Leaderboard

The question/accusation is often posed to me why I do not like the leadership of SCV? Why do I keep at it? Over the last year it has been a discovery process of the truth. The truth that has been withheld and guarded from stakeholders (and I presume some board members as well) of what has actually been going on. What it comes down to is millions is unaccounted for as a function of fiduciary irresponsibility among those professionally trained, professionally experienced, and entrusted with the responsibility. Those people and their friends (likely unwittingly) through their actions have overtly and continue to prevent the discovery process from happening. That’s what it comes down to. I had to endure a year of knowing the obvious and wait out the inventible for those in denial. Remember…………. The truth of the audit is two years old. That is the truth that was behind the words in September 2022. Had the audits been done on time then fiscal year 2021 would have been identified as a problem at Sept-2022 at that time, and a whole year of bingo irregularities could have been avoided (do folks think 2023 was any better than 2022?). What has held true of all things like this I analyze is the truth is worse than I think it is. I can only articulate an opinion on data that I have on hand, and I will always have incomplete data, and that goes for the 2005 Bingo theft. I only calculated $800K over three years, but once the Bingo Manager and General manager were out of the way total revenue improved $1.3M a year. So, if I look back at all my warnings as to how bad things are as we know it now, I now see that things are actually worse than I thought last year this time, and I have a new level of worry. I never said SCV was missing fixed assets and equipment. The CPA audit said that. They can’t account for it. I never said SCV was missing cash or can’t account for its money. The CPA audit said that. I hadn’t really dig unto the Bingo concerns. I only had a single data point (draft of 2021), but now that is a persistent trend and it correlates to the changes in Bingo Operations, the Bingo Manager, and his work situation from Hawaii. Holy mother of god, Bingo is totally sideways and I can quantify that in the millions. Now I can say Federal loans and grants were needed to cover the losses in bingo. That’s going to cause a problem with Federal Authorities. That’s a $675K. Those funds were procured while delinquent without audits and are less than the straight accounting loss of -$808K in Bingo payouts. Even if Bingo was operating at a break even 0% profit SCV would have $808K more, and those federal loans and grants would not have been needed. Now, I am saying things are WAY WORSE than we thought they were. The above is my new baseline, and things are worse because there is still all of 2023 that is now behind us that we have no verifiable data for. Are folks going to believe the core of SCV leadership that oversaw 2021 and 2022 as audited, and still in place in 2023 acted in an appropriate manner the entirety of 2023? They didn’t even get audited financial data for 2021 and 2022 until last week (two years after the fact). What financial information do you think they were working with in 2023????? Are folks saying that while the auditors don’t call out proof and it is not verifiable that there is a possibility there is a room filled with millions of dollars of undeposited Bingo cash that SCV will just stumble upon (oh look, we found it all)? No………. SCV leadership, the leadership at the core of letting things get to this point have continuously prayed on the Alumni’s limited information, limited financial education, and their love of SCV in order to manipulate their oversight of SCV for their own personal gain to continue unchecked. Net Assets decreased over $3,000,000 in 2022. The Vanguard Cadets will never return with Bingo performing as it currently is. Vanguard is not technically a member of DCI Vanguard’s own auditors cannot verify anything of material significance for the last two years audited, and 2020 will not get audited as a function of reporting income less than $2M. Total Bingo is netting millions less while reporting millions more in Gross Revenue. Pull Tab sales are covering losses in traditional bingo game. What is the measure of competence and success folks are using? What justification is being rationalized to overlook all this nonsense?

I had to play Barry Manilow. No one asked me what I thought. I would certainly have let them know.

i'm hoping they go Vanguard...somewhere new. nods to the past here and there...fine. but rehash rarely works well (see 05, 14)

There is an interesting philosophical question on the Reddit discussion: Can you cook the books if you don’t keep books in the first place?

And, possibly more importantly, what do the members want? 😎

All right I’ll post it here (ducks 🙄). Hope SCV is open with the members and potential members from here on out with what is going on behind the scenes. Today anyone interested can use google and social media to find (right or wrong) info on finances, safety, etc. Not like my day when only way I knew about red ink was from riding with two BoD members and listening. Members spend lot of money to join so deserve to hear from the horses mouth. Was member of a corps when they came back twice so interested how SCV handles this extra baggage

well, not sure anyone got hands broken.

