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Drum Corps Europe ceases activities


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1 hour ago, Stu said:

Let me explain in terms you may understand.  There are two types of Boards which can exist within an organization, including one that is financially solvent: Sitting and Working.

1) A Sitting Board consists of the wealthiest members of the community; they sit on the Board as a way to bring exposure to the organization and to themselves; they typically have an annual meeting to oversee the general status and that is it; they do no actual day to day work for the organization; the rest of the year they attend galas and fund raisers for the organization; there is a very solid and high yielding revenue stream which pays for organizational administrative staff; any volunteers which are needed occur only at the local level and typically are short stint or one and done; and I cannot say for Europe, but in the United States the Board members on Sitting Boards typically pay big bucks to sit there for that status symbol.  Very few, if any, people from the top to the bottom get burnt-out in these organizations and the organization rarely if ever goes inactive or folds.

2) A Working Board consists of the die-hard very committed; they not only volunteer their time to be on the Board but to also volunteer to do a lot of the grind work without pay as volunteers; these organizations may in fact be financially solvent, but their revenue streams are not enough to pay for full-time administrative staff, thus much if not all of the daily grind work is done by volunteers including the Board members; and due to the high demand for both time and effort these organizations cannot find enough die-hard volunteers to accomplish all of that grind work so many of the dedicated get burnt-out quickly and often times these organizations go inactive or fold.

 

It is Always about money; Always.

 

I swear, whenever I read your posts the only image that pops into my mind is Ben Affleck's character from The Accountant.

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5 hours ago, Stu said:

Let me explain in terms you may understand.  There are two types of Boards which can exist within an organization, including one that is financially solvent: Sitting and Working.

1) A Sitting Board consists of the wealthiest members of the community; they sit on the Board as a way to bring exposure to the organization and to themselves; they typically have an annual meeting to oversee the general status and that is it; they do no actual day to day work for the organization; the rest of the year they attend galas and fund raisers for the organization; there is a very solid and high yielding revenue stream which pays for organizational administrative staff; any volunteers which are needed occur only at the local level and typically are short stint or one and done; and I cannot say for Europe, but in the United States the Board members on Sitting Boards typically pay big bucks to sit there for that status symbol.  Very few, if any, people from the top to the bottom get burnt-out in these organizations and the organization rarely if ever goes inactive or folds.

2) A Working Board consists of the die-hard very committed; they not only volunteer their time to be on the Board but to also volunteer to do a lot of the grind work without pay as volunteers; these organizations may in fact be financially solvent, but their revenue streams are not enough to pay for full-time administrative staff, thus much if not all of the daily grind work is done by volunteers including the Board members; and due to the high demand for both time and effort these organizations cannot find enough die-hard volunteers to accomplish all of that grind work so many of the dedicated get burnt-out quickly and often times these organizations go inactive or fold.

 

It is Always about money; Always.

 

Well heck Stu.. pardon me.. clearly YOU know how to fix EVERYTHING... Perhaps you should pack your bags for Holland and come sort this mess out yourself.

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2 hours ago, Cainan said:

Well heck Stu.. pardon me.. clearly YOU know how to fix EVERYTHING... Perhaps you should pack your bags for Holland and come sort this mess out yourself.

Nah… If I wanted to support people high on drugs while riding bikes I would rather invest in the Tour de France. 

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I think it's healthy to be have some skepticism. People who do swindle others get away with it because they take advantage of the victims not thinking anything is wrong and that they can be trusted.

 

I figure if there is anything questionable, the Dutch authorities will take things from their end, if all is as it appears, then things will have to move on from a certain point. I appreciated DCUK's thoughtful and timely response to the situation. My guess is one option may well be that certain teams will end up under some form of DCUK's umbrella in the future. The big question might be how much the entire Brexit issue would cause any potential legal obstacles or impediments.

 

One of those things that will sort out over time, just have to sit back, munch popcorn, and see where it goes.

