I would guess the salary of a new director would be between $300K and $450K. To put it in perspective, the average salary of a high school principal in Indianapolis is $129K, the average salary of a college president in Indiana is $300K according to a quick Google search. 

[Triple Forte]

On 8/14/2023 at 10:16 PM, ECJ94 said:

If you could hand pick Dan Acheson's successor as DCI's CEO, whom would you pick?

I have seen people mention Dave Gibbs and David Glasgow already, but was hoping for people's thoughts and reasoning behind the picks.

I'll go first. Robert Morrison - formerly of The Cadets, Music for All, VH1 Save the Music, Pearl Percussion, NAMM, etc.

https://musicforall.org/board-of-directors/robert-b-morrison/

Bob ticks off a ton of the boxes that I would like to see. 

1) Familiarity with drum corps (as he was former staff - the first front ensemble caption head for the C-Pit).

2) Experience in non-profit management.

3) Highly successful in business.

4) Very well respected by many within the music/arts community.

I think Dan Acheson did a good job as the CEO of DCI.  I really don’t know who Dan’s replacement should be. Whoever it is, I believe they have to address some thing that has been neglected for a very, very long time. From what I could tell , very little has been done to try and bring awareness to what  DCI is outside of the Marching band, WGI and indoor Drumline, activities. There could very well be people out there with pockets full of money who would fall in love the DCI.   However ,  because there is no distinctive plan from DCI leader ship  for promoting DCI outside of the marching arts groups,  there’s little to no chance we can find people like that.  Promoting the activity within like-groups is an obvious thing to do.. DCI leadership should be actively going after the sources who know nothing about drum corps and try to bring them onboard. Just my opinion…

Edited September 19, 2023 by Triple Forte

[kdaddy]

52 minutes ago, Tim K said:

I have no idea of what Dan Acheson makes right now, but given DCI’s budget and the responsibilities I would guess the salary of a new director would be between $300K and $450K. To put it in perspective, the average salary of a high school principal in Indianapolis is $129K, the average salary of a college president in Indiana is $300K according to a quick Google search. 

You might be right, but I'd be surprised (and dismayed) if the new DCI president made as much as a college president.