Michael Boo Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Won't somebody please think of the T-shirts! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Michael Boo Posted March 13, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) The person who sent me what’s below has asked me to share it with the public. I have removed some comments that could possibly identity them and also removed names of two people to protect the person who sent me the note. I can vouch that this person is for real and highly respected. HI Michael, I have enjoyed your banter on the DCP forum regarding Accent Marching. I wanted to give you the scoop about the organization so you can share with the other folks, if you so choose. The reason you haven't had other people involved talking on the forum is likely because of an NDA [non-disclosure agreement] that they had all of us sign during the "hiring" process. Otherwise I would have been on there from the start discussing it. So basically here is what has happened: [Name removed] emailed everyone in the small community of drum corps instructors. I am not sure how he knew who we all were short of going to the staff pages of all the current drum corps and then finding us all on Facebook. Regardless, he emailed us all and made it sound like he had this ultra legit camp business that is looking for high profile instructors. He neglected to tell any of us that it was a start-up. He promised us $600 per camp along with lodging and $225 travel stipend. The travel stipend was the first part of the deal that threw a red flag for me. The reason is that he told us that they would put $225 towards our flights, but then the rest would come out of our pay. The reason this unraveled everything for me was simple. Flights get more expensive the closer you get to the travel date, as everyone knows, so the longer I went without a flight booked [content removed] it was essentially costing me money. More on this in a second. He sent us all of these applications and forms for us to fill out along with a schedule of camp dates. I went through all of the dates and proclaimed availability for [numerous] weekends. To me, if I could get $600 for [these numerous] weekends, [dollar amount removed], that would be a nice little boost to my personal economy. I just knew it would be too good to be true. So I got notice, along with all of the other guys who signed up, including [someone he knows well], that I was scheduled for the [number removed] camps I was available for. This was exciting and so I made arrangements with [content removed] to be out of town [for all these] weekends. I also, as you would expect, became unavailable for any/all other work that anyone asked me to do. I'm not overwhelmed with demand but I do have a decent amount of work that comes my way to teach camps and clinics, so booking me solid inhibited any of that and I began turning down job offers. So fast forward a few weeks and I start noticing that this business may not have its stuff together. It seemed strange to me that I had not received flight info with [x] weeks before [my first camp.] [Content removed]. They cancelled [that] camp and assured us all that we would still be paid. This was the beginning of the end for me. I started really digging in. I found out that the only marketing they had done was send some flyers to some schools here and there. When I found out they were charging $400+for the camps, I laughed so hard knowing that I had totally been punked. $400+ for a weekend? I knew it was doomed. The reason was simple. They had 10 staff members for every camp. With salary, lodging, and travel, that was $10,000 in immediate overhead. They were buying equipment (albeit unnecessary equipment) left and right, in what looked to be north of $30k. They booked hotels and rehearsal facilities for thousands of dollars. This told me they were expecting 100 or more students at these camps to make a profit. It would have been a sizable profit indeed, but I knew instantly it was doomed because there was not an activity in the world that would draw 100 kids from every large community in the country at $400 a pop. Just wasn't going to happen. So the straw to break the camel's back was when I received an email alerting me of the discussions on DCP. [Content removed.] I am meticulous about my reputation, so the storm of bad press he began to get made me sick. To see my name on that website along with the truth coming out about them having a terrible history and obviously no business sense prompted me to [take action]. I don't claim to be an influencer, but once I did that, the house of cards fell. [Content removed.] [Name removed] was putting all this crap online about rescheduling for partnership purposes, etc, but we all know it was because he lost his staff and had zero sales. Simple formula for failure. [Content removed.] The site has since gone black and I am assuming that everything is toast. [Names of two people] broke up, which [name removed] made public on his FB page but then took down. I would [suggest] it's because of the failure that this happened. Anyway, I demanded [content removed]. I haven't heard back. There are 20 more interested events that took place that I would be glad to talk about if this doesn't bore you. I think it's important for the public to know as much as possible so that young working people don't get duped into partnering with a start up posing as a legit company. Let me know if you would like more. I grant you permission to share this info anywhere so long as you don't include my name. Edited March 13, 2012 by Michael Boo 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post danielray Posted March 13, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) Well... I'll be the first to admit here that this sounds like a bit more of a mess than just being young and inexperienced. Guess I was a bit too optimistic. Unfortunate. There really is an opportunity out there to do this sort of thing, and hopefully this won't leave a bad taste that might prevent other individuals (a bit more organized and realistic) from making a go at it. The downside of optimism is that you're sometimes wrong and occasionally disappointed. I'll definitely take that over pessimism, though... being often right and always disappointed. :-) Edited March 13, 2012 by danielray 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Well... I'll be the first to admit here that this sounds like a bit more of a mess than just being young and inexperienced. Guess I was a bit too optimistic. Unfortunate. There really is an opportunity out there to do this sort of thing, and hopefully this won't leave a bad taste that might prevent other individuals (a bit more organized and realistic) from making a go at it. The downside of optimism is that you're sometimes wrong and occasionally disappointed. I'll definitely take that over pessimism, though... being often right and always disappointed. :-) In the immortal word of Homer Simpson concerning your keen perception... DOH!!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soccerguy315 Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 quoted text thanks for posting that 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrlandoContraAlum Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 (edited) Well... I'll be the first to admit here that this sounds like a bit more of a mess than just being young and inexperienced. Guess I was a bit too optimistic. Unfortunate. There really is an opportunity out there to do this sort of thing, and hopefully this won't leave a bad taste that might prevent other individuals (a bit more organized and realistic) from making a go at it. The downside of optimism is that you're sometimes wrong and occasionally disappointed. I'll definitely take that over pessimism, though... being often right and always disappointed. :-) Daniel, Thanks for that. You owed this to no one, but you came on and owned your comments. I rarely agree with things you post here, but this was grade-A. Ironically, I also agree with your quote re: optimism vs pessimism. Maybe the Mayans were right??? Edited March 14, 2012 by OrlandoContraAlum 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranintothedoor Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Thanks for posting this, Michael. Truly unfortunate... I feel awful for the person who wrote that and the rest of the staff who were caught up in this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Danielray: In all seriousness, the email posting by Boo is rather reflective of what happened to the people listed as supposed staff with Eclipse the first time around. If you had went "fishing", and read through the Eclipse DCP thread in a thorough manner, you might have been more skeptical with the Accent situation. Not dogging on ya here, but hopefully this will also tame you from being so condescending to those of us you feel are inferior to your intellect; just sayin. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Daniel, Thanks for that. You owed this to no one, but you came on and owned your comments. I rarely agree with things you post here, but this was grade-A. Ironically, I also agree with your quote re: optimism vs pessimism. Maybe the Mayans were right??? Totally agree. Daniel appears to be a class act. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Thanks for posting this, Michael. Truly unfortunate... I feel awful for the person who wrote that and the rest of the staff who were caught up in this. You're welcome, but I really do wish the situation wasn't such that someone would feel the strong need to ask me to post it. I only posted it after three or four exchanges with this person. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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