Star

[84BDsop]

We're in the brass ensemble room at corps hall one weekend all gathered around Bill Cook. He proceeds to tell us that we had a slight problem - we were having a hard time finding an insurance company to cover us. Bill's Solution? "Well, folks, I now own an insurance company!"

That's when I think I started to realize just what I was geting myself into. And it was not a pretty thought. But I have no regrets.

Sara....I don't quite understand...what was so bad about Bill having the resources to solve the problem?

Granted....it's a bit extreme to buy a company so you can provide insurance....but if he had the resources...and didn;t that company insure other corps later? That's a bad thing??

[SaraNYC]

Sara....I don't quite understand...what was so bad about Bill having the resources to solve the problem?

Granted....it's a bit extreme to buy a company so you can provide insurance....but if he had the resources...and didn;t that company insure other corps later? That's a bad thing??

Oh, I meant that I started to learn the lesson that me and rich corporate america don't always see eye to eye. Sometimes having the resources to buy what you want isn't always a good thing. Like when your drum corps ceases to be a corps anymore.

I never really bought into the Star party line. But I certainly paid my DCI dues there.

I was always a Bayonne kid at heart. ^0^ ^0^ ^0^ ^0^

[mchromik]

You know Maggie - she was in the guard and was really good friends with Dan Hostetler and Karen Stein. She was from Bloomington and I think her father father taught at IU. Her last name started with a G - Grunwald maybe? I think she lives in Louisville now or Lexington? She came to the reunion.

Different Maggie Sara. That was about a Maggie in the Lancers who came from Pride of Cincinnati.

Yes, I remember our Maggie as well.

Edited May 24, 2006 by mchromik

[StarContra4-85]

You know Maggie - she was in the guard and was really good friends with Dan Hostetler and Karen Stein. She was from Bloomington and I think her father father taught at IU. Her last name started with a G - Grunwald maybe? I think she lives in Louisville now or Lexington? She came to the reunion.

Maggie Granbois, she was my "lift" partner at the beginning of the show.

[bluecoats88]

Regarding the buses, Star bus lines actually sold some of their busses to the Bluecoats in 1989 who then turned around and rented the buses back to star bus lines during the off season. I believe the bus lines also rented madison's buses during the off season, but I'm not sure if madison purchased them from Star bus lines originally.

[Tekneek]

WRONG..the only corps that has been able to make it work is Spartans..Corps cannot compete in the modern charter and tour market with 15 and 20 year old equipment.

Obviously you would have to buy good equipment if you wanted to start, or improve, a bus charter business. If you bought an existing successful one, all of those bases would be covered. Maybe it doesn't make sense to get into it today, but it seems like it could be a hedge against other expenses to have some ownership stake in transportation that you could fall back on. No doubt it is capital intensive, for sure, and most startups are going to have to look elsewhere unless they have a lot of money to jump right into the deep end. My personal experience with drum corps involves trying to make a go of it on membership dues, donations, souvie sales, show money, and perhaps trying to manage some idea of a 'sponsorship' that may not ever actually pan out. This can lead to a corps coming up short on funds before tour is even over and only those with more love for the corps than proper financial sense bail them out so kids aren't left on the side of a street somewhere. There are lots of small businesses that can turn profits into the millions per year. I was an employee of two such companies while in college and despite having no more than 20 employees at any given time, they made lots of money. If someone were able to tie just one of those to a drum corps, they would be on pretty solid financial footing. If you could somehow pull together three or four of them, there would never be a worry. I know these were very well-performing small businesses, but you never succeed without trying. Maybe times have changed and most, if not all, corps try to do a better job today with it (of course, so many are gone now) but in the early nineties financial problems seemed to be a big part of the activity.

Could a charter bus company 'donate' bus service to a non-profit drum corps? I'm not sure what sort of accounting you might be able to do along those lines that would help both the corps and the bus company.

[mchromik]

Regarding the buses, Star bus lines actually sold some of their busses to the Bluecoats in 1989 who then turned around and rented the buses back to star bus lines during the off season. I believe the bus lines also rented madison's buses during the off season, but I'm not sure if madison purchased them from Star bus lines originally.

Those buses were actually the original corps buses, which of course can be traced back to Badger Tour Lines. The numbers in the rear windows remained even after taking on the Bluecoats paint scheme. We used to visit our beloved 'Bus 3' in the parking lots after it had passed on to Canton. Alot of good times on those buses.

I have pictures somewhere of the Madison Scout buses with Star of Indiana on the their sides, yet resplendent in their green, yellow, and red paint. They were part of the fleet that transported the 88' DCM All-Star Corps to FL. It was amusing to see the faces of the Scouts present apon seeing them for the first time.