HockeyDad
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Posts posted by HockeyDad
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14 minutes ago, Richard Lesher said:
Virtual, I don't think anyone with any real power is stepping up and taking responsibility of executing action that needs to be done.
Virtual. Still.
Sooo many red flags. Almost everywhere you look in this organization. -
9 hours ago, Richard Lesher said:
Let me tell you............................. (again)
At the end of Fiscal Year 2019 (Oct-31-2019) SCV lost $545,000 against their best revenue year ever ($5.9M)
The Bingo Manager retired after 13 years (when she was in her 60's to boot when she started as a prior member parent and Board Treasurer).
It was at this time the Director Charles Frost Resigned as well.
So while SCV is still pre COVID they are now looking for two very key leadership employees. One to run the heart and soul of their Revenue Stream, and the other to run the entire organization
When the Bingo manager retired they stopped using a volunteer base to run the bingo games. Previously SCV would reach out to other non profits (usually school booster clubs) and make a appropriate donation to said boosters for parental volunteers. It was through this mechanism it is legal to use Bingo money for what is effectively labor to run Bingo.
SCV went to a full paid staff in 2020 with new Bingo management. Now, I understand it, this is easier to work with, and is less hassle with the turn over of volunteers and having to train people all the time. It does however cost twice as much. What was a yearly donation budget of $250K is now more than double that in Bingo staff payroll.
OK, as well SCV hires a new CEO, and one of the first things he tries to do is terminate the Vanguard A-Corps, and only have the Cadets as a local west coast corps. Needless to say he ends up getting fired.
Mind you, this is all BEFORE COVID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So SCV is now in early 2020 without the foundation of a DCI World Class Corps. Before the CEO officially is on the outs COVID has started to take effect and Bingo operations are shut down by the state and county.
Now, what SCV doesn't do is implement alternative health practices to operate Bingo (for example, BD stated calling Bingo numbers via the FM radio and people would play from their cars). The SCV CEO just decided they were doing to do nothing until they could operate business as usual.
So we are into the Spring of 2020, the SCV CEO is fired, they are not operating Bingo, and COVID is hitting everything and no one knows what is going on with anything in regard to SCV's operations.
OK..................
An executive team is compiled between two currently sitting board members, and they make a CEO and CFO team. Just about everyone (except Bingo operations and some fleet and building maintenance) are working remotely.
What they do not do is pick up where Charles Frost left off at the end of 2019.
Remember, they lost a CEO and their best Bingo manager in history at the same time, hired a lunatic to run the place, and then COVID hit.
At the end of fiscal year 2020 they have $1.5M in investment savings. At the end of fiscal year 2021 they have $1.8M in investment savings.
Now........... important note............ End of FY21 is the beginning of the 2022 season, and SCV is in a position to write a $2,000,000 check and it would be good on day one.
So SCV leadership decided, OK we can do this drum corps thing. The last guy they had running the place left in 2019, and bingo has just been floundering along and the two guys they hired to keep the lights on have basically been working remotely for two years. The year end financials have not really been closed up correctly, they did the same for 2020 and 2021, and throughout 2022 the same thing happened.
Now, what I speculate happened was as the tour went on there were challenges, none of which anyone in SCV leadership took the time to think through. COVID changed the game, no one took the time to consider the additional costs and logistical challenges and management just threw money at the solutions as they came up throughout the season. I speculate all this because at the end of the 2022 summer somehow SCV started defaulting on operational lenders (the folks they would never borrow from long term and usually pay at the end of 30 days, like food vendors, etc....).
To me, as a CFA and prior SCV Treasurer that means they brunt through that $1.8M in investments they started with, and went beyond that, and went beyond the revenue stream they earned during the year to what mathematically resulted in defaults.
Now we are in September of 2022 and it is announced that the Vanguard Cadets are terminated.
OK, honestly, at this point I totally bought into the COVID is hard excuse. I truly did. However, SCV continues to conduct auditions into December of 2022 and right on the heels of a December audition they announce that the Vanguard A-Corps is going to not tour either.
