CA Department of Justice sends Vanguard second delinquency notice as of Aug 25, 2023

[Jeff Ream]

8 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said:

I know you didn't ask me so feel free to not read...

But I don't want a corps that hurts members and alum anymore. In my overall interactions with current leadership and fellow alum close to them, AND upon objective critical review of their skillets and across, AND upon witnessing their rigidity when faced with verifiable safeguarding gaps, I don't see them as capable of achieving this benchmark without outside consult at this point. I have never given up hope though and I've tried to engage them about this but their response has consistently included victim blaming, silencing, or extraction. Such responses to my advocacy are well-documented here on this forum. Intentionally.

If this is happening to me, it's much more important to consider how they might be treating younger, less experienced whistleblower-alum?

As for a purge, I've already attempted to post my reasoning here for being concerned about some long term board members on April 21... it's noted on my profile as having the highest reactions on DCP that day, but it was censored. I was in copacetic communication with the mods about this.

I'm at a loss about what else to do to express my concerns in a way that alum will find palatable.

there are so many concerns that need addressed that priorities will need to be made. sadly the financial ones will be made first, but in the end that could help your concerns in time when financing is in better shape

[scheherazadesghost]

12 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

sadly this is true of many alumni organizations. don't look at Madison threads or archived cadets threads

Unacceptable.

10 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

there are so many concerns that need addressed that priorities will need to be made. sadly the financial ones will be made first, but in the end that could help your concerns in time when financing is in better shape

Thanks, but you're preaching to choir. I also find it unacceptable that the abuse takes a back seat to finances. I argue that those of us who marched, and other so called professionals should be able to walk and chew gum.

I haven't even come close to fully illustrating the long term effects this abuse has had on alum. Yes we cry together, but then we return to living our lives enduring the visceral, tangible side effects of the abuse. One of mine is called high impact chronic pain, a term coined and used by the federal government.

While this is unacceptable to me, I've always argued that the organizational mismanagement is inextricably linked to the abuse.  But I knew that as a young member, so nothing new.

[Jeff Ream]

18 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

Maybe it would be uncalled for if the G7 had ever publicly retracted their money/power grabbing proposals, or even just apologized for stabbing all the other corps and the DCI organization in the back.  But no such remorse has been shown. 

Seven corps openly proposed making other corps go away.  Not hard to see how/why a similar sentiment could boomerang on them.  I do not like it, but I can understand where it comes from.

yup. we saw a lot of it in April 2018

[cixelsyd]

11 hours ago, AzEuph said:

@Richard Lesher, I’m genuinely curious: what’s your preferable end result?

Are you trying to get back on board, get current board terminated, become director, destroy VMAPA?  I genuinely can’t tell and have been curious all of these past 9 months.

I am a total bystander, and I can tell.

Numerous people (several of whom are on these threads) have offered to help.  That would have been the preferable option, but they were turned down.  Now the current board are bunkering; there is no way to "terminate" them.  You can only hope that before time expires, they will do the right thing and abdicate before they actually destroy VMAPA.

And I chose my words purposefully.  If VMAPA is destroyed, it will be destroyed by the people in charge of it who are driving it full speed through the barricades toward the brick wall ahead.

[Jeff Ream]

7 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Unacceptable.

Thanks, but you're preaching to choir. I also find it unacceptable that the abuse takes a back seat to finances. I argue that those of us who marched, and other so called professionals should be able to walk and chew gum.

I haven't even come close to fully illustrating the long term effects this abuse has had on alum. Yes we cry together, but then we return to living our lives enduring the visceral, tangible side effects of the abuse. One of mine is called high impact chronic pain, a term coined and used by the federal government.

While this is unacceptable to me, I've always argued that the organizational mismanagement is inextricably linked to the abuse.  But I knew that as a young member, so nothing new.

never said it was acceptable. stating reality. as for financial....sadly to truly clean it up, you need money. you need to hire the right people which isn't cheap. you need to invest in the right respurces to eliminate it going forward, and if need be to help take care of past issues. when you're in the hole financially, sadly you have to make decisions. in my youth, it often came to eating or say putting $30 on the cable bill to watch a WWE PPV. ahhh youth...had to watch Stone Cold!

then the cable bill came, and i needed food. oh oops..no cable for a week, i had to eat.

