Leaderboard

The thing I think the YEA situation and this situation have in common is competent Board over sight. YEAs Board, it seems, were enablers and blind supporters of the Executive Director. In this second case, there really is no Board Oversight. The Board are the owners/buyers of the Crossmen, a recent age out, and one other person. This is an issue with many drum corps and an area that needs to be addressed. DCI does have the authority to get into internal Day to Day business. I worked for a drum corps who’s board couldn’t meet regularly because Board Members simply would not come to meetings. I worked for another drum corps who’s Board Members, when called about totally unsafe conditions with Transportation and Food Safety would get ###### that they were being called. It’s like Congress now days, when that Check is not operating or non existent, what do you do? Who do you talk to? Who’s responsible? If Board Members aren’t engaged, If Board Members are ignorant of things that they are responsible to oversee, If Board Members aren’t aware of Policies that are being implemented; what do you? It’s hard to fix ignorance, especially if it’s willful ignorance. I have seen plenty of that. I hope those individuals are good D&O Insurance. I hope they have a strong firewall protecting their assets. Drum Corps have stop being amateur hour organizations and look at the realities of the World today and take more seriously the potential and very real perils of taking 154 kids and 20-30 adults and travel the way we do. With a serious board oversight the YEA situation would not have developed the way it did in the end. With serious oversight chances are the Crossmen situation wouldn’t have happened. It’s a systemic issue. It’s not a DCI issue, per se. I think this thread has been a pretty good demonstration of some of the approaches to oversight don’t work. The dismissive attitudes towards professional people who have to get a State Issued credential and maintain it and who because of that State Credential are BOUND BY LAW to report issues is beyond stupid. But that attitude has been on display here. For All To See. The excuse of “no one reported it” doesn’t fly IF THERE IS NO ONE TO GO TO or worse they didn’t think they would be listened to. That’s the nut of all of this; powerlessness. Whether it’s a man using his authority to take advantage of someone in unspeakable ways or a situation where decisions aren’t questioned because no one is there to effectively challenge questionable judgements giant, ugly, messy, problems inevitably follow.

I will be leaving tomorrow to join the corps and I will be with them for the remainder of the season. Like last year, I'll do my best to keep a Flickr album updated with show photos, time allowing. Starting Friday there will be a lot more content coming from The Cadets social media accounts. If you find yourself at a show don't hesitate to come see the corps, Scott is making it a priority for alumni and supporters to feel welcome again :)

I have been watching this thread since the article came out. I feel like I need to clarify some things. My name is Jason Buckingham and I am the staff person quoted in the article. Let me state a couple things clearly. 1. I have no first hand knowledge of ANY issues with Joel during his time at the Crossmen. As far as I know, nothing happened there in my time. 2. When it came to speaking to Mgt. about concerns with the situation staff members (2012) were told "it was none of our business and you can leave if its a problem for you." 3. I said it was an "unwarranted risk." To be clear, not that at I was fearful that something would happen, although it was a possibility, rather I was more worried about THIS. WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW. I knew at some point there would come a time when it would become an issue. I had no idea it would be 6 six years later. There was no PRESUMPTION OF OUR CONCERNS being ignored. They were. In a rather heavy handed way. Ignored, perhaps is not the right description. Dismissed would be more precise. My first year teaching I suspected the Corps Director of doing some really ugly things with kids. I had some circumstantial evidence. I went to Board members about it and was....dismissed. 10 years later in 2000 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for exactly the kind of thing I suspected in 1990. This is a sore subject for me. Besides that experience coloring my worldview; when Ms. Nadolney called me (I did not call her), I had a choice to make. Not a real easy nor fun choice. But I did choose to talk to her. The kind of stuff has been lurking in the dark corners of this activity for FAAAAR to long. My choice to speak with her was has someone who's spent 30 years in this activity and a concerned stakeholder. I did not know what Ms. Nadolney would come up with in her reporting, but I knew I could not look myself in the mirror if she came forward with something awful. I felt it important to have ON THE RECORD that there were people who came forward and expressed concerns, early on. This situation wasn't the dealkiller, but as I stated it was apart of a situation I had no desire to continue be be a part. So I took the advise Mgt., gave I resigned. UNWARRENTED CONCERNS? You sure? The issue of transparency has come up a number of times. Exactly right! I can tell you members knew because it was a Google search away. How do you think those members perceived management as far as reporting things, when it was clear, they were totally fine with that situation? Think it might have colored that decision? Here's the bottom line beside a PR mess, and potential whatever; When adults make adult problems, a kid's problem, that's a complete failure of trust. Period. End of story. Clear enough? This was a situation that was absolutely going to become a problem at some point. And here we ####### are aren't we. Unwarranted??? You don't know what you are talking about sir.

