lucas97 Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 (edited) Although the Div II/III corps should have more of a say in how things are done, they do have more say than some people think. Take rule changes for instance. Did you know that rules which are proposed to the DCI BOD won't even see the light of day unless they are approved by the Instructors Caucus? Did you also know that there are many Div II/III corps (every unit that competes at one of the previous year's DCI Division II/III focus shows or the DCI Championships) who get a vote in these caucuses? They actually outnumber the 17 or 18 Div I corps who are eligible. Voting: Each corps who competed in the previous summer's DCI tour present at the Instructors College will have one vote per caption in the caucus meetings. At the final meeting of the college on Sunday, a vote will be taken of each Div. I corps and Div. II/III finalist present to determine if the proposal shall be passed on to the Board of Directors. A simple majority vote of qualified voters at the college will pass the proposal on a vote of the Board of Directors. Did you also ALSO know that if a rule change proposal fails in the caucuses, it cannot be re-introduced for another two years? Here's the most interesting part...many Div II/III corps don't even send any representatives to these meetings! Someone from Drum Corps World took a straw poll of Div II/III leadership right around the time the amplification rule was passed. There were 36 active Div II/III units who had such voting rights when this rule was proposed, and there was a considerable amount of anti-amps votes there which (if they actually attended the caucuses and voted) would have stopped that particular proposal from even getting to the BOD. Just some food for thought... Edited April 14, 2004 by lucas97 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawker Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 Excellent points, Lucas. Thanks for the insight as always! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BariBrian Posted April 15, 2004 Author Share Posted April 15, 2004 Yes I agree,,, very insightful and very intelligent, but again his argument with all the quoted material from "Rules Caucuses" and governing bodies and so on, only proves my ORIGINAL POINT!!! Perhaps, I should have prefaced my poll and question by saying this question is really for those who marched before the 90's, but that would have eliminated many valuable opinions including your own. All I was trying to lead into is (And so far the Democratic poll is backing me up on this one) DCI , as an organization has taken the path of, lets be more professional, lets be more symphony-like, lets pass rules that will cause corps. to change equipment year after year. This "professional thinking for the good of the activity has lead to countless, well established drum and bugle corps. to vanish. It is possible that my verbal sparring partner "Lukas" did not march in the 60's and 70's as I did, but if he did, I'm sure he remembers that in a pre-DCI era, there were hundreds more drum corps. around and thousands of young adults interested in marching with a drum and bugle corps. Of course that was before drum and bugle corps. decided that there is big money to be made by being #1. They then adopted more stringent screening of members and started a ritual called "auditions" if you wanted to be a member. This move, cast aside the everyday youth who had no musical experience, but wanted to learn. Drum and Bugle corps. then (even the very top corps.) were more interested in a "Learning experience". Todays Corps, while superior in musicianship, do not offer a new world of learning for those people. You have to know music, before you get in the door. Thats why they hold auditions! Once again, I'm not putting down todays drum and trumpet corps. AT ALL ! At the same time, it has become a big business, because we have let the "big business types" convince us that "nothing is changing" and "It's just the natural progression of drum and bugle corps." The equipment folks have realized that they can also make money by becoming "partners" with DCI and asking for "Top Corps" to endorse their products. This makes it even more important to ignore the uneducated in order to become a "Top Corps". I'm sure at the very least are offered hefty discounts on purchased equipment. I have said enough. Please read over the ORIGINAL poll question and see which one of us makes their point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BorisTS Posted April 15, 2004 Share Posted April 15, 2004 Of course that was before drum and bugle corps. decided that there is big money to be made by being #1. They then adopted more stringent screening of members and started a ritual called "auditions" if you wanted to be a member. Question: Are you saying that the number of corps declined because they began holding auditions, thus eliminating many potential corps members overall? Or, since corps began folding, the potential corps members had fewer corps to join, so corps had to begin cutting people as the number of auditionees per corps increased? I'd always figured it was more the second way, but I wasn't really around corps back in the 60s and 70s. When you have 200+ kids try out for 135 spots, auditions seem the fairest way to begin selecting members. Members are still taught, just not from scratch in the larger corps. (I learned a lot from those guys). Also, a lot of the kids that do get cut from one corps just don't bother to go elsewhere and fill out the ranks of another-- that could help some corps a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