 

SCV as an organization is going to need money to put a lot of good people in place and get resources rolling to fix a vast majority of problems. and no one with specific concerns on any problem will be happy because their priority isn't top of the list.

 

is it right? maybe, maybe not. but before they can dig deep enough to right the wrongs of the past and get things rolling forward, finances will dictate many hard decision to get good governance in place and put the organization on solid footing to eventually get everything right. and you, and other stake holders for a variety of issues won't like it, but it's fact.

my day job just cut thousands of employees to get costs under control and fix several internal issues. in some ways in actually made things worse though the outside world doesn't see it. i vent loudly and often when it affects my ability to do my job. i realize the big picture and think there were better ways to go about it, but i realize in many cases, financial decisions had to be made. i don't like some of them, even if i understand they underlying reasons why. i could go elsehwere but in this market, dream gigs don't exist.

 

the same will be true for SCV. not every priority to every person is the one that needs addressed first. because sometimes if you pick the wrong priority, you make it worse.....i know i've felt the pain daily since late February

[Jeff Ream]

3 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

I am a total bystander, and I can tell.

Numerous people (several of whom are on these threads) have offered to help.  That would have been the preferable option, but they were turned down.  Now the current board are bunkering; there is no way to "terminate" them.  You can only hope that before time expires, they will do the right thing and abdicate before they actually destroy VMAPA.

And I chose my words purposefully.  If VMAPA is destroyed, it will be destroyed by the people in charge of it who are driving it full speed through the barricades toward the brick wall ahead.

there is a way to fix a board that hunkers down and ignores help. we saw it in April 2018 and again in the fall of 2018

 

DCI tells them massive change is needed or membership is revoked. one complied. one is still riding to parades in busses that should have been impounded in the 80's

[scheherazadesghost]

15 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

never said it was acceptable. stating reality. as for financial....sadly to truly clean it up, you need money. you need to hire the right people which isn't cheap. you need to invest in the right respurces to eliminate it going forward, and if need be to help take care of past issues. when you're in the hole financially, sadly you have to make decisions. in my youth, it often came to eating or say putting $30 on the cable bill to watch a WWE PPV. ahhh youth...had to watch Stone Cold!

then the cable bill came, and i needed food. oh oops..no cable for a week, i had to eat.

 

SCV as an organization is going to need money to put a lot of good people in place and get resources rolling to fix a vast majority of problems. and no one with specific concerns on any problem will be happy because their priority isn't top of the list.

 

is it right? maybe, maybe not. but before they can dig deep enough to right the wrongs of the past and get things rolling forward, finances will dictate many hard decision to get good governance in place and put the organization on solid footing to eventually get everything right. and you, and other stake holders for a variety of issues won't like it, but it's fact.

my day job just cut thousands of employees to get costs under control and fix several internal issues. in some ways in actually made things worse though the outside world doesn't see it. i vent loudly and often when it affects my ability to do my job. i realize the big picture and think there were better ways to go about it, but i realize in many cases, financial decisions had to be made. i don't like some of them, even if i understand they underlying reasons why. i could go elsehwere but in this market, dream gigs don't exist.

 

the same will be true for SCV. not every priority to every person is the one that needs addressed first. because sometimes if you pick the wrong priority, you make it worse.....i know i've felt the pain daily since late February

Heard, and I didn't intend to imply that I thought you found it acceptable. Merely strongly stating my stance on reaction to your points. I appreciate your contributions to this thread.

This is all why I brought up the BAC a few pages back. That army of volunteers on their board is formidable and aren't paid a dime. Yes, I have told VMAPA I wouldn't provide them my expertise for free anymore. However, that was after they bungled my actual offer to volunteer on their diversity and equity efforts.

That relationship is all but destroyed, and while I'm always open to mending fences, it remains unlikely that our priorities will align. I would still be willing to volunteer my time to help them recruit other volunteer professionals (not my friends) and build the environment necessary to retain them. A career spent in youth arts non profits and higher ed is a sad thing to waste, but as @cixelsyd said, I'm far from the only one.

Moving forward with alum like us requires a kind of humility I've rarely seen exhibited by the current crew or ever.