In retrospect, I do believe you have the timeline correct it would appear. Morrisson essentially was well aware of Moody's repetitive sex texting to H.S. female and the revocation of his teaching license for a 5 year period. Morrison hired Moody during the 5 year teaching license revocation timeframe. For context during this timeline, Moody was deemed a risk to be in any school classroom, and thus was barred from being there. Fred Morrison, the Crossmen Corps Director knew about the sexual misconduct and the disbarring from the schools, but decided to hire Moody anyway and allow him to travel from school to schools on day and night trips for 9 weeks in the summer. No background checks were needed for the disclosure of Moody's disgusting past with the H.S. female student as Morrison admitted he knew of it, and hired the guy anyway. Most importantly, the reporting in the press seems to indicate that when the subject of Moody being there was brought up as being a risk not worth taking ( by more than one there at the Crossmen ) Morrison's reaction reportedly was not to explain it, nor attempt to justify it. The report stated that he would cut off conversation about this curious decision to take on this huge risk. The quote was " he did not want to further talk about it ", He made that clear to staffers, and others. The timeline that set in motion the departure of Moody from the Crossmen was indeed the revelations in the national press about the alleged sexual assaults by George Hopkins at YEA/ Cadets. If we recall, the press report was that Moody was getting ready to go on on summer tour once again with the Crossmen. Had the GH alleged sexual assaults not surfaced, its likely that Moody would still be at the Crossmen tonite. Morrison defended the Moody hire with Moody's retention throughout. Except when the news media began investigating DCI. Then Morrison quickly decided he needed to do a 180,. He decided he needed to be further away from Moody now than all the states public schools decided they needed to be away from Moody. Moody now suddenly became a risk liability to MORRISON.. But Morrison was ok having the young marchers, recent age outs, and young staffers of his Crossmen Corps within elbow's length of Moody on summer tours for several years.. How ironic... and how sad. People on several occasions apparently told Morrison that Moody was a huge risk, and not worth taking. The former Chairmen of the Board of Directors of DCI found out the hard way, how right they were.

I think it’s wonderful that they are quietly going about their business of putting the show on the field. It’s refreshing. I like surprises.

I am just going to limit my comments to the management style. It was a very "Political" management style. There were two kinds of people, "The people who were there, and the people who heard about it." Conversations that were had on the bus were reported to management. It was like a twisted game of telephone. People were set against each other, purposefully. I don't know who EXACTLY was doing this but, it was the management style. Some relationships recovered some have not. A great friend of mine told me," if you can get through a summer with the same friends you came in with, it been a good summer." I found this to be very true. So in that context, the logic of "this is my decision, and that's that." Makes sense. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. As a person, I think Fred is more than a decent man. I do. I think he made a decision that was naive initially. The repeated decision to ignore people when they did have issues with it, I don't want to characterize. I have my opinion about it, but my opinion about it makes no real difference. We are where we are. As I said, I felt it was a huge risk and an exposure to bad PR for the Corps and the Activity writ large was, again, "UNWARRANTED." As far as motivations driving it? I don't know and I don't think it matters. The only thing that matters is getting it right. That means acknowledging some less than pleasant things and making the prerequisite changes. My worry with Drum Corps is it is so EGO driven for some people. I think having a Chairman of the BoD of DCI who is not concerned with placements, scores, "advantage seeking" and is truly an Independent voice is long over due. One of two things will happen. Things will begin to get fixed, or, she will not be listened to and she will resign and we are back to square one.

So to generate some buzz, I have a strong feeling Cadets are gonna come out the gate running. I feel a strong sense of hunger in their souls and I feel like they have something to prove this year. I base this on absolutely nothing but my own experience. Let's hope I'm right.