droclot Posted April 15, 2004 Share Posted April 15, 2004 i may be dumb or something but i am still not sure what the poll question is... could you clarify so i know which way to vote? thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted April 15, 2004 Share Posted April 15, 2004 Quite frankly, if you think that today's corps don't take themselves as seriously as drum corps as they used to, or have respect for their activity...then you are sadly mistaken. As for corps folding, that's a result of their own financial decisions. DCI does not force any corps to make a decision regarding instrumentation or buses or anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BariBrian Posted April 15, 2004 Author Share Posted April 15, 2004 (edited) Of course that was before drum and bugle corps. decided that there is big money to be made by being #1. They then adopted more stringent screening of members and started a ritual called "auditions" if you wanted to be a member. Question: Are you saying that the number of corps declined because they began holding auditions, thus eliminating many potential corps members overall? Or, since corps began folding, the potential corps members had fewer corps to join, so corps had to begin cutting people as the number of auditionees per corps increased? I'd always figured it was more the second way, but I wasn't really around corps back in the 60s and 70s. When you have 200+ kids try out for 135 spots, auditions seem the fairest way to begin selecting members. Members are still taught, just not from scratch in the larger corps. (I learned a lot from those guys). Also, a lot of the kids that do get cut from one corps just don't bother to go elsewhere and fill out the ranks of another-- that could help some corps a lot. No that is not what I was saying at all. the number of drum corps. for the most part, declined due to the ever increasing cost of being competitive. Therefore with fewer corps and a large number of interested prospects the larger corps. could afford to pick and choose. The folks that were turned away had no place to go. If DCI were less concerned with refinement of its own image and more concerned in working with corps that are struggling economicly and competitivly, there would be more corps. and compititions. It is impossible for many corps. to stay afloat if they have to continue to upgrade their equipment everyother year for instance. This was I thought a very simple question but I guess it's not for some because they were not Marching in the 60's and 70's. So for those of you that don't get it because you are new to drum corps HISTORY, I appologize. I come from a town that had 7 competitive corps. in it at the same time and I watched as one by one they vanished do to rule changes that required this or that, that made economicly impossible to stay in the game and I figured there must be some folks out there that felt the same. I thought this was the historical forum but not that historical I guess. Edited April 15, 2004 by BariBrian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawker Posted April 15, 2004 Share Posted April 15, 2004 (edited) DCi is not all of drum corps. It represents those who choose to associate themsleves with it. If you don't care for it....and there's been times that I think all of us haven't in some way, shape or form...then start your own corps. Nothing big, nothing fancy....make it local, or church based. Let the kids come in and learn how to play...march in a few parades. Complaining about big, bad DCI on message board does nothing for the activity. Want to change things? See the return of what made corps great to you when you marched? Then, critics be ######, DO IT. DCI be ######. Edited April 15, 2004 by bawker2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawker Posted April 15, 2004 Share Posted April 15, 2004 (edited) Double posted. Oops. :P Edited April 15, 2004 by bawker2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BariBrian Posted April 15, 2004 Author Share Posted April 15, 2004 Quite frankly, if you think that today's corps don't take themselves as seriously as drum corps as they used to, or have respect for their activity...then you are sadly mistaken. As for corps folding, that's a result of their own financial decisions. DCI does not force any corps to make a decision regarding instrumentation or buses or anything else. Did you even read the question? It has nothing NOTHING to do with todays drum corps.!!!!!!!!!! Everthing to do with DCI as an Organization. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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