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The Legends REALLY Need Our Help!!!


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18 minutes ago, Stu said:

The truth will likely come out.  But I bet my favorite dog, and that is serious, that the trailers and food truck equipment were pre-tour decisions, and that they placed themselves in great debt at that time; and therefore I believe this was not emergency breakdowns of immediacy while out on tour. And procuring trailers, and other large equipment, on the hope of future cash flow will solve the issue is not a smart move at all; nor is that a disaster caused by immediate emergency. Also, by connecting the dots and putting together the sum of all statements; this has been a cash flow problem to pay debt in arrears for at least the past month.  My biggest point is that unless they got $100,000 in the hole via immediate catastrophic circumstances (which is highly unlikely) they should never have gone out on the road in the first place in hopes of collecting future revenue order to sustain them out on the road.

How in the world did you summarize that they went into debt to buy equipment and that now they are paying "...debt in arrears for at least the past month"?

You don't know a darn thing here, Stu!  Why do you keep inventing stories?

You don't think it's plausible that they couldn't have prepared for this circumstance.  OK, fine.  But don't make up stories to validate the position on which you've based your solution!

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What Ibe is not telling everyone is how the 100K is  going to be spent.  Is he going to use the money to pay off old debt or use it to pay upcoming expenses to complete the season?  How much is needed to complete the season?    He should state that he is taking no salary for rest of year and that no staff or other people currently being paid should receive any payment for the rest of the season.    All money should be spent on the needs of the members.  Pay bus company, drivers, fuel and food etc.   All current debt holders need to wait until end of season for payment.  DCI was aware of Legends  financial instability before season started but they apparently  made the wrong decision in letting them go on the difficult Florida tour this season.  DCI is going to end up being owed money by Legends which in fact has to be shared with all the other member corps.  I hope everything works out for the members.

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3 minutes ago, Stu said:

DCI, as in the voting member corps, have recently been attempting to keep this type of thing from happening via better oversight.  But how far can, or should, a governing body go into snooping into the books and inner workings  of an individual corps?  That is the sticky question.

In my opinion? 

DCI should employ an independent accountant... with ZERO ties to the activity... to look at finances and say what each corps CAN and CANNOT do... regardless of what class they are in. If they look at Blue Devils books and say nay, then nay it is.

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Why shouldn't this money be going to open class corps who apparently have been more financially responsible?  It seems like Legends, in addition to other things, bought new uniforms this year.  I can't tell if they also bought new playing equipment, but it seems like they are trying to "have their cake and eat it too" here when other open class corps do not make the same types of big purchases to try to "keep up with the jones's" and therefore don't do as well competitively as a result.  I know that it would be unfortunate for the drum corps to not go on the road for the rest of the season, but I think there is a valuable lesson for even the youth of the corps to learn here which is...it's a tough world out there where you don't always get everything you want and you have to be smart with your money and not put yourself in situations that will lead to financial ruin.  I feel very bad for the corps but when you need 100k raised in 24 hours, that doesn't happen overnight...were they really being smart with what they were trying to accomplish this season.

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17 minutes ago, Stu said:

With the exception of the car breakdown, all of this expense which placed them in debt was likely known well before going out on tour (including planning for various housing contingencies) and cash should have been secured for before going out on tour. (it appears they were attempting to facilitate massive growth and do a tour without having a secured cash flow of support)

"...likely known..." is speculation.  Period.

But I understand that it's the cornerstone of your argument.

"...housing contingencies)"?  Did Ibe say something about housing costs in the video that I missed?  Where did you get that?

How it "appears" to you is, apparently, significantly divorced from reality and based on nothing but speculation.

You should stop until the facts do come out, and you should not donate until they've convinced you that the problems that led them to this position are not likely to repeat.

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Just now, garfield said:

How in the world did you summarize that they went into debt to buy equipment and that now they are paying "...debt in arrears for at least the past month"?

You don't know a darn thing here, Stu!  Why do you keep inventing stories?

You don't think it's plausible that they couldn't have prepared for this circumstance.  OK, fine.  But don't make up stories to validate the position on which you've based your solution!

