2010/11 Champion of Champions
The Champion of Champions competition was established by the RNZPBA as an added enhancement and attraction to the contesting scene in NZ. It is an informal championship with a published set of guidelines which, for the purposes of simplicity, will be referred to as “Rules” but which do not form part of the RNZPBA Contest Rules. The “rules” are below.
There will be no difference to the contesting season for competing bands. All that changes is that one Centre Contest in each Island would be conjointly known as North or South Island Contests with hopefully stronger entries.
The North Island Contest for this season’s competition is the Central North Island Centre Contest at Tauranga on 26 February 2011. The South Island Contest will be the Otago Southland Centres Contest to be held in Dunedin on 20 February 2011.
The other contests in the competition are Victoria Square Day Christchurch on 4 December 2010 and Palmerston North Square Day on 11 December 2011. The National Contest at Timaru on 4 and 5 March 2011 is the finale of the competition.
Prize money for the Championship is $5,000 (thanks to Pub Charity) The winning Grade 1 band will receive $2,000 and Grades 2,3 and 4, $1,000 each.
It is expected that Qualifying Contests will utilise two panels of judges except where entries are so few that a single panel may be used. It is understood these contest organisers will use best endeavours to engage competent judges albeit that they may not be on the National Panels.
RULES
1. The Champion of Champions competition applies separately to Grades 1, 2, 3 and 4 so that four Champions will be declared.
2. The Champion of Champions will be decided on points gained from four of the following five contests, to be known as Qualifying Contests. One of the four must be the NZ Championships:
(Explanation – bands may compete in all five contests but only the four highest points gained will count towards the Champion of Champions aggregate)
• NZ Championships
• North Island Championships
• South Island Championships
• Highland Square Day, Palmerston North
• Victoria Square Day, Christchurch
3. Champion of Champions points gained will be 6,5,4,3,2,1 for placings 1 to 6 respectively in the aggregate result (MSR & Medley) in up to four of the five Qualifying Contests.
4. There will be a single winner in each Grade which will be the band with the highest aggregate points in its Grade.
5. In the event of a tie in Champion of Champions points the band with the highest placing in the NZ Championships will take precedence.
6. Where there are tied results in any Qualifying Contest the Champion of Champions points for each of the placings covered by the tied result will be averaged with each tied band receiving the same Champion of Champions points. (For example if there are two bands tied for 2nd place the Champion of Champions points for 2nd and 3rd will be added thus 5 + 4 = 9 and divided by two with each band therefor receiving 4.5 Champion of Champions points)
7. All participating bands in each Qualifying Contest excluding overseas entries will compete for Champion of Champions points.
8. Overseas bands will not be eligible to participate in the Champion of Champions competition.
9. Where overseas bands gain a placing in a Qualifying Contest their result will be ignored and placings will apply solely to NZ bands so that there will always be six NZ bands eligible for Champion of Champions points. (Assuming more than six entries in the particular event)
10. North Island Championships will rotate amongst Centres
• Auckland
• CNI/Taranaki jointly
• Wellington Hawkes Bay
11. South Island will alternate between:
• Canterbury/South Canterbury jointly
• Otago/Southland jointly
12. The Island Championship events will run as one and the same contest as the Centre Contest. (Explanation - Whoever runs the Island Champs has their own Centre Contest as one and the same because of the short season and difficulties in organising an additional contest )
13. Centres will be free to decide who runs the Island Championship by mutual agreement but always with the foremost aim of regular rotation between Centres and with due regard and co-operation as to the dates of these events so that bands may have optimal opportunity to attend as many Qualifying Contests as possible.
14. All Qualifying Contest dates should be set and published before 1 October in each year. (Explanation - Apart from bands being given reasonable notice of the season’s schedule, judges availability and appointment for the whole season’s programme should also be established well before start of season)
15. Prize money will be awarded to the Champion of Champions in each Grade from whatever available pool of funds may be available from year to year in the following ratios:
• Grade 1 40%
• Grades 2, 3 and 4 20% each
2012 National Contest
The Board invites expressions of interest from parties wishing to organise the National Championships in the North Island in March 2012. Please have your initial submission into the undersigned by 31 December 2010
2010 Regrading
As a result of the 2010 Regrading process, and following appeals, the following grading applies:
Manawatu Scottish Development Band - Grade 2
South Canterbury HPB - Grade 3
City of Wellington Pipe Band - Grade 3
City of Auckland Pipe Band - Grade 3
Waimatuku Southern Scenic Highland Pipe Band - Grade 4A
Saint Kentigern College - Grade 4A
City of Invercargill Highland Pipe Band Grade 4 - Grade 4A
Balclutha Pipe Band - Grade 4B
Christchurch Metropolitan Highland Pipe Band - Grade 4A
Change of RNZPBA officers and managers
Effective 20 January 2010, Executive Officer of 20 years John Harrison will officially retire from the position, handing the role to Robyn Forbes - former Education Group manager. The Education portfolio will be handled by Sheran Hancock of Feilding. Please see the Association Directory for full details of RNZPBA Board members, Management Group leaders, Centres, and Bands.
Music Judges Selection Committee
Oct 2008: Allan Cameron has decided to step down as Convenor of the Music Judges’ Selection Committee and the Board is pleased to announce that his successor is Philip Mair. A big thank you is extended to Allan for his stewardship during the first two years of operation of the reorganised Judges Selection process and for his work in steering the changes that led to the new arrangements. It’s time to once again call for nominations for members of the Committee. All member bands will be sent nomination forms and an election will take place, if required, at the close of nominations on 31 October.
The committee of five comprises:
• a convenor appointed by the Management Board;
• two from the national Piping Panel;
• one from the national Drumming Panel;
• one from the national Ensemble Panel
The primary duty will continue to be the consideration of applications from prospective new Panel members or the removal ofjudges from Panels. The secondary function is to promote and facilitate improved knowledge and skills development of Panel judges and suitably experienced aspiring applicants.
Current members of the Committee must retire at this time but are eligible for renomination. Nominations must come from member bands so please ensure that if you wish to put your name forward you make this known in the appropriate quarters. The appropriate has been sent to all member bands.
Registration of Charities
This is an important notice for all bands and Centres. Organisations wanting to keep their charitable tax exemption status must register as a charity with the New Zealand Charities Commission by 1 July 2008. Don’t leave it until the last minute - applications can take up to 14 weeks to process and as the deadline gets closer that time period could very well get longer. Do it NOW if you don’t want to risk losing your tax exempt status. For further information go to www.charities.govt.nz. If unsure what to do, seek advice.
On-line Database Management
A reminder to all band secretaries to continue maintaining band detail and membership records via the on-line database. At last count, there were still approximately 30 bands that have yet to update their records, resulting in an incomplete database and mailing list. If the band secretary is not able to access the database, or does not have Internet access, please allocate the task to a fellow member of your band's management committee.
If you require assistance, the users guide can be downloaded from the Management page on www.nzpipebands.org.nz or you can contact Chris Stevens via email (editor@nzpipebands.co.nz) of by phone (Res: 03 359 7806)