A Great Article on The Cadets

[Tim K]

3 hours ago, BigW said:

Perhaps the incessant "give us $$$$$$$$$$$$" E-mails got people to tune out!? Just asking...

 

Edited February 26 by Tim K

[BigW]

1 hour ago, Sh0uldN0t said:

Not every alum of course. But generally, the alumni base hasn't coughed up the cash that the Cadets needed to operate on their own. This isn't new. Even after winning three DCIs in a row in the 80s, the Cadets barely scraped by because the donations just weren't there. Most drum corps fans don't realize just how close the corps came to folding multiple times decades ago. 

People forget that BD had bingo to fund the drum corps. SCV too. For a while, anyway. Cavies never got rich off Rosemont, but its sponsorship was worth something. Cadets had no other source of funding except donations and later U.S. Bands. BD wanted U.S. Bands because they know a money-maker when they see it. 

I wasn't privy to the actual discussions on selling off U.S. Bands. I do know this, however. The brain trust backing the new regime wanted a "pure" Cadets approach. It was their intent from the beginning to focus only on the Cadets. And they believed they could do that because they expected Cadets alumni to donate in support of their more traditional thinking. They were wrong about that and lots more. 

I know more than a few Cadets Alumni, and with one or two exceptions, I'm a better person for knowing them.

The ones I know aren't rich people. Maybe doing well and successful as people, but not "rich". Taking how many of them that there that are still living, and how many would be willing to donate, and incomes, my guess is that unless there would be a Daddy Warbucks out there, it might take quite a bit of money from the alumni per individual that they just might not have. 500 people donating 100 dollars each nets you 50 Grand. That's a pittance in today's budget needs. Does anyone have real numbers as to how many Alumni are out there that want to remain connected and can drop 100+ bucks in the kitty whenever they're asked? I've got medical bills to pay and meds to buy, and my guess is a few of term are in the same boat. Families, kids, so on...

[ironlips]

Depending on alumni donations to fund a contemporary World Class drum corps to any meaningful extent is folly, and that's been the case for a very long time.

These units do not have "mom and pop" expenses. One could run a small country on what it takes to staff, feed, equip, insure, and tour such a group these days.

Alumni ties and loyalties can be strong but contributions from that sector will always be at best ancillary, at worst, insignificant.

 

[Richard Lesher]

6 hours ago, Sh0uldN0t said:

I wasn't privy to the actual discussions on selling off U.S. Bands.

Is the US Bands sale enough behind us one could extrapolate it from BD's and Cadet's 990's? 

When was the sale finalized? What Fiscal Year would it probably show up in? Both balance sheets should show similar onboarding and offboarding. 

[TheOneWhoKnows]

On 2/24/2024 at 7:45 PM, DAYGO said:

My son had many highlights last year in his rookie season with the Cadets.   A month or so after finals when we were casually taking about his experience and his top moments last summer, he didn't hesitate to say said that wearing the Westpoint uniform for the 4th of July parades and for the retreat in Indy was "by far" his greatest moment of the season.  He even claimed that he got emotional when trying it on in his dorm at camp.  I was surprised about that but as he explained it, he said felt like a superhero, like a champion.  He couldn't believe he was lucky enough to wear the uniform that so many great Cadets before him wore.  If those uniforms have to be moved/liquidated, I hope they end up with former Cadets who earned the right to wear them and wore them proudly.   

And this right here is one of the top sad points of this all. 
 

Nothing is all good or all bad. But at the end of the day there is a storied history that exists here. The corps and its history are the members that marched. Those that put in the blood, sweat, and tears year after year and made the Westpoint a symbol.  

[cixelsyd]

14 hours ago, BigW said:

Perhaps the incessant "give us $$$$$$$$$$$$" E-mails got people to tune out!? Just asking...

For full context, you must also include paper mail.  The incessant pleading started long before e-mail was invented.

[cixelsyd]

12 hours ago, Sh0uldN0t said:

Even after winning three DCIs in a row in the 80s, the Cadets barely scraped by because the donations just weren't there. 

Or you could just as easily say the Cadets barely scraped by because some donations were there.

