2012 Teal Sound "Letter of Explanation"

[cixelsyd]

I have a problem with the apparant time line and content of notification they recieved, not just the words in this letter.

According to the letter, "only a few" had paid their dues in full. Judging by some of the posts that this minority of parents made, they had no reason to believe there was a problem when the tour started. Clearly the director and board knew then there was a problem, and were hoping for the best.

I am not sure that is entirely accurate. She says she communicated with the members and parents then, and a number of them promised to pay but did not follow through.

End of June comes and there is a bus problem. The information released is that the bus company problem was unexpected, the corps was safe and management was working to get them on the road. According to a post in this thread earlier, other corps directors were aware and arranging temporary busses. IF finances were the issue, it doesn't appear that the parents were told of the dire situation then.

An email to the limited number of people on their mailing list asks for donations, again vaguely discussing the "bus company issue". Now there is scrambling and attempts at personal loans. Still the parents are not told?

The parents would be on the mailing list, so they would have received the e-mail.

They surely knew it was over before they performed in Chambersburg...but they wait to announce to the members and parents AFTER the show, and at the same time as the public??

What would you have preferred?

Should they have told the members on their way to the field in Centerville? "Everybody, your tour ends today. Sorry! OK, now make this show a good one!"

I do not know precisely when "they knew it was over". The impression I have is that the decision was made that day. If each additional day of tour would add to the expense, a case can be made that the abrupt end was the most responsible business decision at that point.

I think that those who paid their dues deserve better.

Me too. I think they deserved more peers that paid up, and one more attempt by corps management to make that happen (which the director admits she failed to do).

Certainly the kids that were able to pay would require a different discussion than those "who did not pay at all", who probably really don't need much of an explanation. Those who she "talked to and said they would pay and didn't" fall into another catagory. At the end of the day, the paying parents of the members are the key investors in the organization. These investors seemed to have been wronged. Her number one priority should be to assure them, and everybody, that making things right for them is her first agenda, certainly before any hopes or discussion for any future activity. Stories like this are damaging to the ENTIRE ACTIVITY. There has been a sense of secrecy, or even deception throughout. That needs to be fixed if there is any hope for a future Teal Sound.

Is there really any way to reconcile all that? If you have situations where some members are having dues purposefully waived or discounted, the members who pay in full may feel wronged no matter what.

[dckid80]

My grandfather ran his own butcher shop for 30 years. When he retired in the early 70's, they found a tin with index cards indicating how many customers had been extended credit and still owed him money.

The family did not go after any of those people because they recognized that my grandfather did not overextend himself or put his financial well being at risk. If fact, what they found was that he had extended credit to those people in the community who were less fortunate.

Every small business owner faces the same dilemna.

So to it appears did Teal Sound.

As others have said, it is difficult to believe that the corps management was not aware of the financial shortfall caused by members not paying dues. To call that out as the primary cause, after the fact is dishonest.

They should never have gone on tour in the first place. When people's safety is in the mix, there needs to be a point during the off-season where a go/ no go call is made.

This should be an open and transparent process to all the corps members and their parents and it clearly was not.

[Shadowtron]

As others have said, it is difficult to believe that the corps management was not aware of the financial shortfall caused by members not paying dues. To call that out as the primary cause, after the fact is dishonest.

They should never have gone on tour in the first place. When people's safety is in the mix, there needs to be a point during the off-season where a go/ no go call is made.

This should be an open and transparent process to all the corps members and their parents and it clearly was not.

Agreed. So far the blame has been on:

- Bus company

- Students not paying

- DCI

This also does not disprove the truck repo rumor, decision to leave on tour, real bus story, on and on so I have no choice but to believe those stories are mostly accurate. "The facts" never came out and it will only hurt Teal. Until there is a complete management overhaul, I cannot support this corps. Rebranding is a good idea for whoever takes over.

