Richard Lesher
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Posts posted by Richard Lesher
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Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo.................
Any chance the DCP admins will bring back the thread they removed of my pointing out Cadets were in regulatory violation of state law by failing to register as a charity?
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1 minute ago, HockeyDad said:
Cool. You could open a new SCV thread on that.
Soon enough
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1 minute ago, HockeyDad said:
Interesting reading. At this point, however, does the outcome have any effect on the future of the Cadets? They seem to be in a place right now whereby a comeback seems highly unlikely, no matter what happens with the lawsuit. Unfortunately.
Agreed, it's not a "Brand" anyone should logically be wanting to revive either by reputation or legal risks.
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36 minutes ago, Slingerland said:
Interesting to consider that if and when DCI gets severed from the case whether that ends the whole thing, since CAE has nothing for the plaintiff to get, and I'm not sure who else they could go after (we're presuming that the individual alleged to have assaulted or statutoriy raped the plaintiff is no longer among the living, or has made themselves unfindable, so there'd be nothing to get there either).
There is another Corps' illegal operating practices DCI is undeniably tied to that someone has saved every recent communication to DCI giving them a heads up via their ethics channel, and who saved communications to include direct communications from CEO of DCI denying the problem exists despite evidence directly from state regulators recording the opposite.
So if someone goes after that Corps and includes DCI then they are toast.
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On 3/3/2024 at 5:52 PM, Sh0uldN0t said:
I think this is backwards. Or part of it is. What makes BD unique isn't the local connections. It's the money. The bingo money makes BDB, BDC, etc., possible, which makes the local connections work. At YEA, US Bands made possible Cadets2, a Cadets drumline, a winter guard, and a significant local dance program (in addition to Cadets and an extensive US bands program). Without the money, there's no local.
It was the new regime, not the old one, that thought running the Cadets as a solo operation was a good idea. In doing so, they abandoned the network, the connections and the money they needed.
One last thought about "burned bridges." I know most of this site thinks only one person is responsible. I think that's wrong. In my many decades of drum corps travels, I came to realize that only Madison alumni can rival Cadets alumni for hard-headedness. No one person burned that bridge.
Vanguard's Bingo opportunity is much stronger than BD's. They are not paying occupancy rent and my time as SCV Treasurer we were NETTING nearly $1,000,000 more a year than BD was working with.
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12 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:
I, for one, have expanded since my marching days.
There should be a DCI wide Corps Jacket Zip Up Challenge by decade.
Who all can put on their corps jacket, and ZIP IT UP categorized by decade. 2020's folks can't compete with 80's folks.
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3 hours ago, Lance said:
So problem solved. You're not going and will be watching it online. Now we know.
Of the things that are horribly worse watching on-line verses live, Drum Corps is near the top of that list. The only thing else that comes to mind that might be worse is an Air Show.
I don't even both watching anything Drum Corps on-line for anything other than reminiscing.
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3 hours ago, cixelsyd said:
You know what is no longer a recipe for success? Permanent corps management with rubber-stamp BODs keeping them in place. That strategy has not aged well for Cadets, Capital Regiment, or Pioneer. Even the indestructible Santa Clara Vanguard has been wounded just for leaning in that direction.
The board of directors should provide oversight, not allow individuals employed by the corps to entrench themselves more inextricably than Malaguena in the Madison Scouts repertoire.
That's my observation as well. It can be a lot of work, and all of those efforts are countered by voices and votes on the board that just prefer to avoid the hassle.
Imagine if you will approaching the D Day invasion beaches in your landing craft. Then someone says, hey, how about we all take a vote to either 1) storm the beaches and get shot all the hell or 2) just circle around and around until someone else takes the beaches and established a safe landing zone.
HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone wants to be in the picture erecting the flag over Iwo Jima as seen on Time Magazine.
****
As for SCV, BINGO has been the element that has saved them. Bingo is SOOO RICH!!!!!!!!!!!!! it has been abused for decades, and when turned around we were netting nearly $1,000,000 a year more than Blue Devils for several years. It took COVID, and a horrible decision at that time (COVID) to terminate all volunteer staff and replace them with a new full time paid staff to finally defeat the rich market benefits of Bingo.
If it wasn't for Bingo, and the one strategic move they followed through on to BUY their BUILDING they would have been done a long time ago.
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As for everyone else.............. I'm only repeating what others are now vocalizing as well. The activity is a net loser economic proposition. It will only succeed when folks give more to it that the activity puts back into the community.
