- It was agreed that the Army School of Piping had been an excellent venue for our AGM and Seminar and that the catering was very good, and so we will once again have our AGM and Seminar there next November. It was a comfortable and spacious venue given the excellent attendance and the IT communications equipment was very good.
- After discussion concerning presentations for November 2019, it was agreed that perhaps we ask some of our most experienced and Senior judges to make presentations on their judging careers, and to lead discussions on changes and improvements that they might think would make things better for judges and pipers alike. Names suggested were John Wilson, lain MacFadyen, Tom Speirs, and Willie Morrison, and of course more may be suggested.
- It was also proposed that Neil Mulvie be able to finish off and even expand on the excellent talk he gave at the last Seminar which was unfortunately severely curtailed by time constraints, and that we should continue to invite and involve Senior pipers from CPA, and invite them to do a presentation of their choosing. These items were felt to be just about enough in order to fill in the time which became a little limited last November.
- The assessment and training of judges was felt to be a continuing project, and discussion indicated that we might move more towards a concentration in mentoring judges along with a fairly general prerequisite requirement as a condition to applying for the List; The Committee will meet in the coming months and try to put together a finished proposal for discussion. As an Association we do not enjoy large numbers of members and helpful volunteers and funding as traditional much larger ones do, such as pipe band associations; and so, any programs and plans for formalisation of entry qualifications are likely to be onerous and time-consuming. It may well be that in fact we have the best system in place already, for that is the method just now – it is essentially an invitation by judging peers already members of the Judges List.
Suggestions and ideas are much appreciated. There is an understanding that those already on the Judges List would not be subject to any new entrance requirements. - We recently received three applications to the List and for promotion within the List; those have been circulated to all Senior Judges.
- The Committee has been able to review two successful meetings, one with the Joint Committee for Solo Piping which is essentially a discussion group which reviewed the previous year’s activity; this group is made up of the major promoters, the SPJA, the Competing Pipers Association, and the Piobaireachd Society. The other meeting was the Joint Vetting meeting of the Northern Meeting and the Argyllshire Gathering, who invite SPJA and the CPA in order to finalise the choosing of competitors for the Gold and Silver Medals. We were pleased that Murray and Patricia Henderson were able to attend on our behalf along with Neill Mulvie; all of this takes time and effort and we thank everyone for their participation.
At the start of this new piping season we are happy that the co-operation between all of the organisations which are involved in running piping and piping events in Scotland is so good, especially concerning the major competitions who continue to endorse and support the Judges List. Here’s to a happy and enjoyable upcoming judging season!