Long term pipe band success comes with succession planning

John Cairns loves a detailed plan. Anyone who has seen his in-depth Bagpipe Solutions series of instructional manuals will recognize the military precision of his personality.

Cairns recently announced he would step down as pipe-major of the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band at the end of the 2025 competition season.

Providing six months’ notice to the 125-player-strong Peel organization is all part of the succession plan he put in place to mitigate disruption when section leaders inevitably move on.

After more than 20 years at the head of the Peel Police, the last thing John Cairns wants to see is that his efforts evaporate, not to mention the risk that surprise leadership changes can inflict on the viability of a pipe band.

Sudden departures can and often do lead to turmoil within the ranks, resulting in emergency searches for suitable and willing candidates that can turn up empty. This commonly results in a dreaded “hiatus” period that all too often spells the death of the once-thriving group.

Because of careful succession planning, the Peel Regional Police will have new leaders in all three positions: Pipe-Sergeant Mike Allegretti will take over as Pipe-Major, joining Lead-Drummer Cameron McKail and Mid-Section Leader Colin McKail, both of whom took on their roles in 2024.

Cairns will work with Allegretti throughout the 2025 competition year to help with an orderly and smooth transition.

“I felt a sense of responsibility to ensure that the people I’ve worked with, who have been so committed to me and the organization, are not left stranded,” Cairns said in his discussion with pipes|drums.

Compare that with the all-too-frequent sudden departure of leaders, leaving bandmembers wondering what to do, frequently abandoning ship rather than risk losing opportunities elsewhere.

We wanted to learn more about the Peel Police succession plan so that other bands might be inspired to develop their own detailed and transparent strategy when eventualities arise, as they always do with every pipe band, association, or business.

Here’s a transcription of the video interview, edited for clarity.

pipes|drums: We’re talking with John Cairns. John is pipe-major of the Grade 2 Peel Regional Police Pipe Band in Ontario, and he recently announced he will be retiring after this coming season. John, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us about retirement and secession planning. You’ve been the head of the Regional Police Pipe Band organization for about 20 years. What are a few highlights that come to mind?

John Cairns: One of them, the first time we won in Grade 1 at Georgetown. Georgetown was huge because the band had been struggling somewhat before I came here, and we slowly started to build and build and build the calibre of their band and to have it finally come together in Georgetown like that was a thrill coming off. Winning the first Maxville in Grade 1 was also a huge thrill.

But one of the ones that I remember the most is when I first came to the band. When you’re at Maxville, you play, march off at the end, and everybody scatters a bit, and they talk. How did the performance go? Where are we going to go get a beer? This sort of thing.

When we came off, the crowd was clapping. When we dismissed and started talking, they were still clapping, which was a huge thing for me because it was people who were showing that they really enjoyed what we were doing. The prizes are great, but getting that recognition was just wonderful.

“Part of the responsibility of being a leader is not just to think about the now but what will happen tomorrow.”

p|d: I can imagine it would be very gratifying, and there are sure to be more highlights to come this coming season. At the outset, you talked about having a succession plan for the leadership of the organization to ensure it is left in good hands, and now you’re implementing it. Tell us a little bit more about how that’s worked.

JK: Well, we all get older, unfortunately, and part of the responsibility of being a leader is not just to think about the now but what will happen tomorrow. And the last thing I want to do is to just think about what’s good for me, and then when I’m done with this, say, “See ya!” and let the chips fall where they do because all the effort and the work I put into it, I don’t want that to happen. I want the band to succeed after I’m gone; if I do this correctly, I aim to hand over the keys, and things continue.

We had [Lead-Drummer] Harvey Dawson. Reagan Jones was the mid-section lead, and me. Due to circumstances, Harvey was away every winter, and it became clear that we needed to look at that plan first. Young Cam McKail came in, and he’s done a fabulous job. Reagan had just got married, and she and her partner were taking a year-long trip around the US as their honeymoon. It became clear that it was time to look at that department. Colin McKail became the mid-section lead.

Then I thought, “Okay, now it’s my turn, and I want to make sure that the organization is strong and that there is consistency and continuity between myself and the next person coming in.”

