Recruiting new members

[bologna]

First you need to determine what age's you are going to allow.If its a true all age corps try hitting some of the high schools.See if the band directors will let you come in and throw a sales pitch and hand out some fliers.

Start going to DCI shows in your area and handing out fliers.Having a hospitality booth or information booth at these events stirs up a lot of interest.

Hand out fliers at the Regal Cinema events.There is your target audience right there.

High School marching band contest might yield some adults in the audience.We at MCL are just now starting to do that.

Promoting on DCP has sure been a good thing for our corps.get as many of your embers active on the boards pitching for your corps as you can.

best of luck to you and see you at DCA finals.

This is very true. Just remember when your are talking Drum corps it is a sales pitch. Be VERY realistic in your goals and always be positive. Don't sell yuor project short. We at the White Sabers are having a great off season with recruiting numbers doing just that. Not to brag but we will be twice the size and then some at our first corps camp (we are located just 40 miles from rochester and the empire statesmen and cru).We sell our corps on FUN and EXCITMENT regadles of scores and what other corps do. Good luck in the future.

BILL ONEY Staff Coordinator Drum Instructor White Sabers

[bologna]

We are just starting a new all age senior corps in Portland, Oregon. I’m wondering what other corps, have done to recruit new membership. We have about eleven members, so far and would love to be huge. We have a great facility to rehearse, and I know that there are more people in our area that would love to be involved. I would love to hear some of your success stories or good ideas on recruiting. We need to roll up our sleeves and get busy, but we could use some good ideas.

Almost forgot ask Dave Keck he is the master at this. Everyone else is just an amatuer

Bill oney

[rwrice]

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Edited October 23, 2005 by rwrice

[MCL_Contra]

Building a solid foundation of players as well as good technique also helps. Nothing recruits better than good solid performances. They don't have to be world championship caliber just memorable in a good way. Let people see that you have potential and not a lack of it.

Our first season we were pretty rough around the edges. We only had about 21 members but people who saw us remembered us as the little corps with a big sound. We more than doubled our size last season and became a little more refined. And I think more people know who we are now and our membership will probably grow again (I hope).

I believe we were very lucky to get the people we got to start with but I believe ANY new corps can do the same thing if they are willing to put forth the effort.

Good luck in your endeavor and hope to see you soon on the field.

Edited October 23, 2005 by MCL_Contra

[krazyivan]

i know personaly with monvalley express we go to as many of the local highschool band competetitons as we can set up a booth and talk to whole ever will look our way. normaly people just go "oo thats neat", "i saw that on TV once", "hey what band is on that video", "is there where they sale the programs for the show?" but we also get the people who know what drum corp is and sometimes they just talk to us for a while but don't want to join. your gonna get that.

but we also have our members drag their friends into it. and they bring friends. and sale the fact that it is alot of fun and what you are working for.

and in some cases like mine "draft". thats how i ended up with monvalley. my band director in highschool was also the brass instructor there. and he wanted to start an indoor drum line and i always wanted to play drum so i signed up. after learning he had too many people he asked a coupple of drummers to come to the first practice. and he looked at me 3 other brass players that signed up for the drum line and 2 woodwinds who also signed up and long with a coupple of brass players and said "you will be here on this day." and then looked at me and a friend of mine and went"you two live in the town we are practicing in. you will be there. or i will come to your houses and drag you oit." and i've been there ever sence and love it. i along with another corp member i was friends with also used that on a friend of ours. we looked at him on the bus ride home the one day and went "hey you want to do drum corps don't you?" and went looked at us and went "what is that?" so we told him and he said no. and we went "we'll show up at your house." he had never played a instrument and that saturday he showed up learned bariton. switched to mallets during the marching band seaosn because he had to miss part of camp. and went to mallet for corp then tried out for and made cap reg's pit. and he is darn good with mallets.(monvalley was made up mostly of kids from my highschool for a while so we were all friends and knew each other and the people we didn't know who were there for other school we kind of got them to come into our group and be part of us)

so just go out grab your friends who can play and have them grab their friends that can play. go to local band shows and set up booths(call band directors and people you know in the band community first. set up relations with them) send out staff members to call to see if they can help teach local bands or atlest help out for a coupple practices, or talk to the older members depending on what age range you are going for. hold dances and have requitment posts out there. show pictures of your group(if you have them) at recruitment oppertunites. hand our fliers with information about yourself and have your goals on it.

but most of all just get out there and talk to people.

Edited October 23, 2005 by krazyivan

[Shadow_7]

On the opposite side of recruiting is retention. If the corps goes out of their way to make the season exceedingly frustrating, or if it's more apt to bash internally than have a social event, you're not likely to retain the members you do get. Basically be honest, be friendly, at least look like you have a clue about what you're doing.

My biggest peeve is being a part of a corps, where you can ask a question, which almost demands an answer. And then either get no answer, or an answer saying that the information is coming in less than a week. And consequently ask the same question over and over again, week after week after week. With roughly the same responses. Meanwhile 24 hours before the gig, they divulge the top-secret information of what, when, and where the gig is, while omitting the uniform and meeting time and place. At which point you can't make it because of scheduling conflicts, and the logistics of getting to and from said gig on such short notice. Even though you asked for clarification several months before hand. And every week between then and now. That's no way to retain your membership.

As far as recruitment, having a booth at band events. Or dci events, if you happen to live in an area that has dci events. Can help. Actually having a good corps helps. And getting the corps out and performing at local events helps. It's fine to have a corps and only do DCA, but if you never get seen in the home town, you're not likely to grow membership. And if it's not fun, it's not likely to last.

Some people just want a place to play. If you can find a way to accommodate them as well as having a field corps, you can go a long way. The playing factor also applies to the field corps, there's more to corps than just drill. If drill takes 95% of your rehearsal time, you need to either allocate more rehearsal time, or do less drill. IMHO

[Donny Drum Corps]

Hiring staff that can bring students is also helpful. Local band directors that have interest could bring kids with them.

Getting the corps staff involved with local band marching programs (even as volunteers), gets people knowing who you are. Empire is my example here. Many of our Championships in the 90's were because we had some staff teaching local bands...and then we had the experienced older members teaching these kids how to be great. This also helped these bands be great as well. Then the band director is OK with thew idea that they are going to corps.

Set up a booth at local band shows. Man the booth with younger people rather than older people. Attractive people attract people to your booth...$1 to the Bushwackers at Port Chester.

The winter show exposure at color guard venues and standstill performances. My mentor in this regard was Vince Bruni. We did "winter shows" starting in January that were over an hour long and features every segment of the corps in an entertaining "clinic" of sorts. We usually would pick up potential members at these shows.

And as Jeff said...dont tell them "we are going to win"...instead you can say "we are going to try to compete to win", or "we expect the corps to be good this year". "We have high expectations"...etc.

Have opportunites available for younger members to participate in instead of watching the older members drink. If there is a all age corps problem, this is it! Cru used to have 2 buses...one for the kids, and one for the adults. But even then after the show, an opportunity to go to a pizza hut, etc. with the kids is keeping them out of the adult situation.

Dont lie to parents. Tell them that it is an all age organization. Tell them the adults will have their adult beverages, but we have alternatives for the kids to NOT be involved with it. $1 to Dick Hoppe.

Donny