A follow up message from CA&E's Board Chairperson

[dbc03]

7 minutes ago, musicteacher said:

DBC's referring to DCI as "summer marching band" is certainly pejorative and, at least to this reader, offensive.

lol it's not intended to be pejorative, just a statement of fact, especially when speculating about a DCI replacement.

[GUARDLING]

24 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:

At least musicians have the possibility of college programs FWIW. Colorguard is a #### cliff.

Depends on what one has to offer and if willing.to diversify. Are there as many opportunities that musicians have? probably not, but if one doesn't want to be a band director things become limited also.

Edited October 16, 2023 by GUARDLING

[AlexL]

11 minutes ago, musicteacher said:

DBC's referring to DCI as "summer marching band" is certainly pejorative and, at least to this reader, offensive.

In terms of the product being delivered to an audience? It is much more than that.

In terms of the product being sold to a prospective member? That's at least 70% of what it is. 

[scheherazadesghost]

9 minutes ago, GUARDLING said:

Depends on what one has to offer and willing.to diversify. Are there as many opportunities that a musicians have, probably not, but if one doesn't want to be a band director things become limited also.

I suppose I was meaning that musicians don't have to diversify to the same degree. I've spent the last twenty years diversifying my colorguard skill set into a viable, sustainable career.

Did the guard instructor thing til 2010 and even that path doesn't translate to career opportunities in the same way as it does for musicians. Not even close. You can be a guard instructor without going to college, and many, at least back when I marched chose DCI/WGI over other careers and education. Just to fall off the cliff when they realized they couldn't make a sustainable living. Hell, I got two degrees in a related field and it was still tough.  And then, again, the skill of teaching colorguard, while valuable in and of itself for passing along the legacy, doesn't mean much to employers outside of the marching world. Additionally, those colorguard jobs are few and far between. So rare, it's not even worth hedging one's future career on.

Sorry to hijack. Will start another post or take to DMs if this continues.

Edited October 16, 2023 by scheherazadesghost
typo

[TOC]

4 hours ago, KVG_DC said:

The Blue Devils?  [dons my nomex suit]

Looking for an organization, but within the Indy 500 group, BD can have the number one position on the starting grid.  For now.

[JimF-LowBari]

2 hours ago, Chris RL FHNSAB said:

Thanks Jeff.  Your information is incorrect.  Our transportation challenges were with a bad bus company, which we chose to replace and reallocate those funds for a new one at championship week.  This decision had nothing to do with anyone leaving, in fact Denise spearheaded the removal of the bus company and replacement.  

Rumors are just that. Rumors.  If you have questions, ask us/me.  We will continue to be as transparent as we can, knowing that we speak as one BOD.  Thanks for the compliment.

So you had to hire a different bus company just for DCI Week? And with little time to compare prices?

Hate to think how much that added to expenses. Especially if more than one crew of drivers was needed due to number of hours they are allowed to drive per 24 hours

[Boss Anova]

1 hour ago, dbc03 said:

I don't think the desire for summer marching band is strong enough that something else will necessarily fill the niche if DCI dies. We're talking about an activity with what, 5000 kids currently? A good portion of those are college students making tremendous sacrifices to do this particular version of competitive summer marching band. If the experience is lessened there will be even less demand.

It's not like sports where you have the chance of going pro or getting a scholarship. 

I’m not calling for the experience to “ be lessened “however . It can evolve in a more sensible and cost effective manner however in my view . I envision that eventually fuel costs will eventually return to more the historic norms and charitable giving improves  the further away we get from the pandemic years , and the current sluggish economy begins its uptick and inflation comes down to the historic norms . 
    WGI has far more units and marchers now than does DCI and DCA combined . That model works for lots of marchers that do not consider that a “lessened experience “. They obviously consider it a good value for the money . It’s growth of both units and numbers of marchers  from its inception in the 1970’s confirms this ..
  DCI will make the adjustments it needs to make to continue to be viable for those that choose to partake of their offerings in the summers , imo . DCI survived the 1-3 year of shutterings . If they can survive that financially, I see no reason they can’t survive in the coming years assuming the Nation’s economic health recovers as most economists believe it will .

