Brass Bands England has proclaimed that it is ‘business as usual’ at the British Brass Band Registry in Barnsley.

Statements

The announcement comes despite the recent statement via Kapitol Promotions that the National Championships, British Open, Butlins Mineworkers, All England Masters and other leading regional contests have agreed to work with a new Brass Band Players Registry from 1st January 2013.

Ballot

It also comes just a few days after Brass Bands England sent correspondence to bands stating that they were to make arrangements to ballot all bands that use the Registry to seek their opinion of who should run such a body.

The statement reads:

After an intense period of work this month by Executive volunteers and Brass Bands England staff, we are delighted to announce that the task to clear the backlog of outstanding transactions at the British Brass Band Registry (BBBR) is now complete.

The BBBR stated: "Contest secretaries can now expect a normal turnaround of within 10 days for all requests and it is now business as usual at the Registry."

Missing items

Brass Bands England also added: "During the last couple of months we have conducted an ongoing investigation into ‘missing items’ including over 20 sets of Band Registration Cards.

While the work continues to recover these missing items for bands the BBBR are pleased to announce that by the end of this week duplicate sets of Registration Cards will be issued to all bands who have confirmed to the Registry that their cards are missing."

Validated

The statement continues: "This means that all contest organisers can now expect band secretaries to be in possession of a full set of cards validated by the Registry in time for their contest.

All requests from band contest secretaries for cards to be re-validated are now being processed within 48 hours of receipt by the British Brass Band Registry.

The BBBR are pleased confirm that the Registry Computer System is fully operational and is being upgraded to ensure each player has a unique registration number for the future, hence the “T” (for “Transition”) prefix has recently been introduced for all new player registrations."

This means that all contest organisers can now expect band secretaries to be in possession of a full set of cards validated by the Registry in time for their contestBrass Bands England

Online tracking

The statement concludes: "From October the BBBR will introduce an online tracking system for contest secretaries so that they will be able to track their requests in and out of the Registry Office.

This simple innovation will provide better information for bands which should reduce the cost of the overall Registry operation by reducing the number of phone call/email enquiries asking for progress updates.

By making these changes the BBBR will continue to improve the efficiency and quality of the Registry service, which bands have always been able to rely on, with a view to reducing the overall costs to bands in the future."