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Open Innovation and The Cadets


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Several days ago, I emailed a link to this thread and a brief offer of my volunteer help to the exec director and the general info email at YEA, also asking it to be forwarded to Doug and Scott. No idea how to email to the entire BOD as several of you suggested in private messages.  Suggestions?

No response from anyone so far.  Sigh.  Trying to keep my hopes up though.  Everyone’s busy, obviously, but now is the time to strategize for 2020 and beyond.

Now.  

“There is no tomorrow!”

      - Sir Apollo Creed

It’s clear to me that what the Cadets lack and have lacked is quality design ideas, whether or not they’ve had the talent to win gold.  Most years in the last twenty, they’ve had the talent. No corps has so exasperatingly squandered incredible talent with boneheaded, tasteless, and graceless show design than the Cadets. 

That must change immediately not just if they are to be The Cadets and consistently contend, but considering their financials, if they are to survive.  

“Be bold and great forces will come to your aid”

     - some German guy named Goethe who barely knew how to pronounce his name 

C’mon Cadets!  Who’s able to set ego aside? Who’s able to stop the many-year streak of soap opera high school level designs, and, ahem....be Bold and Beautiful?

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9 hours ago, 87cadet said:

Several days ago, I emailed a link to this thread and a brief offer of my volunteer help to the exec director and the general info email at YEA, also asking it to be forwarded to Doug and Scott. No idea how to email to the entire BOD as several of you suggested in private messages.  Suggestions?

No response from anyone so far.  Sigh.  Trying to keep my hopes up though.  Everyone’s busy, obviously, but now is the time to strategize for 2020 and beyond.

Now.  

“There is no tomorrow!”

      - Sir Apollo Creed

It’s clear to me that what the Cadets lack and have lacked is quality design ideas, whether or not they’ve had the talent to win gold.  Most years in the last twenty, they’ve had the talent. No corps has so exasperatingly squandered incredible talent with boneheaded, tasteless, and graceless show design than the Cadets. 

That must change immediately not just if they are to be The Cadets and consistently contend, but considering their financials, if they are to survive.  

“Be bold and great forces will come to your aid”

     - some German guy named Goethe who barely knew how to pronounce his name 

C’mon Cadets!  Who’s able to set ego aside? Who’s able to stop the many-year streak of soap opera high school level designs, and, ahem....be Bold and Beautiful?

Scott is kinda on tour with the corps. I am pretty sure he has other "in this moment" priorities to address.

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It's an intriguing concept.

It would make just about everybody, from MMs to staff to the fans in the stands, invested in the outcome. It would create the most unique, intense buzz in the stands every time Cadets entered the stadium. Talk about your buy-in, and that's an intangible that add points to the sheets.

It also would require organizational leadership that is simultaneously the bravest in the activity, as well as supremely skilled at the management of the creative process. Not merely keeping egos in check, but the blocking and tackling of organizing, filtering, shaping, rejecting, refining thousands of creative inputs from multiple sources -- ordering them toward a coherent, 11 1/2-minute vision. And then managing an in-season process to continue refinements. That would require management execution that outscores even the their drum line.

 

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12 hours ago, 87cadet said:

Several days ago, I emailed a link to this thread and a brief offer of my volunteer help to the exec director and the general info email at YEA, also asking it to be forwarded to Doug and Scott. No idea how to email to the entire BOD as several of you suggested in private messages.  Suggestions?

No response from anyone so far.  Sigh.  Trying to keep my hopes up though.  Everyone’s busy, obviously, but now is the time to strategize for 2020 and beyond.

Now.  

“There is no tomorrow!”

      - Sir Apollo Creed

It’s clear to me that what the Cadets lack and have lacked is quality design ideas, whether or not they’ve had the talent to win gold.  Most years in the last twenty, they’ve had the talent. No corps has so exasperatingly squandered incredible talent with boneheaded, tasteless, and graceless show design than the Cadets. 

That must change immediately not just if they are to be The Cadets and consistently contend, but considering their financials, if they are to survive.  

“Be bold and great forces will come to your aid”

     - some German guy named Goethe who barely knew how to pronounce his name 

C’mon Cadets!  Who’s able to set ego aside? Who’s able to stop the many-year streak of soap opera high school level designs, and, ahem....be Bold and Beautiful?

You sent an email. That’s being “bold”?  I don’t mean to be snarky but...

You don’t know how to contact BOD members?

My vision of being bold would involve something like getting in your car, driving to where Doug and Scott can be found, and talking face to face. Several times if need be. Right now based on your post you have no skin in the game. That’s not bold. 

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On 7/29/2019 at 1:07 PM, HockeyDad said:

You sent an email. That’s being “bold”?  I don’t mean to be snarky but...

You don’t know how to contact BOD members?

