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scheherazadesghost
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Posts posted by scheherazadesghost
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4 minutes ago, mikescott said:
Ryan is incredible! He’ll be visiting spring training and spending time with the kids. Ian and Rafiq are also wonderful! Exciting all around.
For once I don't care of it's new or old work... but if it's old please make it this:
Love seeing Bloo at the cutting edge. 😎
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2 minutes ago, mikescott said:
I’m excited 🙂
He's a former dance musician and I've been following him for years. That's a fn catch and I can't wait to see this!!!
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21 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:
i've seen this on multiple levels of the activity. i have also seen where just other volunteers poison it. i saw social media stuff recently about a WGI guard regional in Texas where parent volunteers turned off many units by being power hungry and not respecting people's pre-show process and fan experience
Sounds again like a situation where an org bit off more than they could chew with volunteers. It's the same with expecting donors to break down the doors without having an effective donor cultivation strategy in place. Plenty of inexperienced nonprofit admin who cut their teeth in for-profit settings make both mistakes.
That said, did a quick web search on both "handling disrespectful volunteers" and "how to keep volunteers happy and engaged" and was flooded with free resources. Seems like my fellow Texans didn't do their homework and expected volunteer utopia. It's really easy to underestimate the strategies needed for a healthy npo if you've never done it well.
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14 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:
Think some of it is human nature and people want to feel important. Worked a week long very large car show and flea market for decades. Never heard anyone compare how hard the jobs were. But heard plenty of bragging how important their job was. And talk about in fighting when tasks overlapped.
For sure. And it comes down to the shoestring capacity most of the orgs are dealing with, as mentioned earlier. I'm beyond compassionate about that.
However, again, don't bring on volunteers if you can't adequately support and supervise them.
Listen, I was on staff with the Jeffs at Vanguard and had light management responsibilities over volunteer drivers. I was not good at it, and was completely unsupported and untrained by my dueling supervisors for those responsibilities at the time. I've been part of the problems alluded to here. A poster child for whiplash-inducing staff turnover rates.
But the buck didn't stop with me, a young rookie at the job. It did several levels up in management though. I've blocked most of my memories from 2008 the experience was so bad. Shoestring capacity is still no excuse for running volunteers into the ground.
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6 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:
Having a father who had a CDL just had to shake my head. No idea what the hardest job is but being responsible for safety of members on the road for good part of the day is a helluva responsibility
Attempting to rank volunteer jobs by who has it the hardest work is worthless anyway, unless one is attempting to create some kind of tiered award or acknowledgement system. Not downplay a volunteer's contribution by comparing to others'.
I thought this was a team activity, but what do I know?
More reason to steer clear until I see clear signs of improvement.
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I'm sure there are "bad volunteers" but it's the job of the nonprofit to fully explain the scope and responsibilities of the roles. And then follow thru with dismissal if those standards aren't being met, not just keep negative warm bodies around. If they don't have the capacity to do all of that, welp they shouldn't bring on volunteers.
To reduce the critical feedback of any volunteer is both completely on par for this activity and exacerbating the ongoing challenges it faces.
Being insulting is totally on par too.
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8 minutes ago, Sh0uldN0t said:
I couldn't disagree more about volunteering, including for a corps for which I didn't march. I suspect the issue for many of those reacted negatively to the experience derives as much from them as from anything else.
It's not a vacation. Volunteering isn't so you can watch all the shows. It's supposed to be hard work. The reward isn't anything given to you. It's what you take from the experience. Contributing to something great (whatever the scores). Working with strangers for a common, positive purpose. Seeing tour from the inside. Watching the kids develop and thrive.
If volunteers are taken for granted (and they are), it's not deliberate. It's because drum isn't a pro sports franchise or even a pro non-profit. These are shoestring organizations with few permanent staff and lots of seasonal employees, most of whom are barely younger than the marchers.
One more thing. The nut who said drivers work the hardest clearly hasn't worked on the food truck. Hardest job in the corps even if you're doing it right. I loved it.
I've been a professional volunteer for the federal government in rural-digital workforce development and a volunteer coordinator for a legacy arts nonprofit with international reach. To name a few.
