FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

The current rules and by laws are here.

Please email the MWPBA President with your question.

A full list is available here.

The postal address is available here.

Become a solo member, and encourage your band to join and enter the contests and events, or come watch. There are also plenty of volunteer opportunities, including stewarding at events. If you are not a competitive player, we’d be glad to have your support as an Supporting Member. Non-competing bands are also encouraged to support the activities of the MWPBA by becoming a Supporting Member band.

Absolutely! Unsolicited donations of any amount are very welcome, and helps with our purpose “to aid members in performing the necessary functions for the further development of of the arts of Highland bagpiping, Scottish snare drumming, tenor and bass drumming, Drum Majoring and related cultural endeavors within the Midwest territory of the United States”.

Sponsors of the MWPBA are advertised at every MWPBA event, including directly where the action is at the competition circle. Sponsors are also highlighted on the MWPBA website landing page, with direct links to their business. Since we started sponsorship in 2012, each original sponsor’s logo has received over 1,100,000 impressions on the website, and thousands of actual clicks. Please email the MWPBA President for full details.

Under the SOLOISTS menu, submit the Individual Member registration form to become a member of the MWPBA, unless you are already a current member of another Association. The regrade petition form is also there if you need it.  Then complete the Solo Contest Entry form under the CONTESTS menu to enter contests.  Good Luck!

Check out the list of Soloists. This information would also have been emailed to you.

Ask the Solo Registrar, who has membership records back to 2009.

The MWPBA no longer sends physical cards, and does not require them from members of the MWPBA. You can print one from the attachment to the email that you received from the Solo Registrar. There is a “card” there that you can cut out. The only reason you might need a membership card is if you go to a contest sanctioned by another pipe band association. They may want to verify your membership.

No. Contact the Music Board chair, not the Solo Registrar, if you have a question about changing grades. Take a look at the Grading FAQs first. The Solo Registrar can answer any questions on your current grade. The Registrar has no say in your grade assignment.

No. Since season 2015, the MWPBA no longer accepts checks for registration and contest entry payment.

Take a look at the membership application form.

First, complete the membership registration form. Second, enter the contest(s) and write “submitted” in place of your membership number, and we’ll take care of it.

MWPBA adjudicator Tad Myers has kindly put together a short paper for the new piper of what to expect when competing, including some top tips and valuable do’s and don’ts. Grab Tad’s “Thoughts on solo piping for the new piper“. Read it all, and reap the benefits.

No. But the MWPBA thanks you for your continued support!

No, there is currently no limit to the number of contests that a soloist with reciprocal membership may enter. Note that only soloists that are current members of the MWPBA are eligible to collect points towards MWPBA Champion Supreme status. It is not unheard of for a soloist to be a member of multiple associations in order to collect points in each Association.

No, there is no limit to the number of non-MWPBA contests that a soloist with with current membership of the MWPBA may enter.

Absolutely!

Under the BANDS menu, submit the Band Registration form to become a member of the MWPBA, unless your band is already a current member of another Association. The regrade petition form is also there if you need it, as is the Registered Instructor form.  Then complete the Band Contest Entry form under the CONTESTS menu to enter contests.  Good Luck!

Check out the list of Bands.

Under the BANDS menu, you’ll see an entry to manage your band roster. You’ll need to login with the userid that you were assigned for the band. if you don’t have one, can’t remember it, or are having other issues logging-in, email the MWPBA webmaster.

Your rosters must be SUBMITTED ONLINE by MARCH 31st. Any rosters submitted after that date will be considered a band transfer and will count against the one allowed band transfer per year for every member of the band. The only exception is for bands formed and registered after March 31st.

Any rosters submitted after the due date of March 31 will be considered a band transfer and will count against the one allowed band transfer per year for every member of the band. The only exception is for bands formed and registered after March 31st.

YES, but ONLY if you are having trouble with the online forms. The receipt date will be considered the submission date for email.

Registered Instructor Forms must be submitted by MARCH 31st. No RI forms will be accepted after this date unless the band is newly formed and registered after March 31st.

NO. We will not accept any forms or rosters sent registered mail. Use the online submission forms.

NO. Use the online forms. If having difficulty, send an email with the update.

NO. You must register your band with the intent of competing. Any band that shows up to a contest without the minimum required numbers will not be allowed to compete. Illness on the day that brings your band below minimums will be taken into consideration.