OK.............. they are lying now. How could they not know they can't pull off a season until the very last moment they are taking audition money?
I call BS, and become the Emperor of Drum Corps Trolls.
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Turns out SCV started violating California State Charity Laws when their registration expired in March of 2020 (the time the lunatic CEO was causing all sorts of nonsense). SCV is notified by the California Department of Justice in Nov-2020, and Sep/Oct of 2021 they are delinquent.
While never actually getting back on track SCV then continues to operate a tour in 2022 while entirely in delinquency. All solicited donations since 2020 are in violation of California Law.
It is not until the spring of 2023 do I make public that SCV is in violation of CA Law, and only at this time does SCV finally make any sort of effort to slow down their visibility with donations.
Now we are in April of 2023, SCV is making all sorts of excuses.
April passes
May Passes
June Passes
July Passes
August rolls around and there is another violation notification from the CA DOJ. Just days prior the Treasurer of SCV resigns (he is currently a BD board member now).
September rolls around and the new CEO is giving the impression everything is going to be OK.
October passes, SCV starts submitting much tardy financials and registrations to the State, and finally clear up fiscal year 2019. However, 2021 is now the cause of the continued delinquency status. In fact, 2021 was rejected for administrative errors, and the financial audit did not accompany it. Fiscal year 2022 is also pending.
November rolls around and the DOJ issues a second warning for the delinquency now tied to fiscal year 2021. The DOJ uses vocabulary that now includes the State Tax Board as the DOJ is going to request the Tax Board revoke SCV's non profit status.
That's where we are today. All things being equal, SCV is technically 120 days from 16-November from having their non profit status revoked.
Let us know if you hear the strains of “Nearer My God To Thee” coming from Space Park Drive.
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39 minutes ago, Crown1990 said:
I don't understand ANY poster who blindly praises a Vanguard comeback season without these exact stipulations, or who brands anyone who voices concerns as "haters." Anything else is unacceptable.
Well, we used to have a name for the good folks who would do that: the borg
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1 hour ago, DFA1970 said:
Thank you. Lots of hate to SCV. Some want them out...I want them back. DCI-SCV....that is DCI.
I believe you are misreading the room. I see zero “hate” for SCV. In fact, just the opposite. I see love for SCV and out of that love comes intense concern for SCV and intense lack of patience with those would would mismanage SCV into failure.
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7 minutes ago, Richard Lesher said:
There is no Bingo Committee, the Bingo Manager works from Hawaii, no one that represents the board is keeping close tabs on Bingo Operations.
Bingo is a very large cash driven business, and I suspect they are no longer inventorying the bingo cards and other gaming supplies inventory.
It's not impossible the entire SCV leadership, management and Board have no idea the nuances of bingo operations. Everyone is working virtually except a few lower level folks.
It's highly likely every single Bingo Employee could just pocket cash covertly and walk out the door with it.
YES, YES!!!!!!!!!!! Folks will claim some bingo employees were arrested for stealing a few hundred dollars in the last year or so. So a claim can be made to some sort of oversight.
What I'm getting at is who is checking the folks that tally up the deposits at the end of the day, and report the final numbers that get put into the finances? There certainly aren't any audits of such.
Now that I think about it, I can only imagine the difficulty of trying retroactively clean that up for several years to the degree auditors given an unqualified opinion.
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So if a bingo player buys $100 worth of bingo cards, and there is no inventory check of the cards at the end of the day relative to the revenue taken in for that day then how does one check that $100 just didn't go into someone's pocket.
OK, so someone got caught on camera last year.
So at the end of the day when there is say $10,000 in revenue to deposit across all registers who is checking that revenue against the inventory and ensuring that revenue is matching the deposited funds that actually make it into the bank account?
Whatever the counter argument is, there are no audited financial statements to say everything is on the up and up.
The Bingo Manager in no way can attest to the bingo reports that are filed to the City. At best he can only blindly trust they are correct.