A challenge World Corps face is becoming disconnected from their local communities. Imagine how easy it would be for me to take up a strategy to attack SCV's local community that is sucking Bingo Fraud out of the community and all the members and staff are flown in to participate in the non profit that provides no local programs or serves no local members, nor participates in no local performances. Wouldn't other more LOCAL nonprofits want SCV's poorly run and nontransparent Bingo Market Share?
The Blue Devils for example can leverage BDB and BDC for those local connections and have other entertainment groups for just pep band stuff in the Bay Area. The BDA Corps is more or less a luxury for them as a non profit. It's sucking out just as much as any other top tier world class corps from it's community, but BD breaks even with the B and C corps in terms of community goodwill.
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15 minutes ago, MarimbaManiac said:
I mean, sure. Everything is more expensive. It just seems like another indicator that the DCI business model isn't exactly working anymore. That cost is prohibitive.
Harken back to where drum corps started from (out of the locations of VFW's and American Legions) the activity still hasn't exited out of that. While the production has expanded beyond John Philip Sousa and symmetrical formations, the audience is not. Who the activity sell tickets to has not expanded.
Yea $50+ for a show where maybe ONE corps will be worth sitting through if you are not a parent or fan really can sting.
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I'll stop complaining about the Stanford show (DCI West). I splurge on the box seats that comes with a BBQ, and I think last year they were $125 or so. Snacks and drinks in the box (nothing amazing, chips and cookies and sodas, but still something), and easy access to the restrooms plus the views from the box with all seats more or less no farther out than the 25yrd.
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16 minutes ago, greg_orangecounty said:
But before, or shortly after that, there is the step of someone taking a 2nd mortgage on their home and then losing that too.
It happens.
Folks have signed their name to Corps debts.
When I took the treasurer position with "my corps" there were loans on the books where other board members prior to me had signed as guarantors for the organization all while bingo was being embezzled from.
Some of these people berating me were able to keep their houses because of me.
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21 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:
even if you called WF back they wouldn't update it without written consent
Yes, having worked in banking (to include WF for 20 years) I knew they'd never listen to me calling in to tell them to change the contact information. I didn't even reply back to the CEO, I was floored with the request.......dude......................... I figured they (Wells) would figure it out eventually or close the relationship.
For the CEO to ask me to do that just shows how oblivious he is to the basic functions of bank services.
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40 minutes ago, BigW said:
I still remember when you and I pointed out that the US Bands Online Rulebook conveniently left the pages out involving competition fees and getting pooh-poohed by people here when we called out the lack of transparency. I'd daggone well hope BD spells all of that out now to everyone.
Transparency is a foreign concept. I'm beside myself how many corps are oblivious to what that actually should be. Of course I'm coming from a corporate finance perspective as required by the Security Exchange Commission and the Sarbanes Oxley Act.
As far as BD, I'm new to their culture, but I can tell you as a parent, oh lord, it seems the disclosures and my needing to sign everything never seems to come to an end. Pretty soon here I'll need to complete multiple layers of child safety training, stuff I've already done for Boy Scouts, and my employer as well. It never ends.
The question is going to probably blow up on them is:
Who is the employee or representative of the organization that verifies all the required training certificates are up to date and on record for each individual with face to face contact for members.
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1 hour ago, Terri Schehr said:
They aren’t the only ones that drop the ball with donors. I was donating to another corps and my credit card was compromised. I practically begged them to take my new credit card information. They never did get it from me after I tried numerous times and they kept trying to run the old card. It was kind of funny for awhile.
Was that other Corps the Corps I harp on a lot about.
I remember getting into the power structure finally and tens of thousands of dollars in donation checks were left in the main office long expired and never deposited. The person in charge of running the office couldn't be bothered to f-ing deposit money handed directly to him.
I'll even go on record here as late as 2022 Wells Fargo Bank called me personally (having been the treasurer if I haven't mentioned that already as late as 2012). They wanted to talk banking issues (little did I know) regarding the corps, but I had to stop them cold from continuing the conversation. I'm not on the board anymore and they need to update their contacts.
So I reached out to the CEO of the organization, and then he had the mind to tell me to contact Wells Fargo with the CFO's information. Excuse me? How about you call you're bank, and update your information, and I promise I wont simply just accept their call next time and talk about whatever it is they want to talk about on your behalf.
