Analyzing the #MarchDrumCorps Project & Recent Trends in DCI Membership

The #MarchDrumCorps Project was stared by DCI in 2022 as an effort to spread word about the number of open spots in the activity, encourage prospective members to audition, and ultimately ensure corps began the season with as many members as possible. After all, DCI was in a bit of precarious spot in 2022, the first full competitive season in three years following the COVID-19 pandemic. Corps that did not participate in the shortened, non-competitive 2021 season were returning to the field for the first time in three years and faced an uphill battle to recruit members, many of whom would be marching in a drum corps for the first time. Furthermore, post-pandemic inflation caused additional strain as corps juggled keeping member costs as low as possible and still offering a top level experience, while simultaneously trying to recruit members as tuition exceeded $5000 a season.

Via the #MarchDrumCorps project, DCI periodically shares the total number of openings available across all corps, broken out both by section (brass, field percussion/drumline, front ensemble, color guard, and other) as well as instrument/position (trumpet, tuba, snare, mallet percussion, color guard flag, etc). Each corps submits the number of spots they have available and these numbers are summed to find the totals shared by DCI. Since the number of open spots broken out by each specific corps are never shared publicly, it can be difficult to gauge the urgency to fill certain corps and sections. For example, the possibility exists that some Open Class corps expect to reach only 100 members as a goal, yet submitted their available numbers that, if filled, would get them to the full 165 member limit.

DCI typically shares openings for the #MarchDrumCorps Project on a weekly or biweekly basis beginning in February up until a week before the first competitive show in late June. With this being the third year of the project, we thought it'd be interesting to look back at the data, compare the three years up to this point, and perhaps find some insights about the health of the activity with this limited available data. Our overall finding: the data is trending such that there are the fewest available spots in 2024 out of the three years that the #MarchDrumCorps Project has been publishing data.

Below is an interactive visualization with the data of available spots from the past three years. To best compare the data by date, the x-axis uses the week as a number before the first competitive show (i.e. Week 1 indicates one week before the first show). Data for different sections can be seen by selecting items from the "Section" drop down box. The "Open Spots per Corps" tab shows the same graph but compare the data when factoring in the number of corps that competed in DCI in a particular season.

After looking closer at the data, some interesting trends emerge. The most obvious one is that there was actually a greater need for members in the 2023 season than in the 2022 season in almost all sections with two exceptions - 1) there were more available brass spots in 2022 than 2023 for a period of nine weeks until Week 6 and 2) the number of available drumline spots in 2022 and 2023 were fairly close until the final four weeks. That said, of the 2024 data published to date, almost all sections have seen the fewest available openings this year compared to the past two years. As of writing, there are fewer than 700 total spots available, a number that was not reached until Week 3 in 2022 and never reached in 2023.

It is difficult to project exactly how many open spots will be available in Week 1 when the new season starts. Yet recent trends since Week 9 have seen corps filling an average of 50 spots per week, which if continued, would result in 488 open spots at the start of the season, which is slightly higher than the final number in Week 1 in 2022. Despite this progress, the rate at which spots are being filled shows that corps may have had more difficulties filling spots this year compared to the previous two years. 864 spots were available in week 18 when the first round of data for 2024 was published, compared to 688 spots in Week 5, resulting in a net difference of 176 spots filled or around 13.5 spots filled per week. Comparatively, 768 spots were filled across 13 weeks in 2022 for an average of 59 per week, while 568 spots were filled across 18 weeks in 2022 for an average of 31.5 per week. Needless to say, while it's great that there appears to be a lesser need for members this year, corps still have work to do to ensure that this season begins the strongest of the three.

A better narrative can be told when considering the number of corps and average available spots per corps. The 2022 and 2023 seasons were nearly identical, with 40 and 38 total participating corps, respectively. The 2024 season will see the launch of DCI’s new All-Age class and an increase to 50 participating corps following the merger with DCA. This results in averages sitting below 20 open spots per corps for all reporting weeks in 2024, something that was not achieved until Week 4 in 2022 and Week 1 in 2023. If 488 spots are available at the start of the season as previously suggested, this comes out to an average of less than 10 spots per corps, which would be a great achievement for the activity.

Some potential caveats and unknowns should be pointed out that may have potentially skewed the data in this analysis. One was made earlier but to reiterate, the number of open spots per corps is never shared publicly. It is possible that some Open Class (and now All-Age) corps, who tend to be under the 165 member limit, may have different member goals and needs compared to previous years, thus contributing to overall lower needs in 2024. For example, perhaps a corps had 100 contracted members this time last year with a goal to reach 130 and submitted that they had 30 open spots. Maybe they didn’t reach their end goal and lowered it to 120 spots in 2024, with 100 contracted members again now. Their need has been lowered by 10 spots year over year, yet the same number of actual contracted members remains the same.

Another caveat that should be addressed is the manner in which the data is created and reported. All data discussed here was user generated, always leaving for the possibility of math errors or perhaps missing data if a corps did not consistently submit their openings. The insights regarding average opening per corps also assume that all corps actively participate in the #MarchDrumCorps project, when in reality, this is not the case. A brief glance at the Current Openings sheet published and maintained by DCI reveals that 21 corps have not submitted openings in 2024. While it is likely that a number of these corps do not have any needs, there remains the possibility that some of these corps may have needs that have not been reported and included in DCI’s numbers.

At times it has felt that the drum corps activity is skating on thin ice given challenges with rising costs, recruiting, finances, and housing to name a few. Despite these challenges, corps have remained resilient as DCI itself enters their 52nd year in 2024. The #MarchDrumCorps project has become a crucial recruiting tool for corps the past three years in ensuring the health of their organizations and the activity as a whole. It’s also allowed us to have some visibility into the health of the activity and has uncovered that, while corps will always be recruiting for members, there has been a declining need for members and demand to participate remains strong.