Cadets and bankruptcy

[IllianaLancerContra]

16 hours ago, garfield said:

My screen name, almost as old as DCP, is in honor of the corps.  Their performances consistently ranked the corps in top positions with me, with only a few exceptional years.  The alumni I know are at the same time crushed and unsurprised.

The G7

Thank GOD for the O-13 (the Other 13), led by a big, affable, and tenacious Italian corps director in Jersey and his friends, who had the ball-bearings to fight back in the most creative of ways to derail the DCI coup and takeover.  My appreciation of their corps' performances aside, I would appreciate a word from the humble-pie-stuffed mouths of the other six corps of the notorious group who held the G7 document and its (half) creator above their heads like a proverbial Will Smith at the Spartacus opener.  At this time, poignantly, the rest of the activity's "leaders" would show considerable humility, direction of focus, and unity if they were to proclaim to be ever vigilant against the potential damage from a too-powerful ego.  That Sparta-Hop's has now been all but killed leaves the door open for a new concerted effort to root out the rot and pledge activity-wide to DFTK.  His involvement and his corps' demise permit the survivors to build anew on top of the foundational bones of the old, just the same as in Spartacus' Rome.  

My hunch is that DCI is next (see below) and, when it itself becomes part of the rubble foundation of the drum corps' history, the remaining leadership of the activity will want the trust and patience of the fans while they rebuild the "show producer" function of DCI, the organization.  They'll go a long way toward earning that trust, IMO, if those remaining corps now become the real nails in the Cadets/Hop coffin by pledging to never again let such hubris by one or two beguile others into a coup mentality.

DCI's "deep pockets"

DCI has $12mm in the bank?  Seriously?  I haven't paid much attention in recent years but, back when I was active pre-2021, I don't remember accounting for a single year where DCI has a 5-digit balance in the bank.  In fact, their ultimate stated goal for years was to build a $500m cushion in their budget; to the best of my memory, they never attained that goal.  So, where'd this cash come from?  Ahh... Covid Cash.  I remember the talk at the time:  DCI needed funds to keep a tour operation going even though there were no shows to pay in to keep it going.  Huh?  So, DCI needed to sustain itself when it had no job to do for two, frightful summers?  So they took gratuitous tax dollars, got it.  So many thieves, IMO.  The corps created DCI to promote shows so, if the corps couldn't perform shows, what was DCI needed to do?  I understand paying a staff or two to maintain relationships, etc was important but, otherwise, it should have been shut down and stripped to the bones, 50th anniversary or not.  This kind of financial foolishness is exactly of the type that has the activity as a whole but a few coffin nails away from demise.  I can kind-of justify the corps themselves taking free taxpayer stimulus (kind of: no tour = few expenses) but I've felt from first hearing it that DCI was gaming the Covid system to the detriment of taxpayers and it smelled as bad as socks at the end of the season.

The irony is that by taking the money and finally getting their "cushion" (about one year's tour expenses) DCI has made themselves a target in a deep-pockets lawsuit looking to reimburse attorneys for expenses (and hoped-for payday) if not for restitution to the actual victims.  Karma, truly.  It makes me chuckle that their cushion could be so short-lived and the remaining corps will be right back in the same position of having to fund a tour company to organize their shows even while they claim every dollar is needed to design, write, teach, and perform them.  Their reliance on "someone else" accomplishing the cushion goal might well leave them in exactly the same position of having no cushion at all in DCI.  

Again, on bended knee, they should swear an oath to the Jacobs-idol to never again let the ramblings of a known lunatic drive their decisions or egos.  It never ends well.

Insurance to Cover

Ream has made the apt point twice now and it can't be skipped (because, I'll say it: if Jeff and a few others spotted it, you know the sharp insurance company attorneys will, too): the event at the center of THIS case happened at a non-sanctioned, non-sponsored event where a group of like-minded corps participants gathered for fun.  It wasn't a "company event", reportedly.  Liability insurance covers the insured's events, not casual gatherings where attendance was optional and spontaneous.  Estoppel laws would prevent overlapping liability and, obviously, insuring against the antics of 128 high-school aged knuckleheads while on official corps business is hard (and expensive) enough.  I've watched enough insurance scam YT videos to think that, in all likelihood, the corps' liability insurance didn't apply and, instead, it's the accused's personal liability insurance (if any) that would protect an accused while not on "company business", not the coverage provided to the company for when he/she was on company business.

So, I see the Wiley-Coyote-eyed attorneys focused in on DCI's bank balance and smelling blood.  I won't be at all surprised to see the next marching shoe to drop being DCI's "cushion" significantly eaten up by defense and settlement costs.

In a double irony way, if I'm right and, if DCI survives the attack, it will be left penniless, wholly dependent on the gate revenue produced by the remaining corps performing shows with no financial cushion against calamity. IOW, exactly as it's been for mostly every year of DCI's existence prior to the pandemic pennies from heaven.  It will again be left up to the leadership of performing corps to craft the new DCI into the image it needs and wants to produce a tour.

Let's hope they keep the G7 debacle, and my hoped-for humility, front and center of their minds as they do.

Lastly, to Cadets2000, your disgust and exasperation at the whole is just like that which drove me away from active participation a few years ago.  Let it happen.  It's OK to walk away and even fashionable now to proactively stop buying products from companies whose actions turn your stomach.  As a very good friend of mine said as I was headed out the door, "There are other things" that will fill the hole left by finally calling the spade and walking away.  You'll broaden by the action more than the feeling of the loss of something precious.  I, and many others, can attest to it.  And, at the same time, don't cancel your DCP account but, instead, reduce your drum corps habit down to a few times a year to check in and see if anything has changed (in drum corps if not in DCP).  One never knows: three-peats happen, (We Are) The Future wins and, sometimes, Angels defeat the Demons after the bloody battle.  It's worth checking in now and then.