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2 hours ago, jwillis35 said:
Nice post. I don't have any real numbers myself. The corps was founded in 1934 but how many of those who marched in the 30s and 40s are still around. I would imagine they still have a very large base of alumni out there but how many of them have real cash to spare? Many are likely retired on fixed incomes. How many of them walked away because of certain people in management? How many were put off by the constant relocation and name changes?
When this current trial is done we have no way of knowing if there might be more. @Jeff Ream mentioned something important a few pages back that this was likely going to happen (Cadets going inactive and perhaps folding). After 2017-18 they managemed to band-aid a few things and hang around but the off-field issues with finances, lawsuits, and other legal issues were eventially going to catchup.
Others have mentioned it, but trying to fund a corps solely on alumni dollars will not work...not unless you are lucky to have some sugar daddy with $5 mil to $10 mil who is willing to invest in the long-term health of the org. Even when Ted Swaldo invested into the Bluecoats to keep them from folding in 1984 he made sure to setup fundraisers, bingo, and other ventures that would keep Bloo alive and well for years to come.
The Cadets org needs to hope they can come out of this trial with a zero balance and not be in debt too much. Then they need to put it to bed for a while. Trying to force a comeback would likely be a mistake. If there is hope for a comeback down the road a very serious effort will need to be made toward setting up operations and funding. You need people with time to spare and personal cash on hand to begin what could be several years of operational setup. What are the chances of this happening?
If it were me and I had just enough cash to pay down any debt they have after this trial -- and if I had the time and the say so (which I do not) -- I would take whatever was left (uniforms and trophies) and try to make amends with the city of Garfield, NJ mostly for preservation of corps history. I would try to find a place in town where the corps history could be displayed. I would change the name officially back to the Garfield Cadets, with the city owning the rights to the name, and then close shop. If a group of alumni or business people wish to take up the challenge of resurrecting the corps they will have to work with the city of Garfield. Sounds bleak but at least the history is preserved and a very small "flag" is planted back in the appopriate resting place.
These drum corps are such a fragile thing. The foundation of the success for them hinges on giving. That giving comes from all directions and all directions are needed. There will never be enough money to "BUY" a top tier corps. SCV found that out (and they are going to find out again). The costs to replace the time and skills given to the corps freely dwarf their ability to actually pay for it in cash.
If you look at the operational expenses, Transportation related expenses (maintenance, fuel, insurance, ect), and Food are the hard costs that essentially don't end up being given for free. Corps Staff often work for pennies on the dollar, actual operations of the organization often works for pennies on the dollar (with only a few staff on payroll) the tour logistics often works for pennies on the dollar.
Practice facilities and housing often are a result of established relationships greatly reducing the full costs.
A lot of the resources used by Corps is greatly done by scrounging around to get a deal out of the needed service or product/supplies. If absolutely everything has to be paid for it will not work in the end.
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I'm a BDC parent now, and fellow parents who are BD Alumni speak of the school location BDC uses for practice when they were marching in the mid 80's.
WAIT....... WHAT?????????? BD has been using this facility since the 80's??????????????
Then I harken back to my time in SCV, we had the use of a local community college soccer field for practice. I even have 8 semester units from Mission College in Santa Clara for my time in SCV (which I used to literally squeak by my first Bachelor degree to meet the minimum unit requirements).
Now........... that soccer field is a Walmart Parking Lot (literally), but that same Jr College has built FIVE different and vastly under utilized sport fields more than enough for the use as a practice field for a corps.
WHERE DID SCV's MISSION COLLEGE RELATIONSHIP GO????? I'll tell you, we burnt our bridges with the key volunteer staff member that was managing that relationship.
*****
When the likes of predators seeking control of the organizations' target rich environment those that have been the giving foundation to the existence of the corps start to dwindle away. What little money there was coming in starts to dwindle, and the cost savings from pre established operational relationships that were taken for granted spiral out of control.
Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos couldn't even buy a championship tour. It cannot be bought. The whole exercise of the DCI non profit mission is a losing proposition. The vacuum of logistical needs is overwhelming. Take the Corps off the road and then the programs cost almost nothing.
DCI Member Organizations really need to look deeply at their bottom lines and understand how much things cost if bought in the real world and the value of their volunteer base's time and skills. It's a hard calculation. I get it. We are all doing it differently depending on our volunteers. SCV at one point had the fleet manager of Del Monte Foods giving his time to take care of SCV's vehicles.
In the end predators scatter the capable skill sets away.
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6 hours ago, Sh0uldN0t said:
I wasn't privy to the actual discussions on selling off U.S. Bands.
