YEA Board of Directors

[rpbobcat]

12 hours ago, Icer said:

What you are saying makes sense only if the board had a financial stake in the outcome.  These were volunteers who donated their time and their money, and with the possible exception of the chairman, no one knew their names.  What would they have to gain?  Money? Power? It makes no sense.  The only person with a financial interest in "business as usual" was the accused.  You are treating YEA like it was some kind of significant organization.  It's a little unknown charity in a rundown building in Allentown that puts on marching band competitions and manages two out of about 75 national drum corps.  NO ONE CARES outside of these pages until something bad happens.  Then suddenly everyone cares. When this all started, everyone should have run for the hills and left the problem to someone else... unless they thought that maybe they had a commitment to the organization to try to figure out what was the right thing to do.

Now if, as MusicManNJ claims, there is other stuff out there, it could change a lot.  We'll see.  In this mess I suppose anything is possible.  But based on what we know at the moment, I don't think your assumptions are supported by facts.

As far as I know,no one here was in the room when the old BoD  were made aware of the accusations against GH by the then anonymous accusers.

So, all anyone here can comment on is what they put out publicly.

I presume the old Bod talked to GH in depth about this,what did he say ?

Did the  old BoD feel that,since the accusers were anonymous, they weren't serious , either in their accusations or going to the press,who knows.

I'm sure that will all looked at as part of the outside investigation.

What I don't know is whether any of the old Bod members would  even be willing  to speak about it.

Regardless,the old Bod's handling of this was inexcusable.

I disagree with the comment that the Bod's actions only make sense if they had a financial stake in the outcome.

I think their motivations could  have ,depending on what they found out at the time,been based on avoiding or minimizing  potential "exposure" or liability.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2018 by rpbobcat

[Jeff Ream]

4 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

No wonder it makes no sense to you... if you do not understand their personal motivations for being on the BOD in the first place.

power and status can mean as much to some people as money!

[garfield]

6 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

No wonder it makes no sense to you... if you do not understand their personal motivations for being on the BOD in the first place.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding

The old BoD was likely neutered from the very beginning and each was probably "allowed" to serve if they kept quiet and had the rubber stamp ready.

 

[BigW]

3 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

power and status can mean as much to some people as money!

Ka-ching!

 

Was why Arlen Specter switched parties and ran one more time. Money had nothing to do with it. He liked being part of the US Senate and the status it gave him, even at age 80. He had the pension, family, grandkids, everything else one could want at that point in one's life.

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, BigW said:

Ka-ching!

 

Was why Arlen Specter switched parties and ran one more time. Money had nothing to do with it. He liked being part of the US Senate and the status it gave him, even at age 80. He had the pension, family, grandkids, everything else one could want at that point in one's life.

he even had a theory about magic bullets!

[BigW]

5 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

he even had a theory about magic bullets!

I asked a friend who knew Arlen about why he didn't just retire , they said he was a real good and decent man- but he just couldn't let go of all the status and perks, even when it was time to do it.

[Icer]

9 hours ago, BigW said:

Ka-ching!

 

Was why Arlen Specter switched parties and ran one more time. Money had nothing to do with it. He liked being part of the US Senate and the status it gave him, even at age 80. He had the pension, family, grandkids, everything else one could want at that point in one's life.

Let's see, serving in the Senate means you get invited on every talk show, quoted in newspapers, wined and dined by foreign leaders and lobbyists, invited to all the right social occasions. 

Serving on the board of an obscure 501-c-3.  No power (at least as far as we can tell from what people have written here), no one knew any names unless they found them on the website or until they ended up in the Inquirer.  All of the spotlight was on GH and the Cadets - same as any other top tier DCI corps. I suspect if you asked anyone who serves on a board like this, the answer is because they want to give something back. You might think they were ineffective, which is a legitimate criticism of any board. And you can certainly second guess the crisis response, which was clearly amateur hour. But those who take the time to look will see that the majority were Cadet alumni just like many who post here who claim to care more, and who were also betrayed by someone who had previously inspired them.  They were willing to step up and serve behind the scenes when no one else would, long after their marching days were over, who found themselves on the business end of a wood chipper, and got chewed up and spit out.  They, like many other alumni, are probably sitting and wondering how the acts of which the director has been accused could have gone on while they were in the corps, blissfully unaware of what was below the surface.  They probably wish they had known and maybe could have spoken up or offered comfort to the victims.

I would think they would get sympathy rather than the hate that comes out of this venue. But what do I know?  I never marched, i just like watching these spectacular performers.

[Jeff Ream]

25 minutes ago, Icer said:

Let's see, serving in the Senate means you get invited on every talk show, quoted in newspapers, wined and dined by foreign leaders and lobbyists, invited to all the right social occasions. 

Serving on the board of an obscure 501-c-3.  No power (at least as far as we can tell from what people have written here), no one knew any names unless they found them on the website or until they ended up in the Inquirer.  All of the spotlight was on GH and the Cadets - same as any other top tier DCI corps. I suspect if you asked anyone who serves on a board like this, the answer is because they want to give something back. You might think they were ineffective, which is a legitimate criticism of any board. And you can certainly second guess the crisis response, which was clearly amateur hour. But those who take the time to look will see that the majority were Cadet alumni just like many who post here who claim to care more, and who were also betrayed by someone who had previously inspired them.  They were willing to step up and serve behind the scenes when no one else would, long after their marching days were over, who found themselves on the business end of a wood chipper, and got chewed up and spit out.  They, like many other alumni, are probably sitting and wondering how the acts of which the director has been accused could have gone on while they were in the corps, blissfully unaware of what was below the surface.  They probably wish they had known and maybe could have spoken up or offered comfort to the victims.

I would think they would get sympathy rather than the hate that comes out of this venue. But what do I know?  I never marched, i just like watching these spectacular performers.

sigh. It's you that don't get it. if you truly looked at this board, being able to say they were on the Cadets board was all they needed!!! This wasn't a board like BD or Boston or others have...one of them openly bragged he got the gig by answering an ad in Drum Corps World! This wasn't a board that did stuff, this was a board that said "sure george, go get em!"

[JimF-LowBari]

So one only serves on a board if they can get power or money? Wonder how much power I got by being council of a failing church for 6 years. Didn’t even get gas money for driving to whatever. Yeah on YEA the old board was powerless but maybe some were on because they like drum corps or  the Cadets. Easy to think you are helping even if GH is running the show. Or maybe they got their kicks by being able to say they were on the board of a top corps regardless if 99.999 percent of the population knows who YEA is. I've seen that with local old car and bridge playing groups. Not defending that the old board let gh do things he should not have(legal and otherwise) just discussing that people give up time and money for good reasons

Edited May 9, 2018 by JimF-LowBari

[BigW]

7 hours ago, Icer said:

I would think they would get sympathy rather than the hate that comes out of this venue. But what do I know?

Any board of directors/trustees that fails to act as a proper check and balance deserves serious criticism. I could care less what organization they claim to serve. After reading the Inquirer articles, The old BoD deserve whatever brickbats come their way. Rather than acting as a robust group that would act fairly, they appeared to the victims as a group of enablers. Subsequent events proved that the victims were pretty much correct. I just can't find any sympathy for the old BoD and have a serious disconnect with the implication that I should find them to be some group of tragic figures.

 

I would feel sympathetic had they spoke up and tried to really do something to hold GH accountable, but it's clear they really didn't for many years.

Edited May 9, 2018 by BigW