Drain The Swamp, Dan

[Bluzes]

7 minutes ago, GUARDLING said:

Hire an outside consulting firm to look and the whole organization and be given the  the authority to make binding decisions.

Been there it is very uncomfortable when some youngster is breathing down your back. Telling you outright they don't want your opinions and I am not only describing DCP. It happens in real life you become part of a 100 page report and can only hope for the best.

[JimF-LowBari]

44 minutes ago, Tim K said:

I wanted to make a comment about revamping DCI but something came up that consumed my time—a nap.

Revamping or restructuring DCI to make the broad changes people are suggesting would probably take at least 3-5 years and has to be well planned and well thought out. It will not happen for 2019.However, there are important things that can be done and will not require a great deal of work but would be significant. 

First, have a common hiring process for all corps and a common screening of volunteers common to all corps. No more questionable hires. I do understand wanting to give someone a second chance, and I know how difficult confrontation can be, especially in a human services activity, but in the long run it’s not fair to the organization or the person you want to have a second chance.

Second, implement a required training process for all staff and volunteers that includes recognizing abouse, hazing, sexual misconduct.

Third, the whistle blowing program is great, but we I have s feeling it has kinks. Figure out better ways to protect the anonymity of the callers and develop healthy and constructive ways to get the information to corps directors. 

Fourth, common safety procedures and medical staff requirements.

As for kinks any whistleblowing or sexual assault/harassment policy is always going to be a work in process. Things not right or could be done better or changes in society. My favorite part of my one yearly training is a scenario with “Sam” and “Taylor”. After the possible assault scenario is done (one of them is boozed up) you get told “we used names that could be used by either sex for a purpose. Could be m/f, f/f or m/m hope you realized that.” Took a while for same sex harassment/assault to come up.

And on a lighter note like Sam and Taylor as names as have a niece named Taylor. She’s named after her greatgrandFATHER lol

Edited August 26, 2018 by JimF-LowBari

[xandandl]

1 hour ago, Jeff Ream said:

Volunteers sounds great in theory. But then you also have to vet the volunteers. I don’t disagree it can be done, but even then there’s a process. I can’t even go on a field trip with my daughter at school without the background check, but as we have seen, that’s not foolproof 

understood.

[Tim K]

22 minutes ago, rpbobcat said:

DCI should bite the bullet.

Hire an outside consulting firm to look and the whole organization and be given the  the authority to make binding decisions.

Thing is,unless the BoD  i.e. corps think what's going on is going to hurt their bottom line,ain't nothin gonna happen.

They have to, and perhaps I should have added a fifth, get the ball rollong right away. However, I see it more than just handing over decision making. DCI, for better or for worse, is a work in progress, and over 45 years it seems lots of things have been added on, but usually only when necessary.  Much of this has been good, some appears to be half hearted or a band aid. If we want DCI to have proper decision making authority, we need to be specific about what this means. Total decision making will be just as problematic as what we are now seeing.

[garfield]

58 minutes ago, rpbobcat said:

DCI should bite the bullet.

Hire an outside consulting firm to look and the whole organization and be given the  the authority to make binding decisions.

Thing is,unless the BoD  i.e. corps think what's going on is going to hurt their bottom line,ain't nothin gonna happen.

You take a pretty dim view of the motivations of the people who actually make decisions and do the work in our activity.

I wonder how anyone operating under the motivations you describe would have anywhere near the longevity in the activity as the average director does today.  It makes no logical sense, and I would go as far as to say you're significantly misreading the great majority of decision-makers in the activity.

[Terri Schehr]

1 hour ago, Bluzes said:

If I had a dime for every time someone said. I #### drum corps through the years I would be playing poker with Trump right now. How does worrying about that now have any chance of solving the core issues, make it right. Shut people up that way. Is this out of Romans PR manual?  Is this Music City Art coming back to bite someone? Focus don't let Reddit/DCP get to you there are bigger fishes to fry.

You should have seen the t-shirts we wore when I was in Guardsmen...

[Bluzes]

2 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

You should have seen the t-shirts we wore when I was in Guardsmen...

Yep just giving drum corps a bad name. Like big Mike and I open class prelims in Denver some god for shaken stadium outside the city. Parked out of the way cracked two beers open a couple walked about 5 cars the wrong way to tell us we give DC a bad name, every time I drink a Coors I think of that.

After the show waiting for my friend a stranger was getting frustrated with a Taxi Service because he couldn't tell them where he was. Asked me if I knew with a British accent, I didn't. Told him my friend would drive him to his hotel. Gets better, he had no idea which one, just flew in got to the stadium somehow but forgot the hotels name. We knew there was a bar at our hotel so took him there. Our hotel took over called every hotel in town. Came to the bar and said they would shuttle him over there. Hanging out with us he was quite tipsy by then. A quick Jolly Ho and we never seen him again.

[Liahona]

2 hours ago, GUARDLING said:

If one can't see how this has happened Im not here to educate.. To not see how this has happened in the past is pretty enlightening in itself. I made a statement period BUT I will remember when people make statements,a general statement they need to show proof.

I'm not going to name names, wouldn't that be a personal attack?

 

No. You quote the posts that illustrate your point.  No need to respond I UNDERSTAND your point.

[Jeff Ream]

7 hours ago, GUARDLING said:

Do you actually they are going to give up power? It was the very essence of WHY DCI was formed

well their track record these days pretty much shows them for what they are....and that isnt good. for every corps that does do it right, there's another out there about to topple the whole house down

[jasgre2000]

On 8/25/2018 at 8:07 PM, Slingerland said:

A background check will NOT discover patterns of sexually inappropriate comments, racist jibes, having sexual relationships with adult marching members, etc. None of that rises to the level of criminal activity, so even if known, would not wind up on a background check.

As previously suggested, the only way to really clean out the stables will be to have the corps start talking to each other, with any prospective employee's permission, about their behavior at any previous gig. This will require that prospective staffers sign a waiver allowing their previous employers to disclose whether there were any issues that the prospective  hiring org could be concerned about. 

It doesn't take DCI - it will take the corps and those who want to work with them - to agree that full disclosure and frank discussion is the first step toward cleaning up the ranks of adults who want to work with the members. 

It's called checking references.  Most professional organizations do it when hiring.