Is the US Bands sale enough behind us one could extrapolate it from BD's and Cadet's 990's?
When was the sale finalized? What Fiscal Year would it probably show up in? Both balance sheets should show similar onboarding and offboarding.
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3 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:
It seems to happen a lot with the Scouts, too. Don’t get mad at the messenger. It’s been going on for decades.
Let’s go down the list shall we.
When SCV hired Jeff F for Exec. Dir. we thought we scored. SCV has problems retaining competitive leadership for years given our own problems, and he had the credentials and performance to dominate those conflicting personalities within SCV.
Then………….. it gets back to me the Cavie’s Board Chair had said he was disappointed to hear SCV picked up Jeff P.
WTF man…………… say something. I (we as a board) don’t know what’s going on elsewhere in DCI.
I don’t know what went on with Troopers when they lost their nonprofit status, but I’m willing to bet it was merely a function of them not filing their IRS990. As I found out working on SCV stuff the IRS’s system merely terminates an organization’s nonprofit status as a function of not filing tax returns for three years in a row. There is no review or discussion. POOF!!!!!!!!! Terminated by an automated system.
Now, regarding Cadets…………… OMG……………… it is an organization that has Institutionalized Rape.
When I was a rookie with SCV there was a guard member that came all the way to SCV from the east coast, and was a prior Garfield Cadet Member. I asked her, why would you come all the way out here for SCV when Cadets is just as if not more competitive (in fact Cadets won DCI my rookie year).
She had said to me, “I’ll tell you about it someday”.
She never did.
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOW
I
GET
IT
There is no reason the Sacramento Freelancers needed to fold. They had as much bingo strength going for them as SCV or BD. However………. if you look at their last 990’s their own Snack Bar (for Bingo) is what killed them. They were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on Snacks.
WTF??????????
Then the guy SCV forced out of operations management (who was covering up Bingo thefts) goes over to Freelancers and then they are totally done within a few years. They even appear to stop filing with the CA DOJ all together. He wasn’t there for the Snack Bar oddities, but he nailed the coffin shut. Probably too may folks putting their hands in the till.
NOW THAT GUY IS UP FOR THE SCV HALL OF FAME, while the person that ended the Bingo Fraud and became the Bingo Manager which resulted in SCV netting $19,000,000,000 over her tenure wasn’t voted in.
Let’s get back to the Cadets………………
I thought it very odd they announced they were taking 2024 off for financial reasons. After having spent a year on SCV and all their shenanigans I decided to check out Pennsylvania’s nonprofit and charity reporting and registrations.
So…………… I found out they failed to register as a Charity. Period. That is a fact. Anyone who disagrees is a liar and a fraud supporting a rape organization.
Having learned my lesson with the nut fan base of SCV’s own management I figured I’d add a level of precaution to my poking around Cadets.
So I wrote the Pennsylvania Department of State confirming Cadet’s non registered status. I was very explicit, and gave them current and past Tax ID numbers and business addresses.
I end up getting a e-mail directly from the Dept of State of PA and yep, they confirm for me Cadets in their current form are not registered as a Charity. Again, if you disagree, take that up with the Dept of State of PA.
I post it here on DCP, and wow!!!!!!!!!! that gets shut down by forum mod’s in record time.
Not only that, the CEO of DCI Dan A. personally e-mails me saying the Cadets are good to go, and in compliance based on what the Cadets said to him.
COME ON GUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I forwarded you the communication DIRECTLY FROM THE PENN DEPT OF STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Further……………….. the Cadets’ Media Manager e-mails me nonsense and a continuation of the organization’s lies.
Remember, at this time all I’ve done is point it out to DCI and DCP. I handed it to everyone on a silver plater as communicated by the PENN DEPT OF STATE and nope, the nuts are in denial.
Then no sooner did my DCP thread get censored by those protecting the rape organization did someone post the lawsuit documents. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
OK then……………. If that’s what the DCI CEO and Cadet’s Media Manager want to be, I can play that way too.
I file a formal complaint the Dept of State, and all I’m wanting is the disciplinary history associated with Hopkins to be annotated in the Nonprofit’s registration history.
See….. in Pennsylvania one can look up a nonprofit’s disciplinary and adverse action history tied to their Tax ID number. The Cadet’s have nothing pegged to them.
I submitted documents to correct that oversight.
Eventually…………….. an Investigator from Penn calls me on the phone, and e-mails me, and then I send him all the wonderful stuff going on currently with the Cadet lawsuit.
