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MikeN

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Posts posted by MikeN

  1. 2 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said:

    FTFY. This messenger's riddled with enough metaphorical bullet holes.

    the-mask-shot.gif

    Plenty of great music out there for a unique show for 2024. For example, I'm a little jealous of 'Scades repping Les Mystere des Voix Bulgares, but I'll get over it. Those dissonant chords have been aching to be put on return to* the field for decades.

    *just did my homework, and BK did this back when I marched, good stuff!

    That whole BK show was awesome, and well worth a watch if you have a few minutes.

    Mike

    • Thanks 1
  2. 1 hour ago, JimF-LowBari said:

    Is there anyone on the BoD who has a business or financial background? Weird how when someone who doesn’t have a DC or music background is named for a corps top spot people flip out. Cant have the music without the financial footing folks

    There have been for quite a while.  Most of the business folks have some drum corps experience, but not all.  Here are the three new folks for 2024.  Stuart Pompeil is the only one that was a classic drum corps "career" guy, and he's a friggin' wizard, so I'll allow it.

    https://www.dci.org/news/dci-membership-fills-open-board-of-directors-seats-2024

    Mike

    • Thanks 1
  3. The last decade of Bluecoats programming has absolutely transformed drum corps shows in general.  2016 of course is the one everyone points to, but their development of electronics and soundscapes has also filtered down to just about everyone.  I'm glad the last couple of years they finally tacked into the wind after sailing along with it for a while, as they're one the few corps that keeps me coming back to see something new!

    Mike

    • Like 4
    • Thanks 1
  4. 12 hours ago, dcifanforlife said:

    DCI Annual Meeting starts Thursday morning 01-04-24.  SCV presentation will be the most anticipated event ever. Let's see what they have to say to the DCI Board and to the membership.  All of the work Richard has done will get blown out of the water is my guess. 

    Maybe they should be making this presentation to the State rather than their peers.  

    Mike

    • Like 5
  5. In Texas, just about everyone already has a dance / drill team.  Most bands also have a color guard.  For decades now, band directors think they've reinvented the wheel by having the drill team replace the guard, but they have usually made the dancers learn flag work.  

    Like most fads in TX bands, this too shall likely pass.  There are 3,240 high schools in Texas - it takes decades for the whole ship to change course.

    Mike

  6. 13 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

    Thought Spirit took themselves out for the season so they (new management?) could get their act together. Don’t remember DCI getting involved

    Had to go look it up.  The victim reported it in August, the investigation was concluded in October and no response regarding the recommendations in the report was given to the victim by DCI or Spirit. 

    She went public on January 8, 2022.  https://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/index.php?/topic/176402-sexual-assault-spirit-of-atlanta-2021/#comment-3916475

    DCI/Spirit reply was only 8 days later, on Jan 16, 2023. https://dci.org/news/spirit-of-atlanta-withdraws-from-2022-dci-tour

    "With the assistance, guidance and encouragement of Drum Corps International, the Spirit of Atlanta organization will withdraw from the 2022 season to reflect, reorganize and plan for a stronger organization in 2023 and beyond.:

    Sorry for the aside, just pointing out that it took public pressure to make DCI move.

    Mike

    • Thanks 2
  7. 12 minutes ago, Richard Lesher said:

    ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I went through the DCI Ethics Manual line by line, and pointed out violations of DCI Ethics and State Law by SCV employees and core leadership, and I provided the proof and sent that to the entirety of the DCI board at the time, and the generic ethics e-mail, and here we are a YEAR LATER, and SCV is potentially 120 days away from non profit revocation. 

    Spirit's investigation took ... 3 months? (trying to remember), and no penalties were levied until the accuser went public.  Then Spirit was taken out of the lineup within days.  

    Mike

    • Like 1
  8. 22 hours ago, rpbobcat said:

    In addition to what you suggest, I would like to see any allegation, of any type of direct abuse, be reviewed by the corps' legal council and he makes the call whether law enforcement should be contacted.

    That may conflict with some states' laws regarding mandated reporting.  One <good> thing we ran into in Texas while I was writing ours was that like 99% of our instructors were already teachers, and they are mandated reporters by statute.  It was an easy leap to include that in our own rules then.  

    Mike

    • Like 1
  9. 13 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

    Then someone explain to me why that is.  Does GH hire better lawyers than the Cadets?  Or are deeper pockets a curse that transcends all else?

    The suit is against both the org and 10 individuals (I saw someone on Reddit allege it was the BoD members at the time, including Hopkins).  I'm assuming Ms. W. is alleging that both the individual actors *and* the system they created (the corps) are at fault.  

    Mike

  10. By "local" touring do we mean fewer miles or shorter length?  I haven't negotiated a bus contract in a few years, so I can't recall specifics of what the larger cost factor entails.  I'm guessing fewer miles over the same amount of time is still going to cost near the same, if the buses are still "on the road" and drivers are dispatched then it costs money.  

    Off the top of my head, maybe a split tour - 2 weeks spring training, one or two-week mad dash regionally, followed by 2 more weeks second training then one week mad dash leading to Indy week - might be more viable?  Makes it an 8 week season with transportation needed for four.  Shorter multiple spring training chunks may make housing cheaper. 

    Mike

  11. Back when I was working in Open Class, after the Hopkins dismissal DCI required all corps to have a policy addressing allegations and investigations, and I think they also gave us required elements.  I wrote the one for our group, but I had a good template to work with based on hospital compliance.  I think DCI also has one they use internally, but I don't remember specifically after all of these years.

    Mike

    • Thanks 1
  12. 41 minutes ago, bluesman said:

    Are we now living in a time where "The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children"? I'm sympathetic to anyone who has been the victim of sexual assault or harassment, but this was almost 42 years ago.  Some kids aren't going to get to march because of something that happened before they, or in some instances before their parents were born.  I'm sure I'm going to get blasted for this, but the alleged incident happened more than 4 decades ago. 

    Counterpoint (and not aimed at you specifically) - at what point does their trauma and justice stop mattering?  Just because an org has ignored, covered and deflected for so long, do we just throw our hands up and say "nothing else to do"?

    Mike

    • Like 2
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  13. 3 hours ago, fifer said:

    You could also look at it from the perspective of, why have BDB, SCV Cadets and Spartans (and now Gold too) not been required to move up to Worlds? Where is the line in the sand for scoring that calls for a corps to be in one class or the other?

    DCI has steadily detatched on field results from membership requirements, and that's a great thing.  Membership in World Class should absolutely be based on infrastructure, finances, and ability to participate.  The rest of the stuff is just window dressing.

    Mike

    • Thanks 1
  14. Disclaimer - not a lawyer here - but it looks like CAE is arguing that they're not responsible for the actions of Garfield Cadets or YEA.  CAE created a new Tax ID in June of 2020, backdated to April 2020, that predates the complaint.  (I'm assuming for this very reason, as everyone had to know that Post-Hopkins this was a possibility.) 

    On the other side, Ms. W.'s attorney argues that when YEA dissolved, the Charitable Distribution Agreement that moved all of YEA's assets over to CAE includes their previous liabilities as well.

    From the CAE attorney's filed request for mediation (which they say both sides agreed to), it sounds like in mediation the judge may have more time and leeway to examine the evidence further than they would in arbitration.  Again, though - not a lawyer.

    (edit: The Board's published statement echoes the filings - they refute that they're legally tied to Garfield's or YEA's actions.)

    Mike

    • Thanks 1
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