[Reggi93]

1 hour ago, Richard Lesher said:

OK, the whole Doxing thing. I’m not going to do it here. I’m going to do it through the legal system. One doesn’t get to lie I am going to individuals employers as a means of intimidation.

That is a lie by DSpruce. Maybe she/he was lied to. Maybe she/he made it up. It is a lie. I am calling it out as a lie. The lie is still there, she/he removed my name and replaced it with “people”, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone else with the same energy I am putting into this. So I get it.

Others need to start providing proof. Why am I the only one doing as such?

I encourage it to be escalated beyond the internet forums. Everyone one knows my name. If it is escalated we will be in a different venue where everyone’s names are known. We are conveniently both in the same county in the same state. So we each can serve each other court subpoenas relatively easily.

I encourage the legal escalation of this.

The reason I use my real name, and credentials is it complicates discounting anything I bring forward. I really go out of my way to provide an irrefutable source document to any of my opinions and analysis.

There is not a single soul anywhere else doing anything remotely as such.

I am tired of repeating myself and my logic.

VMAPA.org.

So I have bought the above domain that use to belong to Vanguard. They (SCV) let it expire in 2018, and disclosed it as their whistleblower link in their whistleblower policy. So, since they were not using it (I even mentioned that back to them in January)  I let it sit for two more months. Then I secured it for the kingly sum of $9.99.

My simply owning VMAPA.org is proof the whistleblower policy and procedures is entirely defunct at SCV. It (VMAPA.org) was in their policy as a reference link to go to submit a whistleblower complaint.

Anyway, I am using VMAPA.org as a repository (which reminds me, I still need to upload the latest DOJ letter there) of all documentation to blow the whistle on SCV. The very use documented in their whistleblower policy.

It’s my greatest move by far, and regretfully goes under appreciated.

****************************

OK, how did we find ourselves here.

Gather around the camp fire kids and lets go back just before COVID.

2019 prior to COVID is on record as SCV’s worst financial year to that point. Charles Frost resigned from the organization with a financial deficit of $545K. Now, this is not know to the outside at the time because the 990’s don’t make it to public eyes until as far out as 2 years later.

So prior to going into what will become COVID SCV has already pitched itself into the ground with a financial loss greater than any other previous year.

Embarrassingly, despite the record loss, SCV also has a record revenue year of $5.9M. Yes, in the year that Vanguard lost the most amount of money it ever lost it also brought in the most amount of revenue they also earned.

This is clear as day on the very first summary page of financials of IRS Tax Form 990 for Fiscal Year ending Oct-31-2019. Go find it yourself. It’s on VMAPA.org.

Now………. This is where the audits and delinquency starts. It was FY2019 that was the first to not be audited.

Additionally, around this time SCV also decides to stop using volunteers to work Bingo Operations. Up until then, it really only had one employee specifically paid to work Bingo (the manager). Now they want to staff the entire work force with paid employees. This is OK so long as they do not pay them with Bingo sourced funds.

Neverminded the legalities at this point. Previously, what SCV was doing was using volunteers from OTHER nonprofits to work bingo, and SCV would make a donation to their respective non profit. The amounts of these donations were in the $250K realm.

The amount needed to pay bingo employees is around $500K. So in a single decision they doubled their labor cost because they were too lazy to coordinate volunteers and continuously have to train new volunteers as the turn over was so high.

OK……… back to the end of 2019. Charles Frost resigns as CEO from SCV.

So who’s doing the audit? The FY 2019 just ended and now would be the time to get on doing the audit.

OK…………. pause………………

SCV hires a foot note in their history of CEO’s a guy by the name of Brett Bernardini. He is a community theater guy. Not a single connection to music or drum corps. Hmm, that’s weird…………..

OK……….. ya’ll missed what was the most exciting decision SCV has ever made. COVID ended up covering all that up.

Before COVID became a world wide thing Brett’s first order of business was to terminate the Vanguard A Corps. That’s right, the SCV Board hired a guy and right out of the gate his plan with to create a community theater and fund it by terminated the Vanguard A Corps.

I am laughing as I type this…………….. oh my god guys…………. you have no idea what you missed…………

OK, Brett B gets his butt fired. We are in early 2020.

