DCI's Next Director

[Keith Hall]

Nowadays it is "thee" thing to use words like diversity. Why is drum corps more expensive today? Look at the payroll for the staff! How many consultants does a corps need? How many trumpet techs or snare techs does a corps need? That's the first thing to look at from a money point of view. Why is it necessary to clutter the field with props? Is it because the drill designers are not as good as a Steve Brubaker or George Zingali? Oh darn I did what others did......change the subject of the OP.

 

The next director? Does the Director of DCI really direct? It seems that the corps directors and caption heads decide what happens from year to year. The DCI director just sits on a throne, much like King Charles as England is run by Parliament and a PM. So is it really a big deal who the director is?

 

Get back to entertaining the audience/fans!

[TenHut]

14 hours ago, Keith Hall said:

Nowadays it is "thee" thing to use words like diversity. Why is drum corps more expensive today? Look at the payroll for the staff! How many consultants does a corps need? How many trumpet techs or snare techs does a corps need? That's the first thing to look at from a money point of view. Why is it necessary to clutter the field with props? Is it because the drill designers are not as good as a Steve Brubaker or George Zingali? Oh darn I did what others did......change the subject of the OP.

 

The next director? Does the Director of DCI really direct? It seems that the corps directors and caption heads decide what happens from year to year. The DCI director just sits on a throne, much like King Charles as England is run by Parliament and a PM. So is it really a big deal who the director is?

 

Get back to entertaining the audience/fans!

I agree with this... waaay too many staff members.

Edited September 28, 2023 by TenHut

[IllianaLancerContra]

1 hour ago, TenHut said:

I agree with this waaay too many staff members.

Those who advocate for large staff will counter that many techs are only there a few weeks at a time. 
 

IDK how it worked in other Corps, but instead of a bunch of techs our older or more experienced marching members would work with the younger members on technique.  
 

edit to back on topic.   The next DCI ED needs to find a way to bring costs down.  The problem is that there are advocacy groups for large staffs/entourage, props, electronics, national vs local memberships, long tour, etc.  To cut costs, some or all will be impacted.   The ED needs to have ability, authority and backbone to make and execute hard decisions. 

Edited September 27, 2023 by IllianaLancerContra
Back to the Topic

[Jeff Ream]

3 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Wait - the cost of housing is not affected by the length of the tour?  Not affected by non-local membership?  A corps needs 11 weeks of housing instead of 3 weeks because of those changes.

it is and isn't. too many people think housing is still free. it's not. and schools are charging more and more

[Jeff Ream]

3 hours ago, Keith Hall said:

Nowadays it is "thee" thing to use words like diversity. Why is drum corps more expensive today? Look at the payroll for the staff! How many consultants does a corps need? How many trumpet techs or snare techs does a corps need? That's the first thing to look at from a money point of view. Why is it necessary to clutter the field with props? Is it because the drill designers are not as good as a Steve Brubaker or George Zingali? Oh darn I did what others did......change the subject of the OP.

 

The next director? Does the Director of DCI really direct? It seems that the corps directors and caption heads decide what happens from year to year. The DCI director just sits on a throne, much like King Charles as England is run by Parliament and a PM. So is it really a big deal who the director is?

 

Get back to entertaining the audience/fans!

you do realize they get paid only when they do work. it's not like everyone is on tour the entire season or hits every camp right?

[IllianaLancerContra]

Just now, Jeff Ream said:

you do realize they get paid only when they do work. it's not like everyone is on tour the entire season or hits every camp right?

Thank you for making my earlier point 

[TOC]

4 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

it is and isn't. too many people think housing is still free. it's not. and schools are charging more and more

The school janitors and security officers must have great unions as well.

[MikeD]

55 minutes ago, TOC said:

The school janitors and security officers must have great unions as well.

In NJ if there are people in a school there has to be a black seal (furnace) certified custodian on site. 

[cixelsyd]

2 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

edit to back on topic.   The next DCI ED needs to find a way to bring costs down.  The problem is that there are advocacy groups for large staffs/entourage, props, electronics, national vs local memberships, long tour, etc.  To cut costs, some or all will be impacted.   The ED needs to have ability, authority and backbone to make and execute hard decisions. 

Ultimately, the DCI ED does what his bosses think his job should be.  So far, his bosses have been member corps directors - in other words, the richest corps.  Thus, the direction the DCI ED receives has always been overwhelmingly slanted toward adding expense to the activity, and simply executing strategies to make these additions a rich-get-richer situation for DCI and their top corps by negotiating special deals (they call these "corporate partnerships" or "tour partnerships").

For a DCI ED to focus on controlling activity costs, we need different bosses.  And for that, not only would the composition of the governing BOD have to change to include smaller and less affluent corps... the mission and bylaws backing it up would have to change to maintain that focus.

[LabMaster]

4 hours ago, Keith Hall said:

Nowadays it is "thee" thing to use words like diversity. Why is drum corps more expensive today? Look at the payroll for the staff! How many consultants does a corps need? How many trumpet techs or snare techs does a corps need? That's the first thing to look at from a money point of view. Why is it necessary to clutter the field with props? Is it because the drill designers are not as good as a Steve Brubaker or George Zingali? Oh darn I did what others did......change the subject of the OP.

 

The next director? Does the Director of DCI really direct? It seems that the corps directors and caption heads decide what happens from year to year. The DCI director just sits on a throne, much like King Charles as England is run by Parliament and a PM. So is it really a big deal who the director is?

 

Get back to entertaining the audience/fans!

Well the thread is about the Director.  Your entertainment concern could go to a different thread.  But your point is understood.  Regarding the throne sitter comment does do a disservice to Dan Acheson.  So you may want to read back on some of his throne sitting work.  Could he do more?  Sure if corps directors and the BOD allowed it.  Much of the staff payroll you assume is costly may not be quite costly when you consider what staff members are actually on the payroll.  Techs aren’t making much.  Props are not necessarily the big expense you might think they are.  Housing, fuel, food are the big money eaters.