Per the California Attorney General Vanguard is operating illegally as a non profit

[TRacer]

26 minutes ago, Richard Lesher said:

Line up my ducks for the day of competition so it's not a stressful day (for example, when I raced motorcycles, all my machines and equipment were ready the weekend before the next race. I wasn't trying to rebuild a motor the night before). That way, I come home from work on Friday, hook up the trailer and head to the track worry free. 

Another DC alum and racer…excellent. I pretty much followed that formula as well except I was driving my race car to the various NHRA tracks up & down the West Coast / Southwest where I competed. Lots of prep prior to and no stress the day of until I hit the starting line. Side note: the car had my SCV Alumni license plate frame the corps  used to sell on the back; I met another DC alum in the staging lanes because of it. 

[JimF-LowBari]

Maybe was answered and missed it but…. Anyone have a clue how long it takes for a group to regain its non-profit status? If not being nonprofit interferes with fund raising how long might the corps have to wait AFTER it gets its crap together and refiles for nonprofit status (who knows when THAT might be).

And 2024 season planning usually starts when? 🤔

Edited April 27, 2023 by JimF-LowBari

[scheherazadesghost]

18 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Maybe was answered and missed it but…. Anyone have a clue how long it takes for a group to regain its non-profit status? If not being nonprofit interferes with fund raising how long might corps have to wait AFTER it gets it’s crap together and recipes for nonprofit status (who knows when THAT might be).

And 2024 season planning usually starts when? 🤔

O well they didn't lose their non profit status federally or with the state AFAIK.

They are delinquent status with the CA DOJ's charity registry. I was surprised how often it happens honestly.

Any sense of timeline is unclear to me, but I might as well be in Ouagadougou, I'm so far away.

[Richard Lesher]

39 minutes ago, Slingerland said:

Several years in non-profit management. Yes, it's salvageable, if they have outside accountants who can get the state their audits for the last several years and an attorney who can calm the waters until they have everything pulled into compliance.

But planning for next year means having a battle plan for managing their expenses proactively and making some adjustments down in their program budget so that they leave themselves margin for overruns. That's where having experienced management who's comfortable holding others to account will become crucial, and unless and until they hire and empower their management team as seriously as they do their design team, that will never happen.

Exactly, frustratingly I think they could have managed to fielded the A-Corps in 2023, but they didn't have the know how to make it happen. They didn't plan correctly for 2022, and every emergency throughout the year was solved by whatever amount of money it took. 

My theory is there are corps out there competing with far less resources and still getting on the field. 

Expense management, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at the overhead they are operating with, and not one dollar of it is operating a Corps. 

The 2023 IRS 990 is going to be very telling. Every last dollar spent on Payroll will be 100% overhead. 

Now, effectively an entire year has passed and they squandered all that time and lost economic opportunity. 

So many corps out there can get back on the road with a starting cash reserve and an expectation they will earn the remainder of the needed budget during the year. SCV probably can't operate that way anymore. They probably need to start with $3M in cash on hand before they even announce they will compete. 

The planning for 2024 has already started folks. Which corps are going to be at which shows is on the drawing board. SCV is not on that drawing board. Other corps are making plans without them. 

SCV is just now announcing they are current on delinquent debts. So if that's the case then "saving" can start now, and they are not going to get to $3M by the time they start the season. They are carrying too much needless overhead to make real significant gains in savings. 

I'm going to guess they are not going to be able to get their accounting straightened out. For you see, previously they had outsources bookkeeping with the same CPA firm that was the driver of their audits. They were spending upwards of $200K in professional fees (based on the 990's) in accounting services alone. In 2020 and 2021 that expense went to ZERO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which indicates to me they got rid of their accountants and all bookkeeping oversight previously used, and at best are doing it all in house. I was there folks, I know what inhouse SCV accounting can look like. There is a very real probability it has gone completely sideways. 

So to fix the books in a manner a CPA firm will attest to the financial statements is going to be a very tedious, and expensive effort. 

I'm going to guess there is another CA Dept of Justice letter sent out to them before they can fix anything. 

I agree, this can be fixed, but they need to drop everything, and put the imagination of marching drum corps behind them until it is. 

You see, SCV survives despite itself because of Bingo. They own the building outright (when they are not taking second mortgages out for idiocy) and it can net them $3.5M after all bingo operating expenses. 

