How do the Bluecoats support themselves financially?
Performance Fees from DCI
Membership Fees
Fundraising Events (drum corps shows, and others)
Charitable Gaming (bingo)
Merchandise Sales (souvies)
Donations (grants, and personal giving)
What are the Bluecoats missions and goals?
They are a youth education organization, providing outstanding educational experiences for young people through travel and performance training.
Mission: The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps provides a program for youth in music and performance training. Leadership, personal, character and social development skills are emphasized through the challenge, excitement, and self discipline presented by the corps through travel, competition, and the pursuit of excellence.
What is the Bluecoats marketing plan?
When it comes to membership information or information about the corps itself, the website, facebook, and twitter are used. Newspaper, television, and radio are used for more local events such as shows and fundraising.
Who does the organization serve?
Primarily the youth (16-22) who participate in the group but also on a secondary the crowd and fans who are entertained and can be of all ages.
Long/short term obstacles and goals?
Bingo has become an important revenue stream for the Bluecoats and a challenge will be keeping it running or finding a replacement fundraiser. The group is growing every year and a short term challenge is just keeping on top of everything there is to do to keep the group running.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Time Off
I'm taking a much needed week off after working non stop since May 22nd. I've been home since Monday and I will be leaving Monday, so I finally have time to sit down and start talking about some topics related to my work here with the Bluecoats. This organization is for non-profit, even though each member is paying about $2,000 to be a part of it. That money isn't all being used to pay people obviously, most of it actually makes it back to them either in the food that they eat all summer, the uniforms that they wear, or the instruments that they play. The shows that the Bluecoats participate in on their tour are planned by Drum Corps International (DCI). The shows are fundraisers in that DCI pays the drum corps for performing but they are also educational experiences because entire communties come out to see their favorite groups and it is highly encouraged that local high school band students attend these events.
The Bluecoats has a staff made up of about 50 people. That includes the brass, guard, percussion, visual, design, and administration. The administration staff is who I work the most with and they are made up of: David Glasgow - Executive Director, Genevieve Geisler - Operations Director, Bill Hamilton - Corps Manager, and Joe Beitman - Assistant Corps Manager. They are all kind of equally my supervisor. David makes sure that the corps is running smoothly, makes executive decisions, and has the most direct contact with DCI. Genevieve is charge of member finances, organizing the volunteers that help the Bluecoats, runs the online store/merchandise, and sells tickets to shows. Bill is responsible for knowing where and when what staff member is flying in or out of what airport and in what city, he takes care of what high schools the corps stays in all over the country and has all the contact information for those schools, and is always aware of what mail or ups packages are coming to us anywhere and everyday. Joe is Bill's assistant, they both do alot of work because there is alot of work for them to do. I am the assistant to all four of these people and it keeps me very busy. I'll touch on a new topic very soon before I take off again.
The Bluecoats has a staff made up of about 50 people. That includes the brass, guard, percussion, visual, design, and administration. The administration staff is who I work the most with and they are made up of: David Glasgow - Executive Director, Genevieve Geisler - Operations Director, Bill Hamilton - Corps Manager, and Joe Beitman - Assistant Corps Manager. They are all kind of equally my supervisor. David makes sure that the corps is running smoothly, makes executive decisions, and has the most direct contact with DCI. Genevieve is charge of member finances, organizing the volunteers that help the Bluecoats, runs the online store/merchandise, and sells tickets to shows. Bill is responsible for knowing where and when what staff member is flying in or out of what airport and in what city, he takes care of what high schools the corps stays in all over the country and has all the contact information for those schools, and is always aware of what mail or ups packages are coming to us anywhere and everyday. Joe is Bill's assistant, they both do alot of work because there is alot of work for them to do. I am the assistant to all four of these people and it keeps me very busy. I'll touch on a new topic very soon before I take off again.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
west virginia
I know I haven’t gotten to this thing in two weeks but it is just getting crazy here. I think the B in busy stands for Bluecoats. I am writing this on Tuesday June 22nd at 12:40 am but may not be posted until I can find some internet. I don’t have internet at the moment because I am on the road traveling from Charleston, West Virginia to Louisville, Kentucky. Yes, that means that the tour has started. The Bluecoats were in their first competition of the season today in West Virginia and they came in 3rd and played a really good show.