Edited by BigW
bad spelling and grammar, shame on me
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On 10/22/2017 at 2:33 AM, Stu said:

However, has there ever been any drum corps organization which folded, not morphed into something different like Star into Blast, but folded while still maintaining an excellent cash flow? 

Yes. 

There have been a number of corps who folded for lack of membership interest, despite being financially healthy.  Several were so financially healthy that they established scholarship funds or similar charitable giving mechanisms to contribute their remaining funds back to the activity in some way.

There have also been corps, or related organizations, who folded simply because no one wanted to run the thing.  In fact, the void that led to the birth of Drum Corps Europe was created by precisely such an event.  Drum Corps Holland, the original drum corps circuit in the Netherlands, folded in the late 1990s out of apathy, with most of their corps and events continuing as the drum corps division of a marching band circuit.

You can still win the semantic argument by claiming that with enough money, these organizations could have hired administrators to keep running, therefore it is always about the money.  But that is just a gross oversimplification.  You could just as easily say "it is always about the people involved".

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9 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Yes. 

There have been a number of corps who folded for lack of membership interest, despite being financially healthy.  Several were so financially healthy that they established scholarship funds or similar charitable giving mechanisms to contribute their remaining funds back to the activity in some way.

There have also been corps, or related organizations, who folded simply because no one wanted to run the thing.  In fact, the void that led to the birth of Drum Corps Europe was created by precisely such an event.  Drum Corps Holland, the original drum corps circuit in the Netherlands, folded in the late 1990s out of apathy, with most of their corps and events continuing as the drum corps division of a marching band circuit.

You can still win the semantic argument by claiming that with enough money, these organizations could have hired administrators to keep running, therefore it is always about the money.  But that is just a gross oversimplification.  You could just as easily say "it is always about the people involved".

Sure, financially healthy organizations may sometimes do go under.  But they go under because those in charge do not use the finances wisely.  For example, a corps that is financially sound yet has membership audition problems is a corps that is not using finances wisely enough to garner qualitative designers and instructional staff (which youth will always gravitate towards), or not using finances wisely enough to feed and transport the youth comfortably (which will push away youth to other corps that will treat them better). A financially sound corps that has has problems securing people to get administratively involved, such as a qualitative Board that will Sit and Govern while staying out of the daily grind and secure a qualitative ED, is one that is not using finances wisely enough to entice excellent business-minded administrators. Drum Corps is a business. Again, it is always about the money.  Even if an organization is financially sound, it is still always about the money.

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On 10/22/2017 at 10:11 PM, Stu said:

Nah… If I wanted to support people high on drugs while riding bikes I would rather invest in the Tour de France. 

 

Clearly you haven't seen The Company, Kidsgrove, Jubal, Juliana, Unity etc.. because, yeah.. none of those members work their backsides off to put on entertaining shows or anything like that.. instead they all get high and ride bikes.

I'm gonna stop giving any time or consideration to you and your ridiculously flippant remarks before I have to warn myself for a violation of the community guidelines. 

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17 minutes ago, Cainan said:

Clearly you haven't seen The Company, Kidsgrove, Jubal, Juliana, Unity etc.. because, yeah.. none of those members work their backsides off to put on entertaining shows or anything like that.. instead they all get high and ride bikes.

I'm gonna stop giving any time or consideration to you and your ridiculously flippant remarks before I have to warn myself for a violation of the community guidelines. 

My girlfriend and I saw Juliana for the first time on the recent DCE webcast... we both thought they would do quite well in DCA's Class A division, if they ever could make the trip. Solid corps, cool show. Horn line was really strong.

As for Last Word Stu.... welcome to our world, Cainan. LOL

Edited by Fran Haring
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4 hours ago, Cainan said:

Clearly you haven't seen The Company, Kidsgrove, Jubal, Juliana, Unity etc.. because, yeah.. none of those members work their backsides off to put on entertaining shows or anything like that.. instead they all get high and ride bikes.

I'm gonna stop giving any time or consideration to you and your ridiculously flippant remarks before I have to warn myself for a violation of the community guidelines. 

It was a joke, lighten up!!!

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