kac

I tend to think of it as "bribed' giving.... But THAT doesn't answer my question either! :P

Your reply didn't answer my question. Who here designates a corps in their United Way donation? Anyone know what corps does/doesn't have United Way ID numbers? If I don't donate via the UW, then I am not in the Superbowl raffle and don't get an extra day off from work either. And yes, I already give directly to corps outside of UW.

The United Way campaign has kicked off again here at my office. We have big raffle items as incentive for signing up. (like a trip to the superbowl with airfare and tix, etc) Last year I designated one corps for my donation. I'm thinking about perhaps splitting it between two corps this year, but I'm having difficulty finding out which corps have UW#'s. Who here designates a corps in their United Way donation? Anyone know what corps does/doesn't have United Way ID numbers?

Ouch! That is rotten luck! Smart move to dub in the solo for the recording. Maybe this thread should be re-named the bee sting thread??? lol I was stung on the ankle while marching onto the field in '90- not at finals. But two horn players stung on the lip at finals? That has to be uncommon.

Like the new flag Gary! Yes, this is good news!

What a GREAT photo!! (I miss the capes!) With your permission, could Gary put that on the Crossmen Alumni website in the '83 photo album? You've taken some great photos, can't wait to see the rest!

:spit: ^OO^ Gary, if there are post of the year nomintations, this should be on the list!

That is GREAT Gary! Now of course I'm thinking of places that we could photoshop Bones into..... after all Bones IS everywhere.....

I believe that the Crossmen Alumni Assn is trying to do just that by connecting people who have miles to donate with members that need airfare.

Well said! And thank you for helping!

Cap Reg's sundial from '05. Did nothing for me except make me feel SO badly for the people pushing it all over the field.

This is also a very good search engine. Leave the BOS in the sale city field. ITA Software Trip Planner

Are you asking about who owns the name "Crossmen" specifically or the D-1 touring rights or the whole package?? You have listed some of the questions that I have about this sale also. When exactly does the sale transaction go through? Now or in two years? Who pays the bills/files the tax forms between now and then? Is the corps being financed by Mr. Millionaire, with YEA filing the taxes for this next year? Or is YEA still carrying the corps on their budget/funds for '07? Who has voting rights at the director meetings? Does Hop have 2 votes since they are still part of YEA or does the new director have one? And after this next season if the RR people decide they are in over their heads and they want to back out, what happens to the sale? Again, until we hear something from the new director, I'm standing firm in the "cautiously optimistic" category with my viewpoint.

Not really. Sure we can sit here all day and argue about finances, management, etc. When it comes down to it, it's about marketing. The bottom line is that the Cadets cannot fully market their brand name as the face of YEA with the Crossmen attached to YEA. It's like if Pepsi also owned and sold RC cola. They are both colas, and the sales of Pepsi wouldn't be as great because of the people that were buying RC cola. It's called diversification. Any good profitable firm won't have two of the same product in the same region. And now YEA doesn't. Simple as that.

Ok, here's my take on things... (I marched preYEA, am a volunteer, a sponsor, went to WCU, etc) I'm glad the corps still exists, as I was when YEA took over in the first place. I think this could be a great thing, but there are too many unanswered questions for me to be nothing but cautiously optimistic. When it's a choice between folding the corps or changing ownership, I will take an ownership change every time. I don't care if they become the Vancouver, BC, Kazoo corps, as long as they keep the traditions and Bones spirit alive. Yes, it breaks my heart to have them move. My heart breaks for the local kids that when they joined the corps, never budgeted for airfare and are now in a panic to try and come up with thousands of dollars in airfare with virtually no notice. It breaks for the volunteers that I've spent so many weekends with that are now trying to figure out what to do with their free time because they can't afford to fly to Tx to volunteer for camps, etc. And for those of you on here that saying to get over it, you obviously don't understand the connection that these people have to this corps. I dare you to stand in front of a marching member, or an alum, or one of the MANY dedicated volunteers and tell them to get over it. Have a little compassion people, it's been ONE DAY since the offical announcement. Give us a right to our feelings about this no matter what they are. Once again, I don't like how this transition was handled; I didn't like how the transition to YEA was handled either. There are many people that were alienated in the transition to YEA in the first place, and now in a way that alientation is happening again. I know there are people here who say to get over it. I say it's not that easy, because of how this whole situation has been handled. It could have been easier to reconcile feelings about this if people weren't suddenly treated as just another business transaction and were given the respect for the efforts that they gave to the Crossmen for over three decades. This could have been handled better by having an open and honest town hall meeting to put everyone on the same page at the same time, have the many currently unanswered Q's answered, met the new director to give his assurance that the traditions of the corps will be upheld, etc. Instead, things spread by word of mouth, cryptic emails, non-information "information" emails, then finally an email shortly before the press release saying what's really happening. That's not how it's done in the real world folks, and I feel that YEA has once again opened the door to alienating decades of people closely tied to this corps because of how they've handled the people aspect of this sale. Sure, business transactions happens all the time, but at least in my corner of corporate America (large financial firms), there is a great consideration given to the PEOPLE that the transactions directly impact. There are town hall meetings, Q&A sessions, etc. The people that are impacted by the business transactions are given the information in a manner that shows that they are respected for their contributions, and as people in general. That didn't happen with this transaction. I challenge the new corps director to step up to the plate and be a better communicator than Hop was- have an open door policy, and respect the PEOPLE and their emotions that have come along with this transaction. My concern at this point (since we just don't have answers yet) is that because of the distance there will not be enough people consistently around the corps (paid staff, volunteers, etc) to continue teaching the history of corps in the years ahead. I'm not talking about next year or the year after that. I am greatly concerned that 3-5 years from now this corps will be fully run by the RR band parents and these traditions that so many of us hold so dear to our hearts will have been washed from the corps. This nearly happened when I marched, and if it wasn't for one particularly vocal alum/staff member that held the director accountable to the past, the corps would have become just another vanilla flavored drum corps. This is now the challenge for the alumni association, I believe- to unify as an alumni unit, teach these kids about the corps regardless of where the corps resides, and do all that we can to foster Bones within a new era. Thank you to the current members that have posted in this thread. You guys rock! I know you will fight tooth and nail to keep Bones alive and well. You are the glue that holds this new journey to the past, and I personally will do whatever I can to make sure you are able to afford to march this year. This corps needs you now more than ever. Kathy Corcoran Crossmen Guard 90 & 91, volunteer, sponsor, etc.

