DCI's Next Director

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said:

LOL Jeff, I make a point to read your posts carefully. We've butted heads on diversity before.

To answer you, yes, it's the org's fault. That's the point of both of the links I provided.

but, you are the article miss one fact.....the real world.

say i own a business, and i bring in the best people on the planet to help build diversity initiatives to entice people of all genders, races, sexual orientation, religious views...pick a protected class and it it to the list.

and yet for whatever reason, women, regardless of race, age, orientation, religious and policitcal belifs you name it don't find the jobs there interesting. so am i supposed to change my business solely to hire a certain type of person? You realize those changes could actually cause my business to fail right? so risk failure, bankruptcy and whatever else you can think of just because a certain type of person doesn't want to work there?

 

sorry, thats BS. it's guaranteed failure. Some jobs just arent for  everyone. i get bombarded with ads for gigs for musicians all the time.....and i'm a drummer. yet gigs for brass, winds, guitar, strings you name it still show up. is it the fault of those companies trying to recruit me that i'm not just rushing out to learn to play instruments i have zero interest to play? Hell no. thats reality. and thats what the article misses. and as a result you miss too.

 

another example.....i have zero interest in any kind of job in politics. none. yet for some reason on LinkedIn....which for my account is set up with my employer, i keep getting bombarded with solicitations for jobs with the Republican party. I have zero interest in any type of political job as i said before, and well....little interest in that party anymore. in fact nothing in my profile says anything about politics....doing mortgages for a living is not a political gig. So is it the Republican Party's fault they can't con me to apply for their jobs? #### no it isn't. it's just something i have zero interest in. 

 

and in how it relates to DCI....sure i'd love to see more women, and more people of color, you name the group involved. but it's not for everyone. and DCI as an organization and the product it promotes is never going to be a mass appeal type of organization. that's not their fault....they know what they are, and they know they aren't for everyone. it's called reality.

 

[ironlips]

8 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

.well...maybe it's the actual job that is what is the issue.

Well...that's pretty insightful, I think.

[TenHut]

47 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

but, you are the article miss one fact.....the real world.

say i own a business, and i bring in the best people on the planet to help build diversity initiatives to entice people of all genders, races, sexual orientation, religious views...pick a protected class and it it to the list.

and yet for whatever reason, women, regardless of race, age, orientation, religious and policitcal belifs you name it don't find the jobs there interesting. so am i supposed to change my business solely to hire a certain type of person? You realize those changes could actually cause my business to fail right? so risk failure, bankruptcy and whatever else you can think of just because a certain type of person doesn't want to work there?

 

sorry, thats BS. it's guaranteed failure. Some jobs just arent for  everyone. i get bombarded with ads for gigs for musicians all the time.....and i'm a drummer. yet gigs for brass, winds, guitar, strings you name it still show up. is it the fault of those companies trying to recruit me that i'm not just rushing out to learn to play instruments i have zero interest to play? Hell no. thats reality. and thats what the article misses. and as a result you miss too.

 

another example.....i have zero interest in any kind of job in politics. none. yet for some reason on LinkedIn....which for my account is set up with my employer, i keep getting bombarded with solicitations for jobs with the Republican party. I have zero interest in any type of political job as i said before, and well....little interest in that party anymore. in fact nothing in my profile says anything about politics....doing mortgages for a living is not a political gig. So is it the Republican Party's fault they can't con me to apply for their jobs? #### no it isn't. it's just something i have zero interest in. 

 

and in how it relates to DCI....sure i'd love to see more women, and more people of color, you name the group involved. but it's not for everyone. and DCI as an organization and the product it promotes is never going to be a mass appeal type of organization. that's not their fault....they know what they are, and they know they aren't for everyone. it's called reality.

 

Great post and we'll said. 

[DWW11]

7 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

but, you are the article miss one fact.....the real world.

say i own a business, and i bring in the best people on the planet to help build diversity initiatives to entice people of all genders, races, sexual orientation, religious views...pick a protected class and it it to the list.

and yet for whatever reason, women, regardless of race, age, orientation, religious and policitcal belifs you name it don't find the jobs there interesting. so am i supposed to change my business solely to hire a certain type of person? You realize those changes could actually cause my business to fail right? so risk failure, bankruptcy and whatever else you can think of just because a certain type of person doesn't want to work there?

 

sorry, thats BS. it's guaranteed failure. Some jobs just arent for  everyone. i get bombarded with ads for gigs for musicians all the time.....and i'm a drummer. yet gigs for brass, winds, guitar, strings you name it still show up. is it the fault of those companies trying to recruit me that i'm not just rushing out to learn to play instruments i have zero interest to play? Hell no. thats reality. and thats what the article misses. and as a result you miss too.

 

another example.....i have zero interest in any kind of job in politics. none. yet for some reason on LinkedIn....which for my account is set up with my employer, i keep getting bombarded with solicitations for jobs with the Republican party. I have zero interest in any type of political job as i said before, and well....little interest in that party anymore. in fact nothing in my profile says anything about politics....doing mortgages for a living is not a political gig. So is it the Republican Party's fault they can't con me to apply for their jobs? #### no it isn't. it's just something i have zero interest in. 

