cadet93 Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 (edited) 8 hours ago, onceuponatime said: It would be nice if it was that simple. I assume that all the Board members are on the Board for the right reasons, but they in most cases are too far away from the day to day operations to grasp the problem. As long as they make their periodic contributions and leave other matters pertaining to the corps to George, no one complains...and if they do they are more likely to resign from the Board, rather than take on the unpleasant responsibility of cleaning house. In the past month I have been contacted by two recent board members who told me they had recently resigned from the board because they had become increasingly uncomfortable with the way the corps was being run. I have also been contacted by two parents, one of whom has a son marching Cadets2. She feels that the three day mini-tour that Cadets2 were scheduled to take, but was subsequently cancelled, constituted a breach of contract. A second parent who is himself an alumnus and long-term supporter of the corps has withdrawn his support and permitted his son to switch corps after the 2016 season. I don't know how many of our best and most talented Cadets moved on to other corps at the end of the 2016 season. The numbers were considerable, and that is something that has never before happened to The Cadets, other than a Cadet or two moving on in hopes of getting a ring, or having a love interest or close friends in another corps. None of this is a reflection on our 2017 marching Cadets and Cadets2 who, though in most cases were somewhat younger and inexperienced than those who left, have turned themselves into Cadets in every sense of the word. None of this growing dissatisfaction with George's leadership should be any of their concern. Their focus is on the weeks ahead, and they have turned this season into something that makes most of our alumni very, very proud. In most cases their parents who so generously give of their time and love and resources, really have no conception of the struggle between George and many of our Alumni about the increasing number of red flags we see popping up all over the place. The marching Cadets are focused on the year at hand of course, and that is the way it should be. Many of them view alumni concerns from a competitive aspect, rather than a survival of the corps imperative. The alumni are concerned about the long term survival of The Cadets if George continues to believe that The Cadets are HIS drum corps to do with whatever he pleases, regardless of the growing negative effects his insular mentality is doing in destroying our great and universally respected drum corps. Our marching Cadets are concerned exclusively with the here and now, and we support them and have always supported them in their goals of the year. It is up to the alumni, however, to think about the generation after generation of brand new Cadets hoping for their chance to be a part of something so beloved and widely respected. It is almost our sacred obligation to ensure that our door is always open for The Cadets yet to come, and our reputation as an experience apart will always be secure. The Cadets have thousands of alumni, most of whom have no idea of the dead-end road that George has us traveling. Many others have personal lives that do not permit them the the luxury of keeping in touch with their fellow alumni on a regular basis. Fortunately we also have a large number of alumni for whom the well-being of The Cadets is a rapidly expanding concern; and their numbers seem to be increasing on a weekly basis, as evidenced by the increasing numbers of posts, and letters and messages received by me and others, centered around these concerns that are growing in scope, and appearing more and more frequently. We can never underestimate George and the impenetrable wall he has build around our corps. It is a bizarre, world of his own making, fed by a mental process that is mystifying and beyond the grasp of most of us. For years now we have been asking why there have been no checks on his personalization of The Cadets under the umbrella of George's Youth Education in The Arts. George is a genius, but increasingly over the years his genius more often than not has increasingly been used destructively. It has been sad to watch it happen. Most disturbing at all is that he has developed a "cult of personality" that a good number of our Cadets, during their marching years, have bought into. We probably would as well if all our needs were bring met during the course of a season, and a fascade of individual caring has been indoctrinated into a large number of Cadets. I used to think that George was a natural teacher with a special talent for communication with young people. I wish I could say the same thing now. Observing George very closely over many years I have come to realize that George's primary talent is mind manipulation over the young people he indoctrinates to view only the George that he presents to them at his daily "Hop Talks," and in the many personal conversations he has both with individual Cadets and each year's marching Cadets as a group. The "Cadet Experience" is real, and many, many Cadets have benefitted from it. For many years George, to his credit, expanded upon it and refined it. Then, year by year, it evolved into the "The George Experience;" and that was not a good thing. I don't know how many of you, like myself, during this transition period, were approached by people outside The Cadet family, but emotionally predisposed to support The Cadets, with one question, "Why doesn't your alumni bring him under control? Don't you realize how much his personal pursuit of self gratification is hurting your corps? My response was always the same; "because he's great with kids." I sincerely believed that as well, and like many other alumni, I stuck my head in the sand as George's darker side began to emerge. Over the years he became by far the most disliked person in drum