So AT WORST!!!!! if SCV can get its act together they can have $3M easy plus tour fees to field a single corps then all the other extra income they make. 

Now, if all the BS is behind them, they basically easily have $5M to work with as their budget. 

Without Bingo SCV would have been gone in the 90s. 

[Richard Lesher]

47 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Maybe was answered and missed it but…. Anyone have a clue how long it takes for a group to regain its non-profit status? If not being nonprofit interferes with fund raising how long might the corps have to wait AFTER it gets its crap together and refiles for nonprofit status (who knows when THAT might be).

And 2024 season planning usually starts when? 🤔

I don't think that will be a problem. It wont hard stop operations. They can still operate. What will kill them is if they lose Bingo. I don't think authorities will move to kill them unless gross negligence and personal enrichment is happening from the bingo operations. They will probably be looked at very closely at worst. 

So being able to continue as an entity is probably very likely. The ability to execute the logistics of a drum corps and place in the top 5 is now up for debate. 

[Jeff Ream]

8 hours ago, Tenoris4Jazz said:

If the shows aren't so demanding, then why all the rehearsal time?

I think it's like running an option offense in football.  You have about a dozen plays and you run them over and over and over and over... until the execution is perfect 99% of the time.  Well, that takes a toll on the players, but football teams rotate backs and linemen to give them rest.  DCI doesn't do that.  It's the same 150 or so members doing all the run throughs, all the sectionals, all the basics, all the time.

I think ultimately it's not design... it's the intense desire for that last performance to be as close to perfect as the MM's can make it.  In the interests of the long term health and well being of the members, maybe the entire activity will have to start accepting a lower performance level of a high concept design, or a better performance of less of a design.

well BD seems to rehearse the least, yet is consistently the most successful....and many cry they never do anything demanding. hmm....

[Jeff Ream]

8 hours ago, jwillis35 said:

I agree. In many ways designers have pulled back on traditional run-n-gun drill due to more variety in dance, body movement, play acting, props, etc. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. But no doubt the activity is incredibly physical. The rehearsal schedules are often the issue and it comes down to how the corps use their time.

I don't have any real facts but have always heard that Blue Devils are very good about adjusting their rehearsals. Everything from when brass players need to rest the chops, to the visual side of things, to just doing appropriate stretches on some days and then allowing the body to recover and not crushing major rehearsal time. They will adjust their sleep / wake-up time as needed. 

I wonder if someone who marched BD recently could shed light on that? But yes, every corps has their routine. 

don't forget proper rest.

 

so you get 4 hours of bus sleep, arrive, get up, then go get 4 hours of floor time. are you really rested?

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

I believe NCAA limits the number of hours football teams can practice during spring, training camp, fall season & for bowl games.   Doesn’t include things like weight room, film/playbook work, informal QB tossing ball around w/ receivers and maybe other stuff.   But it does limit impacts where guys are most likely to get injured.  Perhaps Drum Corps needs something like this.  

that would require a governing body to look out for all, as opposed to everyone trying to win having their own vote

[ZTWright]

7 hours ago, Tenoris4Jazz said:

This was our regular schedule when I was in high school 35 years ago.  M-W 3 to 5, Th 7 to 9

I live not far from a large high school that used to finish in the top 5 of BOA grand nationals every year.  No way they were keeping to an 8 hr/wk schedule... I could hear it.  They were marching on asphalt too.

When I was in high school, a little shorter than 35 years ago, we practiced M/T/T/F 3:30 to 7 unless there was a football game on Friday, then we went until 5:30 that day so we could get ready for the game. The week of state championships or nationals we would go until 8, including Wednesday. If you attended church, you'd go and come back to rehearsal, and just because rehearsal was supposed to end at a certain time didn't mean it was going to. I remember multiple times practicing after the streetlights came on during Hell Week (championships week and nationals). Multiple state championships, only made nationals semis once. We also rehearsed on blacktop. The band still adheres to the same schedule after 3 different director changes. Most programs in my area adhere to the same general schedule. 

That being said, we also had heat regulations as well. If the temperature was above 92 degrees outside we were inside rehearsing music in the gym unless we were on the grass that day. If we were on grass we had 10 minute water breaks every 30 minutes and multiple canopies placed for us to have shade.

[IllianaLancerContra]

7 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

that would require a governing body to look out for all, as opposed to everyone trying to win having their own vote

Not to mention DCI could teach NCAA a thing or two on how to be bureaucratically inconsistent.