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Pioneer What Next?


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2 hours ago, totaleefree said:

Looking at the 2015 (last available ) 990 , First off it was not done by a professional. However there is Roman Blinski Jr as Director, then Roman Blenski II as a board member the Susan Blenski Board member/ Treasurer/. Two of the other board members are married then there is one other member. Pretty much says that Roman is the board.  It would take a full board replacement for the corps to move on.  

Also, a Murray Davis is listed under administration and BoD. 

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2 hours ago, BoyWonder1911 said:

There is nothing stopping the members or parents of members from filing a class action suit against Pio. There are legal ways to force the situation to come to a head.

Suing for all or even part of tour fees to be refunded to their customers, and that's what they are, would put the corps under. Using that as a bargaining chip to force the board to remove this Roman guy from the org permanently and also create new policies regarding treatment of membership, would probably work.

The board of Pio would have to either accept the terms or go out of existence. And the latter might just be chosen. Who knows.

But either way, it does sound like there is just reason to sue. I'm sure contracts and promises to their paying customers have been broken. 

Doing this would sound an alarm to other corps to keep up high quality standards, and would also help to mitigate a problem without having the corps forced to give up more power and control to DCI, which I'm sure nobody in their right mind would want. There is a good reason DCI was founded, after all.

 

I don't think legal remedies would help all that much.

Most lawsuits of this nature have the plaintiff receiving 2/3rds of the money awarded and 1/3rd goes to the lawyer. Pioneer does not have the money and most likely does not have insurance to cover any judgments. So first you would need a lawyer to take it on pro bono or someone to foot the legal bills.

We hear lots people speak about the board. A board only has the authority to do what is written in the bylaws of the organization. If the board is advisory only it has no authority, if it is juridical, does it have this authority? It depends on the bylaws.

Perhaps there could be breech of contract issues, depending on what is written in the contract.

The best we can hope for is that the voting members of DCI of DCI adopt safety standards each corps has to follow.

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I was under the impression that non profits have to follow strict laws regarding the people on the BoD as well as the executives and what role they have. I'm willing to bet that the current scenario is in violation of something or other. There has to be accountability and right now it seems there is none.

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1 minute ago, BoyWonder1911 said:

I was under the impression that non profits have to follow strict laws regarding the people on the BoD as well as the executives and what role they have. I'm willing to bet that the current scenario is in violation of something or other. There has to be accountability and right now it seems there is none.

Tim K brought up an interesting point in a post right above concerning bylaws. I wonder if one of the bylaws is an annual review of the executive director. Seeing as how Roman basically runs the board I don’t see how that would be possible. 

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5 hours ago, garfield said:

I get your point but, for clarity, let's be specific: no they don't.  The can say Cadets can't do DCI tour shows, but Cadets could still perform in other venues like, say, Broadway or the Olympics or a local BBQ.

Just for clarity, the corps don't really make much revenue from DCI's tour.

Blast!

 

stay home as in DCi events. 

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3 hours ago, Galen said:

Yep. They also sent in some outside personnel to Cap Reg in '06 (correct me if it was a different year) to essentially run the corps mid-tour when things went to #### that year, so there is established precedent for DCI stepping in when it absolutely has to.

DCI also got involved in some ways when Teal Sound went down

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On 8/12/2018 at 7:46 PM, wvu80 said:

I think it's possible to provide an education via musical performance in the Open Class.

@OldDCGuy's suggestion is one which I would support.

+++

Unrelated:  I've been a part of many non-profit and quasi-governmental boards.  I have NEVER heard of the director being on the board! 

The director runs the organization according to the board's direction.  To have the director as a board member is a clear conflict of interest, and he should resign one position or the other.

Or both since he wants to be a dillweed to the corps members who, if it weren't for them paying their dues, he wouldn't have a job in the first place. #JustSayin

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9 hours ago, Brian Tuma said:

Tim K brought up an interesting point in a post right above concerning bylaws. I wonder if one of the bylaws is an annual review of the executive director. Seeing as how Roman basically runs the board I don’t see how that would be possible. 

A board cannot have a majority of "interested" parties i.e. board members that are related by marriage, siblings, parents, etc. 

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On 8/13/2018 at 9:50 AM, Tim K said:

Finances, recruitment, and design are problems Pioneer has faced for years, but I think the problems many are referring to are things that surfaced this summer. A mother published a letter on either Facebook or Reddit asking whether it was standard procedure for a corps to leave a minor alone at a hospital when emergency treatment was required. Many believed Pioneer was the corps involved. If the young person did not march with Pioneer, it was discovered that a similar situation happened at Pioneer. Marching members from Pioneer also posted on social media complaints about staff bullying but the complaints were ignored. I can’t refer you to actual links, but that’s my understanding.

interestingly in Allentown and Indy, where stories fly all over the place, I heard very little chatter, and next to nothing about Pioneer except the words “Poor Pioneer” after their performance.

Is there a link to the post you reference?

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