Glad to hear that the sticker is still there! Can you post a photo?

Yes, he was- he died early in 2001. And he's still considered the director of the corps- his title is Director Emeritus. http://www.cabs.org/staff.asp

Why don't you just email Hop and ask him what the Cadets policy is on attending your graduation if it conflicts with spring training? Then discuss his answer with your folks (who btw, might not be willing to negotiate with you on missing graduation). IMO, graduations are generally boring. But they are a rite of passage and if you attend, it's more of a thank you to the people who have supported you throughout your education, not for yourself.

Jon- when did you have to fill in that sheet? Recently? Because I've never seen/heard of it, and no one has yet to ask me to complete one. :sshh: Just wondering if it was an old thing or a new thing.... I think for the most part the staff & volunteers are good people. A lot of man hours and money would be wasted in the DCI office on background checks for a handful of bad apples whose reputations have probably preceded them. As for training, perhaps some kind of training on working with kids could be part of the job requirements for the paid staff members. To ask a volunteer to go through a day of training when they might only have one day to volunteer is a lot to ask. Take my mom for instance, she's a 7th grade math teacher and has taught 7-12th grade for decades. She knows how to treat kids. I sign her up to work Crossmen's food truck for the Beverly show. That's the ONE DAY she puts in annually for the corps. If I asked her to sit through six hours of training about working with children, I highly doubt she's be on the list for volunteering anymore. And that would be a shame, since she enjoys helping out and they usually need volunteers for that show. Why sit in a room for 6hrs about something you already know so that you can go volunteer for less than 12hrs?? Makes no sense to me. And besides, who would pay for/hosting the training sessions? Who is picking up that cost, and where are they getting the money to fund it? Good idea in theory, but I think if the management is solid then the kids don't end up in situations where they can be abused in the first place.

I'm sure the word "never" is being used loosely by the members. But obviously they have vivid memories of the times that there wasn't much food, and their memories of obtaining food from other corps. I understand your frustration- I know that if any of the Crossmen kids said they weren't fed this winter when I was working the camps, I too would be ticked that my hours of cooking apparently went unnoticed. Question- were you there before or after Fred came on tour, or both? Just curious to see how the food situation improved after he arrived.

Um, hello? Have you read the whole thread? Obviously someone WAS called and people had to have been alerted (parents, dci executives), or DCI would not have sent in the Trooper's director to take over for the remainder of the season. Do you think that Fred from the Troopers just said "oh, I don't have anything to do in Casper this summer, let me just go help a corps for the summer"?? Somehow I doubt that. Have you ever marched a really bad season?? Where it was so bad you couldn't imagine that it could get any worse, and then it did? I did. And the reason that people don't just quit is because you care too much about your fellow corps mates to leave them in the lurch and make the situation even worse. The webmaster is also the tour manager. He was on TOUR trying to salvage the situation. He wasn't sitting at home working on the website. Why are you trying to blame him when it's pretty clear he was one of the very few people that was proactively trying to correct the situation?

Glad to hear the members are emailing DCI directly. I do hope that CR members that have years left to march do consider helping out Troopers next year as a thank you to their director for his help this summer. At the very least, they will know the director and his capabilities in advance. What I want to know is how the CR director went from being a person that worked so hard to build the corps, and is now destroying that same corps.How does this happen to a person?? I also don't understand how he can go from doing it all for the kids to holding grudges against members and blaming others for his errors. Did something major happen in his life that caused what seems to be a pretty drastic personality switch??? Or was he always like this but it was covered up under layers of staff/administration?? I don't really expect an answer to this. Just thinking aloud and scratching my head as to how someone can change so dramatically, as it sounds like he was still doing an ok job back around '00 and earlier.

The link to that uniform design is HERE

I split the cost of a storage unit for 3 months with a friend who also lived on campus. I don't recall now why he needed the storage, but it worked out well for both of us and cost next to nothing- it was like $100 for my half for all three months. School ended, the stuff went to storage near campus, and I went on tour. After tour I went back to school (band camp started the next day), moved my stuff out of storage and back into the dorm. Most of those storage places also will store boats, campers, etc. I bet if you couldn't find a safe place for your car, you could pay them to store it there.

In that case, I'd join VK. (oh to be young again!)