RSPBA plans to return with expanded contests and training
In advance of its online March 12th annual general meeting, the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association circulated its 2021 financial report and order papers to member bands’ secretaries.
After a year of cancelled contests, the organization’s coffers show a balance of nearly £500,000, despite running a deficit of £29,641 over the last 12 months.
The financial report lists total 2021 expenditures of £150,525, including £7,052 spent on “catering and venue hire,” and £11,392 on its website, a new version of which was quietly launched last October.
The organization’s drive to strongly encourage bands to renew their memberships, despite a dormant year, seemed to pay off, with 179 UK and 13 overseas bands paying dues for what would turn out to be a non-existent 2021 competition season. Those numbers compare with 275 and 51, respectively, recorded in 2020. The association is providing paid-up member bands with a 50% reduction for 2022 membership fees.
Expenses for the organization’s large board of directors were reported as zero. In 2019 board expenses were £11,015, and
In its outlook for 2022, in addition to an expected return to a full complement of pipe band competitions and the five major championships that brought in more than £300,000 in 2019, the association indicated that it plans to expand education and training.
In its outlook for 2022, in addition to an expected return to a full complement of pipe band competitions and the five major championships that brought in more than £300,000 in 2019, the association indicated that it plans to expand education and training.
The RSPBA lists “planning and delivering education seminars around the UK; continuous professional development of staff; [delivery of] a programme of training for Pipe Majors, Leading Drummers, Bass & Tenor drummers, band tutors, and members of Grade 4 bands who wish to develop their practical musicianship skills; and offer another opportunity for members to attain the RSPBA’s Certificate in Pipe Band Musicianship.”
The August 2021 RSPBA Annual Summer School, held online in August, attracted 19 pipers, four snare drummers, and five tenor drummers.
The association also plans to “encourage branches to introduce solo drumming competitions” and “develop and introduce a succession plan for RSPBA staff.”
Of note, the organization will pilot a “static start” option for Grade 4B and Novice Juvenile B bands at the European Championships at Inverness and “some minor competitions” leading up to the Europeans. Essentially, band will be allowed to skip the marching attack and begin their performance in contest formation. Associations around the world have for many years allowed bands with disabled playing members to bypass marching in.
To help with finances, the RSPBA reported receiving a “Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan of £150,000 as part of the Government Assistance available during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Payments for the lengthy £1.2-million renovation of the association’s Victorian-era Washington Street headquarters in Glasgow are reportedly complete. The designing and rebuilding of the premises lasted three years and were the a sustained topic of controversy, the organization at times requesting that judges and stewards to waive fees and asking bands to pay to use the premises’ practice facilities.
Motions to be tabled at the AGM mainly involve matters of quorum for meetings of the RSPBA’s board of directors.
The meeting will be the first for Alison Burke, who was appointed chief executive in December, replacing Ian Embelton who had held the role for more than two decades.
At publication time, the RSPBA had not responded to a request for comment.
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