Interesting occurrence at I&E this year

[JimF-LowBari]

21 minutes ago, garfield said:

An app to do what, exactly?  Please explain your theory of what this app would actually do.

My cynical side thinks that an app is TOO easy, and can imagine minor complaints between young people, and young people with their teachers, as being little daggers they throw at each other with their thumbs.

A designated person in each organization who presents such an unbiased and non-agenda'd position in the corps that every member of the org can consider him/her (preferably her, IMO) their trusted confidant and best friend. One who can immediately provide protection and take appropriate action on the spot and in the chain of command.

I'm not this smart, folks. I'm stealing these phrases from actual Board members of actual corps who are having these conversations and solidifying language and texture to cover the mind-boggling myriad of complications surrounding reaching amenable agreement among 40-odd independent organizations enough to codify it. 

These solutions are in place, now, at many (IMO, "most, if not all") corps, and they're installing immediate policies and talking to staffs.

 

 

Having a designated person in the corps is good but there has to be procedures in case a person who feels they are being harrassed does not want to go thru the corps. Think of a Cadets type situation where the harrasser is the boss of the person you go to.

Having seen new procedures try to be place at my job I doubt all corps are making the change with the same level of energy or seriousness. Have seen the gamut from gung ho lets do this to treat it like a management cya exercise and just pay lip service. In other words human nature. Again people need a contact outside of their corps if they feel the corps is not handling it correctly.

Finally this will be an evolving process so procedures will have be continually reviewed and updated. Especially at the beginning as people use them and see what needs to be improved

Edited August 14, 2018 by JimF-LowBari

[garfield]

1 hour ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Having a designated person in the corps is good but there has to be procedures in case a person who feels they are being harrassed does not want to go thru the corps. Think of a Cadets type situation where the harrasser is the boss of the person you go to.

Having seen new procedures try to be place at my job I doubt all corps are making the change with the same level of energy or seriousness. Have seen the gamut from gung ho lets do this to treat it like a management cya exercise and just pay lip service. In other words human nature. Again people need a contact outside of their corps if they feel the corps is not handling it correctly.

Finally this will be an evolving process so procedures will have be continually reviewed and updated. Especially at the beginning as people use them and see what needs to be improved

Yes, of course.

Now we can start to see how the creation of the "DCI" entity - the executive - function will be created by and as a result of this process.

Again, you get 100 or more corps Board members in a room, usually for a couple of days, and all of these issues - and dozens more - a considered, ranked, and addressed.  EDIT:  Then you maintain an active electronic meeting site for free exchange of ideas, comments. solution-sharing and then you hold several meetings at regional to bring in those particular Boards in those areas to talk about how to implement BPs in their region...  ALL of which is being done NOW and has been since January.

Before anything can be formulated as an activity-wide agreement that can be codified into a set of BPs for orgs to follow, there have to be daily and on-the-ground BPs instituted at every corps so they can figure out how, exactly, this system of notification/escalation can and would work in their particular environment.  Having the assurance that one's daily BPs are feasible and workable in one's reality, gives one much more confidence in voting affirmatively for a codified set of activity-wide BPs to be set in stone.

It is a fact that the corps are independent and are not now ready to give up that control to any entity now running the DCI central office.  All things change, and I suspect this lack of confidence will, too, when

1.  The corps representatives to the DCI BoD show enough solidarity to vote the power back to the ED to actually make, and enforce, policy decisions he mandates on behalf of his BoD and activity, so that

2. The oversight structure of the whole organization can jump out of the 1972 set of handshake agreements and into the 2018 drum corps activity's reality.

(Those two options remind me of a recent joke: I just ordered a chicken and an egg from Amazon.  I'll let you know which one comes first.  Ha!)

I hope some people here are beginning to understand the true complexity of asking an activity with NO central control since (when did The Godfather Don Pescone die?) to now, in the middle of an active competitive season, address at an activity-wide level this hugely-important subject.

We can discuss the impact or appropriateness of the MC performer's "art" (I, frankly, think he got his just reward) but, as happened in April, the current hue and cry for something to be done by "DCI" (those covering for their friends; has anyone pointed out how illogical that statement is?) explodes into an unrealistic mob mentality that completely disregards any understanding of the structure of the activity.

And making such massive demands during an active competitive season, and then throwing mud balls at people who, largely, have been supporting the activity with real dollars for 4 decades or more is irresponsible and inflammatory.  Those flames only get in the way of those who aren't involved getting the information they want, IMO.

Being realistic is required prior to throwing fuel on an already-burning fire, IMO.

