With an ever-changing landscape of school district schedules and policies to navigate, Drum Corps International Housing Manager Jeff Cox took the opportunity at the 2012 DCI Annual Business Meetings and Conference Weekend to discuss some of the challenges he faces finding housing sites for drum corps on their annual summer tour.
“Some of the things that are happening is that school systems are actually changing what they do”, Cox said to Dan Potter of DCI.org. “For example, in Indianapolis, many schools are going to a ‘balanced schedule’, which means that they’re starting school on 1st August, and obviously our event is taking place after that, so we’re having to find other sites.”
Allentown creates a little different situation. “They don’t start until after Labor Day, but they found that it’s really nice to have a four-day work week and shut the schools down on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday’, Cox continues. “They shut them down completely, they turn off the power and everything else.”
DCI keeps looking for places. “It’s not necessarily that we’re within 15 minutes of the stadium anymore. Some corps are staying one hour or one and a half our away, and most corps are willing to do that if they have a good facility.”
The interview can be watched here.