The 24th annual pipes|drums New Year’s Honours

2024 Association Leader of the Year

Jim Sim, Midwest Pipe Band Association president

For the second straight year, Jim Sim was the popular recipient of our Association Leader of the Year award. He earns the respect of his members and the piping and drumming world for his leadership skills, willingness to test new ideas, and, importantly, the street cred he has for being a top-flight competitor for many years. He walks the talk. In 2024, his MWPBA made history by becoming the first major association to use verbal/audio judging across the board.

Panellists’ comments:

• Jim is a steady hand at the wheel of the MWPBA and shows both a keen capacity for listening as well as the desire to innovate.
• Consistency, clarity and focus.
• The growth of the Chicago games is impressive. It’s also great to see the MWPBA embracing new technology in adjudication.
• Has worked as hard as any of the big dogs.
• Jim has been a long-time stalwart on the scene and deserves this honour.
• Cool, steady leadership.
• Jim’s leadership continues to set the bar for excellence. Under his leadership, the Chicago Pipe Band competition has grown from strength to strength. The introduction of recording technology for pipe band judging exemplifies innovative and forward thinking.
• Jim has led the Midwest Association in some really innovative methods. Chicago contest is the best in the US for all grades, Winter Storm is without peer, and his leadership methods and personality are those of a true leader.
• Pretty innovative/progressive guy. The in-time voice over actual performance judging system was a jaw-dropper to me. So new and so much better.
• Modest, quiet, effective leadership.

Also nominated (in alphabetical order with a few comments from the panel)

Iain Blakeley, Royal New Zealand Pipe Bands’ Association president – After 15 years as president of the RNZPBA, Blakeley retired, giving way to a relatively young Liam Kernaghan. Blakeley’s popularity with his members is all too infrequent among association leaders these days.

• These guys are making coordinated strategic changes across the board to build and expand piping in New Zealand.
• A remarkable tenure, leading the RNZPBA for 15 of the past 20 years, and someone who has absolutely changed pipe bands down under for the better.
  He has run this association for twenty years in two stints. But he deserves this not for longevity in the job, but for running an association that is following through on it’s vision, with excellent financial management, makes decisions based on authentic consultation, and all with an almost complete absence of grumbling. On top of that he has managed a tidy handover to a new president, Liam Kernaghan.

Bill Caudill, Eastern United States Pipe Band Association president – Caudill earned a second (and final) two-year term as EUSPBA president. In the often fractious competitive culture of piping and drumming, he consistently respects and listens to his members.

Ainsley Hart, Pipe Bands Australia president – Since becoming leader of PBA, Hart has managed to right the ship after several stormy years. This is another example of solid competitive experience helping to inform his vision with realism and clarity of what his members want and deserve.

David Hilder, British Columbia Pipers Association VP, Music Committee Chair – The former Grade 1 (and Grade 2) pipe-major and 40-year competition veteran has thankfully stepped into association management. Recently elected president of the BCPA, exciting times are likely ahead for the Pacific Northwest scene.

• BC Pipers has been a consistent and stable entity for years. David (and his team) have done a great job of moving piping, drumming, and bands forward in BC.
• Surrounds himself with good, like-minded people and leads with common sense