Edited October 17, 2023 by Boss Anova

[KVG_DC]

1 hour ago, TOC said:

Looking for an organization, but within the Indy 500 group, BD can have the number one position on the starting grid.  For now.

Is BDE still a thing?  Would that count?   There was a European circuit for age hike too?  Are they still around?

[dbc03]

32 minutes ago, Boss Anova said:

I’m not calling for the experience to “ be lessened “however . It can evolve in a more sensible and cost effective manner however in my view . I envision that eventually fuel costs will eventually return to more the historic norms and charitable giving improves  the further away we get from the pandemic years , and the current sluggish economy begins its uptick and inflation comes down to the historic norms . 
    WGI has far more units and marchers now than does DCI and DCA combined . That model works for lots of marchers that do not consider that a “lessened experience “. They obviously consider it a good value for the money . It’s growth of both units and numbers of marchers  from its inception in the 1970’s confirms this ..
  DCI will make the adjustments it needs to make to continue to be viable for those that choose to partake of their offerings in the summers , imo . DCI survived the 1-3 year of shutterings . If they can survive that financially, I see no reason they can’t survive in the coming years assuming the Nation’s economic health recovers as most economists believe it will .

Gas prices aren't out of line with historic norms when you account for inflation, and while inflation was high in 2022, the current rate is much more normal than the previous decade of historic low inflation (the previous decade was around 1.88% on average while 1960-2021 averages at 3.69%, the past 12 months have been around 3.7%).

 

Adjusted for inflation gas prices are lower than they were from DCI's inception until 2003, and even if inflation does drop closer to the previous decade there's been only 1 year in the past 60 years with negative inflation, so price increases might slow down but they aren't likely to reverse in a meaningful way.

The economic reality is that corps are going to have to find a way to generate more revenue to continue providing the same service (or even a reduced service). You can only cut so much but there is no upper limit on how much revenue you can generate. That's not to say generating additional revenue is easy, it's going to be incredibly hard and without extremely good leadership a lot of corps won't make it another 10 years. In my opinion that's the biggest challenge for the new DCI CEO in the upcoming years, finding a way to stop the bleeding of corps and building a model to sustain them into the future and hopefully expand the number of corps.

[Boss Anova]

3 minutes ago, dbc03 said:

Gas prices aren't out of line with historic norms when you account for inflation, and while inflation was high in 2022, the current rate is much more normal than the previous decade of historic low inflation (the previous decade was around 1.88% on average while 1960-2021 averages at 3.69%, the past 12 months have been around 3.7%).

 

Adjusted for inflation gas prices are lower than they were from DCI's inception until 2003, and even if inflation does drop closer to the previous decade there's been only 1 year in the past 60 years with negative inflation, so price increases might slow down but they aren't likely to reverse in a meaningful way.

The economic reality is that corps are going to have to find a way to generate more revenue to continue providing the same service (or even a reduced service). You can only cut so much but there is no upper limit on how much revenue you can generate. That's not to say generating additional revenue is easy, it's going to be incredibly hard and without extremely good leadership a lot of corps won't make it another 10 years. In my opinion that's the biggest challenge for the new DCI CEO in the upcoming years, finding a way to stop the bleeding of corps and building a model to sustain them into the future and hopefully expand the number of corps.

 Inflation effects everything purchased , including fuel . Corps Directors will  tell you their anticipated fuel costs this season we’re higher than anticipated and ate up a bigger percentage of their budgets than in previous seasons .

I looked at the numbers of DCI  corps pre pandemic and today’s post pandemic   numbers . Assuming SCV returns for 2024, DCI will be down 2 Corps from the pre pandemic year of 2019.  This means that more than 90% of the DCI Corps made it thru the pandemic and its shuttering of seasons . Given this remarkable resiliency , I see no reason to wring our hands with domesday scenarios  that in “ 10 years a lot of Corps won’t make it “. Barring a WW3 or another shock to our economic and business and educational system , I see no reason that DCI won’t be viable in 10 years . We keep hearing  that”  change is inevitable “and that “ DCi will continue to evolve “. Well … yes it will , imo . Off and on the field .