Gary Matczak Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 I have read in several places here that some of this is coming from certain presenters who do not wish to have certain smaller corps on their show roster. You yourself have said in another thread about this that DCA will not disallow any corps, and that the decision whether a corps will be allowed to appear is, again, up to that particular presenter.This is about money, and the money is sort of controlled by the applause meter, so to speak, especially if that applause meter does not indicate that small corps draw in $$$ for the presenter. This is the problem. $$$ It is about $$$ and $$$ only. It most certainly is not about drum corps. Smaller corps do not generate a large fan base that spends a lot of money. In fact, smallers corps make certain DCP members "uncomfortable" and "empathetic" because they are so silly looking, play so poorly and look so tattered and thin. Aww . . . And now, a brief aside. Woe is me to be wasting my talent and enthusiasm as a member of any corps that places below Finalist status or is small. The family atmosphere of a small corps is not worthy of my time or efforts because they do not have $$$-spending fans raving for them and show presenters demanding them. Smaller corps are totally devoid of worth to DCA, so I should avoid marching with one and should either travel silly distances to march with a larger, more worthwhile corps, or be happy to sit in the stands and cheering for the larger groups that have a place and that "have value".[/aside] If DCA allows a show's presenters to decide who gets to appear based on size then you have just cheapened the activity by using an applause meter. What if a presenter decides that they do not politically agree with corps that use the color red in their uniform? Can they be allowed to select certain corps to exclude based on the color of a sash or flag or pants? Tell the presenters, "This is DCA's lineup for this show. You are being allowed to host this show." If they persist in trying to tell DCA who gets to compete or even who gets to be seen then DCA is a totally useless thing. It is merely a pimp for the popular corps. That fictional applause meter of yours that could cheapen our activity is not really so fictional to those of us that will not generate enough applause to get in the gate. That metert is real and it will bar the path towards growth and maybe even survival. This ruling is simply the directors of the larger corps telling us in smaller units, as I have said several times before: Grow or Die. Maybe "Grow or Go Away" is more a more accurate portrayal of the sentiment behind this, but "Grow or Die" is what it means to us in small corps. If we do not grow according to DCA's ideas of what is healthy fiscal expansion, then we die. We cannot recruit if we cannot tell prospective members that we are a drum corps, but, what a shame, we will not get to compete for scores and ranking this season. That is hard to sell. It is really hard to sell. So, if we fail to meet DCA's idea of how large we should be (and not how large we are ready to be) then we get a sort of competitive Death Penalty for that year. So we lose new and potential members, thereby losing the older members because "nothing of value is happening in this corps." –OR– We force ourselves to carry more personal debt than we are comfortable with and take on more people before we are ready to do so, we compete, do poorly because we cannot afford to hire a staff to get us clean enough and "competitive" (and worth $$$ to the show presenter) and we come home a little burned out and lose members because "nothing of value is happening in this corps." People wander off, dues money starts to run dry, and the core members default on personal loans to pay for everything because we had no time to build properly. Strange how no one wants to be in a start up corps unless it is going to actually DO something or GO somewhere. Strange how new recruits want to go to shows and to compete. Strange that when we cannot do that (compete) that people (and their money) start to drift away. A corps with over 100 members can absorb the loss of a bunch of disgruntled members. A corps with 30 cannot. So our only choice now is to grow or die. I am not trying to pick a fight, Tom. I am very sincerely worried about the survival of the corps that I am fortunate enough to play with as well as all of the others like us. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I guess I understand what you are saying here Wade,................but consider this please, I am a lifelong drum corps fan supporter and participant, and we have hosted several shows here in Erie,.................4 years ago we hosted a DCA contest where 2 of the 5 corps were very small, but we gladly hosted them and propoted them, however, the general fan that attended were somewhat disappointed that they were really only treated to three drum corps that night, my personal opinion is very different from theirs, and that goes without saying, but they are the tickets buyers, advertizers and sponsors, and I found myself defending my opinion over the next several weeks,................. and this situation had direct fallout for the next year, as we ended up not sponsoring a show due to the inability to convince sponsors and advertizers that the quality of corps would be different, improved, better, or whatever,............I hope this makes sense,..................and if not, flame if you have to, but I will then try and explain it a different way. 