I am just not buying into the notion that immediate emergency disaster has just placed them in immediate dire straights.  It is my contention that the corps was managed more like Teal, Revolution, the newer version of VK, ad infinitum; and that the director knew full well over a moth ago the $100,000 grim reaper was going to have to be paid at some point (a point which has now arrived), and that he kept most all of this close to his chest without telling others (see quote) thus sparking this plea of immediacy.

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5 minutes ago, Cainan said:

In my opinion? 

DCI should employ an independent accountant... with ZERO ties to the activity... to look at finances and say what each corps CAN and CANNOT do... regardless of what class they are in. If they look at Blue Devils books and say nay, then nay it is.

When is the independent accountant do his evaluation?  During the Winter months most corps books look pretty lean.  Cash doesn't start coming until members start paying their dues and fund raising starts.  Wait until April or May and then you have to pull the plug late.

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Just now, drumcorpsfan4567 said:

Why shouldn't this money be going to open class corps who apparently have been more financially responsible?  It seems like Legends, in addition to other things, bought new uniforms this year.  I can't tell if they also bought new playing equipment, but it seems like they are trying to "have their cake and eat it too" here when other open class corps do not make the same types of big purchases to try to "keep up with the jones's" and therefore don't do as well competitively as a result.  I know that it would be unfortunate for the drum corps to not go on the road for the rest of the season, but I think there is a valuable lesson for even the youth of the corps to learn here which is...it's a tough world out there where you don't always get everything you want and you have to be smart with your money and not put yourself in situations that will lead to financial ruin.  I feel very bad for the corps but when you need 100k raised in 24 hours, that doesn't happen overnight...were they really being smart with what they were trying to accomplish this season.

In most corps, the uniform costs are built in to tour / member fees so that's pretty much a non issue. Did they get more equipment? Most likely as the corps has grown significantly in numbers.. would you prefer they played on Plastitrumpets to save money? And whether we like it or not.."keeping up with the Joneses" is a requirement in todays activities. Gone are the days when there were 300+ corps that could cater for all levels and needs. We have what.. about 45 (70 if you include DCA) corps left... all vying for the cream of the crop talent wise... I aged out of Freelancers in 92... Both BDB and Vanguard Cadets would have EASILY made finals back in my day. Back then, BDB and Vanguard Cadets marched corps sizes of around 50... today each are at the 150 level. The performers are still out there, but there are less corps to attract them, hence the corps HAVE to present a package that those performers want to go to. 

As for the performers in Legends.. why should they have to have their summer ruined because of this? They've done nothing to deserve this.

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6 minutes ago, dcifanforlife said:

What Ibe is not telling everyone is how the 100K is  going to be spent.  Is he going to use the money to pay off old debt or use it to pay upcoming expenses to complete the season?  How much is needed to complete the season?    He should state that he is taking no salary for rest of year and that no staff or other people currently being paid should receive any payment for the rest of the season.    All money should be spent on the needs of the members.  Pay bus company, drivers, fuel and food etc.   All current debt holders need to wait until end of season for payment.  DCI was aware of Legends  financial instability before season started but they apparently  made the wrong decision in letting them go on the difficult Florida tour this season.  DCI is going to end up being owed money by Legends which in fact has to be shared with all the other member corps.  I hope everything works out for the members.

I'm sorry, but this is just unrealistic on all kinds of levels.

How long do you think staff will stay around for free?  What sort of season will Legends have with no staff?

All current debt-holders?  There we go again...who said they have debt to pay?  Do you see that in a 990 somewhere that I missed?

How do you know that Legends' financial position was tenuous at the beginning of the season and that DCI decided to let them go on to do anything?

DCI will do what they did with the many other corps that have had difficulty over the years, and those costs will be borne by activity as a whole (maybe this helps explain the reason for the vetting process that someone else brought up).

All this speculation is the kind of "piling on" that doesn't help anything and only spreads rumors.  It's also one of the reasons why some directors think that DCP is a bunch of know-it-all-do-nothings who have lots of scorn and myriad solutions for those who are actually out there doing it.

Jeesh, I wish that'd change...

 

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