Capital Sound

[vaguardguy]

I think he means that the MDBCA board may have been onto something when it dropped Cap Sound. I'm not so sure about that however. Cap Sound lost most of its members after the 2003 season when it looked like they would not be around anymore. I fully believe that if the corps would have been active in November or December (instead of February) that membership would have been up in 2004, which would have placed them at nearly full capicity.

However, from what I understand Cap Sound does all of there recruitment now by Word of Mouth. Small corps cannot survive using this technique. Keith Gee, the original director of CS, would go out to a lot of schools in the madison area and around the state to recruit. I just don't think that happens anymore.

I'm glad to hear cap sound is going to be fine, but if they want to be fine for years to come they will need to revisit some of there recruitment techniques. THey no longer can simply get members because they are part of the Madison Organization or because they are the biggest "small" corps in the area.....especially with the return of the Americanos.

First off, I think Gantang is a troll, and probably not worth the effort of giving a response. He posted this on a thread about CapSound's first camp. He was being hyper-critical and looking for a fight, evoking the old Scott Stewart mantra about not caing about placements and applying it to the new, non-MDBCA CapSound. I don't know what his point was other than to display his own stunning ignorance and to sabotage and hijack the efforts of a corps trying to survive after being dumped by its parent organisation.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Madison's organisation cut the CapSound program for financial reasons, not philosophical? This was all around the same time Madison bought new horns, new buses, new uniforms, new cook truck, etc., so it was fairly controversial at the time. Rather than folding the corps, parents and volunteers got together to reorganise the corps outside the MDBCA?

I'm just glad that rather than seeing yet ANOTHER II/III corps folding, they chose to hit the field with what they had. It is hard to recruit in DivIII, and no, word of mouth alone absolutely won't cut it. An active recruiting program of having staff visit area high schools, setting up booths at local marching band shows, and an attractive, professional web presence are just as important.

CapSound is a great drum corps, and I can't wait to see what kind of production they'll put on for the home crowd in Madison this year.

[Gantang]

First off, I think Gantang is a troll, and probably not worth the effort of giving a response. He posted this on a thread about CapSound's first camp. He was being hyper-critical and looking for a fight, evoking the old Scott Stewart mantra about not caing about placements and applying it to the new, non-MDBCA CapSound. I don't know what his point was other than to display his own stunning ignorance and to sabotage and hijack the efforts of a corps trying to survive after being dumped by its parent organisation.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Madison's organisation cut the CapSound program for financial reasons, not philosophical? This was all around the same time Madison bought new horns, new buses, new uniforms, new cook truck, etc., so it was fairly controversial at the time.

I'm just glad that rather than seeing yet ANOTHER II/III corps folding, they chose to hit the field with what they had. It is hard to recruit in DivIII, and no, word of mouth alone absolutely won't cut it. An active recruiting program of having staff visit area high schools, setting up booths at local marching band shows, and an attractive, professional web presence are just as important.

CapSound is a great drum corps, and I can't wait to see what kind of production they'll put on for the home crowd in Madison this year.

Insult if you must, but you are mistaken. The core group from the MDBCA days and now are the same. That corps, including the member who has posted in this thread was adamant that competitive placement was unimportant. However, the quote you pulled from an earlier thread was in response to a member taking placement. That is in stark contrast to the mantra that Capital Sound repeated for years. My question was valid.

You misused the word ignorance, ...idiocy, or obstinacy would have worked with your thought, but not ignorance...

As far as I know, Madison did not buy anything new. They did make purchases that made the corps travel better in an effort to compete at a higher level,but I saw the equipment they had in 2003 and it was ratty at best. Do you have intimate knowledge of the contracts Madison had for horns, drums, and uniforms? I don't so I guess I am ignorant to whther they paid for the items or got them for free.

The decision to not field Capital Sound was discussed at length when it was happening, and it was financial. One must credit a Board that is able to make tough decisions. There are very few cadet corps left because they can be a financial drain on the host organization. Kill the host and everything living off of it dies as well.

Edited December 31, 2005 by Gantang

[sleggs]

I'm just happy that Capitol Sound is still around, I marched mello 1999-2000, and it was one of the greatest times I had. I just hope that they can grow from this and become better in 2006. I am super excited to see them since the last time I saw them was in like 2003. Go Cap Sound I rooting for you. Oh, and if you march cap sound, does Josh the cymbal play still march there?

[audiodb]

As far as I know, Madison did not buy anything new. They did make purchases that made the corps travel better in an effort to compete at a higher level,but I saw the equipment they had in 2003 and it was ratty at best.

Nice try.

Madison bought a whole new fleet (buses, equipment truck and cook vehicle) for the 2003 season, and new uniforms. They acquired a new set of horns for 2004, and again for 2005. My condolences for the "ratty" horns they had to use in '03 - even cutting Capital Sound didn't free up enough capital (excuse the pun) to re-equip every aspect of the corps all in one year.