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audiodb Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Now that you bring that up, I find it interesting that there has been no discussion about the re-aligning of a portion of the share point net...something about decreasing the share point pot by $xxx and splitting that extra $xxx amongst the Top 10?! Anyone? Bueller??? Is that one of those "administrative details" referred to at the end of the DCA press release? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiodb Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 4 years ago we hosted a DCA contest where 2 of the 5 corps were very small, but we gladly hosted them and propoted them, however, the general fan that attended were somewhat disappointed that they were really only treated to three drum corps that night, my personal opinion is very different from theirs, and that goes without saying, but they are the tickets buyers, advertizers and sponsors, and I found myself defending my opinion over the next several weeks,................. and this situation had direct fallout for the next year, as we ended up not sponsoring a show due to the inability to convince sponsors and advertizers that the quality of corps would be different, improved, better, or whatever,............ And some shows have only had three competing corps, period. We could use a few more corps, then. Do you think this year's rule changes will help or hinder development of more corps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Matczak Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 And some shows have only had three competing corps, period.We could use a few more corps, then. Do you think this year's rule changes will help or hinder development of more corps? hinder, and if you view all of my previous posts on this and related subjects, you will find that for yourself,............ also, you did not address my responce and comment to you in regards to this subject,............so please do,.............and when you do, you will also find that no one has addressed my comments and questions regarding the same,............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorpsLives Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 I like the new rules. As a fan, really small corps don't do it for me. Some may be awesome, like Future Corps was, but then even they don't put it on a football field. Their venue is small. Common sense. Renerule = publicity. 'nuff said there More $ to top ten = a touch smaller share point and a little less to non-top ten. Remember, the top ten are the ones that extended sharepoints to all. Ooo those evil top ten corps. So mean and exclusive! Logic: 11 man corps arrives in two cars and a van, does a show earns a sharepoint; 128 man corps arrives in 3 buses, 2 semis and a souvie truck, does a show earns exactly the same sharepoint. Hmmm. I think I da changed the rule too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagabond Skyliner Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 'DrumCorpsLives' date='Jan 22 2007 "128 man corps arrives in 3 buses, 2 semis and a souvie truck" I want to know WHICH group in D C A falls into this group? Now I know there are some that use 3 bus'. BUT with the TWO SEMIS and a Suvie Truck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You sure you have not confused DCA with DCI? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorpsLives Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 (edited) This is the problem.$$$ It is about $$$ and $$$ only. It most certainly is not about drum corps. Yup, without the $$$$$$, you can't do this stuff. Not familiar with the Generals, but I didn't see you on the DCA site or on the corpsreps. Seems like you all haven't done DCA prelims yet. Surprising considering your strong words. Sorry, it seems you're arguing about something taken away from you that you actually never had. But I see. No one has mentioned this, least I hadn't seen it, you can always cut your size down to do mini-corps. Or team up with someone else to do DCA prelims given the new rules. Edited January 22, 2007 by DrumCorpsLives Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Matczak Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 'DrumCorpsLives' date='Jan 22 2007"128 man corps arrives in 3 buses, 2 semis and a souvie truck" I want to know WHICH group in D C A falls into this group? Now I know there are some that use 3 bus'. BUT with the TWO SEMIS and a Suvie Truck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You sure you have not confused DCA with DCI? Brigadiers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMStar85 Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Is that one of those "administrative details" referred to at the end of the DCA press release? That it would be...and DrumCorpsLives seems to know about it, given his comment about "a touch smaller share point". A touch? How small (or large) are we talking, DrumCorpsLives? I'm new to the scene so I'm not judging the rule...I just found it extremely odd that it hasn't been brought up. Can you enlighten us? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiodb Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 also, you did not address my responce and comment to you in regards to this subject,............so please do,............. You're right - sorry. No, I didn't ask Lee why he chose to discuss only the top-ten voting proposal on DCP, and not the 40-member minimum or others. But like I said, I could already imagine several reasonable answers to that question, so I didn't feel compelled to ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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