 

and in how it relates to DCI....sure i'd love to see more women, and more people of color, you name the group involved. but it's not for everyone. and DCI as an organization and the product it promotes is never going to be a mass appeal type of organization. that's not their fault....they know what they are, and they know they aren't for everyone. it's called reality.

 

I agree 100% with this.  
 

i worked for 10 years for an employer who treated me well in an industry that was easily 99% male.  They hired every female or POC who applied for a job.  They just very rarely applied.  Our company was as diverse as it could be.

[scheherazadesghost]

8 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

so am i supposed to change my business solely to hire a certain type of person?

Do you want those voices in the room because you value the insights they bring? Does your business serve people in those populations who might benefit from a broader range of perspectives in the decision making process? Then yes. If you don't and it doesn't, then no. That's simple. I lament that your automatic response to diversity initiatives is potential failure. That's only one possibility. There are so many more that are actually positive.

Also, I didn't realize I wasn't living in the real world, nor the resources I provided. So strange. What parallel universe have I been living in? (That's rhetorical and I'm not craving answers here.)

In regards to DCI, I push this because a solid portion of the members and staff and served are not represented in leadership at all. That means the decision making process cannot fully have them and their needs in mind. I've been that kind of member and staffer. And it's highly problematic.

[Slingerland]

Reportedly the train has left the station, and an announcement should be coming soon.  

It would be a nice change of pace if the drum corps activity could start getting a lot more aggressive about promoting open searches for key leadership roles across the spectrum of the activity. How many Program Coordinator or Designer roles are ever openly searched?  None, that I'm aware of. The corps just keep doing the same insider discussions with established names, and while you could say that professional baseball and football engage in the same practice (head coach of the Nets isn't going to be an open process), as organizations that are supposed to be providing opportunities to grow and develop talent, drum corps should be doing this better than they are.

That's how the activity could grow a more inclusive generation of leaders. Tell them they have a shot to access the controls at the corps level. If DCI was engaging in that type of search, they were really quiet about it (not saying they didn't find a qualified candidate, but the process seemed little underwhelming in its aggression).  

Will be interesting to see if Cavaliers take a low and quiet approach to hiring their next CEO or whether they do an actual national search. It's promising that they announced that the position will be open early on; hoping they can follow up with an intentional search for a wide array of talent.

Edited September 21, 2023 by Slingerland

[scheherazadesghost]

8 minutes ago, Slingerland said:

Reportedly the train has left the station, and an announcement should be coming soon.  

It would be a nice change of pace if the drum corps activity could start getting a lot more aggressive about promoting open searches for key leadership roles across the spectrum of the activity. How many Program Coordinator or Designer roles are ever openly searched?  None, that I'm aware of. The corps just keep doing the same insider discussions with established names, and while you could say that professional baseball and football engage in the same practice (head coach of the Nets isn't going to be an open process), as organizations that are supposed to be providing opportunities to grow and develop talent, drum corps should be doing this better than they are.

That's how the activity could grow a more inclusive generation of leaders. Tell them they have a shot to access the controls at the corps level. If DCI was engaging in that type of search, they were really quiet about it (not saying they didn't find a qualified candidate, but the process seemed little underwhelming in its aggression).  

Will be interesting to see if Cavaliers take a low and quiet approach to hiring their next CEO or whether they do an actual national search. It's promising that they announced that the position will be open early on; hoping they can follow up with an intentional search for a wide array of talent.

Indeed. SoA had a great open application process, run by a third party, that I hope more orgs in the industry will follow.

[lifeisaround]

2 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Indeed. SoA had a great open application process, run by a third party, that I hope more orgs in the industry will follow.

Uhhhhhh the only thing they changed was hire an ED and fire the corps manager. But the director assistant director and basically everyone else is still involved. Not much has changed to be honest other than they now take members seriously because they got put on blast. Splanta in my eyes “didn’t do much” and still doesn’t I believe now after all these years the ED might be full time?! 

[lifeisaround]

13 minutes ago, Slingerland said:

Reportedly the train has left the station, and an announcement should be coming soon.  

 

That’s what I heard as well. Someone posted on here about water industry. There’s an ED in the water industry that resigned “to pursue other interest” that I’m wondering if that’s the person. If so, nothing really impressed me on the resume…. But I am hopeful for change and move the org/entity and activity forward!

[scheherazadesghost]

9 minutes ago, lifeisaround said:

Uhhhhhh the only thing they changed was hire an ED and fire the corps manager. But the director assistant director and basically everyone else is still involved. Not much has changed to be honest other than they now take members seriously because they got put on blast. Splanta in my eyes “didn’t do much” and still doesn’t I believe now after all these years the ED might be full time?! 

I guess we can disagree. They are industry leaders in safeguarding, which their handbook is evidence of, but there are other indicators. They have a director level role dedicated to it and alumni relations, things more corps could learn from. Yes they were forced to change, but that feeds my point more... that orgs aren't making change towards transparency willingly, and that reveals their fear of change, despite now-documented benefits.

And I wasn't speaking to organization wide change, only leadership. To your point, CEO is white and male, so no not likely much change there. But he was a relative outsider, which was my point, because the hiring process was open..... unlike so many across the industry, as mentioned by @Slingerland.