My vision of being bold would involve something like getting in your car, driving to where Doug and Scott can be found, and talking face to face. Several times if need be. Right now based on your post you have no skin in the game. That’s not bold. 

If there is no receptivity or even acknowledgement from anyone in the organization that an idea is worthy of discussion, you are saying I should get in someone’s face - literally - and interrupt their work to advocate for a great idea?  

And you consider showing up somewhere without an appointment to talk putting “skin in the game”?

I offered Cadets/YEA leadership my volunteer help to implement the idea.  Would you suggest I write a big check?  

What impact on the world would a donation to YEA make at this point, relative to the organization I most support, Doctors Without Borders?

I will support a well run innovative and engaging and impactful organization.  I’m trying to make that happen. 

Time and ideas and effort to implement them most definitely are “skin in the game”

That’s what a startup is. It’s called sweat equity. First you build a team in consensus about an idea. That’s the stage we are at. 

Are you on the team, HockeyDad?

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1 hour ago, 87cadet said:

If there is no receptivity or even acknowledgement from anyone in the organization that an idea is worthy of discussion, you are saying I should get in someone’s face - literally - and interrupt their work to advocate for a great idea?  

And you consider showing up somewhere without an appointment to talk putting “skin in the game”?

I offered Cadets/YEA leadership my volunteer help to implement the idea.  Would you suggest I write a big check?  

What impact on the world would a donation to YEA make at this point, relative to the organization I most support, Doctors Without Borders?

I will support a well run innovative and engaging and impactful organization.  I’m trying to make that happen. 

Time and ideas and effort to implement them most definitely are “skin in the game”

That’s what a startup is. It’s called sweat equity. First you build a team in consensus about an idea. That’s the stage we are at. 

Are you on the team, HockeyDad?

No, I’ll never join a team of all talk and no action. Good news though. In one short week the season will be over. If yours is such a great idea you should let nothing stop you from getting in touch with them. 

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3 hours ago, 87cadet said:

If there is no receptivity or even acknowledgement from anyone in the organization that an idea is worthy of discussion, you are saying I should get in someone’s face - literally - and interrupt their work to advocate for a great idea?  

And you consider showing up somewhere without an appointment to talk putting “skin in the game”?

I offered Cadets/YEA leadership my volunteer help to implement the idea.  Would you suggest I write a big check?  

What impact on the world would a donation to YEA make at this point, relative to the organization I most support, Doctors Without Borders?

I will support a well run innovative and engaging and impactful organization.  I’m trying to make that happen. 

Time and ideas and effort to implement them most definitely are “skin in the game”

That’s what a startup is. It’s called sweat equity. First you build a team in consensus about an idea. That’s the stage we are at. 

Are you on the team, HockeyDad?

I would suggest that mid tour in not the best timing

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What Jeff said.

The proposal certainly is worthy of discussion... but it's probably best to wait until tour is over to address it with the Cadets/YEA folks.

Their entire focus right now is on getting the corps to Indianapolis. 

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On 8/3/2019 at 2:32 PM, Fran Haring said:

What Jeff said.

The proposal certainly is worthy of discussion... but it's probably best to wait until tour is over to address it with the Cadets/YEA folks.

Their entire focus right now is on getting the corps to Indianapolis. 

I agree, Fred and Jeff. Mostly.   

Sustainability and viability of any organization, though, especially one recovering from an upheaval and scandal caused by a parasitic, manipulative and myopic former director, demand that steps be taken now to change course, innovate, and build community.

(His) Ego is what took the corps to its knees.

Now egos must be set aside.

Lack of self-awareness of limitations in talent and creativity also must gently be set aside. Not all people are cut out for creativity at this level. Most ideas that seem to work well in high school programs don’t work well under the scrutiny of more sophisticated audiences and on a truly national stage.

High school and WGI are echo chambers anyway. Parents clap at anything. Paying fans mostly won’t. 

Now is also the time to celebrate the energy and talent and grit of the current MMs who are maxing out a deeply flawed and immature show design - a design that, had it been shared widely many months ago - would not have been received well and likely would have been changed. 

Open Innovation is the answer.  If the top leadership at YEA truly is committed to the long term viability of The Cadets, and especially to the current and future marching members, families who support them, and friends, alumni, and donors, and to creating a collaborative environment for staff to do what they do best.  

It’s time to ZAG. 

For the good of the organization, and for the future of DCI and and marching arts, a new direction is sorely needed.  

Recruitment and fundraising also depend on it.  

Some corps out there is going to Zag and take drum corps into a new/old and more engaging direction.  

Let’s help make it possible for that corps to be The Cadets. 

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right now, they are finishing up a season by everyones accounts didn't go as hoped for. the organization is also trying to work their way out of a giant financial hole. What they deem as their priorities may not be the same as the OP. And if that oofends people so be it.

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