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by garfield
attempted humor

[JimF-LowBari]

And reasons why I’m pushing the backup plan for a DCI contact as a backup. Like my job management have range of life experiences, opinions and hard headedness. Unlike my job any scandal can affect a corps survival so keeping a good image is a prime issue. And yes thinking of “that” college 2 hours from me with the protecting image no matter what mindset

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by JimF-LowBari

[garfield]

11 hours ago, Bluzes said:

Posting on Reddit, not good for anyone. Your evidence is not a measure. The measure is this posting must stop. I  am not your foe, I agree steps have been taken, but it is no where near time to rest on your laurels and close your mind, there is still a lot of work to be done. I am not the problem and you have nothing to prove to me. I think some measuring equipment is for sale from the Blue Stars?

Isn't it reasonable that this posting will stop when, instead of encouraging the flame-throwers, we educated the Reddit posters of the actual FACTS of what's been done?

Are these Reddit posters who, supposedly are active MMs, identifying their corps in their posts?  

If these MMs are not being made aware of what their corps, and other corps, are doing there is no one to blame except their own corps staff and management.  Do these Reddit posters want DCI's office harassment policies imputed on their orgs?  Do they even understand what they're saying.

I don't do Reddit or any of the other social media - I always thought the most-rational posters are here.  I would encourage those who do Reddit to actually help the situation by questioning if these MMs' staffs have had these discussions with them.  After all, who is on the road with the kids, their corps' staffs and Boards or Dan A and his staff of show promoters?

Reddit will calm down when calm heads insert facts.

Nobody is resting on anything, Bluzes.  I hope I've made that clear.

 

[JimF-LowBari]

Don’t do reddit either so have there been any claims of sexual harassment or abuse claims made there this season? All I know is the Pioneer claims which were not sexual harassment that I saw.

imo what I think will calm down those postings is people seeing a positive impact being made. We can talk about changes all we want but when something hits the fan and how it is handled will be the proof.

its like the job I’m currently on converting a badly written laptop application to web based. We can tell the ships how much better it’s going to be and we are proud of what changes we made so far. But... until the users can SEE the improvement for themselves it’s not helping them and it’s just talk

Edited August 14, 2018 by JimF-LowBari

[skevinp]

Reddit is far less of a discussion board than DCP.  It's more a stream of flash posts and a bunch of short, shallow drive-by comments by essentially anonymous posters who aren't usually recognized based on other things they have said.  There is typically very little depth of conversation or understanding. 

[cixelsyd]

11 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

So who are members and staff supposed to report to in DCI hierarchy if they do not want to go thru their  corps?

Well, you can always call DCI and ask for the CEO.  But why would you want to report to the DCI hierarchy if you are already uncomfortable with going through your own corps?

Every corps is now required to have a whistleblower policy in place.  Every corps had to submit that policy in writing to DCI by June 1 as part of their annual paperwork requirements.  If there is ever a situation where internal reporting may be a problem, the whistleblower policy identifies an external resource that may be contacted as an alternative.

Additionally, for reporting sexual misconduct, there is a list of external resources on page 14 of the DCI Community Code of Conduct and Ethics Guidelines.

[JimF-LowBari]

I

19 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

Well, you can always call DCI and ask for the CEO.  But why would you want to report to the DCI hierarchy if you are already uncomfortable with going through your own corps?

Every corps is now required to have a whistleblower policy in place.  Every corps had to submit that policy in writing to DCI by June 1 as part of their annual paperwork requirements.  If there is ever a situation where internal reporting may be a problem, the whistleblower policy identifies an external resource that may be contacted as an alternative.

Additionally, for reporting sexual misconduct, there is a list of external resources on page 14 of the DCI Community Code of Conduct and Ethics Guidelines.

Well if you don’t feel comfortable dealing with your corps and DCI both then you are just ######. The idea is to have trust in DCI even if you don’t have it with the people you personally deal with in your corps. Edit thinking about it not having to contact DCI might be a good think.

And whistleblowing is not the same as reporting sexual harassment or abuse. Actually it puts down the seriousness or sexual harassment/abuse by lumping it with other problems. And members need to be told exactly what they can do to protect themselves without having to assume what is meant. 

Anyone with a link to those latest procedures? Edit found the link BigW gave. Go to an outside agency which hopefully they are letting DCI be aware of any problems.

ps if your contact DCI CEO was meant to be sarcasm you should be ashamed of yourself 

Edited August 14, 2018 by JimF-LowBari

[ranintothedoor]

1 hour ago, garfield said:

..

(Those two options remind me of a recent joke: I just ordered a chicken and an egg from Amazon.  I'll let you know which one comes first.  Ha!)

...

 

Ha! as well.  :-) 

[MikeN]

39 minutes ago, skevinp said:

Reddit is far less of a discussion board than DCP.  It's more a stream of flash posts and a bunch of short, shallow drive-by comments by essentially anonymous posters who aren't usually recognized based on other things they have said.  There is typically very little depth of conversation or understanding. 

I think they manage to understand a lot of DCI issues faster and more clearly than the folks on here.

Mike