You should complete the online form with the additions noted. A person who has not been on ANY roster this season may be added 4 days prior to a sanctioned event. Anyone who has been registered with ANY band this season must be added 10 days prior to a sanctioned event. We have reciprocity with all other North American associations, so this includes people coming into our association from an outside association.

The RI must be from a higher grade band and your band can not be higher than grade 3. The RI must be registered with an RI form by MARCH 31st and must appear on your roster with the note RI after his/her name. The RI can only be RI for ONE band. The drumming RI CAN play lead, the piping RI CAN be P/M. You may have one piping and one drumming RI in your band for a total of two RI’s.

You may play pipes in one band and drums in another band of a different grade (or vice versa). You may not be a dual musician if you are also an RI.  You can be an RI or a dual musician but not both.

The website is owned and operated by a wonderful volunteer, who has a real job outside the website. Information is sent to the webmaster as soon as it is processed but this may take some time to get uploaded to the website.  Also, we process registrations in batches, so please allow a little time.  The initial batch is processing around early March or April.

We no longer send out membership cards, we feel that your registration fees are better spent on things that will improve the association for all. The Band Registrar will send out an email when the registrations are all in (sometime in early March or April) with your band registration number on it. Your registration number will also be posted on the MWPBA website.

No, there is currently no limit to the number of contests that a band with reciprocal membership may enter. Note that only bands that are current members of the MWPBA are eligible to collect points towards MWPBA Champion Supreme status. It is not unheard of for a band to be a member of multiple associations in order to collect points in each Association.

Absolutely!

No, there is no limit to the number of non-MWPBA contests that a band with with current membership of the MWPBA may enter.

No. Regrade next season.

Absolutely! Grading applications for transfers are accepted at any time. Just be sure to attach documentation showing your prior association, grade, and membership number.

First, complete the membership registration form. Second, enter the contest(s) and write “submitted” in place of your membership number.

Maybe. We get this a lot, so we have built in a 7-day grace period after the published deadline to the contest entry forms, with a nominal late fee. Try to enter anyway. If the form rejects you, then you have missed both the deadline for entry and the grace period, and you can no longer enter this contest. Please do not ask for an exception. Every exception creates additional work for the volunteer mice in the MWPBA.

No. Orders of play have already been set.  Changes would be unfair to the other competitors.

Thank you for being so considerate. Please email the MWPBA contest coordinator.

No problem. Just enter again and complete the payment process. We will disregard any entry that did not include payment.

Look at the CONTESTS menu at the top of the page. The menu offers viewing all band and solo contest entries for each games.

The number of points awarded for 1st Place at a sanctioned competition is the number of bands or soloists in that contest up to a maximum six (6) points; each place thereafter receives one point fewer per placing through zero (0).

Points are assigned consecutively to the top placings, but only MWPBA member bands and member soloists are eligible to receive these points. Points awarded at MWPBA Champion Supreme Contests are double those awarded at Sanctioned MWPBA Contests.

At some games, there are multiple band events offered in the same grade. The total number of points available at each games remains unchanged.

For full details, and the fine print, check out the current Rules section I. D. “Champion Supreme Points“.

PayPal offers secure payments using your PayPal account, or via credit card. This has removed the manual processing of checks for many hundreds of transactions each year, with full and complete automated record keeping.

PayPal used to allow only a limited number of “guest” payments using a credit card, after which time it required an account to be created. This is no longer the case, and you do not need to create an account if you don’t want to. If PayPal is forcing you to create an account, try to use a different browser (since there have been occasional issues reported with PayPal).

Unfortunately, this is outside the control and visibility of the MWPBA. Sometimes we have seen technical issues on PayPal that have been resolved by clearing the cache and related cookies on your web browser, trying incognito or private mode on your browser, trying a different web browser, different computer, or different credit card.

We don’t. The MWPBA forms redirect to PayPal, and the financial transaction is completed there, before returning to the MWPBA website. We receive payment, but do not see the details of the financial transaction on your side.

That just creates administrative overhead for the volunteer MWPBA staff. Let’s keep it streamlined so that you don’t have to start paying them for their time.

No. Don’t do that, this will not be considered a valid submission. You are creating administrative overhead.

That just creates administrative overhead for the volunteer MWPBA staff, and we typically don’t do that unless the event is canceled.

No problem. Just enter again and complete the payment process. We will disregard any entry that did not include payment.

Thanks! We work hard at it. Please email the MWPBA webmaster to let us know, or let Stuart Barr and Steve Stuart know the next time you see them at the games. They like beer. Just sayin’…

Please email the MWPBA webmaster to let us know.