wilkituba Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 (edited) From Arsenal's Reddit page: To the vets of Oregon Crusaders and Pioneer Recruiting To the members and alumni of the Oregon Crusaders and Pioneer: I want to share condolences on behalf of myself and Arsenal Performing Arts. As students, you placed your trust in adults and leaders who you believed worked in your best interest. These adults violated that trust and placed you in harm’s way, which is inexcusable. We, as directors and educators, demand that you give your all and work your hardest, and it is shameful that there are so many among us who do not likewise give their all to keep you healthy, happy and safe. I cannot change how other organizations are run, but I do have control over Arsenal, and I want to use that to do what I can to help those who want to march. To that end, I would like to extend Arsenal’s veteran scholarship to all veteran members of the Oregon Crusaders and Pioneer. At Arsenal, we give you $100 off for every year you’ve marched, up to $500 off our $1,500 tuition. If you’ve lost your home, know that our doors are open and that you are welcome in the Arsenal family. I would love to welcome you and discuss how we can make it happen; feel free to email me at ArsenalDBC@gmail.com or dm me here. Know that the drum corps community sees you, and that we support you. Edited January 16, 2019 by wilkituba Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Lancer Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Bluzes said: It is with sadness that I announce my resignation as CEO/Corps Director of Arsenal Performing Arts. This journey began three years ago with a plan. That plan became a drum corps. That drum corps became a family. I began Arsenal with the goal of giving young people the tools they need to succeed. I knew it would be a hard road, but I had high hopes that our vision would attract other people and that together we could build something great. On Sunday, following a return from the Drum Corps International Annual Meeting, I made a social media post on Reddit that expressed solidarity with the members of the Oregon Crusaders and Pioneer organizations and admonished the leaders who had put their students in harm’s way. This post was made with the best possible intentions and offered students from those corps a home with Arsenal. This post was made following a sleepless week, and while it was meant to be a bright light in a dark time, it resulted in the suspension of Arsenal’s Open Class evaluation by DCI for the 2019 season. 2019 marks Arsenal’s third year in existence. It marks three years of me trying my hardest to do right by my students, and to create an organization that could lead by example. But it also marks three years of me working full-time without pay, spending thousands of dollars of my own money to support the corps, and giving up substantial opportunities in order to remain in Albuquerque and build the organization. I do not regret doing these things, but the decision to suspend our evaluation has put me in a position to reevaluate where I am in my life and where I want to go. Simply put, running Arsenal has been a great burden on me, especially in terms of my mental health. To go forward into an uncertain future, with a dark cloud hanging over the organization, simply is not a choice I can make in good conscience. While I love the SoundSport program dearly, I cannot continue to run Arsenal and support myself without a strong membership, and that membership simply cannot exist within the SoundSport model. I will support the Arsenal Board of Directors moving forward, and will help them to either find a new director to take my place, or to sell Arsenal’s assets to cover the organization’s debts prior to dissolution. I am thankful to all of the wonderful sponsors who stepped forward to support Arsenal; to the strangers who stood with us; to the students who took the risk to become members of an organization that was unproven but hungry. And above all I am thankful to all the people who trusted me: a 23-year-old with a dream, a pair of hands, and the desire to give back to my community. I will end this by saying that I stand by the sentiments I expressed in the original Reddit post. Drum Corps students pay thousands of dollars and endure countless physical hardships for the sake of participating in this activity. It is disgusting that there are people who take advantage of these students; who jeopardize their mental and physical health out of gross negligence, lack of foresight, and perversion. Student health and safety should never take a backseat to the preservation of a brand, and I will always stand on the field with the students, rather than in the press box. To all of Arsenal’s students, staff, sponsors and volunteers: with my fist to my heart, I salute you. 6969 Unbelievable! Unf######believable! Edited January 16, 2019 by Jurassic Lancer 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluzes Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 (edited) 17 hours ago, Jurassic Lancer said: Unbelievable! Over the top. Follow the Money it opens one eyes, not a trend dci wanted set. The fine lines between right & wrong are really blurred with this lesson. They had camps set, flights purchased, parents have hotels booked real-life exposure. All that down the drain. This is something you handle privately a slap