No one is tracking the 2019 audit needs to be executed. SCV is so wrapped up with the cluster it created with the financial loss of 2019, the hiring of Brett who before COVID became a thing wanted to terminated the Vanguard and now COVID.

OH THANK GOD FOR COVID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I said this back then (2020) among the alumni, and got my pee-pee slapped for my dry sense of humor. COVID saved what would have been SCV’s 2020 competitive season.

I genuinely was looking forward to what would have manifested for SCV on the field after all of that.

OK………… Brett B is out, and now Van Wert and another Board Member Mike Kovalich are in.

At this point I am thinking, OH THANK GOD. Finally, a pair are going to lead SCV and both have a heart to see the best of SCV happen.

**************

That’s not what happened. Two years pass as a result of COVID, and everyone sat on their hands.

Bingo operations like the Blue Devils and other figure out ways to get operations going (customers playing in their cars using the FM radio to year the bingo numbers being called), and SCV was always at the end of doing corrective action waiting for others to figure it out first.

No one is tracking the audits. Lord only knows what is going on with the rest of the bookkeeping.

We don’t know any of this yet. Remember, the 990s are two years behind public eyes.

SCV blew the golden opportunity to hide from the world the cluster mess that was the end of 2019 and the hiring of Brett B. and sat on their hands the whole time.

Then SCV executed a 2022 season without any preparation and they blow through the financial reserves and here we are.

But wait…………….. what about the Audits…………… STILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one is tracking the Audits.

It is not until April/May of 2023 do they pay any attention to it, and not until I plaster it all over the Internet.

Now………… a second DOJ warning is sent less than a week ago, and there are folks thinking they are going to be able to execute a 2024 season??????????????

The Treasurer just resigned, his replacement lives in North Carolina, the one that just resigned worked locally to SCV, and was pushing for any financial legitimacy is now gone.

The guy in place to even remotely execute corrective financial actions that are needed to fend of my regulatory complaints is now gone.

********

It’s been a long year. I’ve had emotional ups and downs pushing through all this, and now I sit here typing this numb. How could have all this possibly manifested.

What

Is

Going

On

************

I’m curious………………. Did SCV ever need to be terminated and not March 2023.

I legitimately ask this because I strongly believe other corps have manages to field seasons that were in far worse position than SCV was at the end of 2022.

The Cavaliers for example have IRS 990’s where their net asset value is Negative (technically bankrupt), and they still managed to field a season.

SCV simply didn’t have the operations management in place to know how to use the resources they had available to themselves.

That same group of decision makers that saw a $545K loss in 2019, then hired Brett B, sat on their hands two years and blew through all the financial reserves, put off doing audits the whole time, and wasted 2023 as well, and still never got audits done after it was made public now gets a second DOJ warning, the Treasurer resigns and they still want to tour in 2024…………………..

OK…………. I totally get it……………

 

******************

Finally............... when Charles Frost resigned and they put out a new CEO search, it was an open application process. 

I applied and submitted my resume to the same Board President that brought me in back in 2016 to help get the board visibility after Jeff Fielder resigned. 

I was never interviewed. 

I'd would also like to point out that there were more than a few other candidates that were also not interviewed who I think would have made even better candidates than myself. 

 

What 

Is

Going

On 

I'm incredibly hesitant to wade into this but I'm going to address a couple of things that popped out to me.  More just a curiousity than anything else.

1- SCV's new treasurer is in North Carolina and you point at that as a bad thing.  My organization's board is literally scattered across the country.  Our Treasurer does NOT live in the same state as the Org.  As a matter of fact, MOST of the board doesn't live in or near the home base of the org.  It's a digital zoom kind of world and access to financials and the ability to do a job well no longer demand you be in town where the office is so I do question why you paint their location as a detriment as they are not in CA like the old treasurer apparently was.  Especially since (IMO) the old treasurer catastrophically failed at their job. 

2.  The hiring and firing of Brett B- I'm surprised you didn't bring up his past involvement with his BFF's dalliances with a member of their community theatre that got him in hot water (once again IMO) far more than the rumors circulating that he wanted to disband the A corps.  In fact, the theatre drama only exposed a lack of due diligence on the part of the hiring committee that to me was a bigger issue. 