More or less his hands are tied until court action becomes finalized. I get it. To which I’m more than happy to keep him up to date. He and I more or less agreed that other things going on with Cadets overshadow my petty little complaint trying to get their history updated to reflect the rape the institution of Cadets, Holy Name, and Garfield supported over a lengthy period of their storied history everyone cherishes so much.
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So between the Cavies, Cadets, Troopers, SCV, SoA, and I guess DCI itself it’s time to start being grownups, and stop ignoring the warning signs.
What I’m looking forward to is if something more current, say with SCV comes out and someone files a police report regarding physical abuse, or someone sues SCV welp…………………………
The chain of SCV’s and DCI’s history of ignoring whistleblower practices is going to bury them.
What I learned in the Army is that if someone wants to file a complaint to their Congressman regarding a military commander the Congressman’s office will ask if the complainant went to the Army Inspector General, the Army IG will ask if the complainant went to the soldiers chain of command, the chain of command will ask if the complainant went to the soldier’s first line leader.
Sooooooooooooo…………… what there is now is the DCI CEO blowing off the Cadet complaint, there is the SCV/DCI board and ethics channel blowing off SCV complaints and there is the DCI permit of allowing SCV to compete and that is followed up by a Qualified Audit (to which I suspect no CPA here has ever read anything worse).
There are all these people jumping up and down on box of nitroglycerin expecting things to go on as they always have been.
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6 hours ago, Slingerland said:
If you think every corps out there is full, you haven't been paying attention. And if anyone wants to start a local corps, you don't need anything related to The Cadets to do it, but amazingly, very few people will do so.
This is the key............. the folks who are competent to wrangle kids into a coherent show on the field across all sections, and then logistically move them to each performance venue is very few indeed. Then that group of people is generally completely detached from the group of people supporting the financing of the activity and the administrative requirements.
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7 hours ago, cixelsyd said:
If you are not sure what the point would be in forming a drum corps today, you may be in the wrong forum.
Yea, just make something, focus on getting kids behind instruments and holding flags and see where it goes. Put them in parades, raise some money, and build the volunteer/staff base, and cycle them out as kids get older and move on. That's where it starts.
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19 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:
I understand. The longtime alumni are protective of legacy.
Whatever do you speak of.
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10 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:
pretty sure the mission is to expose the rot so SCV can get back to a good place as an organization
I don't think anyone is tracking that March-15-2024 the audited financial statements are due for FY2023, or they go delinquent again, and they spent 2+ years just to throw away any effort to clean up 21 and 22 up for an audit, and now there is a month left for 23.
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10 minutes ago, TheOneWhoKnows said:
It has to be an entirely different entity and identity. They cannot claim any of the traditions or the history of the cadets if there was a new corps created. That’s how the judge allowed this lawsuit to go against them. Sure they have a new non profit and new tax ID, but they still claim all the history and traditions of the organization.
Oh yea, absolutely. There needs to be a new guard, and as displayed trying to continue the Cadets over and over again isn't the right process.
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2 hours ago, LabMaster said:
I don’t believe there is any coming back for Cadets. No money now, no money coming, only money going for debts and huge legal bills. Then the legal issues themselves on top of the cost of them. All their assets are gone. They would be starting from scratch. Less than scratch actually. They need money and support. Lots of it. And the cavelry is not coming I’m afraid.
If there was a contingent of stakeholders in the drum corps community to build something from scratch it should be feasible. Right? There is now a vacuum the Cadets leave behind.
The strategy has been used before, yes, Cadets up and move and change Tax ID numbers. They probably have exhausted the use of that strategy.
There are people willing to be instructional staff, there are youth willing to be marching members. Now someone needs to lead a charge to generate a non profit from scratch and raise funds to go around and march in some parades.
Have a focus on performing arts for youth, and take it from there.
Don't manage money like SCV's does, and don't touch members like Cadets did and a new organization would be off to a great start.
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https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=697107295894482&set=pcb.697107499227795
Here's a percussion section from BD Entertainment playing at a 49er's game.
One could walk to Levi stadium from SCV's HQ building, and BD is the ones with connections to the 49ers.
That's the kind of forward thinking going on at SCV.
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Cadets and bankruptcy
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
Absolutely……………..
The conduct of individuals caused this.
What are the series of events that have led to this result?
“Today” isn’t the day it died. It’s just the day it can’t be hidden anymore.
I get it……………..