G7 Update

[Stu]

If you create an organization and the board is not aligned with the strategic vision of the organization as set out by the CEO, you're ####ed. Really.

In a 501c3 the Board, not the CEO, should set the mission and vision through the bylaws and stick to just governance; then, the Board should allow the CEO to guide the ship of administration and management with much autonomy and decision making power.

The job of the board is not really to create the course or steer the ship. It is pretty much to make sure it doesn't hit rocks, docks in all the right places, makes enough money from the time in port and that the captain that manages successful journeys is well taken care of.

1) A typical 501c3 would have an honestly elected Board which governs, hires and oversees the Executive Director, gives the Executive Director autonomy to administer and manage the corporation within the mission perimeters of the corporation, and has the ability to fire the Executive Director if that person oversteps the mission. In this situation the ED as a great amount of power yet is still kept in check by the Board.

2) According to the document written by Bill Cook a Bill Cook type 501c3 drum corps would have a faux elected Board of yes-men hand picked by the Director (ie the supposed Benevolent Dictator), with the Dictator also having complete unrestricted power to act at his/her own discretion along with complete unconditional authority; and the only resemblance to the required IRS structure would be just on paper so as to placate the IRS and keep the 501c3 status.

Unless Cook was penning tongue in cheek sarcasm and was not really serious in his treatise, I believe a corps, as well as the entity of DCI, should adhere to the first structure above not the one proposed by Bill Cook.

Edited January 11, 2013 by Stu

[kickhaltsforlife]

I just hope that the current DCI BOD has enough of a backbone to deal with this properly.

[Tanda]

You mentioned the " bad economic environment in this country. Ok. Maybe the rich in this country should put together a proposal that would only allow people over a certain income level be allowed to vote. Afterall, they are the " consistently successful ", and the poor and the middle class should " listen to their input from the successful" by simply relinquising their right to vote to them. For example, one has to make an income of $300,000 per year. If you don't make that sort of yearly income,... and " consistently"... could the rich count on YOU to give up your right to vote ? to them ? Would you vote to give UP your right to vote ?

I love this comparison!!!! As a country we would never let this pass, why would we be ok with it in our favorite activity.

[Jeff Ream]

If DCI's by-laws were changed to give full voting power only to the top twelve corps from last year, could a majority of that group of twelve (say, oh, seven corps) then call for (and pass) a vote to change the by-laws again so that voting power was in future limited only to a certain set of seven corps? Thus permanently keeping Boston, Madison, etc. from having any voice?

yes

[Jeff Ream]

No they aren't. The G7 consists of The Blue Devils, The Cadets, Carolina Crown, The Bluecoats, Santa Clara Vanguard, Phantom Regiment and the Cavaliers. The are consistently the seven best drum corps in DCI and they are the draw to the summer events. They have conference call once a week to talk about how great they are and how they can make more money since they do the heavy lifting.

minor edit...when talking about the entire 7, they are the best recently. see, within the last, oh 13/14 years, both Crown and Bluecoats didn't make finals. Blue I dont think cracked top 6 til 2002....Crown what, 2006?

[Jeff Ream]

You are seriously giving these guys way too much credit. Drum corps has gotten expensive due to DCI directors, staff, and judges wanting to keep up with all the modern and relevant design trends. Surely you aren't suggesting some drum corps illuminati had a meeting where they decided "lets make all of these rules over the next five years. Then it will be even more expensive running corps, which will hurt those of us with weaker finances, but it will someday kill off ever other corps not in this syndicate," and then twirled their mustaches.

I'm not going to debate the argument that these same directors have not helped themselves by pushing the activity to a state where it costs millions of dollars annually to compete at the highest level for a Championship. But to suggest that this is a super well thought out and executed plan masterminded by guys who can barely formulate cohesive grammatically correct/good spelling word documents is kinda funny

here i will agree on 6 of the 7. Look...these guys had a lot of say for a while, especially Gibbs, Hop and Fiedler. These were guys that pushed for the super tour model, Jeff helped push out DCM, various rules changes guaranteed to bring people flocking in etc...and they bombed as time has gone on. Hindsight does not do their leadership skills well.

But it wasn't a master plan by all of them

[Jeff Ream]

I just hope that the current DCI BOD has enough of a backbone to deal with this properly.

this is why the Januals should be live on the Fan network

[tubabeard42]

How many young people, of marching age, are on here complaining about the G7? My guess is NONE!1

I'm marching age and I'm leery of the G7, being with an Open Class group. Not complaining, but at least wary.

[corpsband]

yes maybe

FTFY -- it depends on whether the procedure for amending the bylaws requires a vote of the board or a vote by the membership.

[madalumni]

Actually, in the interest of historical accuracy, DCI was founded on "we're the act, we should be making the money", verbatim from Jim Jones.

(Check out the Brass Roots video on Fan Network; he said it to Don Warren at a mens room in Wisconsin. We can only assume that he was talking about their respective drum corps...)

I need to correct you on your interpretation of that quote. If you go back and watch the video, it is clear

that what they were discussing in that men's room, is that the all of the performing Corps were the act - not

the VFW/AL , who were running the shows. What they were frustrated with - as spoken of by Don Warren - was how the VFW/Al were taking the lion's share of the money from shows and paying out very little to the performing Corps.

This situation is very different. These elitists (G7) are now smuggly claiming that they, and they alone

are the act, and deserve the lion's share of the money and power.