Disagree all you want, but the "guess you couldn't hack it" excuse doesn't apply here. It's also reductive and insulting, IMHO. Another way of relieving these orgs of accountability to their stakeholders.
Glad you had better experiences though, honestly. Just wish others and I could say the same.
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1 hour ago, BigW said:
Many volunteers end up feeling used and taken advantage of if not managed carefully. I can think of family situations where I was appalled and upset with what I was observing.
Recent cases in point:
Lots of validation here for why I've felt uninspired to volunteer my nonprofit, wellness, or diversity/belonging professional skills to Vanguard or others.
Like some state there, even I and other alum have been treated like outsiders. Can't beg to be involved indefinitely. It's exhausting.
Volunteers are still donors and have the right to put reasonable restrictions on their donations. Can't meet them? Girl bye.
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22 minutes ago, Slingerland said:
Feh. Bingo, bourbon raffles, t-shirt sales (which ALSO have nothing to do with the core mission of any of the orgs), System Color instruments, Chinese Panda restaurant days (or whatever tf that restaurant chain is called) - if there's a net profit that drives costs down to the participants, it's fine.
Sure npos are unaligned all the time. But that risks important components of a healthy nonprofit like community engagement and donor trust. It's also a sign of flimsy strategic planning. I'm not just pulling mission alignment terminology out of my butt, it's a legit strategy that feeds every successful, similarly sized npo I've worked for. And it's fed the thing we call modern dance longer than most drum corps have existed.
This article discusses large npos and investments, but the same principle applies to other income streams.
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23 minutes ago, Tim K said:
The question of whether the mission statement of a non profit is in alignment with Bingo is a legitimate question. In my case as a pastor (I’m a Catholic priest) I have had parishes with schools but we no longer had Bingo so I never had to make a decision about the game. However you still have to figure out ways to pay teachers a living wage while keeping tuition low for families who are barely scraping by. I know drum corps is a different situation than a school but funding non profits is not easy.
In my neck of the woods (just outside of Boston) there are fewer Bingos. There have three major death knells for Bingo. One, when smoking was no longer allowed in public places, Bingos took a huge hit. Casinos with Bingo halls is a second. Third? Bingos have a hard time attracting volunteers. Volunteering at Bingo is a thankless job.
Yes it's difficult work, generating nonprofit revenue. But there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Seasoned nonprofit development directors do it all day every day.
A savvy, or even just industrious org need only read a book, search the interwebz, or reach out to other orgs. Or, call me crazy, just seek out alumni who have done time in the nonprofit world.
The bingo swan songs you mentioned are legit and will only get worse with time.
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6 minutes ago, craiga said:
Yes, Boston hasn't had bingo in over 30 years. There's been lots of talk about paid bingo workers, but back in the day, our bingo (called "Metrocorps) was staffed with volunteers including BAC staff and members who were 18+. I remember working it myself, and all the BAC staff and members would stand and salute whenever "I-27" was called. IYKYK! 😉
Every nonprofit pro I've asked about bingo has turned up their nose. I'm a broken record here, but bingo is not in alignment with any of the drum corps' nonprofit missions. The industry term is mission alignment. And bingo isn't it. It also takes away resources from donor cultivation. VMAPA has suffered from this for years.
BD can kinda make the case for bingo as mission alignment, being "devilish" and whatnot, but it's still a stretch.
I also worked bingo, even proposed to my ex fiance at Vanguard bingo. But it was weird even then and was also required of all marching members. My family was shocked to hear some corps still rely on it.
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43 minutes ago, craiga said:
You make good points here. Truthfully, the only part of your post which I don't agree with is your observation regarding small donors vs. large donors. I think we can agree that the days of car washes and bake sales are a thing of the past. While any well organized corps certainly won't turn down a few hundred dollars from individual donors, they would be guilty of fund-raising malpractice if they didn't AGRESSIVELY pursue large corporations. I do not the details of BD's sources of revenue, but BAC posts all the corporate donors on it's web page. (The full list is there.) From memory, I know it includes entities like John Hancock Financial Services, Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, several Massachusetts banks and credit unions, as well as the City of Boston itself. I think there are several dozen companies. As I've said before, I take no credit for this personally. We have a 48 member BOD which works 12 months a year to generate these funds, culminating in the Concert in the Park in mid June in downtown Boston. Most years, they pull in close to $800,000 at that event. As a recently retired person on a fixed income, I contribute $300 per year, not including t shirts and show tickets I purchase. The drum corps is happy to get it, and always has a corps member email a signed thank you note....but the corporations with their massive donations are who brings the fire.