Hopefully you will see this before you sign off, but I want to thank you for all the 990 analysis some years back.   You pointed a bunch of us the right direction on how to follow the money.  
 

I wish you fair winds and following seas. 

[jwillis35]

10 hours ago, ranintothedoor said:

But the joy, for me at least, is darkened.  They destroyed the lives of so many victims, and used the Cadets, all of us Cadets, to do it.  

...

Now that it's official, I'm glad the Cadets organization is done. 

At least today.  I don't know how I'll feel tomorrow. 

I think your opinion here is very valid and I imagine this is how many Cadets alumni and many volunteers feel. This is probably how they should feel. My heart says "NO no no no, I don't want to lose this historic corps!" But my head says it was time for Garfield/The Cadets to be put to rest. Just too many lawsuits, too many mistakes, too many victims. There were likely going to be more lawsuits. The damage by a director, a puppet board, and perhaps a few others was too much for too long.

Too many people were harmed by the supposed "adults" in the room. Too many victims...and those victims deserve praise for coming forward and they deserve justice and help. If that means the corps goes away then so be it. 

As others have said it is complicated because we will miss the shows and all the hard work of the marchers and volunteers and the teachers who did things the right way. We will miss the history. But it was time. Pains me to say it...but it was time. The "adults" in the room had chance after chance and chance to make things right. The SHIP SUNK!!! Too many leaks and a few torpedo shots. In the end the damage from 1982-2017 was too much.  

Edited April 5 by jwillis35

[IllianaLancerContra]

1 hour ago, Sideways said:

I can only imagine he had a show scripted out and entitled…”His name is George, and this is what he said.”

There are some of us who thought he deserved prison time. 
 

‘Sunday Afternoon in the Yard With George’  could have been a cathartic show had anyone the cajones to do it. 

Edited April 5 by IllianaLancerContra
Word choice

[jwillis35]

10 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

There are some of us who thought he deserved jail time. 
 

‘Sunday Afternoon in the Yard With George’  could have been a cathartic show had anyone the cajones to do it. 

I think Crossmen should do something like this. Maybe change the title to "From Pennsylvania to Texas, We're Still Here."

Or maybe (and I think you know the song) "We're Still Havin' Fun...and We're Still the One."

Edited April 5 by jwillis35

[IllianaLancerContra]

3 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

I think Crossmen should do something like this. Maybe change the title to "From Pennsylvania to Texas, We're Still Here."

The Corps that escaped YEA, i.e., Crossmen, Crown, BAC are thriving.  Magic died in 2006/7 - were they still part of YEA at that point?  Cadets survived YEA’s sinking for a few years, but in hindsight they were on a lifeboat that was taking on water. 
 

(I seem to be using a lot of nautical terms today).  

[IllianaLancerContra]

15 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

I think Crossmen should do something like this. Maybe change the title to "From Pennsylvania to Texas, We're Still Here."

Or maybe (and I think you know the song) "We're Still Havin' Fun...and We're Still the One."

Add in I’m a Survivor by Reba McIntire, and Deep in the Heart of Texas (perhaps the Ray Charles version). 
 

Good work my friend- we’ve figured out Crossmen’s 2024 show.   
 

This has been a productive day, and it’s not even 930am yet. 

[burdettsky]

1 hour ago, Keith Hall said:

The more I read, the more I was right to get out of the activity! I started in 1971 and enjoyed 7 years in an Upstate NY corps that had one good year (1976). I worked with other corps and enjoyed my time but started disliking the activity in 2004 (WOW 20 years ago). If you weren't kissing someone's $#@ and making them feel special then you were no one. I should say, if you weren't feeding someone's ego, you were persona non grata. I walked away.

I love what the kids do on the field but unfortunately the "has been's" try to destroy it with their "This isn't Drum Corps" attitude. On the other side, the designers have to fuel their ego with artsy show's that don't really relate to the average drum corps fan. I remember someone I marched with in the 1970's and he would go to the parking lot of a contest and drink and not even go in to watch. 

I think if the activity is looking to survive, they may want to back up and look at the big picture of DCI and how can they bring back the DRUM CORPS NUTS!

I don't think they necessarily have to bring back the drum corps nuts, as they now have different drum corps nuts.  The activity is, and should be regardless of our personal preference, geared towards what the marching members want.  Today's teens and early 20's members don't want to do old style shows, they want to do what is done today.  And based on the attendance at shows each year which keep increasing, it's working.

As for everything in your first paragraph, different story all together.

I think the "survival" of this activity depends largely on $$$$$$.  And moreso, corps able to support taking a corps on the road each summer.  I know some of this may be off the original topic, just replying to some comments in this post.  

Like you Keith, I love what the performers do today.  Looking back even after typing this, I think I agree with everything you say, just confused on the bring back the drum corps nuts part.  There is a huge fan base, and social media is making things more accessable for the younger generation.  

[Jeff Ream]

9 hours ago, Icer said:

There is what you get second hand (like from Glass Door), and there is what actually happened. There is obviously overlap - most people don't just make stuff up - but those of us who saw the whole tragedy unfold in front of our own eyes have a unique perspective.

sadly i know. i know many of those who lived it

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, burdettsky said:

Apologies for what might be an obvious answer to many byt unknown to me, but what is Glass Door that keeps being spoken about?

it's a website where companies are reviewed by employees or former employees.

 

the one talking about how he was watching porn in the office sticks out

[Jeff Ream]

1 hour ago, jwillis35 said:

I think Crossmen should do something like this. Maybe change the title to "From Pennsylvania to Texas, We're Still Here."

Or maybe (and I think you know the song) "We're Still Havin' Fun...and We're Still the One."

well no longer are they You Eat After