GBugler

What does the sex of the other party matter? You know, if I were you, I'd probably stop posting about this. There is no legal consent at 15. The other party committed a felony. That's all it is, no matter how fondly you remember the experience.

When I marched in the early 1990's, a 26 year old percussion instructor (caption head) from my corps was in an active relationship with an 18 yr old guard member. The relationship was known to corps leadership and nothing was done. I don't know if they legally COULD do anything, given the age of the member. The corps is highly successful and still active, as is the former instructor. No barriers, apart from "the speech" about separate sleeping for male and female members, were ever established at that time.

This was, indeed, a landmark verdict against the mother of a disturbed 15 year old who murdered four of his classmates with a gun given to him by his awful parents. They evaded law enforcement when they learned of pending charges against them, and now they're up against it. The father will likely try to plea, based on the mother's conviction, however he's not likely to be offered the opportunity by the prosecution. The mother was represented by the same attorney who represented Larry Nasser, BTW. That attorney was THE WORST in court. These parents were directly responsible for this kid having access to a firearm, and that directly led to the shooting. They're 100% responsible and guilty of manslaughter. The jury bought none of the defense's arguments, nor should they have.

If you believe that Pioneer will ever return to the field after being banned from DCI membership due to the Blenski's complete lack of action to safeguard members or to report abusers, then you aren't being honest about what my statement means. They're never coming back. It's a perma-ban by default. You think that Roman Jr. will do ANYTHING different than dear old dad? Excuse me while I try not to guffaw. Unless and until Pioneer is owned and operated by someone other than the Blenski family or any of the old guard there, they are defunct. In case you hadn't noticed, not many dead corps are springing back to life. Neither are there many new corps starting up and being successful. Because, you know, sustainability. Also, I NEVER said, nor did I ever insinuate that member safety is not required for the activity's sustainability. Where the hell you got that from my post, I have no idea. Speaking of rethinking...You need to rethink why you included four corps in your list of losses due to "sustainability," when the overall sustainability of drum corps had zero to do with their demise. It's completely a false equivalence and that's what I was pointing out.

Several highly credentialed individuals have taken this position in the recent past. It changed nothing.

At least four of the corps on this list don't count towards the "sustainability" argument. One was eliminated by utter incompetence from organizational management, and the other three were guilty of allowing horrendous member abuse, with one of those being perma-banned. After the airing of their dirty laundry, Crusaders and Shadow went away because no parent would allow their kid to march there. Being strictly technical, they don't count as casualties of sustainability.

You gotta be ####### me right?

Rhymes with "Chelsea Mongo."

I have so many friends who marched Cadets in the mid-late 1980's-mid 1990's. They're all hurting and any positive information that comes out of Erie is, I'm sure, welcome.

In 1990, Crown held our everyday rehearsals at the Charlotte Parks and Rec Annex off Independence Blvd., across from the old Memorial Stadium, where NightBeat originated. We used a locked storage unit at the annex for instruments and equipment. Thankfully, we were able to move to the on-campus setting at Belmont Abbey College starting in 1991. The Annex was truly awful but it served its purpose, I guess.

Any government grant program (especially related to COVID) will be heavily backlogged, as well as heavily regulated. I currently work with HUD grants for low-income housing projects, so I can attest to this. There was so much fraud associated with COVID relief programs it staggers the mind. Do we know if any other DCI corps applied for COVID relief through this program to help cover COVID-related losses? Seems like a no-brainer, but so does timely non-profit paperwork filing. Also from the sba.gov site: Venue or promoter who received a PPP loan on or after December 27, 2020, will have the SVOG reduced by the PPP loan amount" So, any PPP forgiveness would likely impact the grant amount they would be eligible for through the Shuttered Venue program, if they even applied.

SVOG is a non-starter. Per SBA: "Notice: As of August 20, 2021, SVOG is no longer accepting new applications"

This thread serves as the coda on Howdy's RAMD/DCP presence. Weird guy. I guess we are all weird, somehow or another. But probably not as weird as Howdy was.

Knight came and spoke to the marching members at TLB (Star HQ) in 1993. I remember him being affable and it seemed to me that he was truly into what we were doing. I remember thinking that he sounded pretty much exactly like he did in the '89 Finals vignette where he praised the work ethic of D&BC marching members. I never liked his coaching style or his on-court demeanor but it was a cool moment in my life that I'll never forget, getting a motivational pep talk from Bob Knight.

Whoever filled out the form flat out said that there was Theft/Embezzlement/Diversion/Misuse. Jesus...

Anyone got a video of that Battle of Hastings show BD did back in 1086? I can’t find it on YouTube.

(I know right? Kinda like...maybe it's even BETTER without them)

Yup.

I can only assume, based on his “laughing emoji” response, that GJ was trolling with his campground post. Well played. Unless you weren’t trolling, in which case, WTF

This is probably the worst idea I've ever heard when it comes to corps members' safety. The reasons never to do this are obvious and numerous. Hotels, while not the best solution over the traditional corps housing sites (again, for obvious reasons) are infinitely safer than pitching tents in an open-air campground, exposed to the elements. Nothing personal, but WTF?

Watching '97 now. The phrase leading into the final company front gets me. Every. Time.

I was in HS at this time as well. There used to be a huge DBC show here in Columbia, SC that we all went to in the early 1980's that was originally at Williams-Brice Stadium but was moved to Spring Valley HS at some point in the late '80's. Crossmen, Cadets, Bluecoats were all regulars. Good times.

1997, for me, was the single most emotional, vibrant, and blazin' ######## SCV that there ever was. I thought, even though there were some noticeable (small) flaws in execution, that this show could have and maybe should have won. It was an amazing tour de force.

It affects the community because of the undoubted, vested interest that thousands of people have in Vanguard’s participation in a full DCI tour. If Vanguard returns to world class status, it would draw members and staff from both existing corps and other places. The tour’s revenue sharing would be affected just like it is without a major player like Vanguard. Return, fold, whatever, it’s going to have an effect.

What discourse is there really to be had about SG's experience with SCV's Alumni groups? I mean, if that's what this thread has devolved into. Unless you have shared the experience, is there really a frame of reference for anyone else to discuss it? I don't understand some of y'all's positions, whatsoever. There have been bad actors at the highest levels of this activity for a very long time and the Nadolny piece exposed only some of the worst of it. More dominoes fall every month that passes, it seems. All of this with SCV, the abuse, the money issues, all of it can be traced back to ####-poor decisions and outright negligence from the board. Hell, I even questioned RCA's vetting/hiring when it happened and got called out here for that. That ended well, didn't it? Point being, anyone still on the board who was associated with the financial issues that SCV has brought on themselves needs to be gone. If those people were responsible for hiring current staff, then those staff need to be gone as well. I can't imagine any possible recovery from this situation that doesn't involve a gut-job. My $.02