Blows my mind that anyone can defend this behavior. Fred knowingly risked (as a staff, by association) our careers, the corps, himself personally and the safety of the members for one Joel Moody. Nobody is worth that. NOBODY.

honestly......I am thrilled they survived. To me, regardless where they place, is the HYPE. I said it before, I'll say it again, I expect great audience reactions just by coming on the field. Mainly because of who won't be walking in front of them

I believe everyone is primarily referring to the 14 page document recently released by DCI , but DCI does have Bylaws and a "Policies & Procedures Manual" available on its website [Note that DCI uploaded them in a format where you can view them page by page, but cannot download or print other than through successive screen captures]. Some notes: the ByLaws present three enumerated violations for which membership can be terminated (overage members, missing meetings, failing to pay DCI), which do not include general violations of policies/guidelines) the ByLaws state that the Executive Director, under "Contest Responsibilities" will enforce the Eligibility and Code of Conduct Rules, and may assess fines and disqualification penalties as provided in the Contest Eligibility and Code of Conduct Rules. I would argue that power doesn't extend beyond those two specific documents to general corps' violation of policies. the Policies & Procedures Manual includes 3 pages of a Table of Contents of the Appendices, but doesn't include the actual appendices themselves, except for 3 specific items the only apparent new addition to the Polices [which reference the date each was adopted] are: an adoption of a Sexual and Other Unlawful Harassment policy, which is attached and mirrors language from the Guidelines, and a background check policy which says: "Drum Corps International requires participating organizations to obtain a national criminal history background check for those in direct contact with their students. Such criminal background checks shall be performed at the direction of the participating organization's Executive Director, but in no event less than every two years." Quick analysis: the corps may very well agree to punishment by DCI for general violations, under several documents which are not attached to the Policy Manual, but it probably would be better to clearly specify as much within the ByLaws; The new additions to the Policies (a harassment policy and a background check) do not restrict the corps from hiring whomever they want. As I mentioned earlier, they do not appear to restrict any corps from hiring George Hopkins, or even a convicted murderer out in parole, for that matter. In my event, this remains a significant gaping hole in their new guidelines and policies.

Due to a small clerical error the Cadets will be the first corps to break 100 at finals!

Yup, but this year the Cancer is gone. So I have more energy to hype them up.

Carol, My guess is that most of the posters...though not all...are male in general on DCP. Terri is a shining example of a woman who is posting. Some of the posters who are not using actual names may be female, but my guess is the large majority posting on DCP overall are male, so it is not a surprise in this thread as well. As for speculation...a lot of the posting in this thread is speculative as there are not a lot of facts. The facts that do exist get reposted over and over and expanded on with speculation that fits the particular poster's POV. That is the nature of these types of threads...of social media in general. I know I have done exactly that.

I hope so. I know how it feels to have a season that wasn't up to par with Cadets standards, and I also know what it feels like to come out the next year looking for blood.

The policy isn’t contrary to his 2012 decision. The policy has no background check or hiring standards at all. You really should read it.

This is the one I was referring to

That is the same year the Yuengling family began brewing beer in Pottsville, PA. Hopefully, they're not going away anytime soon either.

Hype away!!! The days of Sally Soul-Smasher crushing Cadets fans' offseason expectations with the never-ending, season-long "tweaks and fixes" to a weak show concept are, hopefully, gone. LOL

I will restate now what I have said before - DCI needs a complete restructure from a management and governance standpoint, and frankly, if you donate any money to them now, you are just saying "nothing is wrong". I am blown away that Crossmen are run this way ( and probably many others), and that nothing has been done about it. DCI is powerless and useless. Just sad.

Absolutely need more females like you, who will speak up and make themselves heard.

I do not know Morrison at all (Amil????). How much of his decision-making and pushback on subsequent discussion was based on his internal deep-seated core attitudes and beliefs at that time? Again, I have no direct knowledge of the man, but some of the peripheral comments make me wonder. Hopefully, in today's new environment that sort of thing becomes a well-buried relic of the past.

I'm going up on June 1 for the day to help with meals.

And I would wager that the principal of the Florida high school that housed Crossmen for the 2012 Orlando show wouldn't have been particularly pleased to know that a guy whose Florida teaching license had been revoked was spending time teaching at - and living in - his high school, even if it was just a day or two. And I would also wager that if the principal had found out, he likely wouldn't be so willing to house a corps the next time he is asked, in which case Morrison's ill advised hire could have had a negative affect on other corps in the future as well.

That is what I (we) interpreted that to mean, yes.

