thirdcoast Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 To Pioneer Webmaster: You lighten up. Sometimes when something is mentioned that hits to close to home, the hackels get up. Instead look upon it as constructive criticism or questioning obvious practices that makes Pioneer admin answer too. After all, for $2000.00+ to participate, shouldn't the members and parents have the best experience possible? Can you honestly say that is happeninjg? This thread only shows that there are people that are concerned, care, and wanting Pioneer to do well. It just seems like it is falling on deaf ears. Instead of you complaining about our concerns and questions, why don't you offer constructive suggestions as to how people can help. That might actually get more people on board with your cause. We send money, we volunteer time, we entrust our most precious possession, our children, to Pioneer. Shouldn't we have the right to be concerned? ALSO, no disrespect meant to our US Marine Corps...but get rid of the goofy hats...this year! They don't fit into a modern corps image.(and your members hate them) Oh no, here we go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PioneerWebmaster Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 To Pioneer Webmaster: You lighten up. Sometimes when something is mentioned that hits to close to home, the hackels get up. Instead look upon it as constructive criticism or questioning obvious practices that makes Pioneer admin answer too. After all, for $2000.00+ to participate, shouldn't the members and parents have the best experience possible? Can you honestly say that is happeninjg? This thread only shows that there are people that are concerned, care, and wanting Pioneer to do well. It just seems like it is falling on deaf ears. Instead of you complaining about our concerns and questions, why don't you offer constructive suggestions as to how people can help. That might actually get more people on board with your cause. We send money, we volunteer time, we entrust our most precious possession, our children, to Pioneer. Shouldn't we have the right to be concerned? ALSO, no disrespect meant to our US Marine Corps...but get rid of the goofy hats...this year! They don't fit into a modern corps image.(and your members hate them) Lighten up? Apparently the smiley face wasn't lighthearted enough for you? I was actually defending Mikey in my original post. My posts really had nothing to do with people criticizing or questioning Pioneer. Every time Mikey pops into the thread, for a variety of reasons people decided to launch personal attacks against him. Those personal attacks got the last thread shut down and I was concerned that they would get this thread shut down as well. Simple as that. If the thread gets shut down, then there's nowhere to voice your questions/concerns. Yes, we can start another one, but the easier answer would be to keep this one open. I WANT the thread to stay open for the same reasons that you are pointing out. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PioneerWebmaster Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I understand that the schools in Milwaukee are not strong musically. However, there are some pretty good schools in the surrounding area. Is there an attempt to recruit these students? As a teacher, I was offended last year at a rehearsal I attended. I will not go into detain on this forum about what I witnessed. I do wish Pioneer would grow and be a healthy corps. We need a corps like Pioneer to succeed. Milwaukee Public Schools are in a state of disrepair with the art programs being hardest hit. There are very few music programs left within the MPS school system, and quite honestly the kids that are in band probably wouldn't be interested in the time commitment that drum corps require. We actively recruit throughout Southeastern Wisconsin and the state as a whole. Some schools are quite receptive while others are a little less interested. As a whole, the marching band activity in Wisconsin isn't quite as strong as the surrounding states. I graduated from a suburban Milwaukee school and outside of homecoming and the Christmas parade, we didn't march... period. Many of the schools around where I live are the same. Those that do march don't necessarily have strong programs. The few that do have strong programs often discourage their members from marching drum corps as they feel it would detract from their marching band's success. That said, we have gotten members from some of those schools in the past and I would assume that we will in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piofan Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Has Pioneer done recruiting or held weekend camps in other states? Even the Racine Scouts have tried that. Does Pioneer have any type of feeder organization? Might not be a bad idea if the arts are poor in Milwaukee schools. How has the admin generated any interest or enthusiasm in prospective members? There are areas that are ripe for recruiting, hold shows during the summer but yet no one comes to recruit. How much recruiting is actually done at shows? Does Pioneer have a souvenier van that gets the name out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PioneerWebmaster Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 (edited) Has Pioneer done recruiting or held weekend camps in other states? Even the Racine Scouts have tried that. Does Pioneer have any type of feeder organization? Might not be a bad idea if the arts are poor in Milwaukee schools. How has the admin generated any interest or enthusiasm in prospective members? There are areas that are ripe for recruiting, hold shows during the summer but yet no one comes to recruit. How much recruiting is actually done at shows? Does Pioneer have a souvenier van that gets the name out? Pioneer has previously held camps in several states including Texas, Florida, Missouri, Michigan, and Indiana. The out of state