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

[JimF-LowBari]

Haven’t gone through all of the thread but one question (probably unanswerable)… does or does not SCV have people in place to handle doing the work to correct this? Still looking for a head last I heard, how many other vacancies are there and how are they affecting their recovery?

Just get the feeling it’s “yeah we know everything still isn’t resolved but we knew this was coming so not a problem…. See you in 2024”.🤦‍♂️
 

Don’t follow this as close as some people but the operative word I keep seeing is “workING” as in not finishing what needs to be done. 

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by JimF-LowBari

[JimF-LowBari]

9 hours ago, Richard Lesher said:

There is no reason that SCV needs to be sucking up $3,000,000 of bingo market share taken away from other non profits in the Santa Clara Community when SCV itself isn't providing a non profit mission. 

Excellent point. And what is the status of CA bingo after COVID? Anywhere close to what it was before lockdowns? 

[Richard Lesher]

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 

Edited August 30, 2023 by Richard Lesher

[TOC]

8 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

not all corps are created equal indeed.

Some still believe 1989 showed fans that.  

[DSpruce]

Noting for the claim in question even the original formulation was qualified twice “I heard” and “unconfirmed but good source”. If the information was inaccurate I was misinformed which is what I would have to say if such action were taken. 

[scheherazadesghost]

1 hour ago, Richard Lesher said:

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.

There is so much more here.

I've mentioned in previous posts on DCP that whistleblowers are exhausted. Well, there was a concerted effort during this time period by numerous alum to:

1. Point out BB's history that somehow, again, the hiring committee at VMAPA missed, documented here and other sources: https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/crime/2010/11/18/documents-singing-coach-targeted-another/45102989007/

Mind you, again, this is after JF's tenure. You'd think a little more care would've gone into it. Alas, BB's not even close to the last example of concerning hires that risked member safety due to documented poor safeguarding choices made at previous employers.

and

2. Bring to the board's attention just some of the abuse that alum have endured at this corps.

So in addition to trying to erase the drum corps and build a massive arts center, the board had hired someone who again, further endangered members.

I don't normally say this publicly, or even out loud:

I've always been quietly disappointed that most the elder alum allowed or turned a blind eye to the abuses I endured. I'm now openly and brazenly infuriated that they have continued to do so and risked the safety of the generation that came after me, over and over. Still, there is no accountability, especially not for board members who have been around that. whole. time.

No, I don't have documentation. No, most of the reporters on my roster don't want to speak up. But that's because they're exhausted either from 1. attempting to recover from what they endured, (ya, still, sometimes decades later) or 2. trying to bring it to light and getting the cold shoulder.

But sure you lot. Continue to try to field a corps. Or gawk at the financial or organizational issues as reported here and elsewhere.

Precious few of you have sat with numerous adults who openly weep as they recall what happened to them, or what they witnessed. Wake me up when more alum start to actually care about that.

[Jeff Ream]

9 hours ago, DSpruce said:

Que? 

There are different rough groupings of alumni in these tough times. Many I am in ordinary connection with barely know anything is happening on DCP. 

i dont get all of my information from DCP. generally i bring information to DCP

[cixelsyd]

11 hours ago, craiga said:

I still can't get over the fact that only one short decade ago,  SCV was part of the G7 self proclaimed elite, attempting to take over DCI and exclude corps like the Boston Crusaders because they weren't worthy.  Whether you believe in God or karma, somebody was watching.  SCV did this to themselves.

11 hours ago, Sutasaurus said:

This was totally uncalled for. Try not to confuse yesterday with today. Sounds like you have an axe to grind. 

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.

[Jeff Ream]

8 hours ago, greg_orangecounty said:

I'm from Southern California and I doubt you care anything at all about the Santa Clara Vanguard or what they mean to this activity.   

i'm from South ZCentral PA and i care a lot about SCV and what they mean to the activity. for decades they were viewed not just as great on the field, but off the field as well. GR a legend. bingo was a model for all before BD took it next level.

 

and right now what they mean to drum corps is a huge example of how not to be off of the field. and it seems it gets worse as time rolls on.

[Jeff Ream]

8 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Now the community sees some of the ways we alum harm each other. The ways we don't trust each other.

This has always been happening. Either directly via abuse, or indirectly via the risks that come with mismanagement.

This has always been sad.

It's much much worse when it happens during a member's young, formative years, but for some, it didn't stop there. It continued when we tried to come back and offer donations of service or money.

When whatever future is in store for the org happens, I'll still be here, ready to help those alum pick up the pieces of themselves shattered by this org whenever they're ready. That was always my mission. The monitoring of organizational governance is merely my professional skillset.

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