[Donny Drum Corps]

The first time I saw this idea of Teal Sound going home, I posted somewhere that I suspected that they went on the road without the financial support expected from tour fees coming in on time. that As someone with first hand experience with corps at this level, I think that it is important to say that just because the money didnt come in from the kids, does not mean they have no contracts. I am quite sure te kids signed contracts saying would pay by the time they left Florida. They just didnt keep their word, for whatever reason.

Perhaps taking the corps on the road without that guarantee was taking a huge chance that the dues money would come in. It was a huge gamble, but the parents, and students also have a responsibilty to pay their dues and tour fees.

I was a member of a corps that decided NOT to tour and fold after making DCI finals way back in the seventies (Auburn Purple Lancers from NY). We had a full corps in the winter of 1975 and a truly promising year ahead of us. The members were totally shocked when the administration came to the corps in tears in April and said that, not only would we not go out the season ahead, but the corps had to fold for financial reasons. The director had mortgaged his home the year before to tour and DCI had the corps travelling to places that we had no money to get to. They just didnt know how to do it, even though DCI expected this of a finalist corps. The next year the same thing happened to the Anaheim Kingsmen.

Pioneer goes through chasing kids for money every year that I have been associated with that corps. I would wager that most corps at the lower level of WC have the same problem. After the fact of writing the show for a certain amount of members, and then having to chase people to fill those spots is a tough job. Sometimes the management has to trust the members will pay on their contract. The corps' depend on those fees to be paid in order to function.

Believe me, as an administrator, senior staff member, program coordinator and caption head, I sat down with other administrators and looked over the members financial status many times, and went to the student with the concern of making payments. I would begin rehearsals by saying that if people owed any money, please go see the people that were concerned with finances. This is very uncomfortable, but sometimes necessary, especially if it someone that you recruited to be in the corps.

Keeping up the status quo for membership size and competitve possibilitites is where the flaw is. Trying to keep the corps at a high level of performance comes with a cost.

Maybe the director's wording isnt to everyone on DCP's liking, but he has a point. It is expensive to be in a WC corps. When you sign up, you become obliged to pay your way. If you dont, corps go home from tour. They probably shouldn't have left Florida, but expectations of being paid is probably one of the reasons they did.

The hard lesson learned is that corps at this level do not function without the same kind of money as the higher level corps, but dont get the same level of student or financial backing. It cost Teal JUST as much as Cavaliers, Cadets and Blur Devils to go to Texas, (after touring the North East US, and over to the midwest). They dont get the same prize money, corporate sponsors, etc...so the students become more responsible.

This post may sound harsh, but it comes with experience with many corps at the same status and competitve level as Teal Sound. They are a nice bunch ot people, and they will be missed.

Donny

[Donny Drum Corps]

Yes...corps are dependent on member fees, more than you may believe.

Corps get money from marching parades in certain areas, possibly bingo (but that has died in most areas), corporate sponsorship, (that sponsor the BIG corps willingly, but not the smaller or lesser corps), alumni support (again much better for significant competitors), and MEMBERSHIP FEES!

It is the truth. With no prize monies for Open Class shows, it almost makes corps compete at the highest level or die trying.

Donny

[skywhopper]

The board of Teal Sound has an obligation to ensure that appropriate controls are in place to prevent this kind of financial failure. It may well be true that members were not paying their fees in a timely manner. That's unfortunate but to be expected. All sorts of non-profit and for-profit corporations involved in providing similar services (summer camps, dance academies, day cares, private schools) or any service for that matter, must have a plan in place for (1) how to make sure as many people pay as possible, and (2) how to address problems that come from lack of payment, and even (3) how to decide if they can afford to tour.

The fact that Teal's tour fell apart is proof that they either did not have these policies or were not following them. Blaming the members who did not come through on their fees is just deflection of blame that rightly sits with Teal's administration and board.

So while it would be wrong to ask the big corps to "bail out" Teal once the tour started, there is more that DCI and the big corps could be doing to ensure that the smaller, newer corps don't find themselves in this kind of a situation. It's inevitable that blow-ups like this will happen from time to time, but it sure sounds like Teal's problems had been brewing for a long time, and there had been many opportunities for intervention well before things got to be as bad as they ended up being.

