The 2025 Drum Corps International Annual Meeting and Rules Congress — set to take place January 8-12 on the northside of Indianapolis — will serve as the kickoff to the 2025 drum corps season and provide cohesive direction and vision across the activity. 

An event held every January, the winter business meetings provide key DCI stakeholders the opportunity to interface, discuss pertinent issues, and open up discourse on potential changes to competitive rules and policies.

Ultimately, the goal is to chart a unified course for the summer of 2025 and beyond. 

“We continue to see great collegiality amongst all the organizations,” said Chris Komnick, executive director of the Madison Scouts and chair of the DCI membership. “The outside world often sees us competing on the field, but when we get to places like the (DCI Annual Meeting) there's a lot of information sharing. All of us care a lot about the activity and all the drum corps, and there's a lot of attention given to making sure that we are creating the right spaces for all of us to be successful as organizations.”

Here’s an abbreviated rundown of what to expect from this year’s meetings in the Circle City:

Who’s in Attendance?

DCI’s annual gathering is structured to include several different “tracks” or activity categories for participants, each with its own focused meetings and events as well as opportunities for combined sessions.

More than 350 attendees at this year’s meetings will take part in the following tracks:

Corps directors: Representative leaders of DCI’s World, Open, and All-Age Class corps who will meet in various separate and combined sessions.

Corps instructors, designers and judge administration: Annually this group converges to take a look at current practices and what can be improved on the educational and creative side of the activity going forward. 

Drum majors: More than 50 corps member leaders representing World, Open, and All-Age Class organizations will take part in the annual DCI Drum Major Leadership Summit. 

SoundSport managers: Representatives from new and existing SoundSport teams will convene to discuss the continuing evolution of this rapidly-growing branch of the DCI Family Tree.

Corps boards: Board members from many of the participating corps will also be in Indianapolis to discuss strategies for growth and sustainability, participant safety and organizational governance.

What to Watch For

1. — Unity and Community 

Outside of the summer-ending DCI World Championships, the DCI Annual Meeting is the one time of the year that the entire drum corps community is assembled under one roof. As the drum corps season kicks into full gear, the importance of collaboration and knowledge-sharing among participating groups is of utmost importance. 

For organizations striving to improve their operations and performance, connecting and networking with others in person provides invaluable opportunities for learning, partnership and innovation. Whether it's fine-tuning techniques or solving logistical challenges, the ability to exchange insights helps everyone involved grow.

“It’s a great opportunity for the community to come together and share best practices,” said Komnick. “From our perspective, this ability to talk to other drum corps and hear what's working for them, what's not and take a lot of that same information back to our own organization is very, very important to us.”

2. — Focus on Sustainability 

As operational costs of the drum corps activity continue to rise, discussions surrounding a sustainable future will be at the forefront of annual meeting conversations.

“Whether you're at the top of the scale or one of the smaller groups, the expenses associated with this activity are escalating,” Komnick said. “We're all trying to understand ways that we can create a better financial model that keeps this activity moving forward.”

A number of topics, many of which have been part of ongoing discussions since DCI’s fall corps directors meeting, will be covered. Rising transportation and food costs, the challenges of finding suitable corps housing and rehearsal facilities and how that plays into the structure of the DCI Tour schedule for 2025 and beyond will be among the key issues driving these discussions. 

Komnick says that strides are already being made on this topic related to the 2025 DCI Tour schedule. “We're trying to experiment with some new market opportunities,” he said, “finding new ways of driving revenue and getting more exposure to larger audiences.”

3. — Health and Wellness Topics

DCI established the cooperative Marching Arts Safety & Health Initiative (MASH) in 2007 with a committee of allied healthcare professionals supporting marching arts organizations. The goal of the program is to promote health, wellness, and safety and to prevent injury and illness for all DCI participants. As the drum corps activity has evolved over time, so too has the focus on the unparalleled athleticism of performing corps members and their health and wellness needs throughout the summer tour. 

A hallmark of the DCI Annual Meeting in recent years, a number of keynote speakers affiliated with MASH will have the opportunity to address the full range of attendees during Saturday morning’s sessions. Presenters and topics are currently scheduled to include: 

  • Olivia Alvesteffer, LAT/ATC/EMT-B (Korey Stringer Institute, Blue Stars) on the importance of Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and heat acclimation
  • Kaylie Langer, LAT/ATC (Korey Stringer Institute, Blue Stars) on heat illness prevention and cooling strategies for peak performance
  • Kylie Robbins, MS/LAT/ATC (Bluecoats) on “return to play” and concussion protocols
  • Jessica Schloemer RN/BSN/CCRN (Blue Devils, MASH Chair) on recruiting and retention of health and wellness staff
 
4. — DCI Rules Congress & Corps Instructors/Designers Caucus

Hosted biennially, the DCI Rules Congress allows corps instructors and designers the opportunity to make and discuss an array of proposals intended to refine the organization’s competitive structure.

For 2025, according to Komnick, many of the rules proposals up for discussion are more oriented toward policy and procedure than specifically competition. 

READ: How a DCI rule is born – DCI Magazine Fall, 2024

In addition to the structured framework of the Rules Congress every other year, the annual meeting also offers corps instructors a valuable opportunity to collaborate with each other with so many of the leading experts in the marching music activity in one location. 

Mike Scott, CEO of the Bluecoats and the incoming chair of the DCI membership beginning in 2025, notes that the instructor segment of this year’s meeting is being reimagined to enhance the engagement and productivity among attendees. With general turnover and many corps staff members new to the activity since the pandemic, as well as the addition of DCI’s All-Age Class in 2024, this revamp aims to provide them with the guidance and resources they need to succeed.

“It’s a great opportunity for instructors and designers to come in and really work with their peers,” Komnick said, “and to talk about how they're shaping the future of Drum Corps International.”

Stay posted to DCI.org and social media platforms for additional coverage from the DCI Annual Meeting and Rules Congress.