[Hipposduck]

Great News CS. Congratulations on your expected increase in membership. Your predictiohns puts you in the "choose your division" category. Do you think CS will move up to division 2? No doubt they will in the near future.

[CS2003]

Hey everyone. I never meant to start any controversy! Just want to make a few quick points, but not trying to fuel this in any way. I'm trying to bring it back to positive and clear a few things up.

I said in my original post that we were going to be doing school visits while the college students were off and high schools weren't. We all wish this could have been done sooner, but there are obviously less people available to recruit when our already small staff and membership are mostly in school and the board is working on other things, such as creating fundraisers/looking into new buses, etc. School visits have always happened. Also, just because I recruit up here doesn't mean it's only word of mouth. I have already visited 3 schools and given flyers to another couple band directors that I know. We had a booth at WSMA state marching competitions. The last few years people have even set up booths at show choir competitions (though I'm not sure if they are again) and WGI competitions.

We do find that the best way to recruit members for such a small corps, is to share personal memories with friends and convince them to give it a shot. Showing a class of 50-100 high schoolers a video of a very small corps, promising that it will be even better if they join, and telling them our dues, doesn't exactly always do the trick. Person to person, member to friend, is where we've generally gotten some quality members; those who are there to be a part of our corps for positive reasons. A lot of places use the phrase "quality not quantity" and what stinks is that we desperately need both in division III. Just know that CS always does their best to find both and doesn't deserve to be put down for it.

Our website right now is plain and boring. We can all agree on that. This is because we are looking into switching servers to get a new fancy site (most likely more like Blue Stars with online membership apps/sponser forms/pay pal/etc.). Be patient. I know it's hard. I can't wait for a new site either...

I don't know what getting let go from the MDBCA has anything to do with our recruiting anyhow. As long as I've marched we always did everything very seperate from them. We had different fundraising and recruiting techniques. Honestly, our recruiting techniques have only gotten stronger. It's just much harder to convince people to march in a Div. III corps.

And.....We were never a cadet corps. Cap Sound was built to be a part-time corps able to offer time to spend with family and friends, to have or continue jobs, and still get full touring experiences. It was meant to have it's own age-outs, it's age range is 14-21 not any lower, and though a few past members would move to scouts each year, just as many would march another Div. I corps. How many cadet corps have 11-12 age-outs in a year?If it were a cadet corps, I doubt multiple people wouldn't spend 8-9 years and age out with us. Our purpose was not to breed good Scouts. Just a little thing I don't like to be called...

On the philosophy portion of this pointless debate. The member who posted is ONE member. You can't judge a corps by one member, right? Not to mention posts on forums are misinterpreted SO often that you can barely even analyze his words that closely. Hoping to move up in placement is good for our recruiting and money from DCI and getting better show venues. We very much still stand for entertaining the crowd and creating positive marching experiences for all of our members. I'm pretty sure he could have just thrown it out there knowing that placement tends to be one of the only things people on these forums can relate to. That doesn't mean he prioritizes it or the rest of our corps does for that matter.

I'm not sure if replying to this is good or bad, but I'm bored at my parent's house so...anything to get away, right? If you have suggestions for recruiting that we may not have tried just PM me and I'll make sure to bring them up or make them happen. There's no harm in that. It would be greatly appreciated. We going to do great things this year on and off the field, regardless of what a couple people on a confusing/heated forum say.

Have a happy New Year and let's get 2006 rolling already!

Positive Polly

[CS2003]

Oh yeah-Josh was still marching until this year. I heard he went to colts or Blue Stars? cymbals...but he did play bass here the last two years.

[Gantang]

Madison bought a whole new fleet (buses, equipment truck and cook vehicle) for the 2003 season, and new uniforms. They acquired a new set of horns for 2004, and again for 2005. My condolences for the "ratty" horns they had to use in '03 - even cutting Capital Sound didn't free up enough capital (excuse the pun) to re-equip every aspect of the corps all in one year.

You're wrong. They bought nothing new. A few very ratty buses were purchased because the old ones fell apart. They did get a cook trailer which probably ended up saving the corps and the members money on food. The equipment trailer was also used...I believe an old moving truck, but it ws needed to replace an old failing trailor.

As I mentioned about the horns, can anyone tell me what type of contract the Scouts got for their horns?

[Gantang]

And.....We were never a cadet corps. Cap Sound was built to be a part-time corps able to offer time to spend with family and friends, to have or continue jobs, and still get full touring experiences.

The Madison Junior Scouts (a "cadet" corps) melded together with the Capitolaires to become Capital Sound.

[Dave]

I can say for certain that they had to pay at least something for them. The "free equipment" myth is just that, a myth.