cixelsyd Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 5 hours ago, Old Guy said: Now, I hope everyone is planning a lot of free space on budget because once your gone on tour, you have limited control over bad news. From bus company who’s saying that you modified the schedule and now have an hour to give an extra few thousand in cash to the driver, to a truck that break down with the pieces coming next month for repair, to a freezer that caught fire, losing both the freezer and the food for the following week, housing unavailable few hours before pulling in, needing to be replace by a motel, plume getting soaked by a subit rain, etc. I see both sides here. If a corps has a proper budget, they will have certain amounts set aside for contingencies and therefore should have at least a sneaking suspicion which way the final tally will break based on how many things went wrong on tour. But depending on how your corps makes decisions, you may not know the difference between bad and full-stop bad until the full BOD has seen the final tally. Either way, I know I keep hearing about how DCI drum corps have aspired to run like businesses. And I also keep hearing that over 90% of small businesses fail. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Guy Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, cixelsyd said: I see both sides here. If a corps has a proper budget, they will have certain amounts set aside for contingencies and therefore should have at least a sneaking suspicion which way the final tally will break based on how many things went wrong on tour. But depending on how your corps makes decisions, you may not know the difference between bad and full-stop bad until the full BOD has seen the final tally. Either way, I know I keep hearing about how DCI drum corps have aspired to run like businesses. And I also keep hearing that over 90% of small businesses fail. You run like a business but it is a very unpredictable one. You have to plan for the worst and be very good at managing things. In my book, you run a transportation company, a school, a summer camp, a travel agency, a theater company, a fundraising company, an event organizer, a restaurant, a gym, etc. All at once while in normal, you only run one business at a time. In real life, I don’t know many people who 1) would do it. 2) Have the skills to do it. When I looj around me, there is a lot of people who enjoy lots of success in life/work. But they would fail at drum corps. Edited October 18, 2023 by Old Guy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllianaLancerContra Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 29 minutes ago, Old Guy said: You run like a business but it is a very unpredictable one. You have to plan for the worst and be very good at managing things. In my book, you run a transportation company, a school, a summer camp, a travel agency, a theater company, a fundraising company, an event organizer, a restaurant, a gym, etc. All at once while in normal, you only run one business at a time. In real life, I don’t know many people who 1) would do it. 2) Have the skills to do it. When I looj around me, there is a lot of people who enjoy lots of success in life/work. But they would fail at drum corps. And the intersecting center of the Venn diagram of these two skills is small indeed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenHut Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 13 hours ago, Jurassic Lancer said: C’mon … you know what bills are going to hit with a pretty good semblance of accuracy. The board , CEO and CFO knew what was coming with a reasonable degree of accuracy. If they didn’t … that is simply incompetence. Exactly. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 3 hours ago, Old Guy said: You run like a business but it is a very unpredictable one. You have to plan for the worst and be very good at managing things. In my book, you run a transportation company, a school, a summer camp, a travel agency, a theater company, a fundraising company, an event organizer, a restaurant, a gym, etc. All at once while in normal, you only run one business at a time. In real life, I don’t know many people who 1) would do it. 2) Have the skills to do it. When I looj around me, there is a lot of people who enjoy lots of success in life/work. But they would fail at drum corps. That is another looming, growing issue - nearly no one wants to run a corps. Cadets now must search for one of those few such people. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 On 10/14/2023 at 9:52 AM, ContraFart said: So SOA performs by themselves all summer? Troopers too? You can't have a regional model with only one corps in a region. Well, those corps would start in their host region where they're going to perform with their cohorts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ContraFart Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 2 minutes ago, jjeffeory said: Well, those corps would start in their host region where they're going to perform with their cohorts. What cohorts? Look at the southeast. It's about 1250 miles between Crossmens location and Crowns location. What distance are you really saving? Mountain West region, it's 1100 miles between Cascades and Troopers. Bottom line even before we ask the question of who is going to host the shows, the corps are simply not concentrated enough to create any meaningful savings with a regional model. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wynalazca Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 I think the only way DCI survives in general is if they are somehow able to get artistic grants from the government. Outside of that, capitalism rules our country and fake inflation to increase profit margins of corporations will kill anything good that exists. As a former member of both the Glassmen and Cadets, I am sad. DCI was my life through highschool and college. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hill Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 I have read every word of this thread, because of its relevance to the entire industry of the marching/pageantry arts. Am hoping, as is often mentioned, "the folks in charge" read these forums, because there is so much to be gleaned here. Something of an outline for a master's level business course. So much good thinking. But I was stopped cold in my reading with this: "When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority." It is impossible for an individual, even a collective, to juggle "everything," all the time. There need to be professionals in multiple roles. I am going to make a point here, and I am not trying to insinuate that folks don't realize all of this. However ... Whereas the professionals to lead, design, and train the performers for the show on the field are as diverse as is needed to get the job done; administratively, that is rarely the case. It seems. So many hats, so few heads on which to put them. Prioritization is key, but so is a diverse administrative staff, each of whom is a professional in their field. I come to all of this from the fund-raising/marketing position. (Forty year career) Before I get to my point, I want to thank and assure good alumni that their support, while absolutely vital to any organization, simply is unable to "save" an organization. I know; I had to ask -- twice -- for alumni support when the bottom had fallen out. It was critical to the recovery, but was simply one arm of necessary fundraising. Fundraising at its very best is also not going to totally "save" an organization, either. And except for rare pockets of very best fundraising practices, the way most pageantry organizations approach it is transactional. It needs to be aspirational; both from the organization and from the donors. People who believe in drum corps/pageantry connecting with donors who also believe in drum corps/pageantry. I have tried. Board presentations, staff trainings, conversations, roadmaps, schedules, best practices to pageantry organizations both national and local; huge and small; highly competitive and emerging. Heads nod, everyone smiles in appreciation and understanding. But when it comes to two things that are crucial: -- one-on-one, in person, relationship building; and -- understanding that fundraising at its best is never a quick fix, everyone walks away, or as someone said to me: "It is what it is." Seems to me, what fundraising "is" right now in drum corps, indeed all of pageantry, is a priority that has largely been left to emailing and the last minute. Yeah, you can have money come in that way, but what good fundraising can do, over time, is build a base of support that lasts. Fundraising CAN BE one leg of several successful revenue streams; and one that does not interfere with any other. If the personnel, priority, and time are given its development. Again, to the general consensus opinion here: non-profit leadership is tough, but the rewards far outweigh it all. Especially in drum corps and the marching pageantry arts. Yeah, prioritization is crucial right now. Including building a solid fundraising base from which to maintain, grow, and expand. DREAM BIG! 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenHut Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 2 hours ago, cixelsyd said: That is another looming, growing issue - nearly no one wants to run a corps. Cadets now must search for one of those few such people. Most people who are qualified to run a drum corps would take a significant pay cut to do so. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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