TubaPlayer

I wish I had that kind of money. Also I feel like brand product might be a bit of a stretch here. Obviously bias, but SCVC has done most of the actual winning in the decade, has done most of the performance in and around the Bay Area for VMAPA, has clearly attracted the talent to be a destination corps for a lot of people who are not able to do WC (I personally know people who marched top 12 and WENT BACK to SCVC to age out). SCV being the main vehicle of exposure competitively during the summer season, sure. The rest of the year and around the rest of the community, not so sure.

They even close the show with the SCV shield, then the SCVC shield right after. It's almost like they want there to be unity.

They did just that in 2019. Well they toured in California but yeah. Great show, kept all the staff on board, generated the talent. Show title was called "What About Us" lol hmmmmmm

Take a look at the SCV admin staff page. The list never really stops. They have a meteorologist and enough health and wellness members to staff an SNF. Is it that the board recognized they couldn't uphold those standards or that they were less willing to allocate more resources from their A corps to the Cadet corps?

The housing and food side of things at SCVC before this season had been local family housing. That wasn't part of tour fees or anything but I liked that format. It took the issue of finding housing and food for the entire corps off the shoulders of logistics and admin and volunteers. It also meant that members had a nice cozy bed, whatever food they wanted to get, and was a great bonding experience for the housing "families". In total, I can't say this was more than an additional $500 on top of my tour fees, which were like $2000 at the time. We always ran below the budget (at least that's what we were told). This allowed admin to focus their energy on the actual time we were traveling as a corps. And usually, expectations were far beyond met, both from a budget and experience point of view. I'm not part of the current generation of marching members, but I can see this format working for them.

SCVC has already been like 85% Bay Area / So Cal and 15% elsewhere. An interesting thing to note is that, at least I've been told, BDPA treats every patch the same: BDC, BDB, BDA. If current SCV staff and members flat out refuses to acknowledge SCVC years of experience, we aren't ever going to get any kind of unity or cohesion across the organization.

I agree to an extent. He taught at SCV A for a good amount of years, and he was one of the people who kept Clowns alive within the organization. I don't know what exactly the motive is behind trying to divide us, but you can only take so much shortchanging of the corps you built. At least from what I remember, he called us "Santa Clara" because we were... mostly from Santa Clara. He called A corps "Vanguard". Everything else surrounding whatever being more Vanguard means, I have no clue. At least to me, SCVC and SCV were two very separate entities before he even said anything about that. Very few SCVC kids moved up to SCV, previously not by their choice, but now they've chosen to take their talents elsewhere. There is no animosity specifically towards out-of-state members. But if you need locals volunteering and helping out and running bingo and doing things like the Parade of Champions, you'd hope that VMAPA would want to shift recruiting a little closer to home. It costs less, it sustains the future of the organization, it allows it to grow. There is a HUGE void in the current class and incoming classes of alumni who are involved with the corps due to this phenomenon.

Instructional staff had been extremely vocal to the administration about making sure the members were safe and well taken care of. The one dragging their feet were closer to VMAPA than SCVC corps proper. I hope you're catching what I'm implying without going into too much detail. Frankly, the organization does not deserve what the members or the instructional staff bring to the table.

He was so right too. VMAPA cared more about their ego than to keep around one of the last people connected to SCV's past.

Barnhill was probably told to leave because he stuck out for us too much. And SCVC just won 5 of the last 7 seasons they've done a national tour. With one of the most consistent design staff and instructional staff from DCI top to bottom. To say I'm devastated for them and the members is an understatement. I just can't wrap my head around why they would completely put the program on hiatus.

In my time at SCVC, that was probably true. We ate and slept and traveled better than some top 12 corps. Clearly no longer the case because they no longer have someone fighting to get them what they need to be a logistically successful drum corps. VMAPA and SCV-A loves to talk about being classy, and we learned that their definition of class is very different than what is actually portrayed.

My belief is that if they already don't show you the time of day (and based on your post history across multiple platforms, they don't), why do you care about their consent? Especially if it isn't bound to anything legal. What are they gonna do to those of us who speak out, ruin our marching experience that already happened years ago? No pressure to share more, just how I'm going about sharing experiences about the organization now

I saw this and need to reemphasize this is NOT how SCVC was run in the past (up until 2019). I marched the Barnhill years and we had 4 warm meals, excellent housing, SO much floor time, the best volunteer and instructional staff. I'm sure the 2019 director was the same way. So tell me, how is the stark contrast in amenities not a result of VMAPA decision making? Their world class counterpart is able to haul around multiple equipment and prop trucks, have world class facilities, literally a phonebook's worth of staff, and a chef. They aren't even the corps made up of Santa Clara / west coast kids.

Blue Devils probably isn't in the same terrible financial situation that Vanguard is in. Patch out culture is when people who have marched more years than you think they are justified for treating you badly. When interacting with SCV, we were treated like our patches were worth half as much as theirs. VMAPA is much the same with their resource allocation and the overall way they try to dictate the way SCVC is run. It's no surprise that the actual alums who care about the organization are so upset and angry with this decision. VMAPA just gave us a masterclass on how to lose local support overnight.

I also came across this video, and while I did not download the video that synced it up, I did download the audio. Not too sure how it's too distinct from the Finals recording, other than that it's raw and I can hear more parts, but I would love to know what the significance of this audio is. I tried to PM you, but I was unable to. Is there any way I can get the link to you other than posting it up here?