oldschooldbc Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 (edited) Many folks are decrying the overall trend in drum corps. They think the activity is deteriorating - or even dying. If this is the case, then we need to take swift action. But in order to determine if this is true, we need a series of criteria, to track what is really happening in this activity. These criteria need to be objective, verifiable, and indicative of the state of the activity. We can use these critiera, to track whether the governing bodies of drum corps, and the leadership of these activities, are effective at doing their jobs. There is already a similar set of criteria, in the world of economics. It is the Index of Leading Economic Indicators. It is published on a regular basis, by an institution called the Conference Board. They are used by economists to track the overall trend in the economy, and the effectiveness of economic policies. The current components of the ILEI can be found Here. Here are my proposed Index of Leading Drum Corps Indicators. The number of active touring drum corps The number of performers participating in drum corps The number of drum corps shows in a given year The total attendance at the shows in a given year The percentage of corps which are profitable (i.e, finish the year with more income than expenses) The total amount of revenue from fundraising in a particular year The total net proceeds from appearance fees in a particular year The number of new drum corps that begin touring in a particular year The total number of drum corps that fold or go inactive in a particular year I have given nine criteria. The Conference Board uses ten indicators for their ILEI. For the Leading Drum Corps Indicators, I would like your suggestions for a tenth, and final criteria. This is more than an intellectual exercise or curiousity for me. I think this information could be really valuable, to decisionmakers in drum corps. If the activity really needs radical change - as some of us think it does - then hopefully, the ILDCI can be used to expedite this change. Edited August 23, 2009 by oldschooldbc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 It's an interesting idea. Such a report could really shed some light on how this activity has changed over the years, if one could grab such information from previous years as well. For me, I find the important factors being more in line with the overall necessity of the activity. There was an interview with Don Warren a number of years ago where he was explaining that at the time of the Cavalier's founding, kids that came into the corps were not musicians and so a lot of the rehearsal time was spent on teaching them how to play. Now, it's all auditions. Go back even further to when drum corps began sprouting from the AL and VFW posts, then see where they are coming from now. Purpose? Community involvement? member demographics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooldbc Posted August 23, 2009 Author Share Posted August 23, 2009 It's an interesting idea. Such a report could really shed some light on how this activity has changed over the years, if one could grab such information from previous years as well.For me, I find the important factors being more in line with the overall necessity of the activity. There was an interview with Don Warren a number of years ago where he was explaining that at the time of the Cavalier's founding, kids that came into the corps were not musicians and so a lot of the rehearsal time was spent on teaching them how to play. Now, it's all auditions. Go back even further to when drum corps began sprouting from the AL and VFW posts, then see where they are coming from now. Purpose? Community involvement? member demographics? Perhaps a good tenth criteria will be the average tour fee. That will give you a pretty good guide, as to the demographics of performers. Drum Corps Planet does keep a historical census, for Criteria 1 - the total number of corps. At least they have info on the junior corps. The numbers are shocking. I couldn't believe it, when I saw them: http://www.drumcorpsworld.com/articles.cfm?id=659 We went from 442 junior corps in 1972, to 52 in 2007. That's an 88% drop over the course of 35 years. That's astonishing. There's been a steady drop in the number of junior corps over the lifetime of DCI. Well, so much for this first criteria in the ILDCI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleurghost Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 A major factor in the decline of Drum corps is the support that is given. It would be interested if DCP created a system that publically showed what people donated to Drum Corps each year. I for one would be ALL for it... I give about $50,000 a year, so my comments should have GREAT validity. The reason they go away is simple. People may not think it is true, but keeping a corps active could mean as little as $3,000 a year. Yes that little amount of money could keep a small 40 member corps out and traveling. But when people do not give back, then the number goes down. If EVERY drum corps alumni gave even $40 a year to the activity in some form or fashion (aside from the souvie purchases and tickets to go to a DCI event) but just gave $40 to a drum corps then we might still have about 200 corps. I know that many are trying to begin the process of fielding new corps, and I wish each of the very best of luck because it is expensive to do so. However the corps out there dos need your support or you will