That would be a stunning revelation , if after the 2006 event with Charlotte Luciani (public information - don’t freak out), proper controls were not put in place to ensure this could not happen again. I will assume that’s not the case but now you have me wondering.
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Page after page of thinly veiled innuendo. Are we suggesting someone has their hand in the till over at SCV and is skimming the proceeds? Again? Is that where this is going with all the - where did the money go - why is the paperwork lagging and incomplete and incorrect - discussion? How can BD have 5 million on hand and SCV be barely holding it together when they both have thriving bingo operations?
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7 hours ago, TOC said:
Maybe G. Royer's will had a message for DCI.
Wut?
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2 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:
I will give credit to Cadets for facing facts & pulling the plug before auditions actually started. Even if it did take a bit for some of their social media to get the message.
Partial credit, as they lied about why they were pulling the plug. Lawsuit? No. Just a couple unanticipated invoices.
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Hey SCV, are you gonna do this Again to your MMs? How about you stop shuffling around your cronies and start finding some people with competence? Start with a California- registered CPA.
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Yet so many come on here and trash Mr. Richard Lesher. Yeah he can come off as a self promoter but hasn’t been proven wrong.
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1 hour ago, Slingerland said:
It wasn't what they were charged with doing. DCI was designed by the founders to be a marketing corporation, not a governing body that had power to intervene in the internal operations of the member corps.
Hmmm. Willful negligence? Let’s see if it flies. But sir I wasn’t told I needed to stop abuse. That was the corps’ responsibility. I just run the tour.
The blind leading the blind.-
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11 minutes ago, DCI-1983-91 said:
I'm sure they are, and DCI, too. DCI operated for 50 years with no policies or protections for the treatment of minors.
Well, you know, DCI didn’t have authorization to do anything unless it was given to them by the corps directors. DCI is the corps and can’t enact any regulations on its own and all that. Apparently DCI is the organization that schedules the tour and lines up the judges and that’s it. We will find out whether the legal system agrees.
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1 hour ago, dbc03 said:
You don't have to keep saying this every time someone posts about how the org has completely changed. Yes, we know what the judge has said regarding the corps being the legal successor to the Garfield Cadets. It's still true that nobody involved with The Cadets today had any control over this situation 40 years ago despite whatever legal liability they are deemed to have. Things can be true and not legally relevant
Yup. The people are different. The organization still exists though. The organization under which this alleged abuse happened. 40 years ago. That’s how the judge appears to see it. (I added that sentence just for you). Doesn’t seem at all unfair to me that the organization is a party in this suit.
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47 minutes ago, TheOneWhoKnows said:
From 40 years ago. I’m sorry, but the organization that exists today, meaning board, directors, etc, are not the organization that existed then.
The individuals responsible should be held accountable. Not an organization that has leadership no longer applicable to the situation.Well apparently the judge disagrees with you.
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36 minutes ago, ykw said:
And was alleged to have happened over forty years ago.
Not relevant in the legal system.
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3 hours ago, TheOneWhoKnows said:
The court documents say enough to know motivation. The plaintiff seeks compensation. It's there in writing. If that is not the desired result, there were other avenues. All those victims that came out in the article against GH certainly affected change. Point being, this is about money and we will now be losing a drum corps in the activity because of it.
Hmmm… this is about money and we will now be losing a drum corps in the activity because of it?
What is “it”? We will not be (possibly) losing a drum corps in the activity because there’s a lawsuit and the plaintiff seeks compensation. Rather, we will be losing a drum corps in the activity because a marching member was allegedly assaulted by a staff member of the corps. -
3 hours ago, TheOneWhoKnows said:
I'm not victim blaming. I'm merely stating facts. This case is seeking compensation. The organization simply doesn't have the funds to be paying out compensation. Therefore, the organization will have to file bankruptcy and fold. It's simple facts.
Unless their insurance policy covers it. Or unless the court proceedings don’t end with Cadets having to pay. This is not a forgone conclusion is it?
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15 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:
I should've corrected myself to say "the plaintiff implies" as per another comment in this thread. Perhaps my understanding of our legal system is lacking, or it has been explained already... but why sue the organizations of not to implicate them in the crimes? Genuine question.
