mjoakes

Didn’t do that. Instead, I watched the 2019 show playing on a friend’s MacBook but as seen through Apple Vision Pro. No way to describe what that was like. Partly it was awesome - I mean, in the literal sense of this word, not the casual use of it so popular today - to see this huge field in front of me with the Cavies on it. Partly, it was my first VR experience, so everything was giving me goosebumps. It wasn’t my Vision Pro, by the way.

Thanks. That made my day. I saw them in California at the start of the tour and couldn't get the ballad out of my head the whole summer.

So the Texas kids who really, really want to march Cavies just have to suck it up and manage the disappointment?

Right. A junior-year intern could work out the software change. (And any platform worth something is going to make a transition from Quick Books as easy as possible.) This is all so unnecessary and so sad.

This may have been answered in one of your earlier posts. (And I do read them. I'm not jumping to the end without having followed the thread all along.) Doesn't the organization use outside accounting services, or at least a bookkeeper? Or are they paying a staff member to do basic receivables, payables, and member collections? There are online platforms for accounting and membership services that simplify much of this.

This is all so exhausting. (And as I noted earlier, there might be some unhealthy levels of obsession on display.) But I can't stop coming back to the thread. How unhealthy is that?

I would like: a device that allows me to shrink by 50% any big pickup truck that, when parked, extends two feet into the lot or garage lane, all vehicles programmed so that a turn cannot be made unless turn signals are used an appropriate distance in advance, to obtain that college minor required to understand how DCI (especially Friends of DCI) makes Lucas Oil seat assignments, AI-generated labels for DCP posters, such as "Pretend Lawyer" (or maybe "Plays a Lawyer on Social Media"), to have my windows cleaned by the next five people claiming props are the reason drum corps have financial problems.

Bumping this thread before discussion of Cavies in 2024 gets split up too much. Like the "Comeback..." post, just anxious to not have to follow two threads.

There's a certain obsessiveness here that can't be healthy.

Haha. Up early because of meetings. Fridays at university have turned into no class, all meetings.

Not at all. I'm not typically targeting people on DCP, as I think my posts illustrate. Certainly didn't intend to here, so apologies if it came across like that. I mean it more literally: The noncompliance isn't so important to me. But some people might want certain outcomes that are served well by highlighting the noncompliance. I've no idea what those outcomes might be. I don't know enough about the personalities involved, including RL's, to criticize motivations. And as a general principle, I think discussion of all the various angles is a good idea. Milton's letting truth and falsehood grapple. That sort of thing.

Because I have no knowledge of turf stuff and, with the help of early Friday morning coffee, feel like being one of those petty posters: Props is a countable noun and should take "fewer" instead of less. BUT (1) Grammar has been dying a long death anyway and (2) I agree that prop reduction would be great.

Vanguard, Cadets, Spirit, Troopers, Madison, Pioneer, Legends... This stuff is really hard to manage and get things right. We should be super appreciative of the smart folks at BDPA who have done things so well for so long (even if not always flawlessly). (I actually shook my head a bit in disgust when I typed Pioneer.)

As many others have proposed, the important issue is whatever mismanagement and failed leadership has taken place at VMAPA. And then what steps are underway now to correct all that. The noncompliance with state reporting or operating requirements, for me anyway, is a lot smaller. First, it is likely a function of the more important management issue. Second, it isn't so unusual for nonprofits to be out of compliance with state rules. The rules are usually lower priority for nonprofit leadership, which often is managing an organization starved for attention and resources related to their missions. (Lower priority not necessarily intentionally, just due to so many other issues seemingly higher priority.) Add in the voluntary nature of most board seats, board turnover, and then board members so often well versed in mission things but poorly prepared for operational and financial management – and you have, again, not unusual situations causing a nonprofit to have missed some compliance issues. State web sites can be slow to be updated, and reliance only on that for current info is not as credible as you might think. My comments aren't meant to give VMAPA a pass on being noncompliant. Just saying that this part of the mess they are in isn't uncommon. For me, the specific compliance issues aren't worth so much angst. But I can understand how noncompliance is something to grab onto if you feel disenfranchised from the organization or have other reasons for using it as leverage to pursue some outcome.

Thanks to the mods for the warnings. I truly don't understand why a few posters get so personal on DCP. Or take such great offense when someone questions them. It's just an online forum about drum corps. Also appreciative of posters who have quality insights or information of substance. Gonna be a long several months of seeing how things evolve with SCV.