Alright, let me think of some events that have taken place since my last entry. First off, on June 12th-13th there was something at Denison that the Bluecoats hosted called The Blue Way. The Blue Way camp is an interactive educational experience for high school/college age kids to get a chance to play with the Bluecoats. It is open to brass, color guard, but mainly the drum line. The reason I say that is because five brass kids showed up, four color guard, and thirty snares! Basically, there were about forty kids who spent two days with us, getting taught by the best staff there is, and playing with members of the Bluecoats. Where I came in was checking everyone in, helping collect forms/money, assigning rooms, making sure everyone got to their destinations all weekend on time, spending the night in the dorms with the kids as an “RA”, and helping place the thirty snare drummers within the actual drum line for the final performance on the second day for all of their parents. As much as that weekend seemed like a huge pain to a lot of people, and was a huge enjoyment for others, all in all it was just a genius fundraiser because I never mentioned the part about how much each kid paid to participate…
The next event was the family and friends of the Bluecoats banquet that just happened on Saturday June 19th. This event was held at Granville High School which is just a mile away from Denison University. Since so many members in the group are from plenty of other places than Ohio, it was not only a premiere of the show in full uniform but for everyone’s parents who wanted to come out and see their child for the last time for about two months. There was a catered dinner by City Barbeque, a raffle, a silent auction, and as previously mentioned the first full on public performance with marching and music. One of the members of the bass line is from Belgium and he is a really cool guy, his mom and aunt decided to fly in for the family day as a surprise (also first time in America). I picked them up from the airport and although they spoke little English, it was cool to be a part of such an awesome surprise. I really had to help out that day by helping prepare lunch and transport it in multiple van trips to the high school while the members were rehearsing and have it be ready for them by lunch time, it was way more hectic than I made that just sound also. After dinner it wasn’t too bad, I just handed out backpacks to the members that ordered them and stayed late to help clean up the school.
Today was my first time helping out the souvenir crew, well today I was one half of the souvenir crew. It was a lot of fun and really was just a way to throw me head first into one of the marketing aspects of this organization. I’m helping tomorrow again and probably for the week so I will have more on all of that later. It was fun though knowing that not only are we making money on every t-shirt or whatever sold but it is more and more publicity for the group per every item that is sold.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Still early in the season
Since it is still early in the season there are two things that are happening very often. One: New members constantly moving in and paying fees that they owe. Two: Members getting hurt. The two aren't very related but they are just things that are happening right now that won't be happening later in the season.
When a new member is brought here from the airport I have been in charge of checking them in. Which involves them first signing in on their instrument's sign in list, second filling out a form saying which room they are in and me giving them the key, third paying any money that they owe the corps. Alot of them do come in and owe money, they either know how much they owe or I can get on a site that has all their names and balances to see. They can pay with cash, check, or credit card and if it is credit card I have to then write down all of their card information. After they get a receipt from me they have been fully checked in and they can go to their room and then go out to rehearsal. It isn't really that exciting, but I like the OCDness of checking people in, having forms filled out, and getting things done.
Members are getting injured everyday. It isn't a matter of the staff or the instructors beating the kids and it's not a matter of the kids not getting enough to eat, they are just doing alot of hard, challenging work out in the sun. The reason this has to do with me is because if I'm bored I go fill up about 100 ice packs and put them in the freezer. I get calls all the time about taking so and so to urgent care because they tore their groin or because they won't stop having nose bleeds (I know.....awesome). We have to drive the special cases to the chiropractor or the sports medicine specialists. And these are alot of cases on top of what our on staff physical trainer can handle. I bring members to the pharmacy to get their prescriptions filled. One thing that has came full circle for me is this, when I was younger I hated filling out the HUGE emergency medical form packet to give to the school every year but now when someone gets hurt and I have to drive them somewhere really quick......I have to grab those packets and they end up being pretty useful.
