The Academy 2022

[gbass598]

9 minutes ago, rjohn76 said:

One of the members that had been Tweeting all day is indicating that the situation has been addressed.

 

Sounds like a poorly handled misunderstanding.

[C.Holland]

28 minutes ago, gbass598 said:

Sounds like a poorly handled misunderstanding.

It could be lots of things.  Point is, anyone who’s been on a few tours know that good experiences don’t produce happenings like these.  And bad experiences are often brushed aside until they reach a point of “so we each only get one bagel for lunch?”   Which then becomes parents calling, and admin scrambling. 

[gbass598]

5 minutes ago, C.Holland said:

It could be lots of things.  Point is, anyone who’s been on a few tours know that good experiences don’t produce happenings like these.  And bad experiences are often brushed aside until they reach a point of “so we each only get one bagel for lunch?”   Which then becomes parents calling, and admin scrambling. 

And this is not a drum corps specific thing. It happens in the real world all the time too. I'm sure everyone can cite a source of something in their place of employment that got blown out of proportion and could have been handled better that unfortunately didn't get handled until after it blew up.

The internet has become a really easy place for people to complain about things while actually having productive direct conversation about it with the people who can actually do something is uncomfortable for most people.

[scheherazadesghost]

1 minute ago, gbass598 said:

The internet has become a really easy place for people to complain about things

When power dynamics are imbalanced and

when admin + staff + mms are not in the same page about how to identify and remedy issues in a timely manner

it should be easy to understand why a young person might go to the internet.

It may be the case that they've already accessed MAASIN and either wanted to share more info or felt it might be the next best step.

 All of this still means it's possible it's still not being handled appropriately internally.

1 minute ago, gbass598 said:

while actually having productive direct conversation about it with the people who can actually do something is uncomfortable for most people.

I think power dynamics and internal communications are at play here. It's never as simple as it appears from the outside.

[C.Holland]

1 hour ago, scheherazadesghost said:

When power dynamics are imbalanced and

when admin + staff + mms are not in the same page about how to identify and remedy issues in a timely manner

it should be easy to understand why a young person might go to the internet.

It may be the case that they've already accessed MAASIN and either wanted to share more info or felt it might be the next best step.

 All of this still means it's possible it's still not being handled appropriately internally.

I think power dynamics and internal communications are at play here. It's never as simple as it appears from the outside.

When it gets to members putting things out there asking for help, its beyond a small fire to put out.  It means those who were supposed to listen didn’t. 

[27Socal]

While talking to corps members and walking next to the food trucks early in the season,  I found that BD let's you take as much entree food as you want to scoop out of containers on tables,  whereas SCV handed each mm a plate from the food truck window with a pre-determined portion size.  i think i have that right or it's the other way around.   The BD kids were really happy they could take as much as they want.  I think they both had other tables where you could take as much as you want, like pb&j, fruit, granola bars, etc.   I remember one BD horn kid running out to sectionals eating a PB&J sandwich after eating his regular meal. If Academy does the scoop as much as you want method,   perhaps certain things are out when the kids at the end of the line get up there.   If that's the case,  maybe they need to do the pre sized method.   Don't forget these kids probably need more than the 2,000 daily calories for an adult, because they're moving around all day.  I read an article about Michael Phelps and I think he said he needed about 10,000 calories a day when training.  I was curious about how good the kids eat now, compared to when i marched.  Not even close,  they eat so much better now, as long as there's enough for everyone.  Don't forget, BD feeds 225 people, 4 times a day.   That's a lot of food supplies to bring in on tour.  They have a special box truck, whose only job is to go get food supplies for all those meals.  But things can go wrong, like stores are out of certain things, the refrigerator or freezer in the food truck can break down, get a flat tire, etc.  It's not easy to feed all those people.  Maybe we should cut Academy a little slack, until we have all the details.

[Tim K]

I don’t know about the food situation. All I saw were Momma DCI’s Twitter posts. I thinks it’s a two side situation and hope it can be resolved. That being said, over the weekend I heard a few things that could bring some clarity to the situation. One is that morale is rather low which is not typical for the Academy. Covid, along with the show not doing that well even though there are portions with great potential has taken its toll. I think this is pretty common knowledge. I also heard from general conversations on Saturday in Allentown that The Academy had a hard time filling slots, somewhat lowered standards, and not everyone is as dedicated which has caused tensions between members who take things serious and others who are not as serious minded. The people who told me about the low morale are pretty knowledgeable and not gossips, the member tensions came from discussions with a group of young people behind me that I did not know before the show and will probably never see again, but it sounds a bit accurate given some of the contradictory claims we’re hearing about this situation. 

[Tim K]

3 hours ago, C.Holland said:

When it gets to members putting things out there asking for help, its beyond a small fire to put out.  It means those who were supposed to listen didn’t. 

Given today’s Internet climate, it’s also possible those who were supposed to listen did in fact listen, and the people complaining didn’t like the answers. I’m speaking in general and not specifically about this situation, but today’s solution seems to be take it to the Internet and if someone disagrees call them a “Karen” or “Boomer” regardless of whether the title applies.

Regarding food and drum corps, this has been a problem for years. I can think of two corps that in the past were rumored to not have enough food. I can recall visiting a friend who was a food volunteer with a corps that had a good food reputation and I thought the portions were awfully small for late teen/early twenties appetites. There have been stories of people with specific dietary requirements due to health issues that have not been met. There have been issues with those who are gluten free due to Celiac disease and those who are gluten free by choice, those who are dairy free due to lactose intolerance, vegans and vegetarians, etc. 

If this is not happening already, corps should probably be specific about what they will and will not provide regarding food. If you can’t provide for specific needs, say so at the outset. I know of a soccer camp that is very specific they will have certain choices and will work to accommodate certain needs as best they can but but cannot guarantee certain requests. These same programs often ask for doctor’s notes for specific dietary needs, so they’re not being unreasonable. 

[Sideways]

The good old days when corps breakfast was 10 boxes of cereal and 2 gallons of milk…

[Cappybara]

It seems like the main issue is coming from those with dietary restrictions (vegetarians) who are being fed nothing but PB&Js. One person on the Reddit post who volunteers with the food truck mentioned that they've had some issues with one of the food trucks' coolers breaking down constantly that has been posing an additional hurdle. I have no idea what's truly going on there but I would hope the corps are prepared to serve members with all types of dietary restrictions