What is wrong with US?

[dbc03]

1 hour ago, HockeyDad said:

Question - what is the root cause of Cadets inability to field a corps in 2024?

From the board chair himself:

"The tenuous financial condition of The Cadets is not new nor a secret. The organization has two primary sources of funding: Member fees/tuition and donations. Member fees cover less than half of current-year expenses. Our donor base has historically provided a significant portion of the remaining, current-year funding need but not enough to cover the continually rising costs necessary to provide a quality experience for members, staff and volunteers. We developed and managed a balanced budget this past year, meaning our expected income equaled our expenses. We had no room for reserves and made operational decisions to cut costs, such as choosing less expensive staff/volunteer vehicles and using volunteer drivers. Other cuts included limiting staff size on tour and reducing most staff pay to minimum wage. I witnessed firsthand the negative impact of many of these expense cuts on the 2023 Cadets and concluded that this cannot continue. As a guiding principle, member, staff and volunteer safety cannot and will not be compromised. These experiences heavily influenced Friday’s decision during our regularly scheduled, annual Board Meeting."

1 hour ago, HockeyDad said:

Second question - what are the corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence?

It's been a little under 2 weeks and there is currently no CEO and the BoD is made up of volunteers, give them a little time to figure out how to fix 40 years of compounding issues. They've got a year to get things back on track, taking a little time now to get things right is fine even if it doesn't satisfy the DCP hoards

[HockeyDad]

19 minutes ago, dbc03 said:

From the board chair himself:

"The tenuous financial condition of The Cadets is not new nor a secret. The organization has two primary sources of funding: Member fees/tuition and donations. Member fees cover less than half of current-year expenses. Our donor base has historically provided a significant portion of the remaining, current-year funding need but not enough to cover the continually rising costs necessary to provide a quality experience for members, staff and volunteers. We developed and managed a balanced budget this past year, meaning our expected income equaled our expenses. We had no room for reserves and made operational decisions to cut costs, such as choosing less expensive staff/volunteer vehicles and using volunteer drivers. Other cuts included limiting staff size on tour and reducing most staff pay to minimum wage. I witnessed firsthand the negative impact of many of these expense cuts on the 2023 Cadets and concluded that this cannot continue. As a guiding principle, member, staff and volunteer safety cannot and will not be compromised. These experiences heavily influenced Friday’s decision during our regularly scheduled, annual Board Meeting."

It's been a little under 2 weeks and there is currently no CEO and the BoD is made up of volunteers, give them a little time to figure out how to fix 40 years of compounding issues. They've got a year to get things back on track, taking a little time now to get things right is fine even if it doesn't satisfy the DCP hoards

Yes, I read all those words when he posted them. That is not a root cause statement. It’s a - well we kinda ran out of money.   That is not the root cause.  Let’s take a trip up the “why staircase”. Why did you run out of money?  Well, apparently their budget was inaccurate and they had no reserves.  Why was your budgeting inadequate?  Why did you have no reserves?   I think that’s where we are at this point. 

They might be getting close but we don’t have the root cause yet. And you can’t figure out corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence until they have the root cause. So this is where we are. 

[dbc03]

14 hours ago, 2000Cadet said:

We’ve had corps fold, corps take a year off, etc. What I have noticed to be constant is people coming onto this site to air those corps’ dirty laundry. Don’t get it confused. I am all for holding corps accountable for what happens with their finances, ESPECIALLY when much of their coins are from donations. But if we protest to love this activity as much as we do, WHY are we trying to destroy the reputations of corps we claim to love? 

Drum corps is still a niche activity. We don't get much support outside of those who already know about us. With all the changes that have taken place just over the past 20 years, we STILL have a relative small group of people who watch and enjoy this activity. Pandemics, inflation, and other things have have caused so many issues with in society so it comes as no surprise to me that drum corps is feeling the same pain. 

Maybe instead of pouring salt on the wounds, we should be talking directly to those corps and possibly provide suggestions on fixing the issues issues they're facing. Not saying it would be an easy task, but anything is better than coming onto a forum and posting terrible news just to get a rise out of people. Just a thought. 

Ultimately I think it depends on what the accusations are and the history the corps has at handling issues.

As examples, with both George Hopkins and Roman Blenski it was very obvious that nothing was going to change without brave people going public and shining a light on foul behavior (The stuff with SCV might be another example, I don't know, I haven't really followed that story). When corps are intentionally putting people at risk I fully 100% support public scrutiny and without that public scrutiny DCI wouldn't have made the (albeit insufficient) strides it has since 2018 when the GH story first broke. The #1 priority is to stop the abuse as quickly as possible, if the corps folds as part of that it is unfortunate but I would rather have my corps fold than sweet abuse under the rug. If corps have a strong whistleblower policy that actually works and that people trust they will use it because the last thing abuse victims want is to go public about it.

Financial issues are more nuanced. Unless they are issues that are putting people in danger or there is obvious and provable corruption at the Board level I think attempting to raise those issues privately first is more appropriate. If there is something legitimately criminal going on that's different, but that usually isn't the case. If the issue is serious enough and attempts to deal with it in private are ignored then by all means, raise a stink, but going public doesn't always have to be step 1 if you're dealing with a reasonable organization.

Then there's ######## like missed paperwork. Immediately going public with a "bombshell" like "I think this corps forgot to submit a form to the state" is just silly attention seeking behavior. If they missed the paperwork they should fix it, but we're talking about something that carries a fine of about $1k per year. Every little bit matters especially when a corps is struggling financially, but this is not an existential crisis for the corps and running to DCP about it instead of emailing someone or submitting a message to the board using the form on the website is just absurd.

