Teal Sound Ends Tour

[MisterA]

What a horrible situation for all these young kids involved. I wish them all the best, and really hope the ones that want to move on and join another corps have that opportunity.

I really hope Teal Sound can regroup for next year. The same as most people here, I don't know exactly what has happened to make Teal Sound fold this season. Personally I hope the Teal Sound staff will make at least partial details available, even if it turns out to not be flattering to the staff or BOD. It seems like the rumours can be worse than the actual problem itself. So many things can change financially in a couple of weeks time. But the bottom line is Teal Sound is going to have a hard time getting help if no one is aware of the actual problem. If there are financial problems, and people know the details, they are going to be more likely to help out. I know many people that have written checks over the years to help out corps in financial need. But I think it would be difficult for people to help out Teal Sound at this point, not knowing if there are plans for next season. Pointing fingers isn't going to help any one of the kids out at this time, but we can always pull together as a fan base, and try to help TS right the ship for next year. I would hate to see another situation occur, for TS or any other corps.

And to the members of Teal Sound, we wish you all the very best.

[Toby]

Yes it is.

The sad thing of it all, is that there are so many great people in drum corps. Some really nice people who want what is best for everyone. Unfortunately, they aren't always the greatest business people.. I know Hopkins put his foot down this year. He had to. YEA didn't always put their foot down in the past. I know people who marched Crossmen without ever paying YEA. I also know that those people were not allowed to march the next year. Even when Crossmen were their own thing.

I just hope these angry parents might realize it's not worth the costs of going to court. It really isn't. They are probably owed around a thousand dollars at this point maybe a little more. But you have to look down the road. Is it really worth the cost of getting a lawyer and going to court. I think not. Do I think Teal should refund members if possible? Yes! But if they had to stop tour like this, I'm not seeing where the money is coming from. Even if the money is won in court, you won't see that for a very very very long time.

The liquidation process would take a long time. Not even worth it.

[skywhopper]

Is it true that their equipment truck was repo'd or is that just a rant from a Teal parent on Facebook?

I was about to ask the same thing. It sounded like that was at least what the daughter thought: "Just talked to my child and asked about the police being there. They are repossessing the equipment truck."

[kaseyW]

Let's not boycott Teal Sound and their mission statement. Florida needs a great drum corps! If you need to attack something in the corps, don't attack the corps entirely. I want, as well as many others, Teal Sound to stick around. I'd hate to see Teal fold completely due to total lack of support. If anything this is the time to start buying souvenirs.

[Shamu89]

In the contract I signed with my corps when I marched there were refunds up to a certain part of the season. But that is if you left because of injury or other reason. After a certain point there was zero refund, and I don't think it was that far into the season at all. But this is all when the member doesn't hold up their side of the contract. This is the corps not holding up their side of the contract.

The contract we signed for our daughter has two levels of fee refunds depending on whether the member leaves voluntarily or involuntarily. For voluntary, no refund after June 10. For involuntary, which is described as the corps staff deciding the member can't or won't march (injury, performance considerations, etc), the refund would be around $300 at this point. They also describe the withheld fees as the cost for services rendered, not a penalty. I imagine this instance would fall under the latter condition, so not much money to get back.

On a different note, I had an employment contract with a company that went under owing me 2 months salary for consulting work. I talked to a lawyer and he said it would cost me twice as much as I was seeking to try the case, and if I won, I would only be entitled to a third of my legal fees returned. Assuming the company had any money or assets left, I'd be in line with every other creditor and would probably never see a dime. The lawyer would get paid, or course, and he advised I not pursue it. I hope for both side's sake, that attorneys don't get involved.

[Jeff Ream]

And just for the record, I was and still am planning to audition for Teal in 2013. Call me crazy, but I have faith...as long as people will quit complaining with their computer keys and start committing with their financial fees.

I applaud your dedication

[RetiredJedi]

Bad analogy.

The entities are not the same (for profit cruise line vs. non profit charity).

The contracts are nowhere near the same.

You have no vested interest in the seeing the cruise line continue to exist. Perhaps you do have an interest in seeing Teal continue to exist.

As a parent I'd have to ask -- which is more valuable to me? The small percentage of dues I could possibly recover or the continued existence of the drum corps? Or perhaps it's best asked: which is more valuable to my child and the other kids involved?

I'm not absolving anyone of anything. I'm just looking at it objectively as a parent -- what's in my best interest..

Personally, I really don't see much of a difference if it's profit or non-profit. If I had paid in full and my kid only got a partial tour - I'd want a percentage refund. My kid didn't get what he/we paid for. That isn't unreasonable.

The cold hard reality of wanting a refund and actually getting one is a whole different thing.

[Jeff Ream]

not that Im disagreeing with ya but BOY are you gonna have a hard time not posting next year when you get in a corps..lol

AS far as Teal....just like current politicians unfortunately have to clean up the mess of the previous admin..its the same here from what I hear from past staff and board members BUT this doesnt let the current people off the hook. Maybe DCI needs to take a closer look AFTER ones gets into WC and continue to look for quite a while, maybe even randomly pick other corps to evaluate without notice ( including the big guys ) TO MAKE SURE THINGS LIKE THIS CANT HAPPEN. I dont think DCI has the right to get into personal businees of a corps or how a corps chooses to run their corps BUT as far as finances and being able to do a full tour maybe they should.

that would be a greatidea, but I can hear some "names" now ####### their pants at the thought of it

[Clean_Beats]

I guess they didn't think they could get away with the "we had thousands in cash stolen on tour, please help!" scam again. I mean they could have at least tried.

I hope that some good comes out of this, namely that DCI adopts a 2 or 3 year revolving financial review of EVERY world class corps, as a requirement for them to remain in the world class.

It's sad that DCI needs to be a watchdog to keep corps on the field. People incapable of running a business will continue to start/run corps. Some will last longer than others, but bad business practices win out eventually.

Let it cool. We'll find out the truth.

Yeah? Will we? Did we find out the truth about Revolution last year? Impulse when they collapsed? Oregon Crusaders when they were begging for money to tour? Magic? Southwind? What seems to happen is these things fade away until people forget about them and the outrage has died down. It's the same, tired, DCP story. A handful demand answers and accountability, while another handful insists on baselessly defending every failed corps and says "hey let's just wait and see, we don't know the whole story".

At what point do these corps stop getting the benefit of the doubt? Have any of those stories ever been that the corps made a lot of the right business decisions but ended up being just unlucky and ran bad for like 3 years in all financial aspects?

I know it sounds negative and pessimistic, but these stories are invariably irresponsible corps management. I see approximately zero scenarios where any reasonably competent board/director would let any corps attempt a full tour if there was a chance of having to pack it in mid-season. If they knew it was going to be tight, why not adjust their touring schedule? I know there are penalties and whatnot for pulling out of shows but how is that a worse scenario than saying "f### it, let's see how far we can get!!" which is what it seems like they did.

[Jeff Ream]

I also have talked to people who have said the same..things like this usually just dont happen without a past that built to it. the sad part is the current people werent savy enough ( including DCI ) to see the writing on the wall long before now .

Hoping your group will survive that Florida curse...

This reminds me of the poor people who got stuck with all the debt MAgic had....they did everything they could but some of those ( successful as far as placement ) directors who came before them were so bad the past few people who tried to help them just couldnt pull it off. Another great corps died. That and I know of many members who didnt fulfill their own debt to the corps.

yeah both of the 2002 corps that had many of the same names involved are both gone, one DCA, one DCI.