Welcome to our new monthly bulletin. The aim is simple – to connect you to everything going on across the pipe band community here at home and abroad (and to reduce the number of emails you get!). Hopefully you enjoy it, and you can provide us with feedback on what is working and what is not. It’s getting very close to ‘Pipe Band Christmas’ – aka the World Pipe Band Championships. As always, we have a cast of thousands heading across representing New Zealand. Both Celtic Pipe Band and St Andrew’s College Pipe Band are going across once again and we wish them all the best with their tours. Equally, we have individuals scattered across almost all of the top grade one pipe bands. I won’t name each individual – there are too many to name – but all of them are making a huge contribution to what we are doing here at home. The experience at the highest level, and rubbing shoulders with the best in the business, is hard to beat. The Association hasn’t been resting on its laurels over the winter months and we have been steadily progressing through our Annual Plan. You will have seen a flurry of updates from Al – doing a huge amount of work in the background as always – about the following: · Summer School – get your entries in! It’s going to be a gangbuster year. · Drum Major’s Workshop – looking at holding this in Christchurch in November. · Remits – make sure you get these in by the 31st of July. · Nationals 2027 – entries will be out early Septmber – so get in quick! At the time of writing, the Youth Band’s album – Bound by Sound – has just surpassed 20,000 streams online. An amazing result for our up-and-coming musicians connecting their music to the world. If you haven’t listened to it yet, check it out here. We are always looking to help and support bands through the levers we have. Look out for a new round of the Mentor Programme launching very soon, but that isn’t it. We want to hear from you what more we could be doing to support you and your bands for the season ahead. Read more here