BigW

This happened in Quebec to effectively wipe nearly everyone out, and the Westshoremen were grabbing people from failing corps left and right when I was there. No surprise.

Many volunteers end up feeling used and taken advantage of if not managed carefully. I can think of family situations where I was appalled and upset with what I was observing.

He was a load of laughs to march with in '84, and an all-around good guy.

There was an article linked here a couple of years ago from the Casper, WY newspaper about what a big deal it was that a local person made it into the Troopers. Case in point.

Thank you. No need to apologize to me. The drift from contemporary Drum Corps World articles at the time about the corps stated what I stated. The point is still, overzealous corps administration still caused serious issues. Did they indirectly cause issues with retention, or was it simply that trying to keep kids from migrating to the Crossmen and Cadets was too much?

The first huge case study of this at the DCI level was the Circle K sponsorship of Suncoast Sound. They wanted the corps to so some performance for them and they felt rehearsal for the next contest was more important, so they blew them off and lost that sponsorship. That was their "jump the shark" moment. Another little-known incident was a small NJ corps back in the early 80's known as Fantasia III. They got a Burger King sponsorship and flew their flag as part of the Main Guard as part of the deal. the DCE competitors grumbled, whinged and forced them to stop that. The corps pretty much died after losing that money. And, it also discouraged anyone else from seeking those kinds of connections. Stick to Bingo and raffles... It's rare that you get a huge sponsor in any activity that throws out a lot of cash and expects nothing in return. In Formula One when cigarette money was being thrown around like drunken sailors on liberty to teams, one of them was approached by FedEx for a major sponsorship and part of the deal would have been some tie-ins and events. The team told them, "No thank you" because they could get the same out of Big Tobacco with no strings attached and the tie ins were too much work. Sounds familiar to this!

My perception was that they were nothing more them paying lip service to being "part of the community at large" from the get-go.

Another person familiar with the situation said they were the "least deserving" of the 70 applicants. It's been literally a lifelong frustration for me, Jeff. I might not have been the most charismatic or pretty candidate. But at least I have ethics, and it makes me bitter so see a lot of these folks who got hired over me getting arrested.

Community outreach has been a problem, even at the scholastic level. I interviewed for a HS job stating clearly that I thought the program had a serious issue with this and I planned to do more concerts and appearances in the district as an appreciation for the monetary support we continuously got from it. It was clear from the administration it was going over their heads. They ended up hiring a weak supposedly talented Alumni who wrecked the program and ended up getting arrested for throwing a great Alcohol and weed party with the kids. 😼

Music by Herrmann, Ginastera, DeFalla, Piazzola come to my mind quickly.

Common sense would have someone knowledgeable making safety checks on a structure, say weekly, in the case of a tour. Joints, fasteners, cracks in materials, etc. The thing then would be to make sure if this happens it can be quickly replaced or repaired. The other trick, Jim, is to overengineer the prop with a high safety factor so it can withstand 2-3 times the actual weight and stresses that it bears at any time in a performance. Dad (Engineer) and I built the DM Podium for my HS and told them it had a 5 year life- Dad smartly built it well enough it was used for about 10-15 years with no incident, thankfully. Props can be safely and smartly designed.

IIRC the main concern with YEA! was that there were some special deals cut to attract new bands where the fees were substantially discounted and they didn't want the long-term member bands finding out?

Late 70's/Early 80's Crossmen used to eat "Cookie Salad" for meals at times. Told this by college friends who marched there. They'd go to the Wal-Mart, grab several types of the large boxes of cookies, dump them in a huge bowl, mix it up, everyone got a handful. Stopping at a McDonalds for an out-of-pocket meal was a feast. there's a lot of "Good old days/Glory Days" stories out there.

I believe you'd need a full-time compliance officer for things like that, wouldn't you? Where I work, there's a lot of things like that that have to be looked after including my 18-Month re-certification for my specific job.

I read this, then took a shower, and my Baritone-honkin' brain went "DING!" whole in the shower stall. It's beyond 100% unsightly. It's a kickback/macing scheme under a very small legal fig leaf. If I got that after an assignment, it would make me think, "if I don't kick back a decent percentage of my pay, will I continue to get gigs in this circuit!?" Think about that. Not sure whether the term "Macing" is understood outside of NEPA, but it's synonymous with Kickback...

I still remember when you and I pointed out that the US Bands Online Rulebook conveniently left the pages out involving competition fees and getting pooh-poohed by people here when we called out the lack of transparency. I'd daggone well hope BD spells all of that out now to everyone.

I saw them live at East, and when I watched the TV feed, I was sitting with a friend and was like..."Whoa... wasn't there a tag after that!?" I thought they cut the down ending or that I was going even more nuts than I was at the time teaching at Harrisburg High....Being one of six Directors in five years at a dysfunctional HS was a load of laughs.

My Landlord's Dad used to work for WITF (Jeff's and my local PBS affiliate) before he moved on to far greener pastures in the TV Broadcasting industry. He calls them "Begging Breaks". 😸 Pertinent to this thread, many of us watched aghast when WITF screwed up the Cadets show ending (1987!?) and cut it off for a Begging Break, then had to apologize on air after tons of irate calls went into the phones.

Agreed. I ended up on both the snail mail and E-Mail lists a few years ago and I forgot about the flyers in the mailbox.

I know more than a few Cadets Alumni, and with one or two exceptions, I'm a better person for knowing them. The ones I know aren't rich people. Maybe doing well and successful as people, but not "rich". Taking how many of them that there that are still living, and how many would be willing to donate, and incomes, my guess is that unless there would be a Daddy Warbucks out there, it might take quite a bit of money from the alumni per individual that they just might not have. 500 people donating 100 dollars each nets you 50 Grand. That's a pittance in today's budget needs. Does anyone have real numbers as to how many Alumni are out there that want to remain connected and can drop 100+ bucks in the kitty whenever they're asked? I've got medical bills to pay and meds to buy, and my guess is a few of term are in the same boat. Families, kids, so on...

Perhaps the incessant "give us $$$$$$$$$$$$" E-mails got people to tune out!? Just asking...

The CiC (well put, sir!!) IMHO viewed every competing band as a bag of money to reach into. Just my tuppence.

Jeff, I got to know Scott in college and he's a Big Brother to me in KKPsi. I've had nothing but deep respect for him since I've known him and it really bothers me that anyone would do him wrong. I'm just shaking my head on it...

One of the reasons I don't have a FB account, Jim, as well as there's an individual out there who'd try and character assassinate me, requiring a lawyer the second they started. As much as I wouldn't mind making contacts, I don't need that aggravation.

Indeed, sir. I reflected on my Rookie season with Jim F. in 1979, and there were three instances of questionable things going on that would have raised absolute Cain nowadays and for good reasons. Things also like that went on with a lot of HS Band programs in period, and instead of jail time, it was usually a quiet resignation and moving on to another school or in some cases I remember, something more lucrative. (Then again- that wasn't hard if one was a public school teacher) It was more or less shrugged off. What the heck did I know? I was a 16 year old kid. Jim will tell you, I was pretty naive about stuff in general except for playing Bugle. I got un-naived (made up a word, sorry) quickly in DCA.