[dbc03]

24 minutes ago, HockeyDad said:

Yes, I read all those words when he posted them. That is not a root cause statement. It’s a - well we kinda ran out of money.   That is not the root cause.  Let’s take a trip up the “why staircase”. Why did you run out of money?  Well, apparently their budget was inaccurate and they had no reserves.  Why was your budgeting inadequate?  Why did you have no reserves?   I think that’s where we are at this point. 

They might be getting close but we don’t have the root cause yet. And you can’t figure out corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence until they have the root cause. So this is where we are. 

Again, it's been a couple weeks and there isn't a CEO, give it some time. Geez, I thought my generation was supposed to be the "instant gratification" generation

[HockeyDad]

15 minutes ago, dbc03 said:

Again, it's been a couple weeks and there isn't a CEO, give it some time. Geez, I thought my generation was supposed to be the "instant gratification" generation

Please stop putting words in my mouth. I posted questions I would like to see answered. I did Not say I want the answers *right now*.  You said it. 
You reposted the board member’s post from several days ago, as if to say - he already provided the root cause. Well, no, he didn’t. 

Edited October 26, 2023 by HockeyDad

[dbc03]

6 minutes ago, HockeyDad said:

Please stop putting words in my mouth. I posted questions I would like to see answered. I did Not say I want the answers *right now*.  You said it. 
You reposted the board member’s post from several days ago, as if to say - he already provided the root cause. Well, no, he didn’t. 

What kind of response and what kind of timeframe for it would make you happy? Your posts about the leadership in this thread imply you think they are handling this poorly, what should they be doing differently?

[2000Cadet]

37 minutes ago, dbc03 said:

Ultimately I think it depends on what the accusations are and the history the corps has at handling issues.

As examples, with both George Hopkins and Roman Blenski it was very obvious that nothing was going to change without brave people going public and shining a light on foul behavior (The stuff with SCV might be another example, I don't know, I haven't really followed that story). When corps are intentionally putting people at risk I fully 100% support public scrutiny and without that public scrutiny DCI wouldn't have made the (albeit insufficient) strides it has since 2018 when the GH story first broke. The #1 priority is to stop the abuse as quickly as possible, if the corps folds as part of that it is unfortunate but I would rather have my corps fold than sweet abuse under the rug. If corps have a strong whistleblower policy that actually works and that people trust they will use it because the last thing abuse victims want is to go public about it.

Financial issues are more nuanced. Unless they are issues that are putting people in danger or there is obvious and provable corruption at the Board level I think attempting to raise those issues privately first is more appropriate. If there is something legitimately criminal going on that's different, but that usually isn't the case. If the issue is serious enough and attempts to deal with it in private are ignored then by all means, raise a stink, but going public doesn't always have to be step 1 if you're dealing with a reasonable organization.

Then there's ######## like missed paperwork. Immediately going public with a "bombshell" like "I think this corps forgot to submit a form to the state" is just silly attention seeking behavior. If they missed the paperwork they should fix it, but we're talking about something that carries a fine of about $1k per year. Every little bit matters especially when a corps is struggling financially, but this is not an existential crisis for the corps and running to DCP about it instead of emailing someone or submitting a message to the board using the form on the website is just absurd.

You nailed it. These are exactly the points I was trying to get across. You've done a much better job than I did. 

 

[scheherazadesghost]

40 minutes ago, dbc03 said:

Then there's ######## like missed paperwork. Immediately going public with a "bombshell" like "I think this corps forgot to submit a form to the state" is just silly attention seeking behavior. If they missed the paperwork they should fix it, but we're talking about something that carries a fine of about $1k per year. Every little bit matters especially when a corps is struggling financially, but this is not an existential crisis for the corps and running to DCP about it instead of emailing someone or submitting a message to the board using the form on the website is just absurd.

If organizations solicit and distribute donations while not in compliance with state laws, it's worse than a fine. And stakeholders/donors deserve to know just as soon as the organization. If every little bit matters, then this could matter too. Like, a lot.

[dbc03]

Just now, scheherazadesghost said:

If organizations solicit and distribute donations while not in compliance with state laws, it's worse than a fine. And stakeholders/donors deserve to know just as soon as the organization. If every little bit matters, then this could matter too. Like, a lot.

It's literally just a $1000 fine per year, PA has a list of disciplinary actions taken on their website and that's for organizations with tens or hundreds of millions in revenue. The corps should fix it if it's accurate, but talk about a freakin nothingburger

[scheherazadesghost]

17 minutes ago, dbc03 said:

It's literally just a $1000 fine per year, PA has a list of disciplinary actions taken on their website and that's for organizations with tens or hundreds of millions in revenue. The corps should fix it if it's accurate, but talk about a freakin nothingburger

Edit to add: I previously provided erroneous info here regarding professional solicitation  fines. My bad. But PA state law clearly outlines civil penalties in § 162.19 of The Solicitation of Funds for Charitable Purposes Act. They look expensive to me. Towards the bottom here: https://www.dos.pa.gov/BusinessCharities/Charities/Resources/Documents/CharitiesSolicitationAct, 1-2018.pdf

But that's just the legal side. Loss of trust and faith in the donor pool, which many in drum corps seem to disregard, is also problematic to most healthy nonprofits.

Edited October 26, 2023 by scheherazadesghost