A 40 year old case does, however, help us continue to reconstruct a clearer picture of activity-wide wrongdoings over time though. Now entering the permanent public record. I think it's safe to remind all that producing the hard evidence that will accurately implicate everyone is rare, especially within a single case. But two cases at the same time, with that kind of time span, should be sending shockwaves right now.
I wouldn't have stepped forward myself, this much after the fact, if I weren't concerned about ongoing safeguarding efforts. I can't speak for others, but it wouldn't surprise me if that sentiment was shared by others.
I believe the Defendant is claiming the Cadets have moved beyond the culture of abuse. And looks like so far the judge has said…. Uhhhh, no. That’s why the case continues. I don’t think the plaintiff has said anything about this. Why would they? It’s the defendant’s argument not the plaintiff.
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In my line of work we (the entire industry, nationwide) use a database of persons granted access to our facilities plus those denied access. When a new employee is hired and requests access, the company checks this database.
So, to answer the OP’s question, DCI could mandate reporting to DCI. Any corps “denying access” of a person to that corps (marching member, staff) is required to report it to DCI. DCI enters into their compliance database (to be developed) and it is tracked that way. So, the offender’s name isn’t dragged through the mud but can still be checked and denied access at any corps. Each corps is required to check the database to make sure any new members have not been previously denied access at another corps.
Don’t say it can’t be done because it is being done in my industry.-
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1 hour ago, craiga said:
Cadets have no money due to legal bills stemming from bad behavior,
The BOD member who posted here said it was due to late and unexpected bills plus no longer wanting to pinch pennies on member experiences (busses etc.). He made no mention of legal fees being a factor. Are you saying he was being less than truthful? 😎
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So disheartened by these recent posts. How about DCI create a compliance group of about 5 people and have them develop mandatory reporting guidelines that each corps shall follow. And give them investigative authority. If lack of oversight is the problem then create oversight.
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Just for the sake of discussion- is it possible that if a local touring model were “mandated” that more local corps might spring up? And if more local corps spring up, more local shows will? Is it possible that a big factor in the demise of many corps was the national touring model, not just the ending of funding from the local parish or VFW or Legion post? I don’t know. And neither do you who speak with such certainty. We may never find out. We will probably never find out. I don’t think DCI is capable of making big adjustments like that. So it’s just an academic exercise. Since we’ve run out of ideas for revenue generating I thought I could ask this.
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5 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:
Didn’t say no. Pointing out the challenge. Just doing it the old way isn’t the solution. There may be a solution that has some old and current together but just turning back the clock isn’t the answer
Oh c’mon now Jeff, you’re better than this. Don’t be so dismissive and handwave this off like everyone who thinks cost containment is necessary wants to go back to 1968. I think a Nittany Lion can come up with something better than that!
BTW I prefer 1976.
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19 minutes ago, craiga said:
LabMaster initiated this thread to brainstorm some revenue sources and strategies with the hopes of hearing some fresh ideas.
Instead, we once again find ourselves up to our ears in nostalgic time travel by some people.
Do you guys not get it? Neighborhood drum corps sponsored by churches and VFW posts went away 40 years ago. The activity and society in general has changed and is not going back.
Yet, drum corps is still a wonderful activity for young people and adults alike. We just need to figure out how to make the finances better for all.
And one more time, for the record, neither Spirit nor SCV nor Cadets opted to take a summer off because they ran out of money. In each one of these cases, their misfortunes can be directly traced back to bad behavior....in one case, decades ago.
Now...back to revenue streams.....
Well, actually, Cadets BOD member did say they pulled out of 2024 because of finances. And he didn’t say it’s because of the lawsuit. Just sayin’
I get that you don’t see the activity in dire financial circumstances. But some of us disagree. That’s cool, right?
Santa Clara Vanguard 2024
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
Welcome. The floor is yours. What would you like to say about the 2024 corps? Please steer the conversation in the direction you’d like. But you need to lead off with something.