When a new member is brought here from the airport I have been in charge of checking them in. Which involves them first signing in on their instrument's sign in list, second filling out a form saying which room they are in and me giving them the key, third paying any money that they owe the corps. Alot of them do come in and owe money, they either know how much they owe or I can get on a site that has all their names and balances to see. They can pay with cash, check, or credit card and if it is credit card I have to then write down all of their card information. After they get a receipt from me they have been fully checked in and they can go to their room and then go out to rehearsal. It isn't really that exciting, but I like the OCDness of checking people in, having forms filled out, and getting things done.
Members are getting injured everyday. It isn't a matter of the staff or the instructors beating the kids and it's not a matter of the kids not getting enough to eat, they are just doing alot of hard, challenging work out in the sun. The reason this has to do with me is because if I'm bored I go fill up about 100 ice packs and put them in the freezer. I get calls all the time about taking so and so to urgent care because they tore their groin or because they won't stop having nose bleeds (I know.....awesome). We have to drive the special cases to the chiropractor or the sports medicine specialists. And these are alot of cases on top of what our on staff physical trainer can handle. I bring members to the pharmacy to get their prescriptions filled. One thing that has came full circle for me is this, when I was younger I hated filling out the HUGE emergency medical form packet to give to the school every year but now when someone gets hurt and I have to drive them somewhere really quick......I have to grab those packets and they end up being pretty useful.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Now that I'm not busy for two seconds...
I can finally sit down and start my blog even though I actually moved in and started working on May 22nd. Before I go any further I want to kind of give you the idea of what is going on here. I am interning with the Bluecoats (a drum corps) who are based out of Canton, Ohio. I will be with them from now until sometime in August. Before we hit the road and start touring the country, there is a month of rehearsals that happen here in Granville, OH. We stay and rehearse at Denison University (and yes I thought I would never sleep in a dorm again). So right off the bat this internship might be different than others for many reasons.
When I'm done for the day I don't go home, no one goes home because we are sleeping in dorms together (yes something like 200 of us). A fraction of people here have cars so no one leaves. As far as food, all three meals of the day plus a snack at the end of the night are prepared and served from the food truck which has a handful of very helpful volunteers cooking enough food all day to feed hundreds of people. This isn't a 9-5 job, breakfast is at 8 and the members have lights out at midnight, in other words I'm interning/"on duty" for most of the day ready to do anything that anyone needs me to do. I think I've done my best to kind of sum up how things are working around here, so I'm going try to explain some of my duties thus far.
First, the biggest and most important thing that I do right now is pick people up from and drop people off at the airport. In fact I just got back from dropping off a staff member and two marching members at the Columbus airport. The reason this is so important (aside from the obvious not wanting to leave someone at the airport) is because alot of these kids are still in school right now, either high school or college and even though rehearsal here is every day from 9am-10pm they are sacrificing all of their time and alot of money to make sure they can march with the Bluecoats without affecting their schoolwork. I just dropped off a kid who is now on his way to his home in El Paso, Texas just to take two finals and he is flying right back here tomorrow!
Within that paragraph I brought up two more points about this group/activity that it wouldn't hurt to address. Rehearsals are every day from 9am-10pm with lunch and dinner in there. There are no weekends off because there isn't time that can be used to learn to be sacrificing. Today is Memorial Day and they are out there right now still rehearsing, and it has nothing to do with the group or the directors not respecting national holidays, there just can't be days taken off right now when there is a show to learn. The other point is that the staff and the members are from all over the place. Of course there are people here from Ohio but also Texas and California as well as many other states in the US and there are also members from Japan and Belgium. So me doing alot of these airport runs right now (and there are ones everyday) is very helpful in making sure that people who need to be here are always here as soon as possible.