Before much of this DCI Corps mess developed, there were lengthy discussions here on DCP suggesting that DCI HQ. essentially had little to no legal authority over the actions of its member Corps. That discussion defending the essential powerlessness of DCI HQ went on for days and days on here too. Some were unconviced of DCI HQ' legal authority. It took DCI HQ stepping in to convince them otherwise. DCI HQ put one of its organization's premier elite Corps on Probation, spelling out specific steps it would needed by that Corps to convince DCI HQ of its responsibleness that would allow that Corps probation in DCI to be lifted. DCI HQ was not the implied powerless entity suggested in some quarters at all. DCI HQ, even told the new YEA Board that DCI HQ was going to have access to that Corps financials too as part of DCI HQ probationary status it imposed upon this Corps.

YES! As an accountant, rule #1 in setting up a control environment for handling the money & financial activity is separation of duties. Certainly, the same rule should be applied here.

And they LIKED it, dadgummit!!!

That people in the activity will be arrested.

Personally, I would love no hype, no news, no hints and come out and literally squash all those who count them out. Literally turn the season upside down.

A friend is getting married up there this weekend...and i expect several guests to take a quick drive to ST

I KNOW!!! :DDDDDDDDD

There have always been things covered up in our activity. I guess to make it appear pure and untouched by the real world, Kinda like some schools and churches do. It does still happen in recent times, even with exposure to the internet and information. There are parts of our activity pretty good at protecting some or at least covering it up, Even when a few have been punished and sat in jail a while. MAybe things MIGHT change a little now. Time will tell.

the fact is this: Morrison hired the guy in 2012 knowing his past. He shut down any discussion about it when raised by people with legitimate concerns and he never once was upfront with students and/or parents about Moddy's past. Everything was going good until the Hopkins story broke.

PS - one of the three appendices which is actually attached to the Policies, is the Whistleblower policy, which appears to have been adopted in Jan. 2010 and revised Nov. 2014, and which includes the following: "Executive Director. The Drum Corps International Executive Director is responsible for investigating and resolving all reported complaints and allegations concerning violations and shall advise the Audit Committee regarding all complaints and allegations. The Executive Director has direct access to the audit committee of the board of directors and is required to report to the audit committee at least annually on compliance activity. The audit committee is chair [sic] by a non-affiliated member of the Board of Directors." Doesn't appear as if that was in place when Stuart Evan Rice purportedly telephoned Dan Acheson.

You just made me so excited!!!

Oh Lawd, that is a gaping hole.

I read this thread in an attempt to educate myself about this current issue. I find much speculation when what matters, in my judgment, are facts. I also find it very disturbing that the majority of the writers are male. Isn't that how this all started? Carol

in the real business world, if the issue the boss refuses to discuss is serious enough, you often have an HR department you can take your concerns to. In this drum corps, you had the director and his wife, who were also two of the board members. There was no backup plan or contingency. it was in essence a dictatorship. And who'd have thought when YEA sold Crossmen, some of the management practices would be the same, regardless of the names changing

this is what happens when you let the fox guard the hen house

This. In order to change the culture you usually need to change the people.

I have seen a BD alum, and past BD board member state, "DCI won't change until the BoD is comprised of a variety qualified mix of affiliated and independent people." It is time to move from "mom & pop" starting at the top. In this day, corps are realizing they need expertise in multiple areas of business operations to produce stability for their own operations, i.e. Boston's path, and recent YEA. The corps need to agree the same should apply to the sanctioning organization, "DCI".

Maybe it’s me, but after 46 years of no policy, when DCI did introduce a policy they conveniently leave off the consequences for violating the policy. Perhaps they’re not as serious about this as we are made to believe. Changing the culture may require changing people in charge.

If the mules cost too much, they used corps members to tow the barges.

I would prefer there be a fourth party to report misconduct to, rather than DCI.

Thank you Jason for being brave enough to step away from the screen name and tell us first hand. Answers some questions I had about who knew what inside the corps. Quoted #2 as totally unfrigging believable. I believe you, I find it unbelievable and unacceptable that a head would run things this way. Wonder if this carried over in DCI.

They used riverboats and toured the rivers for tour then. If they couldn't afford the riverboats, they used barges towed by mules. Least that's what Benny and Pete told Jim and I BITD.

And now back to the regularly scheduled program. Definitely 6 Class A corps- unless someone who has not declared who is assumed to be in A moves up. Maybe we'll see some moves down by 1 June. And now, this message, the first one brought to you by Cabs fans everywhere and Fran Haring......

More judges is nice too.

Yes, and your post might be considered posturing.

You had a cover on yours?????