Mm I don't think we disagree really. 👍🏽
I didn't intend to give the impression that orgs shouldn't go after big donors. To both your and @Tim K's points, large donors are crucial for the kind of budgets drum corps live on. Rather, they should only do so after they've demonstrated competency in cultivating "smaller" donors.
Big donors will want proof in the pudding that you've taken care of other donors and can actuate a solid mission that looks good in their portfolios.
Have worked with multiple nonprofits that, like your example, cultivate donors of all sizes. But the big donors don't just trust any nonprofit, cause like in other areas of life, you have to earn and maintain trust.
Boston and BD clearly do this in different ways, mainly bc bingo makes BD's needs different, but they clearly both do it well.
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1 hour ago, Tim K said:
I’ve said this before in other threads but when it comes to corporate donors, drum corps can be a hard sell. In general, businesses want to donate to organizations that serve the local community, the key word being local. A touring drum corps that recruits from all over the country is an organization that serves, but it does not serve the local community. Donors also want “bang for the buck.” Let’s say you give an organization $5,000. If it’s a local basketball program, that goes a long way towards equipment, uniforms, gym rental, etc. If it’s a local theater group, that goes a long way towards sets and costumes. Lots of people are served. How far does the same donation go in drum corps?
Indeed, but an org can only demonstrate trustworthiness and adherence to their mission via small donors first. I've never heard of a situation, outside of skilled networking with wealthy people, in which an org is just gifted large donations without demonstrating the above first. Even those partnerships can fall away very easily if you #### off the wrong admin or donor.
If corps orgs aren't willing to do the work for small gifts, they'll never gain the clout needed for big money.
Also, corporations are not the only donors out there. They're a component sure, but they're more like second tier. The decision makers in those companies will laugh you out of the room if your org hasn't demonstrated the above. That's why I rofl'd when folks ask why VMAPA isn't going for Google money. Are we kidding? Their competitors for such money have been doing the above for decades. VMAPA has been lazily relying on bingo... that's a different strategic focus entirely.
All of this affirms your point... that you have to demostraste the above locally and consistently. It's very difficult to do that by mom-n-popping it with admin who have never done it before. It's a professional skillet... and it can't be entrusted to amateurs or volunteers.
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12 hours ago, HockeyDad said:
I’ve often said everything I know about classical music I learned from drum corps or Bugs Bunny cartoons.
Most excellent. Similar about Bugs Bunny, but admittedly, before I got to SCV, I may have already been able to pinpoint various composers... and I may have had a bumper sticker on my teenager car that said "Yo quiero Pachelbel." Supporting the local classical station like a boss!
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8 hours ago, BigW said:
The first huge case study of this at the DCI level was the Circle K sponsorship of Suncoast Sound. They wanted the corps to so some performance for them and they felt rehearsal for the next contest was more important, so they blew them off and lost that sponsorship. That was their "jump the shark" moment.
Another little-known incident was a small NJ corps back in the early 80's known as Fantasia III. They got a Burger King sponsorship and flew their flag as part of the Main Guard as part of the deal. the DCE competitors grumbled, whinged and forced them to stop that. The corps pretty much died after losing that money. And, it also discouraged anyone else from seeking those kinds of connections. Stick to Bingo and raffles...
It's rare that you get a huge sponsor in any activity that throws out a lot of cash and expects nothing in return. In Formula One when cigarette money was being thrown around like drunken sailors on liberty to teams, one of them was approached by FedEx for a major sponsorship and part of the deal would have been some tie-ins and events. The team told them, "No thank you" because they could get the same out of Big Tobacco with no strings attached and the tie ins were too much work. Sounds familiar to this!
Thanks for the lore, I didn't know about those examples.
