Santa Clara Vanguard 2023 Announcement Thread

[C.Holland]

3 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

Oh I know people believe the misinformation. It’s a world at large issue

owning your own fleet is much more problematic than renting.  Its not just fuel.  Its insurance, drivers, maintenance, storage, permitting, inspections.  For food service vehicles you have added fire suppression, food service inspections and regulations which need cared for in addition to the same basic costs of the equipment truck and busses.  Let alone youre on your own for drivers on all of this.  

Renting, if its breaks, you call the company, they bring a new whatever, you transfer people and gear, and keep on moving. Your driver has a home emergency, they bring you a new one.  

[C.Holland]

10 minutes ago, LabMaster said:

Not sure what you mean. Please explain more. Thanks.

the revenue streams are not the same, thus requiring different forms of staffing.  Their programming (services they provide outside of the A corps) are not the same thus requiring different forms of staffing.  So costs are not the same for what each group provides, where their revenue streams come from, and what they need to make to cover those costs.  

[DFA1970]

1 hour ago, MarimbaManiac said:

You've mentioned the trophies and competitive achievements several times now, which makes it clear you're missing the entire point. The health and strength of an organization isn't judged by its trophies (as anyone who marched from 2000-2017 will tell you), it's the level of character and strong foundation that's built from long-term service to the community. Obviously, VMAPA decided to trade the intangible essence of the Vanguard and ties with the local community that supported it for 50 years for a few drum trophies. I hope those trophies help them sleep at night this summer.

If you get off this board and see what the alumni/former staff are saying, you'll see that the general consensus is "that's really sad, but I'm not surprised it came to this." The organization rotted from within because of people who didn't respect what made the Vanguard special. 

Yeah...one of my close friends is a SCV alumni who lives in AZ. Just chatted with him yesterday and he's not shocked as he and other SCV alumni were not happy with this current organization. But the one thing he never expected was this so called hiatus in 2023. He thinks this could be the end of this once proud and rich history of the corp. They treated alumni with no say how to run SCV. Just wanted their donation and nothing else.

[AzEuph]

Sheesh.  As an alum, I find our alumni base very delusional.

We pride ourselves on being “vanguard” and leading innovation. Then god forbid Vanguard finally positions themselves again as a leader and we cry about losing ourselves.  The worst are the ones calling for us to get back to the basics, as in the 70’s kind of basics! I always chuckle at them.  Maybe I should make it a drinking game.

Vanguard owes nothing to the Cadets members.  Two different corps.  And I for one am not interested in lowering our competitive standards to accommodate cadets members if they’re less talented.  When I marched, there were several cadet members but mostly vets from other corps.  And the battery were mostly from other CA Open corps, maybe 1-2 cadet members.  The cadets corps serves its purpose for training younger and/or less experienced members.  But ultimately, there’s plenty of talent from other corps that dream of marching Vanguard.  As an out of state member, I would have never considered marching cadets because I wanted to march a full tour, compete against World corps and had enough talent to match a semi/finalist level corps.

If the Rennicks have been so harmful to the organization then the org needs to set better requirements.  Obviously the organization has been fine with what the Rennicks are doing.  Ideally the cadet corps draws from the same ideology of the Rennicks.  As for his Texas students, plenty of brass and guard members come from Texas.  Rennicks should take the best members to perform, regardless of location.  Yes, BD has done a phenomenal job of influencing the HS level but look at their decades of success!  Their staff has been in place for 10-30 years and that pays dividends.  Meanwhile, SCV changes caption heads frequently, except for percussion, which apparently there’s angst towards.  We can’t get out of our own way!

Vanguard has been a hot mess for a long time.  Frankly, I love the corps but despised the members I marched with.  I hate the patch culture, the eras culture and the arrogance culture for embracing members today.  There’s always been this bigger than God attitude about the corps from alumni that I haven’t seen from other corps.  Never able to be happy with the direction of the corps because “we’re losing our identity”, whatever that means.

Maybe this is what’s best for Vanguard.  This old tour style doesn’t work with the new economy.  There’s many problems with Vanguard and I hope a non-alum takes over leadership so they can get back to what Vanguard supposedly does and lead innovation.  And stop worrying about our history, or else you become history. Challenge the system and come up with a solution for a modern tour.  Be a vanguard in DCI 2.0 because odds are SCV isn’t the only one in this financial situation.

[C.Holland]

1 minute ago, AzEuph said:

Sheesh.  As an alum, I find our alumni base very delusional.

We pride ourselves on being “vanguard” and leading innovation. Then god forbid Vanguard finally positions themselves again as a leader and we cry about losing ourselves.  The worst are the ones calling for us to get back to the basics, as in the 70’s kind of basics!...

I feel like you've literally described the alumni of any corps who won a title before 1990.  Can I buy you a beverage in NYC and we discuss similar alumni bases "spirited conversations"?

[2muchcoffeeman]

4 minutes ago, AzEuph said:

odds are SCV isn’t the only one in this financial situation.

Yeah that's the vital question. In light of this news, what kind of conversations are boards, their CEOs and corps directors having today?

[2muchcoffeeman]

TIL there is something called "patch culture"

[Hirsbrunner]

Say what you will about their recruitment (I’m also in favor of let the best players win spots, I feel like I do see some SCVC make the line every year, there was at least a bass drummer last year).

 

 

As a brass player, I always thought the Rennicks were the healthiest part of the educational team. Calm, concise feedback to members. Always positive reinforcement. Rennick would apparently always encourage other caption heads to phrase feedback as what members need to do, not what they did wrong.

This is in direct comparison to other caption heads that would still scream over the mic at individuals in ensemble rehearsals (and this is the mid 2010s). As membership, the Rennicks were the classiest and healthiest part of the education team. In a way, the biggest part of contributing to the Vanguard culture of healthy success that I value. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Hirsbrunner

[craiga]

I've been involved in this activity over 40 years, and I still don't know what a "patch culture" is, but from what some of the SCV alums here have been posting, it seems pretty elitist and toxic. Perhaps financial mismanagement isn't the only factor here?  I don't know. My drum corps treats alums who marched in 2022 the same as those who marched in 1962.

[84BDsop]

1 hour ago, RiverCityAndTroopersFan said:

I was wrong but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Devils_Drum_and_Bugle_Corps#Show_summary_(1972–2022) 1972

1973 was BD's first trip to DCI....that doesn't mean they were inactive.  Hell, they only added brass in 1971.

Don't know where you got the idea they were ever inactive, unless you were confusing them with BlueCOATS.