on the wrisk then leave it with grins & giggles. It's a symbolic gesture on dci's part no harm was done to the activity. How far out of touch is the DCP veterans we loved the offer. What real harm would it have been to say don't do it again? Dci is being exposed as to what it is, a greedy company. They keep their hand in the MMs pocket for life, who else buys that old stuff it's coming full circle I am sure the Press will be all over this one. Edited January 16, 2019 by Bluzes typo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PricklyPear Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 16 minutes ago, wilkituba said: From Arsenal's Reddit page: To the vets of Oregon Crusaders and Pioneer Recruiting To the members and alumni of the Oregon Crusaders and Pioneer: I want to share condolences on behalf of myself and Arsenal Performing Arts. As students, you placed your trust in adults and leaders who you believed worked in your best interest. These adults violated that trust and placed you in harm’s way, which is inexcusable. We, as directors and educators, demand that you give your all and work your hardest, and it is shameful that there are so many among us who do not likewise give their all to keep you healthy, happy and safe. I cannot change how other organizations are run, but I do have control over Arsenal, and I want to use that to do what I can to help those who want to march. To that end, I would like to extend Arsenal’s veteran scholarship to all veteran members of the Oregon Crusaders and Pioneer. At Arsenal, we give you $100 off for every year you’ve marched, up to $500 off our $1,500 tuition. If you’ve lost your home, know that our doors are open and that you are welcome in the Arsenal family. I would love to welcome you and discuss how we can make it happen; feel free to email me at ArsenalDBC@gmail.com or dm me here. Know that the drum corps community sees you, and that we support you. That first paragraph is a little heavy-handed - would it really be the reason DCI suspended their application? If so, then DCI just gave a giant gut punch to all those kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Lancer Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 (edited) 28 minutes ago, PricklyPear said: That first paragraph is a little heavy-handed - would it really be the reason DCI suspended their application? If so, then DCI just gave a giant gut punch to all those kids. And potentially killed off a promising young corps. And discouraged anyone from trying to join Marching’s Major League. And that first paragraph? I would say it was spot on. And Fred Morrison? He is still executive director of Crossmen!!!! Edited January 16, 2019 by Jurassic Lancer 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 (edited) For DCI HQ not to have an official statement out by now, explaining their apparent rumored withdrawal of Arsenal's Open Class Application, and their reasons for it, can only be construed as DCI HQ incompetency, imo. They should have taken this action and told this former Corps Director their action simultaneous with a Press Release statement on their DCI Website. Instead, they let the narrative formulate all through the social media, and without their Official Statement out there explaining their action.Whether their action was appropriate or not is certainly open to legitimate discussion. But to not have an official statement out by on this major DCI news story to announce the action and the reason behind it is simply inexcusable and once again demonstrates shoddy and incompetent leadership still present at the DCI HQ level, imo. Edited January 16, 2019 by BRASSO 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluzes Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 13 minutes ago, PricklyPear said: I want to share condolences on behalf of myself and Arsenal Performing Arts. As students, you placed your trust in adults and leaders who you believed worked in your best interest. These adults violated that trust and placed you in harm’s way, which is inexcusable. We, as directors and educators, demand that you give your all and work your hardest, and it is shameful that there are so many among us who do not likewise give their all to keep you healthy, happy and safe. Is this upside down. Heavy Handed, how about a heartfelt response to a bad situation. It's upside because this is how the G7 corps who were called out by the press should have responded. And you get fired for it. There are a lot more evil people going after dci than this fine man they are not focused on the real threats. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terri Schehr Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 47 minutes ago, Jurassic Lancer said: Unbelievable! Unf######believable! It’s not often that I’m rendered speechless. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terri Schehr Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 9 minutes ago, Bluzes said: There are a lot more evil people going after dci than this fine man they are not focused on the real threats. Evil people going after DCI? I’m confused by that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Lancer Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 1 minute ago, Terri Schehr said: Evil people going after DCI? I’m confused by that. I would say the evil is in DCI. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.