As you said, this isn't limited to drum corps. I've worked for various sizes of nonprofits. The biggest ones, with international reach, still had to hustle hard to maintain their local support. One full time position for grants, another for development (ie donor cultivation), two for marketing/audience management. I'll never forget the the ED of The American Dance Festival having to put up with one of their largest donor's antics in public, fairly humiliating stuff. All to maintain his patronage and good graces. This is the company that originally and continually funded Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Bill T Jones etc...THE greats. The modern dance legacy lives in large part because of them. Even then, locals not in the dance scene in Durham mostly barely know about them because the mission wasn't about Durham and hyper locality. It was about keeping the whole of American contemporary and modern dance afloat. The local focus was maintained via their large local sponsors. That's about it.
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20 minutes ago, BigW said:
Community outreach has been a problem, even at the scholastic level. I interviewed for a HS job stating clearly that I thought the program had a serious issue with this and I planned to do more concerts and appearances in the district as an appreciation for the monetary support we continuously got from it. It was clear from the administration it was going over their heads. They ended up hiring a weak supposedly talented Alumni who wrecked the program and ended up getting arrested for throwing a great Alcohol and weed party with the kids. 😼
It's almost like nonprofits and other community-focused programs should be run by people who have run nonprofits before. Not just folks people like who went thru the programming, but who have no proven professional skills in the thing they're doing.
Too many people think they can just take the money and run. That's strategically inefficient at best, and unethical/illegal at worst.
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24 minutes ago, frank4now said:
Love it! Thanks. I know I've heard it before can't place it. Maybe a high school group too. Maybe a movie. DCX says Cavaliers 2018. Have to check that next.
EDIT: Checked out Cavies 2018. I do remember that piece. That was an interesting show. I think I only saw that once that year. Enjoyed rewatching
I learned something today, thank you. Was actually referring to SCV 03 with opener and closer in Orawa. 😉
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💪🏽😎
Obscure af and never would've known about it otherwise.
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35 minutes ago, OldSnareDrummer said:
I know I'm out of touch, but you could offer to pay *me* $75 to name any tune done by any of those bands and I'd be stumped.
A woman in the office asked me to name a single Taylor Swift song. I couldn't do it. She was also shocked to learn I've never seen a full episode of Friends in my entire life.
Give Snarky Puppy a try. 😎👍🏽
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SCV 09 - dedicated lots of undergrad and grad study to Graham's movement principles and those based on her work
SCV 13 - I was listening to Les Miz as a kid instead of making friends...I would have raged incredibly hard to this show
SCV 14 - yeah, trombones in my face is just one of the bazillion reasons I'm sad I missed this one
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I'm generally happy that Michael James has returned. I've seen his name in other staff rosters recently though, and alas, simultaneously none of the signature grace, poise, and complexity I recall from his choreography. Hoping that's different this season and that designers give him something lyrical and phrase-heavy to work with.
Did I also mention his choreography is some of the safest I've seen across colorguard history? Safe as in, reducing injuries both present and future. Perhaps my tirades about un-pointed feet got through to someone...
MJ sparked my early career into dance two decades ago there and I genuinely wish for similar and more inspiration for future alum.
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This is all I care about right now:
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"Yelling works to motivate me," is still not strong enough evidence to convince most here that it is an effective educational strategy for youth. I pointed out why a few comments back.
And literally no one is arguing that yelling to be heard over distances is abuse.
To misuse the TAOS resource like it has been here means that posters didn't read the intro provided at that link about power imbalances. That's a key ingredient.
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39 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:
sadly, yelling is sometimes the only way to get peoples attention. odds are strong the comments said while yelling make it abuse. there are ways to be loud yet not be abusing people.
I've seen one of the aforementioned names at work in the past. I observed yelling. Sometimes, it was to get attention, but the comments weren't what would be considered abusive. Other times it was full on abusive and made observers watching cringe. it was amazing to see the same person use both approaches and never flinch
I think yelling is only effective for bigger people or those who back it up with worse behaviors. Yelling was never a strategy that would work for a petite thing like me, so I went to graduate school and became a pedagogue.
Here's some backup nuance that mostly affirms your point: https://www.winnersunlimited.com/does-screaming-at-athletes-work
It's only superficially effective and only to a point... for those it actually works for. The rest of us have to work on building trust and effective communication skills.
A Great Article on The Cadets
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
Parents are the reason I left youth education with bells on after years of dedication.