They have addressed what is required by law. They have not addressed the concerns, that is unless you mean they have pretty much clarified my concerns are validated. My concerns are addressed, they are validated. That is not a measure of everything is good now. At some point rationalizing things are on a corrective path needs to be replaced with finding the causes of the issues addressed in the Auditor's Report. The problem with finding the causes and validating them is there are consequences. When those who face consequences can block the road to validation and the subsequent consequences there is motivation to prevent the validation. ********** The new CEO basically pushed through the audit process under threat of nonprofit status revocation and snuck under the deadline by 4 days (after being 4 years late). The result of that audit (merely checking the box) showed SCV's financials are erroneous, and anything material in the balance sheet or income statement (basically everything) cannot be used for making a financial assessment of the organization. Now that the audit is complete, and now that the results of that audit are public now is the time to review and scrutinize the numbers in junction with the CPA audit. I have an upper hand in that because for the last year I have been pouring over these numbers. Now I can focus my complaints on areas addressed by the CPA. Yes I might have other areas of concern, but leveraging the CPA opinion would be a better use of my time and effort making a convincing argument. ********** Where I was last year, verses this year at this time is a world of difference. I made public in April 2023 they were delinquent with audits, and what the Audit Statement implies is during those 9 months they didn't put forth the resources of accounting analysis to rebuild those financials. They had 9 months to get to the result of an unqualified opinion and they didn't even come close. The audit could not have presented a worse scenario. I fixed the bookkeeping before. I personally did it myself when Vanguard had bingo thefts in 2005, and it only took me a few months. However, we only got to that state when I had unincumbered access to all the invoices, bank statements, access to all the equipment, and bingo reports that go to the city. ***********

Do you dream the impossible dream? More on-topic. A Don Quixote show has potential.

Thats interesting and fun to perform. Had one song we hated so much someone asked Hershman “hey Larry can we play again next year” just to see the reaction. 🤯

Like everything else in this tired old body, not as far as it used to. "Hey honey, how about some eggs for breakfast?" "You old goober, you just ate eggs for breakfast 10 min ago."

So when I hit 55 Kris told me I was too old to shovel our long sidewalk. (Never by a house on a curve or corner. 😫). So I was told to buy a snowblower (yes dear 😃). Just got in using it and realized this past Thanksgiving weekend 50 years ago I first joined a corps. 🤮 And 2 more months it will be 50 years since that corps folded. (Walking up and down a sidewalk and your mind tends to wander)

Oh, the red flags are right there in the opinion. It seems they weren’t able to truly verify anything of significance. Is there hope? Sure there’s hope, but it starts by getting their accounting in order, and that will be no small undertaking, and also getting their internal controls in order, which will require a lot of institutional discipline.

I’m going to hate myself for saying this but it makes me think of what went on in the count room in “Casino”.

With the advent of a Time Machine yes, they are positioned well for 2014, but I presume you mean 2024. According to the CPAs Audit Report how they are positioned, how much money they have, how much debt they owe, and the state of their fleet equipment cannot be verified.

😁 Quixotic is my middle name.

Sorry for the off topic folks but maybe a warning about trying to guess “hot” trends. There was a disco version of Star Wars music by Meeco that was a big seller. His next album was “Time Machine” which was promoted heavily but deservedly bombed big time. 1978 we played the title track from the album. No one bought the album so no one knew wth we were playing. And 2nd Baris had a repeatedly played note that BADLY needed a third valve. 😱

my hunch is the kids want a cool show.

I am suffering from major DCDS (Drum Corps Deprivation Syndrome) right now. Going through the archives and watching a bunch of shows and rehearsal videos. Is it may yet?

Great, just passing along the info. No one going that path is ever going to be rich so taking on a ton of debt isn't a good idea. I was lucky enough to get a free masters and PhD but still carried debt from my bachelors and it's not fun!

Oh wait we’re going to worry about the members? 😈 (Really kidding as I bring up the same point on other social media.) Ok we’re going to play something from before you were born. Can’t you just feel the history. 🥱🥱🥱

Reminds me of Fiddler on the Roof but…. How many fans in the stands would know about SCVs history of Fiddler. IOW how far back does the fans memory go?

The places he has in mind have very very good fin aid packages and he carries exceptional grades right now. I've already told him he needs to find places for his Masters and on that will essentially pay him to learn. He's on the right path, but it will be very difficult to not have a small bit of debt after coming out of school. Hopefully his little brother stays with the diesel mechanic and firefighter path.

I hope they do a “Classic Vangaurd” show whether it be “Appalachian Spring” “Phantom Of The Opera” something Rimsky-Korsakov related or literally anything like that

This is off topic, but just some advice from someone in higher-ed music and has a musically focused Ph.D., keep it cheap. Don't let them go into debt for a Bachelor's degree in music. If they decide to get a Masters, find a program that will cover tuition. There are plenty in the Midwest that have fully supported graduate degrees in the arts.

Not enough contras lol

We were the Saint Clair Shores Vanguards. Let’s just say in 1975, SCV would have beat us by 60 points.

We were rooting for you @Hook'emCavies We wanted to see what 165 tubas marching on the field would be like a whole lot.

i understand that. unfortunately for DCI and the corps, it's all about finals.

For sure 👍