Capital Regiment Website

[siuehist]

none of this is rumors. everyone needs to know about it so that rick isn't allowed to run anything else. he is a terrible corps director.

pittsburg, kansas-

20 people had to be put on oxygen and 6 went to the hospital (whose parents weren't contacted) for dehydration. and i dare any of you to tell me that watching a girl shake and twitch like a god #### fish-out-of-water is a rumor, because the image of that girl with brian and gustavo trying to help her calm down will always, ALWAYS be with me. and was it a rumor that rick didn't get us the food we needed that day? no, it wasn't a rumor. i'll tell you i had two bowls of cereal for breakfast, and half an apple for lunch. and he openly admitted, in a midnight gym meeting that he didn't get the food ordered and worse, didn't do anything to get the food ordered in time and worse yet, didn't take the blame for it. i clearly remember the speech at walnut ridge in the early days of the season about how he wasn't going to take us on the road if he didn't have insurance and blah blah blah and how he was accepting the responsibility of us all. which he did right up until it was his ### in the fire, and then all of a sudden not having food for us was derek's fault. and still worse, took a cheap shot at the man who DID feed us that night, jeff fiedler.

this is a direct quote from rick that night:

"...and in a very ''cavalier" like manner said, 'it's okay rick, just feed us one night''

...to which, as i recall, we never did. the cavaliers shows have never interested me and i always kinda hated them because of it (which is stupid, and i realize that i'm an opinionated person) but after that mess, i have unlimited amount of respect for that classsssssssy organization.

at any rate-that is the rick bays that all of you need to know him as. i've marched capital since 2004, and i don't care if i'm airing dirty laundry, and i don't care what any of you think of me for saying all this because i'm only doing what i feel is right. and, quite frankly, he needs to be removed from whatever it is that he does. which this summer, usually involved pissing off members, staff and volunteers and smoking cigs with a crack-addict bus driver. and don't even get me started on her...omg...

ok, I can't get past page 6...I am too ######.

I think CR needs to take a hiatus for 2007. This Bays character is beyond comprehension.

bus drivers without a CDL driving kids down an interstate? CR PARENTS ARE YOU READING THIS? Your kids admitted into a hospital without your notification, and the same day, there's no food, and another corps has to bail their mismanagement out with food?!?!?! What if the Cavaliers chuck wagon wan't around?

This is criminal.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (post edited by moderator)

[A27Lancer]

I had already thought of volunteering during my vacation time next summer with a corps for a couple of weeks, and this makes me want to do it all the more.

Ironic that in "Historic Drum Corps Discussions" there is an entire thread called "How We Used to Eat", telling nightmare stories of living on Devil Dogs and mustard sandwiches. The stories are told with a humorous twist, but the fact remains that since major tours began, corps sometimes run out of money and the kids don't get fed properly. Thank you to all the corps who have shared with those who otherwise would have gone hungry.

Bus drivers have, perhaps, the worst job in all of drum corps. They are responsible for the safety of many people, and have to perform on sub-standard busses, little sleep, and often, no pay. In the corps I have been associated with, the bus drivers were treated as respectfully as any other people around the corps, if not moreso. Heck, I even remember a driver who after hauling us for HOURS and HOURS without a break, got off the bus and started to fix broken horns so we could rehearse with equipment.

I LOVE the idea of someone co-ordinating volunteers nationwide, and sending these volunteers to the organization who needs them most. Of course, background/drug checks should apply to ALL volunteers, and not just bus drivers. It is only a matter of time before the unspeakable happens, God forbid, in the drum corps world if things continue in this haphazard fashion. (Not in all corps - I'm sure the majority of corps do the right thing - but apparently, not all do).

Is it time to return to the days of only one major tour? Maybe. Next year should be interesting with the Eastern corps making the trek that the Pacific corps have done for years.

If you're a corps vet, consider volunteering a week or two next summer with a corps, be they local or maybe one you could hook up with as they travel through your area. If you can't give a week, maybe a touring corps will be staying nearby and you could arrange in advance to have a group of your friends haul BBQ grills over to the school and cook a good supper for a visiting corps. Heck, what's it take to make ONE meal for a drum corps, knowing there are volunteers traveling with the corps who would actually get a night off? And I'll bet the "thank you's" from the corps would make it more than worth while.

While these ideas may not help CR with their current problems, if all the "bums" like me who do nothing but gripe pitch in next summer, maybe we alumni can make a bit of a difference.

Best of luck to CR, and hope to see you on the field and healthy next summer.

[Star93Fan]

All I can is...wow!

Hope Cap Reg can work through all this and come out next year in better shape. Good luck!

[siuehist]

I had already thought of volunteering during my vacation time next summer with a corps for a couple of weeks, and this makes me want to do it all the more.

Ironic that in "Historic Drum Corps Discussions" there is an entire thread called "How We Used to Eat", telling nightmare stories of living on Devil Dogs and mustard sandwiches. The stories are told with a humorous twist, but the fact remains that since major tours began, corps sometimes run out of money and the kids don't get fed properly. Thank you to all the corps who have shared with those who otherwise would have gone hungry.

Bus drivers have, perhaps, the worst job in all of drum corps. They are responsible for the safety of many people, and have to perform on sub-standard busses, little sleep, and often, no pay. In the corps I have been associated with, the bus drivers were treated as respectfully as any other people around the corps, if not moreso. Heck, I even remember a driver who after hauling us for HOURS and HOURS without a break, got off the bus and started to fix broken horns so we could rehearse with equipment.

I LOVE the idea of someone co-ordinating volunteers nationwide, and sending these volunteers to the organization who needs them most. Of course, background/drug checks should apply to ALL volunteers, and not just bus drivers. It is only a matter of time before the unspeakable happens, God forbid, in the drum corps world if things continue in this haphazard fashion. (Not in all corps - I'm sure the majority of corps do the right thing - but apparently, not all do).

Is it time to return to the days of only one major tour? Maybe. Next year should be interesting with the Eastern corps making the trek that the Pacific corps have done for years.

If you're a corps vet, consider volunteering a week or two next summer with a corps, be they local or maybe one you could hook up with as they travel through your area. If you can't give a week, maybe a touring corps will be staying nearby and you could arrange in advance to have a group of your friends haul BBQ grills over to the school and cook a good supper for a visiting corps. Heck, what's it take to make ONE meal for a drum corps, knowing there are volunteers traveling with the corps who would actually get a night off? And I'll bet the "thank you's" from the corps would make it more than worth while.

While these ideas may not help CR with their current problems, if all the "bums" like me who do nothing but gripe pitch in next summer, maybe we alumni can make a bit of a difference.

Best of luck to CR, and hope to see you on the field and healthy next summer.

I don't disagree with your comments, but Bays' "whatever" attitude during crisis is the problem here. Personally, I don't know the man or the organization. I'm just going off of what CR members and staff are saying about their corps.

How much does it cost for Pizza Hut to feed 150 people multiplied by a dozen? These staff member out-of-pocket bail outs and all of these negligent problems are inexcusable.

Heck, every corps has their bus breakdowns, housing issues, and late Sysco shipments, but this is beyond what is acceptable.

Edited August 23, 2006 by siuehist

[Jared_mello]

I'd had an idea of all this for a few years now (corps don't get the nickname "Capital Punishment" for nothing), and was kept updated this year by a close friend in the corps, but I didn't really expect it to ever wind up on here, for whatever reason. Probably because I had gotten so used to knowing all the horror stories from previous years at Magic and having the atrocities meandered around on DCP (with excuses, false reassurances, optimistic statements about the future, etc.), it's surprising me that everyone seems to have made the decision to finally speak up about this.

Kind of curious as to when the first person is going to mention that unbelievably long drive to Boston (I'm pretty sure it was Boston....the spare keys incident, I'm referring to), and eventual arrival without the equipment truck.

Unfortunate that their show was one of my favorites of the year, too. The first two productions would have surely been top 12 quality in years past. Drumline was visibly and audibly a clear top 12 line, and extremely impressive for the second year in a row.

I'll be sure to give the first Cap Reg alumni I see at this November's audition camp a hug, because they'll probably still need one.

oh, and I just wanted to say that I'm glad that this made it online. Corps (especially in the aforementioned rehearsal situations) should not be allowed to continue being run as they'd been for years now.

Edited August 23, 2006 by Jared_mello

[BryceH]

WHAT? Think about that comparison. Seriously.

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.

There were some bumps in the road on a kid's band tour. How much worse than many of us have endured? It's not a tragedy. Katrina was a tragedy. One guy is taking all the heat for a series of unfortunate problems. When things don't go smoothly, someone is always "the goat" (and I don't mean Jerry Rice). Maybe it's all his fault or maybe there are circumstances we don't know about, or a bad mix of personnel who didn't work well together or were underqualified for their duties. Either way, the reaction usually boils down to the conclusion that if HE were just gone everything would be perfect. In reality, it takes many to mambo.

As important as this is for CR and others, please try to loosen those panty knots just a stitch.

Oh yeah, and if I sued every time a corps owed me a 1000 bucks, I'd have spent most of the 80's in court. It certainly isn't the first time.

if youre gonna make something up in a reply to one of my posts please make it believeable and somewhat creative, please.

i completely understand that my analogy may seem a bit harsh, but you have to look beyond just a social group. what happened in germany and the ussr is similar to what happened at CR. there was massive oppression and getting out of the situation must have been difficult, just like it would have been difficult to get out of one of the priorly mentioned nations during their reign of terror. does my analogy obtain merit this way, i believe so.

lets hear it for explanation time. a) compared to the rest of the drum corps activity, CP was the harsh living conditions of the activity, from what we have all heard and read. and B) the conditions for the members may have been bad and whos fault is that, many peoples. but the fact that they PAID to go through that is just insane. something like that should never happen especially when its easy to forget that you pay in more than one way in this activity.

as to the katrina tragedy, yes there was a series of unfortunate events. thats going to happen when the agencies setup to provide emergency care fail to do so immediately. one could say that the cavaliers were an emergency relief organization to CR in kansas and elsewhere simply because of the fact that they fed a corps that needed to eat, as we all do.

if you actually read my post i blame no one. ive played the blame game and it gets people nowhere, the only time it works is when its blatantly obvious and then it needs no stating because it will then become redundant. much like saying ATM maching or PIN number.

panties in a bunch, i think not. there are many members who deserve a refund for their summer even though their tour is over this season because of the *#&^ they went through, but just like if you sued every time you were out $1000 to a corps too much time would be spent and too much money used to try to get that $ back.

really long story put into a couple of sentences. GO: CR goes through one heck of a summer including but not limited to, unattended injuries, lack of meals, and insufficient plans for housing sites. staff and volunteers spend their own money to feed/transport the corps because of a lack of access to corps funds. tour ends and kids can finally go somewhere they are probably going to be guaranteed at least 3 daily meals. dcp members become active in CR thread and here we are today.

[idontwan2know]

This is all really painful stuff to read, especially since so many of the stories, especially those from members, echo so hauntingly those I heard from many members of another corps that has gone through similar troubles.

While I absolutely encourage continued examination of this situation, I would caution against a rush to judgement. In the case of the other corps, well-placed rumors and accusations managed to convince virtually the entire membership of the corps that all the corps problems had their root in one individual. The sad part is that this individual's incompetence was more than adequate without being embellished, but was exagerrated to the point that some of the most ridiculous stories were being told by corps members.

The individual wasn't innocent, by any means, but the shifting of blame allowed many of the people who were also responsible to avoid answering for their part in the problems. Unfortunately, this is a pattern that has been repeated several times in that organization and continues to this day.

So I absolutely encourage further investigation by everyone, with the caveat that things are not always as they seem.

[Galen]

yeah i'm not contributing because i'm not bashing/ i thing thats what your saying....... alot of people arn't contributing your not telling them to stop posting.......

And there's a reason for that. They're not implying that they know more than they're telling- you are. And it's becoming pretty clear to me that you DON'T know any sort of "inside" information here, because if you did you would have shared it by now instead of doing what you're doing.

:feednotroll:

Edited August 23, 2006 by Galen

[bariparents]

As a volunteer and parent of an 06 CR member, I am just appalled at the accusations thrown around on this thread. To listen to some of the posts, one would assume that the CR members were never fed. I know for a fact that this is definately untrue! I was with the corps on 4 separate occasions for a number of days each and never was their a lack of food. In fact, I was just amazed at the amount of food those kids could put away! Yes, I know there were times that problems occurred - untimely food delivery, food truck not at housing site... but a majority of the time, the kids were fed! Let me reiterate - THE KIDS WERE FED!!! I am beginning to feel that all of my hours spent in the food truck, slaving over hot stoves, high on ladders stuffing spaces to capacity when a food delivery was made, getting up 2 hours earlier that the corps so that a hot breakfast could be made, has all been in vain because some members say that they never got fed! Please don't assume that all of these accusations are all 100% true just because members say so. The exagerations here are unbelievable!

[Blackstar]

I've read most of this thread and even the attachments but I have one question,

WHERE IS THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS? Are they in the pocket of the director. It's the boards job to oversee and make sure the director is doing his/her job. If a child was hurt the board would be just as liable as the director and could/would be named individually in a lawsuit.