[Terri Schehr]

26 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

For full context, you must also include paper mail.  The incessant pleading started long before e-mail was invented.

It’s reminds me of when I used to donate to PBS.  I felt it was only fair because my kid was watching PBS everyday for Sesame Street, etc… I gave them what I could afford but instead of being grateful for that, I was subjected to a barrage of letters, phone calls requesting more money …. Drove me crazy. So the only solution I could find was to stop giving altogether. Phone calls stopped, no more letters. I was giving as much as I was willing to give and that wasn’t enough so they decided to alienate me.  Just how it was in my situation with PBS. 

[jwillis35]

11 hours ago, BigW said:

Does anyone have real numbers as to how many Alumni are out there that want to remain connected and can drop 100+ bucks in the kitty whenever they're asked? I've got medical bills to pay and meds to buy, and my guess is a few of term are in the same boat. Families, kids, so on...

 

Nice post. I don't have any real numbers myself. The corps was founded in 1934 but how many of those who marched in the 30s and 40s are still around. I would imagine they still have a very large base of alumni out there but how many of them have real cash to spare? Many are likely retired on fixed incomes. How many of them walked away because of certain people in management? How many were put off by the constant relocation and name changes? 

When this current trial is done we have no way of knowing if there might be more. @Jeff Ream mentioned something important a few pages back that this was likely going to happen (Cadets going inactive and perhaps folding). After 2017-18 they managemed to band-aid a few things and hang around but the off-field issues with finances, lawsuits, and other legal issues were eventially going to catchup. 

Others have mentioned it, but trying to fund a corps solely on alumni dollars will not work...not unless you are lucky to have some sugar daddy with $5 mil to $10 mil who is willing to invest in the long-term health of the org. Even when Ted Swaldo invested into the Bluecoats to keep them from folding in 1984 he made sure to setup fundraisers, bingo, and other ventures that would keep Bloo alive and well for years to come.

The Cadets org needs to hope they can come out of this trial with a zero balance and not be in debt too much. Then they need to put it to bed for a while. Trying to force a comeback would likely be a mistake. If there is hope for a comeback down the road a very serious effort will need to be made toward setting up operations and funding. You need people with time to spare and personal cash on hand to begin what could be several years of operational setup. What are the chances of this happening? 

If it were me and I had just enough cash to pay down any debt they have after this trial -- and if I had the time and the say so (which I do not) -- I would take whatever was left (uniforms and trophies) and try to make amends with the city of Garfield, NJ mostly for preservation of corps history. I would try to find a place in town where the corps history could be displayed. I would change the name officially back to the Garfield Cadets, with the city owning the rights to the name, and then close shop. If a group of alumni or business people wish to take up the challenge of resurrecting the corps they will have to work with the city of Garfield. Sounds bleak but at least the history is preserved and a very small "flag" is planted back in the appopriate resting place. 

[Jeff Ream]

21 hours ago, Sh0uldN0t said:

Not accurate. YEA/Cadets had good years and bad years. Some years they would have a few bucks left over. Some years they would finish a few bucks short. Mostly it was one year of up followed by a year of down. The clear trend was break even. (Break even isn't a failure in an organization whose mission is to devote proceeds to programs, not to generate profits.)

YEA had a line of credit with the bank because the timing of expenses didn't sync with the timing of revenue. That line of credit gave the operations flexibility to pay bills 12 months a year. The bank kept extending credit because YEA paid it back. Credit wouldn't have been available if the loan weren't repaid. It was repaid in no small measure from the proceeds of a successful U.S. Bands program.

U.S. Bands was the change that killed the Cadets. The Cadets by themselves haven't been able to support themselves in a sustainable way for decades. Going all the way back to the 70s and 80s, Cadets alum have been generous with their opinions and miserly with their checkbooks. The new regime thought they could do this without U.S. Bands. They couldn't.

(Don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. I had a bird's eye view of the financials for many years and was privy to high-level discussions as well.) 

cool. all most of us here have access to is what has been made public. One thing very public now is the level of satisfaction groups are experiencing with USBands.