camps yielded mixed results on the surface, and very few actual marching members for the season itself. They were not continued for the 2010-11 season as a result. I completely agree that there are areas that are ripe for recruiting. One of the newer things that we're doing is analyzing our web stats/analytics and targeting regions where we get the most hits from. Some of these areas are in the hot bed of the marching activity (Illinois/Indiana) while others are a bit more surprising. In any event, we're working to get a foot further in the door in these areas to improve our chances of recruiting members from that region. As far as the current season's recruiting, we received over 300 applications this year via the website. That's in addition to hundreds of other names that were obtained at recruiting trips, band shows, and WGI. In addition, we also received access to several corps cut lists in late spring. Corps staff contacted all of these prospective members via phone and/or email. We actually formed a recruiting "SWAT" team which met one night a week and called as many potential recruits as possible. Follow up lists were also distributed to alumni who contacted some of these prospective members as well. There was a lot of interest, but not a lot of follow through by many of these prospective members. There's a ton of reasons why they didn't join the corps. I'm sure some of those have been addressed in this thread, while others are beyond our control (money, economy, parents, etc...). Our souvenir trailer does travel to shows where it makes logical and financial sense. I think we'd all like to see it at more shows, but we simply don't move the amount of product to make it financially worthwhile to take it to every show at this point in time. Keep in mind, souvenir sales and placement usually go hand in hand. Edited June 27, 2011 by PioneerWebmaster 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warsawstory Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Pioneer really should consider re-establishing ties with the Boys and Girls club. The Milwaukee director has recently been promoted to the national executive directorship of the Boys and Girls Club. Was anyone aware of this? Imagine having a local ally in a national position. This is the type of thing Pioneer needs to be keeping up on. Don't let those opportunities slip through your fingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mello Dude Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Help me out here. Is Pioneer not a non-profit orginazation with a board of directors that governs the operations of the corps? Roman is executive director but to whom does he answer? The board of directors have the authority to choose a different executive director don't they? Does Roman somehow "own" Pioneer? Does he draw a salary or income from Pioneer and who determins what that amount is? I don't understand the organization of Pioneer. So, my question is, if Roman is answerable to the board of directors, are they appointed, elected, or what? Are they able to vote to make the necessary changes or are they only a board on paper only? If this is a private venture of Roman Blenski then as long as the money keeps flowing in, he isn't likly to make any changes. Doesn't need to. And those people that come along and point out Pioneers flaws are actually pointing out flaws in Roman Blenski, so they are let go. He may mean well, have good intentions but isn't the money the real motivation or reason, just carefully disguised? He isn't going to jeopardize his livelyhood, if that is the case. As long as capital assets are there, fees are coming in through wc standing and appearances, etc., then all is good. I can see a scenario where this might be the case. The blame for this is not to be pointed at Roman, instead, it should be pointed at DCI for being so nieve as to what it happening and not making Pioneer accountable for thier quality. I don't know for sure, so can anyone tell me if this might be the case? Looks like another person looking to tear down another corps. Great, we need one less corps out there. The beginning of the end if this individual is involved somehow with Pioneer. I have seen this SO many times and in so many other corps. One person gets a hair up their ###, starts the rumor mongering and dissention, and the next thing you know you have one less corps and whole lot of people angry at each other..and the kids lose out. It's pretty simple, start your own corps. You apparently know everything you need to "get er done". Turn your destruction into a positive thing and add another top 12 corps to the DCI roster. Just remember this when you are in the same position with that "other" person out there questioning everything you do...good luck! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piofan Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Thanks! Glad your so accepting of the status quo. Instead of asking the tough questions to maybe find constructive answers to those questions, let's just have more of the same. That's what is needed. Maybe the Blue Stars and Troopers should not have addressed those tough questions about thier respective situations in the not too distant past. They could then be defunct also. Good insight Mello Dude! Your the man! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thirdcoast Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 GO PIONEER! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 What an opportunity in Milwaukee! Pioneer could do something major here if the right people were in place to make it work. Young people need an organization like Pioneer and with the right educational staff/management, they could save the arts for the young people of Milwaukee. I am not saying a YEA type thing, well maybe similar in nature, but offer instrumental and choral music programs. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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