The South East Wales Brass Band Association will be holding a special meeting later this month to discuss proposals put forward by Brass Band Forum Wales to help stimulate and develop the contesting structures of Welsh banding.

Formal support

The discussion paper produced by Burry Port Town Band Chairman and Forum member Graham Howe has already gained formal support from the West Wales Brass Band Association, and it is hoped that the same outcome will be forthcoming following the specially convened SEWBBA meeting on November 28th.

A SEWBBA spokesperson told 4BR: "The paper was discussed at a recent SEWBBA meeting where it was requested that member bands forward their thoughts and feedback in writing to the secretary and treasurer, David Evans and Austin Davies respectively.

These will be discussed by the special SEWBBA Executive Committee with recommendations passed to the joint AGM of SEWBBA and WWBBA in January 2013, to be hopefully implemented for the 2013 Welsh League contesting season."

Important proposals

4BR understands that approval from a majority of SEWBBA bands must be achieved if the proposals are to move forward.

The spokesperson added: "It is incredibly important to the future of the Welsh League contests that all bands openly discuss and submit their feedback to the SEWBBA executive prior to the meeting on November 28th – so we welcome all responses."

These will be discussed by the special SEWBBA Executive Committee with recommendations passed to the joint AGM of SEWBBA and WWBBA in January 2013, to be hopefully implemented for the 2013 Welsh League contesting seasonSpokesperson

Issues

4BR can reveal that the proposals centre on promotion and relegation issues, the introduction of a new community band section, the development of new association websites, marketing and publicity profiling, possible pre-draws and new borrowed player rules.

In addition a new approach aimed at grass roots youth and junior section entrants in relation to player numbers and no registration requirements are also proposed.

These new proposals would only effect SEWBBA and WWBBA Welsh League competitions, and not the Welsh Regional Championships.

Full details:

The full detail of the proposals, and further background information contained within the document can be found at the Brass Band Forum Wales facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/download/372223556188459/proposal_to_associations.v1.2012-10-14.pdf