Jeff Ream Posted April 15, 2023 Share Posted April 15, 2023 16 hours ago, Richard Lesher said: Reminding folks who I am. Richard Lesher, CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and prior board member/treasurer of Vanguard and from 2006 to 2012. I'm also currently a commissioned officer in the US Army Reserves. So I guess that gives me some legit credentials to have certain opinions. I've recently been censored from the SCV Alumni Facebook forum (which is under control of SCV the organization with a director level employee still as an Admin). So I will now voice my serious concerns here for the whole Drum Corps community. As of 14-April-2023 Vanguard is Delinquent as a Charity in the State of California. https://rct.doj.ca.gov/verification/web/SearchResults.aspx https://rct.doj.ca.gov/verification/web/Details.aspx?result=42a872a8-e982-469d-9401-bfc112f97bf4 The problems started as far back as 2020 with Vanguard's failure to supply the State Department of Justice with audited financial statements. At this point the Attorney General is merely pointing out that Vanguard failed to provide Audited Financial Statements. A year passes, and Vanguard has still not provided Audited Financial Statements to the California Attorney General. Now the Attorney General is warning Vanguard of penalties to include up to having their status Revoked. Vanguard is no longer in good standing. We are now at September 9, 2021. This is a very important date folks as we all know this is basically the start of the drum corps season for the year 2022, and we all know what happened after that. Oh and the following month we have the Attorney General reminding Vanguard they still haven't provided Audited Financial Statements. Here an indication of a duplicate payment for registration (I guess they get "some credit" for trying), but a reminder they not in compliance without independently audited financial statements. ***************** What does this all mean? Being delinquent in the state of California with this Charity Registration means that: 1) Vanguard cannot solicit donations. They are, and they have been, and it's reported on their 990 filings (Grants, and such). 2) They have been delinquent since 15-MAR-2020, so all solicitation thereafter is in violation of the law. 3) I will bring up the Bingo Salaries again here and I will not take it down this time. a) Bingo employees cannot be paid with bingo income. b) OK, Bingo employees "are not" being paid with bingo revenue. c) Well, if Vanguard cannot solicit donations, and they cannot disperse donations then what are Bingo employees being paid with? i) where ever the funding came from it's an illegal source ii) even if the funding was from savings and investments, those funds originated from donations and bingo, neither of which can be dispersed while Vanguard is delinquent Remember, Vanguard operated as like nothing was wrong during the entire competitive year of 2022 and was in violation the entire time. Vanguard also took audition fees for 2023 and right on the heels of that terminated the season. So someone high up knew where they were going in terms of finances and decided to take money in anyway for services they new they couldn't provide. Jeremy Van Wert is not the singular cause of this gross mismanagement. OK, I'll be back later with more. These three letters from the California State Attorney General give me a lot of coverage and protection from defamation. So my future posts should be fun read for you all. Question: if you’re no longer involved how did you get these? I can’t imagine the inner circle wanting this out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted April 15, 2023 Share Posted April 15, 2023 10 hours ago, LabMaster said: Who has been the leadership team throughout these past years of a lengthening period of ubermismanagement? SCV leadership and BOD leadership. Seemed to change annually 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted April 15, 2023 Share Posted April 15, 2023 9 hours ago, corps8294 said: This is pretty heavy. For all those thinking this just a speed bump that SCV will be able to overcome; it's not. I've read that some think they should reorganize and regroup with their very successful Cadet corps and work their way back up; that might actually be for the best. However, from all the news that keeps surfacing from the A-Corps, if you will; the entire SCV organization might be in too deep of a hole to get out of. I hope for the best...but, man, there hasn't been any signs of things improving since the news broke of them sitting out the '23 season. This fits the recurring Texas narrative 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted April 15, 2023 Share Posted April 15, 2023 17 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said: Question: if you’re no longer involved how did you get these? I can’t imagine the inner circle wanting this out They are publicly available documents from the CA DOJ's charity registry website. I discovered them myself a few weeks back. The site also clearly says that their status means not only can they not solicit, they should not be operating. All according to CA law and regulations for charities. This is definitely a logistical hurdle... but they've been collecting and soliciting donations and grants for the last three years. That's a tougher hurdle to clear. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keystone3ply Posted April 15, 2023 Share Posted April 15, 2023 20 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said: They are publicly available documents from the CA DOJ's charity registry website. I discovered them myself a few weeks back. The site also clearly says that their status means not only can they not solicit, they should not be operating. All according to CA law and regulations for charities. This is definitely a logistical hurdle... but they've been collecting and soliciting donations and grants for the last three years. That's a tougher hurdle to clear. Yup; I went down the rabbit hole... https://oag.ca.gov/charities You can download your own copies thru the verification search: https://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Search.aspx?facility=Y Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sutasaurus Posted April 16, 2023 Share Posted April 16, 2023 (edited) 59 minutes ago, keystone3ply said: Yup; I went down the rabbit hole... https://oag.ca.gov/charities You can download your own copies thru the verification search: https://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Search.aspx?facility=Y Does it add to the discussion at hand? Thank you for your courage to go down that rabbit hole, but does it matter? This turn of events is saddening, but our machinations will not bail the Vanguard organization out of it’s current situation. It’s up to the people who have the organization’s best interest at heart to fix things and let them prevail. Where that leads, no one knows. I wish the SCV organization only the best as they have been such a large part of the drum corps experience but only they can save themselves from their current situation. It’s not like we can appeal to the DA of California saying, “We really love the Vanguard they’ve had some amazing shows” and expect them to forgive three years of neglect. Let’s hope and pray the current leaders at the umbrella organization can pull it together and provide the state of California the information they’ve been seeking for three years now. Not a good look I’m afraid. Edited April 16, 2023 by Sutasaurus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted April 16, 2023 Share Posted April 16, 2023 1 hour ago, scheherazadesghost said: They are publicly available documents from the CA DOJ's charity registry website. I discovered them myself a few weeks back. The site also clearly says that their status means not only can they not solicit, they should not be operating. All according to CA law and regulations for charities. This is definitely a logistical hurdle... but they've been collecting and soliciting donations and grants for the last three years. That's a tougher hurdle to clear. Ok cause some of the letters didn’t look like things that would be publicly available Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sutasaurus Posted April 16, 2023 Share Posted April 16, 2023 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said: Ok cause some of the letters didn’t look like things that would be publicly available All this aside, what can the collective “WE” do to right this ship? Nothing. It’s up to the Vanguard organization to address the legal and financial straights they find themselves in today. Edited April 16, 2023 by Sutasaurus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted April 16, 2023 Share Posted April 16, 2023 31 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said: Ok cause some of the letters didn’t look like things that would be publicly available They are. 🤷🏽♀️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted April 16, 2023 Share Posted April 16, 2023 45 minutes ago, Sutasaurus said: All this aside, what can the collective “WE” do to right this ship? Nothing. It’s up to the Vanguard organization to address the legal and financial straights they find themselves in today. True we can’t do anything. But I’m for getting the facts out so people are informed. If I was involved as a member during this mess or donor I’d want to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts