Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association Lothian & Borders Branch | 75th Anniversary

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Ladies & Gentlemen,

Following the RSPBA AGM in March this Year, a change to the Articles of Association has made a provision for Branches with 40 bands or more, like our own Lothian & Borders Branch, to nominate a third Director to join the Board of Directors and Trustees.

We would therefore like to ask the Branch bands if they have anyone they may wish to nominate for this position, to contact myself directly either by email or telephone. We would like to consider the nominations at the coming Branch Meeting on 29th April, so would require the nominations by Thursday 26th April.

As part of the role involves being present in the arenas as Major Championships and Local Contests, the role is better suited to someone who is not an active player in competition.

So what does a Director do?

As you know, The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA) is a voluntary organisation now constituted as a Company Limited by Guarantee, and is also a Registered Charity.

The Board of Directors are the Governors and Trustees of the RSPBA and have ultimate legal responsibility for the effectiveness of the Association. In summary terms, therefore, Directors are the Trustees of the RSPBA are directly responsible for upholding the Association’s Objectives, Articles of Association, and Standing Orders & Rules to ensure their compliance by Branches, Member Pipe Bands, Band Members, officials and Affiliated Associations. This includes the role in the arena at Major Championship and Local contests.

They are also directly responsible for formulating and ensuring compliance with RSPBA policy; for forward planning; for overseeing the efficient implementation of all operational activities; and for ensuring that adequate financial and other resources are available to meet the costs of these activities.

A Director is that defined under the Companies Act 2006, and subject to any provision in the company's articles, any person can be a director unless they have been disqualified from so acting under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 or by being an undischarged bankrupt.

I look forward to hearing from all interested parties.

Best Regards

John Hughes
Branch President

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The first branch event of the 2018 season was held on Saturday 24th March. The top three placings in the solo events are shown below, the band events can be found by clicking here.

Event 1
1st Chloe Wallace - Burntisland and District
2nd Ben Brown - George Watson's College
3rd Torrin Hart - George Watson's College

Event 2
1st Heather Balfour - Buntisland and District
2nd Tim Heard - Peebles Ex-Servicemens
3rd Caelan Shinie - Camelon and District

Event 3
1st David Ivory - George Heriot's School
2nd Josh Pollard - Preston Lodge High School
3rd Max Grogor - City of Edinburgh Schools

Event 4
1st Paul Christie - George Heriot's School
2nd Nicholas Knowles - West Lothian Schools
3rd Fraser Hamilton - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia

Event 5
1st Brodie Watso Massey - George Heriot's School
2nd Luke Shearer - North Lanarkshire Schools
3rd Lachlan Stephen - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia

Event 6
1st Emma Hendry - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia
2nd Calum Watson - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia
3rd Douglas Mair - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia

Event 7
1st Oliver Stones - George Watson's College
2nd Oliver Curran - George Watson's College
3rd Dylan Gillespie - George Heriot's School

Event 8
1st Alan Rouf - George Watson's College
2nd Alesandro Stoneham - George Watson's College
3rd Robbie Knox - Peebles Ex-Servicemen's

Event 9
1st Lauren Rimmer - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia
2nd Nathan Hodgson - George Watson's College
3rd Niamh McCreadie - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia

Event 10
1st Kerr McQuillan - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bsthgate Caledonia
2nd Guy Kellas - George Watson's College
3rd Tristan Jacquel - George Heriot's School

Event 11
1st Raichel Fairley - George Heriot's School
2nd James Strachan - George Watson's College
Finlay Aitken - George Watson's College

Event 12 - WSD Qualifier
1st Simon Grant - Denny and Dunipace Gleneagles
2nd Callum Burns - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia
3rd Ross Martin - Denny and Dunipace Gleneagles

Event 13
1st Zara Pate - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia
2nd Catherine Farquhar - George Watson's College
3rd Emily Davidson - Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia

Event 14
1st Rachel Macmillan - George Watson's College
2nd Melissa Parry - George Watson's College
3rd Rose Winchester - George Watson's College

Event 15
1st No entries

The first outdoor event of the season for the Lothian and Borders Branch will be at Dunbar on 12th May.

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To all Lothian and Borders Branch bands.

At the Branch meeting on 28th January, there was discussion around several motions proposed for the RSPBA Annual General Meeting on Saturday 10th March 2018.

Since then the Board of Directors met and considered these proposals, and a reduced number of the proposed alterations have been approved to be included in the Order Paper.

The three motions which are most likely to affect the Branch Bands are as follows:

1. 1. Current rule 3.7.1 - The qualifying period for a transfer from a higher grade band to a lower grade band is forty-two days.
   
   Proposed amendment 3.7.1 - The qualifying period for a transfer from a higher grade band to a lower grade band is twenty-five days.
   
   
2. 2. Current rules 72.2.2 AND 72.2.3 - Branches comprising between twelve and twenty five (inclusive) Bands shall be entitled to nominate one person as a Director AND Branches with twenty six or more (inclusive) Bands shall be entitled to nominate two Directors.
   
   Proposed amendment to 72.2.3 and addition of 72.2.4
   72.2.3 - Branches with between twenty six and thirty nine (inclusive) Bands shall be entitled to nominate two Directors
   
   72.2.4 - Branches with forty or more (inclusive) Bands shall be entitled to nominate three Directors
   
   
3. 3. Current rule 3.11 - The Pipe Major of a Grade 4 Band, may be registered with one other band.
   
   Proposed amendment for the addition of 3.11.1 - The Leading Drummer of a Grade 4 Band, may be registered with one other band.

The purpose of this post is to inform you of these motions and the need to establish the Branch's position on each of them. The above motions will be discussed at the next Branch meeting on 25th February and strongly encourage all Branch bands to attend and air your views so that we can have a representative view from the bands.

We will also be urging all bands who are eligible to vote to attend the AGM on the 10th March to do so. For those who cannot attend, we would strongly encourage you to arrange for your vote to be presented by proxy.

A letter will be sent out to all branch band secretaries following the meeting on 25th February, with full details, including our proposed nominated persons who can be contacted to present your proxy vote.

Many thanks

John Hughes
Branch President

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Following the Board of Directors meeting on 3rd February 2018 the following changes to competition format for the Adult World Solo Drumming Championships from October 2018 have been approved.

1. No critique sheets
No critique sheet format to be fully adopted in both the Adult Semi-finals and Finals from 2018.

2. Restrictive action
A restriction on pre-qualification will be taken against any pre-qualified player who fails to compete on the day of the World Solo Drumming Championship where they have failed to inform the RSPBA of an acceptable reason for their absence from the event.

Restricted player/s will not be eligible for the uptake of a pre-qualification place arising from their participation in any pre-qualification event the following year.

Restricted player/s will be eligible to qualify from the qualification heats on the day of the World Solo Drumming Championship.

3. No pre-qualification from previous years final to semi-final stage
All entrants must pre-qualify via either of the four Regional Qualification events process or the qualification heats on the day of the championships. To facilitate this the numbers to qualify from each event will be as follows:

• 4 Regional qualification events - 4 qualifiers from each (total of 16)
• 3 qualification heats on the day of the championships - 6 qualifiers from each heat
• This will mean a total of 34 qualifying for the semi-final stage, split into 2 semi-finals with 6 qualifying from each of the semi-finals to make a final of 12

The 2018 pre-qualifying events and hosting branches are:

1. Dundee/Perth/ Angus Branch - Kingdom Solos, Fife. (10th March)
2. Lothian and Borders Branch Indoors - Livingston. (24th March)
3. RSPBA NI Branch - Lisburn. (21st April)
4. Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch Indoors - Coatbridge. (28th April)

The sixteen regional qualifiers will be allocated to the semi-finals as follows.

Semi-Final A
Four Qualifiers from each of event one and event three

Semi-Final B
Four Qualifiers from each of event two and event four

4. Adjudicators for all Regional qualification events
Adjudicators will only be allocated by H.Q. As per normal major championships. This process has taken place on Wednesday 17th January. The allocations are pending ratification by the Board of Directors meeting on 3rd February 2018.

5. Seeding
This will be used to help eliminate the sometimes uneven nature of the heats from an open draw.

Seeding of the World Solo Drumming qualifiers will take place on the following basis.

• The finalists in the order of play from the previous year, less those who have pre-qualified, will be allocated on a round robin to each of the three qualifying heats.
• All other competitors will be allocated on a random draw basis.
• Once all competitors have been allocated to a qualifying heat, a draw will take place to determine the order of play.

6. Playing Requirements

M.S.R.
Players are to submit two MSRs

1. In qualifying heat, the MSR to be played will be drawn on the line. This is so the format of this event is the same as the Regional qualifying events.
2. In the semi-final the MSR to be played will be drawn on the line.
3. In the final the MSR to be played will be players second MSR not played in the semi-final.

Hornpipe & Jig
The format of the Hornpipe and Jig Final will be two four parted hornpipes and two four parted jigs. The player should demonstrate knowledge of both the Dot / Cut and Open rhythm/idioms within their performance of the hornpipes. Hornpipes to be played in set order of Dot and Cut first.

To facilitate the increased requirements the current MSR weighting process has been removed

MSR results only to be used as Tie breaker, if highest number of highest placings fails to separate competitors.

7. Final Open draw
Return to a separate open draw for the final.

8. Final start times
A minimum of ½ hour will be allowed between final announcement and start of competition.

9. Sequencing of Final
M.S.R. Final will be run first with Hornpipe/Jig final to be the final event.

10. Full draw information to be announced at least 4 weeks prior to event. To enable this, the closing dates, draws etc will be brought in to line with major championships.