Being a noob to this, yet being involved in D&BC for about 40 years, I find several things frustrating and would like to make a proposal in the spirit of old school drum corps ( DCI brought many great things to the activity but has also killed great circuits and many corps)

I would like to organize a Gulf Coast Circuit for next season.

Heres the idea.

While everyone else is playing the G7 concept and waiting to accept the corps with the most influence so they can sell tickets, lets play real drum corps based on the pre DCI concept.

Gulf Coast Circuit
10 Member Corps ( larger later on )
Each corps is to strive to have at least 750 influence for next season
Each Corps to sponsor a show for 15 corps, 10 being GCC members
Later, we form alliances with other circuits to accept at least 5 GCC corps into their shows

Results:
Each Member Corps gets at least 10 shows to be judged in
Each Member hosted show gets at least 10 Corps with 750 influence attending their home show for ticket sales
Later we have more shows offered to us for allowing other circuts into our shows.

As of yet I have found nothing in the rules against this.
After three days of watching trends I realized that it "seems" this is already going on behind the scenes.

Anyone interested ?

1) Shades of New Orleans

This is definitely something I support and is one of the things that is possible with this new system as opposed to the old one.

I was waiting for Alex's Input before I said anything..I'm Interested.

I like this Idea also..

Alex,

Is there anyway for a corps to be identified by region ? ( I don't know how much work that involves, but if when they fill out hometown at the start of next season could there also be a box for region?)

Possible regions.....

Northeast ( Includes Canada )
East
South
Mid west
West
Southwest

.....(just kicking around ideas for possible "travel" ideas I'll throw at you later.......back in the early 80's we played a DC game based on "tours" and we used the milage and cost tables off of an old Avalon Hill Rail Baron game (( based on an even earlier game called Boxcars by Parker Bros)). Later we combined the cards from a milles borne (sp?) game and with some adjustments it because a fun game)

Mike,

do you still have "the game" ?

Right now no, there is no regional identifier.

I would be interested in your circuit Prof. Great idea!

Ok, since this is ok with Alex, we need to start planning.

My basic idea as above but adding these qualifications:

1) Must be located in a Gulf Coast State ( Fla, AL, Ms, La, Tx )
( possible consideration to Arkansas and Georgia )
2) must finish THIS season with at least 750 points influence
3) must agree to host a show and accept the fellow members
( you can host a show for just us, 10 or as large as you can afford ?)
4) TRY to schedule shows in a logical "tour"
( example day 1-show in Houston / day 2 show in New Orleans / day 3 show in New Orleans Day 4 show in Mobile BREAK Days 8 /9/10 shows in Florida ? )

Please add comments. I think this would be a great way to have some fun and get to know the other players at the same time.

thoughts?

Okay - I really like basically everything you just said. I'd like to try this out.

I'm in

This is a really cool idea, and it could bring a whole new aspect to the game. I would be so involved with this, but... I'm in the Northeast haha. So, Gulf coast is pretty far away. But if someone wants to do this with the NE, I'm game.

@bando

Go for it. Start a thread with" NorthEast Circuit", and lets share ideas !

Think of a co-op, one week 5 of our corps come to "tour" your shows and then a different week 5 of your corps tour the gulfcoast.........

which gives me the idea that the top "influence" corps in each circuit do the "touring"
( that way it makes people push for higher influence )

Yea, I think this is gonna work

Alright then. I guess I will. Haha

EDIT: I just had this huge post. Then I clicked on something. It all went away. *facepalm* Alright, let's try again!

Also, I'm kind of stealing the idea, and modifying it to be a little more unique, and hopefully more accepting.

EDIT 2: Done.

We should come up with a different name, circuits normally refer to drum corps, band, etc.

- League?
- Coalition?
- Union?

I was going with Region, but maybe FMA (Area name) Conference? Example FMA North-East Conference?

why not use Combine like in 71 ?

Gulf Coast Combine, and when you get 20 members split to east and west ?

( Mike, I can't believe you got me into playing this )

So it would be Gulf Coast Combine with an east and west divisions ?

You think there's that many to have 2 divisions of a sub group ?

I think league is a more all purpose, general sounding thing. Conference seems more sports related in my mind.

I like this idea alot, and I like the sound of Gulf Coast Combine.