3. (or maybe 2.5) Also in regards to the hiring and firing of Brett B-  Drum corps as a hiring practice is incredibly nepotistic and full of cronyism.  We all talk about back room deals.  Everyone has a friend that would be perfect and half our design staffs bring their own down chain staff.  As orgs transition from kitchen table drum corps to fully realized multi-million dollar Non profits with not only a touring group but community centric programming, educational programming, and god knows what other revenue earning ventures, your buddy from Black Knights or whatever may no longer be qualified for the job.  It forces organizations to diversify and look outside the bubble.  Hiring Brett B the person turned out to be a disaster.  But hiring a CEO that had a performance education and theater background was not so outside the box for an org like SCV that had been expanding into community rooted performance ensembles beyond the A and B corps.  Phantom Regiment just hired a CEO that has little to no experience in Drum Corps but comes with OODLES of experience in revenue diversification and Youth Education programming.  This is a good fit for an org trying to expand revenue streams and community programming while re-establishing its roots and involvement in Rockford.  Build a team around her to worry about the nuance of drum corps.  Maintain a supportive BOD that can guide and support someone like her successfully and the fact that she came from outside of drum corps won't matter. 

4. Lastly, I understand you're wanting to bring this all to light.  But your ego is a turnoff.  I don't care that you are tired, or numb, or feel like your website move should get more attention.  Do it for the work and less for your standing.  When you insert yourself and what recognition you think you should be getting for all of this, it's a turn off and makes me thing you are doing this more for your own grandstanding and less for the good of the organization as you claim.  

[Mello Dude]

https://medium.com/mariposa-magazine/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-people-who-make-everything-about-themselves-1a0025cc8962

[Cainan]

20 minutes ago, Reggi93 said:

I'm incredibly hesitant to wade into this but I'm going to address a couple of things that popped out to me.  More just a curiousity than anything else.

1- SCV's new treasurer is in North Carolina and you point at that as a bad thing.  My organization's board is literally scattered across the country.  Our Treasurer does NOT live in the same state as the Org.  As a matter of fact, MOST of the board doesn't live in or near the home base of the org.  It's a digital zoom kind of world and access to financials and the ability to do a job well no longer demand you be in town where the office is so I do question why you paint their location as a detriment as they are not in CA like the old treasurer apparently was.  Especially since (IMO) the old treasurer catastrophically failed at their job. 

2.  The hiring and firing of Brett B- I'm surprised you didn't bring up his past involvement with his BFF's dalliances with a member of their community theatre that got him in hot water (once again IMO) far more than the rumors circulating that he wanted to disband the A corps.  In fact, the theatre drama only exposed a lack of due diligence on the part of the hiring committee that to me was a bigger issue. 

3. (or maybe 2.5) Also in regards to the hiring and firing of Brett B-  Drum corps as a hiring practice is incredibly nepotistic and full of cronyism.  We all talk about back room deals.  Everyone has a friend that would be perfect and half our design staffs bring their own down chain staff.  As orgs transition from kitchen table drum corps to fully realized multi-million dollar Non profits with not only a touring group but community centric programming, educational programming, and god knows what other revenue earning ventures, your buddy from Black Knights or whatever may no longer be qualified for the job.  It forces organizations to diversify and look outside the bubble.  Hiring Brett B the person turned out to be a disaster.  But hiring a CEO that had a performance education and theater background was not so outside the box for an org like SCV that had been expanding into community rooted performance ensembles beyond the A and B corps.  Phantom Regiment just hired a CEO that has little to no experience in Drum Corps but comes with OODLES of experience in revenue diversification and Youth Education programming.  This is a good fit for an org trying to expand revenue streams and community programming while re-establishing its roots and involvement in Rockford.  Build a team around her to worry about the nuance of drum corps.  Maintain a supportive BOD that can guide and support someone like her successfully and the fact that she came from outside of drum corps won't matter. 

4. Lastly, I understand you're wanting to bring this all to light.  But your ego is a turnoff.  I don't care that you are tired, or numb, or feel like your website move should get more attention.  Do it for the work and less for your standing.  When you insert yourself and what recognition you think you should be getting for all of this, it's a turn off and makes me thing you are doing this more for your own grandstanding and less for the good of the organization as you claim.  

You win the internet today.