[Spartans87]

Couple comments on this subject - The letter was well intended I am sure, but was so poorly written, it would have been better to write nothing than send this out. The director would have been well served to have someone else review it, or even have a PR person give feedback. Bad business the was this was handled.

As far as the involvement of DCI or its member corps, I DO believe it is well within the rights of DCI, as the administrator of the tour, to REQUIRE each corps provide audited proof that it has the ability to participate in the tour, well in advance of the tour beginning. This should include a surplus of some amount, to cover unforeseen circumstances. This could be a line of credit, cash reserves on hand, or even a commitment, in writing from a booster or group, to step in and handle a situation if it were to arise, all to insure the corps can complete the tour.

DCI can establish these requirements, and decline participation, or allow only a limited participation, to any group that falls short. DCI has the show promoters, fans and other corps that receive fees, as well as a desire for the members of each corps to have a safe and solid experience to consider.

Asking for each corps to "police" their peers is not the way to get transparency and insure this situation never happens again.

I wish Teal Sound good luck as they decide how to proceed.

[MikeD]

This post may sound harsh, but it comes with experience with many corps at the same status and competitve level as Teal Sound. They are a nice bunch ot people, and they will be missed.

No, Donny, it does not sound harsh at all...it is realistic. I recall earlier this spring there were some holes posted in the Cadets, with the stated reason that they could no longer carry members who were not meeting their financial obligations. It is part of what a member has to do to hold up their end of the deal.

The Teal situation in the lettter is sort of a flashback to the 60's, 70's and onward when hundreds of small corps were failing due to their corps admins not treating the organization as a business, including using their personal fincnaces to try and remain afloat (musch as you described about Auburn). Well intentioned? Absolutely...some of the biggest hearts and best people on the planet...but business people they were not...as it appears with Teal this year.

[jonnyboy]

I honestly wish that were the system. Since every corps is a 501c3 system, don't they have to open up their books any time they're asked? Couldn't DCI have a check every year in say, March, when they do evals for new corps, and make sure everything is on the up and up? I know that it wouldn't take into account when corps have members who don't pay fees, but Teal was supposed to be having problems last year financially as well. If there was a system in place, it would have caught that, and they could have either received guidance from DCI, or decided to take the year off before going out on tour.

501 c 3 organizations do not have to open their books when asked. They are still corporations, but with different rules.

DCI could start a system where they check books, but I don't think that is their responsibility. Parents could ask to see "the books", but unless you know what you are looking for you might be lost. I probably would. What might be best is for some parents, as a group, ask for a financial presentation of some sort in the winter. The corps can then publicly share how they intend to pay for tour, and in the spring they could give updates. I would imagine that if Teal had disclosed in April that they were 100K short of tour money because kids had not paid they might have had time to collect funds. They maybe could have even said "We have enough money to get to July 1st, if we don't collect the tour fees we are coming home on that date."

[woodchuck]

First of all, my heart goes out to Teal Sound and the entire organization. I love the fact that there are many arm chair quarterbacks posting this and that, and blah blah blah.

What I will say and have said before eventually there will be fewer than 20 World Class Corps, because the member number keeps rising. When they hit 200, there goes Pioneer, Troopers, Cascades, Jersey Surf, Mandarins and Pacific Crest. This is exactly what is happening.

It is expensive to operate an organization at such. I have friends personally who went through an entire season of a drum corps that soon folded, and it was HELL! Why?? Because people didn't care. In this case, I have no doubt, the director cared and wanted the best for the kids.

Unfortunately in this day and age of technology, every thinks they know the right answer. People use poor judgement when making statements. I guess my question is, Why weren't the BIG 7 there to catch The Teal Sound?

If Drum Corps is about family and camaraderie where were the arms to catch them? I'm not saying pay their way out and such, but thanks to member corps mostly out of the top 12 reached out and picked up many of the members.

I hope to see Teal Sound come out stronger and better than ever next year. It can happen.

For all negative Nancy's it'd be great to keep the comments and finger pointing inside the four walls of your place.

Thanks.