corps, with good reason; and he dragged The Cadets down that dark path with him. OUR corps went from being the most admired and respected corps in the activity, to being what arguably is now the most disliked and criticized. It is not competitive placement that has finally fired up more and more alumni. That comes and goes year by year. It is our revered history, and traditions, and values and image that is of so little consequence to George that he nonchalantly tramples on them, only because he can. That is what is beginning to awaken an alumni sleeping giant. Do I speak for the alumni, hell no! I can speak only for myself and my growing fears that if things keep on going in the same direction under George's ever-growing psychological need for absolute control in every area of Cadet operations, we might wake up at any time to find that we no longer have a corps after 83 years of hard-earned accomplishment and history. This conversation has been running for several years, without any progress whatsoever. A couple of weeks ago I posted a very innocuous post related to this issue. I immediately received two very irate replies from 2017 Cadets. Which opened with the same sentence. "George is The Cadets." One was from a Cadet marching his very first year. He related how George ran with them, rehearsed with them, was out in the sun and rain with them, made sure they have good quality meals to eat, and personally cared about each and every one of them. Therefore, in his mind, George was The Cadets, and he was very outspoken about "alumni who only cared about themselves." I wondered if that was the way I felt under my Corps Director at the time, Bill "The Chief" Kemmerer. I decided it probably was, but much like The Cadets of Today my thinking and feelings were focused totally on myself. When you're young life is all about you. It takes a certain amount of maturity to reach the point when you start to think more about "the big picture," and the future yet to come for both yourself and for the corps we all love. OUR Cadets. FHNSAB... This is excellently written, and I agree with everything you have stated. I don't care if quoting it takes up a large portion of page space. More people should see and read this. It is not just sour grapes about placement. It is about the future of the corps. The corps' identity is currently so tied to one individual that there is no separation between their identity and his. How you change that without total catastrophe is the challenge. As GH taught us, you don't complain just to complain. You seek out the person or group who can do something about it. So much of the talk centers around being willing to write a large check to change things. I don't think that is the key. Edited August 5, 2017 by cadet93 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabMaster Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 1 hour ago, emc2 said: So LB what dose this mean about cadets and people that have been participating in this year's shows. do not understand. Not sure that it means anything. Lentz was judging in SA. There was some controversy with some of his assessments. Now he's not judging and has supposedly recently helped at Cadets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadet93 Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 1 hour ago, Tobias said: Would like to see: 1. Cadets at a 92 tonight. 2. Beat Boston. 3. Have some caption movement upward i.e.: Percussion, VP, GE (not in that particular order). 4. We need momentum going into INDY. It's Allentown already! J Kennedy and Moscaro are on the panel so good luck with that. Luckily for Cadets they are not on GE captions so overall score influence will be tempered. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emc2 Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 1 minute ago, cadet93 said: J Kennedy and Moscaro are on the panel so good luck with that. Luckily for Cadets they are not on GE captions so overall score influence will be tempered. Come on man. why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Dixon Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 1 hour ago, emc2 said: OK no one that is involved this year should be teaching Cadets. Nothing that is going on will with the remainder of the the season should change the judging of Cadets shows. no one teaching this year's corps would judge it the remainder of the season or next season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Dixon Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 44 minutes ago, cadet93 said: What is your personal beef with Michael Lentz?.....jeez. he worked with Boston and now he is with the Cadets. See it can only go one way... lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTNK Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 6 hours ago, ftwdrummer said: Find black-and-white photos of the classic uniform (stripe and shako and all). Make the uniforms to match. Fun fact: Marc Sylvester wanted to do a "film noir" show with this exact uniform concept for 2007 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Dixon Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 3 minutes ago, FTNK said: Fun fact: Marc Sylvester wanted to do a "film noir" show with this exact uniform concept for 2007 Yeah it's been done before as well but not by cadets. Imo it suits the OTWF music perfectly and really echos the famous look of the Marlon Brando movie and its gritty feel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadet93 Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 So is the shirtless guard member supposed to be Jesus? Its really all complete now isn't it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcikon2 Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 19 minutes ago, cadet93 said: So is the shirtless guard member supposed to be Jesus? Its really all complete now isn't it When was this added and if so, why? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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