soon only have 12 corps in existence. This is a haunting reality. I for one would love to see Drum Corps become more regionalized once again. Having a million shows in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky was the best part of my summer. We need to gear corps back to that. However we do still have the "greedy" corps out there that will do everything to win, and they need to recruit from all over the country to do so. Oh well looks like we are stuck with the status quo, but I do see a trend of numbers growing. This is because it is far cheaper to live and March with a corps from Mid May till August than it is to actually have to pay rent and such..... Maybe the bad economy will actually save Drum Corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooldbc Posted August 23, 2009 Author Share Posted August 23, 2009 A major factor in the decline of Drum corps is the support that is given. It would be interested if DCP created a system that publically showed what people donated to Drum Corps each year. I for one would be ALL for it... I give about $50,000 a year, so my comments should have GREAT validity. Then maybe the tenth criteria in the ILDCI should be "total charitable donations" to all drum corps. And yes, I would definitely like to see this number published. Drum corps are 501C3 entities in the U.S. 501C3s are required to file tax documents each year. This includes the amount of donations they receive. So this info could be gleaned from the tax filings of the 501C3s. But someone would have to go through the effort of compiling this information. Drum Corps World publishes an annual survey of drum corps, but it does not include this type of financial information. This would be most helpful......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripper Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 How about share the wealth everyone who donates to xyz corps put it into a pool to help all corps like a annual scholarship divided amongst all corps say managed by Drum Corps World impartial body to oversee fund all corps would benefit dare I say from the top to the god forbide the last place corps everyone would get a little bit and I am sure it would be a significant boost to all corps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooldbc Posted August 23, 2009 Author Share Posted August 23, 2009 How about share the wealth everyone who donates to xyz corps put it into a pool to help all corps like a annual scholarship divided amongst all corps say managed by Drum Corps World impartial body to oversee fund all corps would benefit dare I say from the top to the god forbide the last place corps everyone would get a little bit and I am sure it would be a significant boost to all corps That's roughly what DCI is doing with Friends of DCI, and the scholarship programs it organizes. Those awards are handed out on finals night. Of course, those funds go directly to performers, not to the corps themselves. The net revenue is dolled out to the member corps. If you are not a member, you get nothing. That scheme is not changing. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Perhaps a good tenth criteria will be the average tour fee. That will give you a pretty good guide, as to the demographics of performers. Drum Corps Planet does keep a historical census, for Criteria 1 - the total number of corps. At least they have info on the junior corps. The numbers are shocking. I couldn't believe it, when I saw them: http://www.drumcorpsworld.com/articles.cfm?id=659 We went from 442 junior corps in 1972, to 52 in 2007. That's an 88% drop over the course of 35 years. That's astonishing. There's been a steady drop in the number of junior corps over the lifetime of DCI. Well, so much for this first criteria in the ILDCI. Except most of those 440 were not even close to being touring drum corps, nor were they involved all that much with DCI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldschooldbc Posted August 23, 2009 Author Share Posted August 23, 2009 (edited) Except most of those 440 were not even close to being touring drum corps, nor were they involved all that much with DCI. True. Those organizations simply could not survive in the environment that DCI created. They could not survive in the economic and financial model that became drum corps. If you could not tour 10,000 miles, and do 35 shows a year, you were winnowed out. And at some level, that's really, really sad. I haven't found a way to calculate the numbers for criteria 2 - the number of performers participating in drum corps. But I can provide some rough estimates. There were 46 active junior corps this year, and let's assume an average number of performers per corps is 110. That's 5,000 performers, approximately. In 1972, there were 442 active junior corps. Let's assume 40 performers per unit - a very conservative number. That's 17,600 performers, approximately. So in in 1972, there were 3 1/2 times more performers than there were today. Now that's really depressing. That's 12,000 kids who will never get to know the joy of drum corps, in any shape or form. Sorry, as I continue to tick of the criteria in the ILDCI, none of them are looking very good. Edited August 23, 2009 by oldschooldbc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galen Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 How about total operating budgets of various corps as an indicator? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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