Aside from the airport runs, another very important task is going to go buy food when the food truck needs it. When it comes to feeding that many people, there are thousands of dollars spent weekly on food because it just has to happen to ensure that these kids are being fed properly. The airport runs and buying food are pretty big just on a logistical level. I am very often printing off music and drill charts, then making copies, then delivering them to the staff (on a golfcart which is awesome). Along with the golfcarts being fun to drive around campus, we have to go pick up people who get hurt and need a ride somewhere and also drive them to urgent care if needed. Alot of packages come in and if they are too big to be delivered, me or the other intern has to go pick them up from the package service place, which we need last week when all of the uniforms came in.
People order Bluecoats merchandise from our website and this summer we are in charge of making sure people get the stuff that they paid for in a timely manner. I was shown how to go about doing that which begins with printing off the order, going to the souvenir trailer, and getting out the items that need to be shipped. After getting flat rate shipping boxes, putting the item in the box with the packing slip, and printing off the shipping labels they were ready to go which for some reason was just really fun to me. haha
Well that'll wrap up my first entry, the next ones won't have so much introductory stuff. Today is my ninth day here and I am having a really good time and I'm sure I am going to end up learning alot. I'll make sure I write back on here either a week from now or even sooner.
When I'm done for the day I don't go home, no one goes home because we are sleeping in dorms together (yes something like 200 of us). A fraction of people here have cars so no one leaves. As far as food, all three meals of the day plus a snack at the end of the night are prepared and served from the food truck which has a handful of very helpful volunteers cooking enough food all day to feed hundreds of people. This isn't a 9-5 job, breakfast is at 8 and the members have lights out at midnight, in other words I'm interning/"on duty" for most of the day ready to do anything that anyone needs me to do. I think I've done my best to kind of sum up how things are working around here, so I'm going try to explain some of my duties thus far.
First, the biggest and most important thing that I do right now is pick people up from and drop people off at the airport. In fact I just got back from dropping off a staff member and two marching members at the Columbus airport. The reason this is so important (aside from the obvious not wanting to leave someone at the airport) is because alot of these kids are still in school right now, either high school or college and even though rehearsal here is every day from 9am-10pm they are sacrificing all of their time and alot of money to make sure they can march with the Bluecoats without affecting their schoolwork. I just dropped off a kid who is now on his way to his home in El Paso, Texas just to take two finals and he is flying right back here tomorrow!
Within that paragraph I brought up two more points about this group/activity that it wouldn't hurt to address. Rehearsals are every day from 9am-10pm with lunch and dinner in there. There are no weekends off because there isn't time that can be used to learn to be sacrificing. Today is Memorial Day and they are out there right now still rehearsing, and it has nothing to do with the group or the directors not respecting national holidays, there just can't be days taken off right now when there is a show to learn. The other point is that the staff and the members are from all over the place. Of course there are people here from Ohio but also Texas and California as well as many other states in the US and there are also members from Japan and Belgium. So me doing alot of these airport runs right now (and there are ones everyday) is very helpful in making sure that people who need to be here are always here as soon as possible.
Aside from the airport runs, another very important task is going to go buy food when the food truck needs it. When it comes to feeding that many people, there are thousands of dollars spent weekly on food because it just has to happen to ensure that these kids are being fed properly. The airport runs and buying food are pretty big just on a logistical level. I am very often printing off music and drill charts, then making copies, then delivering them to the staff (on a golfcart which is awesome). Along with the golfcarts being fun to drive around campus, we have to go pick up people who get hurt and need a ride somewhere and also drive them to urgent care if needed. Alot of packages come in and if they are too big to be delivered, me or the other intern has to go pick them up from the package service place, which we need last week when all of the uniforms came in.
People order Bluecoats merchandise from our website and this summer we are in charge of making sure people get the stuff that they paid for in a timely manner. I was shown how to go about doing that which begins with printing off the order, going to the souvenir trailer, and getting out the items that need to be shipped. After getting flat rate shipping boxes, putting the item in the box with the packing slip, and printing off the shipping labels they were ready to go which for some reason was just really fun to me. haha
Well that'll wrap up my first entry, the next ones won't have so much introductory stuff. Today is my ninth day here and I am having a really good time and I'm sure I am going to end up learning alot. I'll make sure I write back on here either a week from now or even sooner.
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