I’m thrilled that Mike Allegretti is going to take this on. He’s got the right temperament. He’s a great teacher, and has excellent leadership skills and is a very good player. I’ve been teaching him for 20-some years, and he’s been pipe-sergeant with me for five years, and we played together in the 78th Fraser Highlanders for many years. I have every confidence that they’ll be able to continue in a positive direction, and the people who are there won’t have to readjust to some new expectation.

A lot of bands that that have leadership changes, quite often, the new leaders take them in a completely different direction. You work so long to teach people how to do things how you want them to.

Incoming Pipe-Major Mike Allegretti: The Peel Pipe Band is truly an amazing community. Since John decided that this was to be his last year, the support from the entire team at all levels, the players, their families, and our sponsor has truly been amazing. The kind words from the pipe band community, both domestically and abroad, have also been overwhelming. Thank you so much for your support. I’m so thrilled that I get one last season to play with John Cairns, and I’m excited to take this strong foundation that we have here now and start to build upon it. Exciting times ahead!

JK: I remember Bill Livingstone and me wandering around Glasgow Green years ago. We ran into [Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe-Major] Richard Parkes and asked him how well he was doing. He said one of the reasons was he had 10 or 12 guys who had been playing with him for over a dozen years. And [St. Laurence O’Toole Pipe-Major] Terry Tully would always talk and joke that he could be successful because he brainwashed his guys. Teaching and getting people to learn a specific skill set is essential to improving.

When the next person comes in to lead, you want to ease into that position rather than have a radical change. I wanted to look at promoting internally, and Mike was a great choice. That’s basically how we came to that.

p|d: It sounds like a well-thought-out plan that has come together. Even though you never like to see the end, no one wants to see the end of your career. Maybe some advice for what other bands can learn from your secession planning?

“Everybody has to do what’s best for them. If I could suggest anything to other groups, be patient and take your time with it.”

JK: I don’t think there’s any specific way you know it should be done. Everybody has to do what’s best for them. If I could suggest anything to other groups, be patient and take your time with it. I’m showing the new leadership what we’ve done and how it works with the police and those sorts of things so that they are ready to assume the role after I’m gone, and the learning curve is kept to a minimum.

Being sensitive to the fact that whoever does come in should come in a little bit more gradually and not abruptly. The people who are there, you’re thinking about their ability to be successful under the new leadership. The last thing I want is somebody to come in, and all the people I’ve worked with for so long get cast aside because they’re unable to do the things the new person wants them to do.

I felt a sense of responsibility to ensure that the people I’ve worked with, who have been so committed to me and the organization, are not left stranded.

p|d: That’s good advice. The Peel Police were moved to Grade 2 several years ago. That can be a situation for Grade 1 bands; it can be really debilitating. A lot of bands don’t survive being downgraded. However, Peel Police has been a model of success for continuity and staying strong and positive. Can you talk about that?

JK: In reality, being downgraded was a gut punch, but it was the right thing that needed to happen. We had existed with some level of success but with a huge percentage of distance players. The police [force] wondered, “Why do you have 45 people to go to Scotland, but we can only get five for a parade?”

It became apparent that we needed to make some changes. And they told us: distance guys are out. We looked around at who was available. You had Hamilton Police with a Grade 2 band and all the kids; you had Windsor, Ottawa Police, Toronto Police, the 78th Frasers. All these bands were vying for the same pool of players. Honestly, if you’re playing in one band and you’re not going to make a lateral move to another band and give up your friends and all the history you’ve had with that organization, there’s no real need to do that.

We concluded that we’d take this as an opportunity rather than a negative and think about how we can turn this around so that we can gradually train and develop our own problems of people so that we are not in that position again.

Playing in Grade 2 gave us that latitude. The expectations of that grade are hugely different than in Grade 1. We just started teaching, and bit by bit, we’ve grown it, and now we have 120 band members in Grades 2, 3, 4, and 5 through a massive teaching program. We only take kids, and 97 or 98% of the band is local now. It’s a complete 180 to what we had been doing before. With time, we hope we’ll continue to develop these young kids, keep raising the standard, and hopefully move back up the ladder.

There’s no rush; we want to do this correctly, not quickly. That’s another reason why Mike’s a great choice, and Cameron and Colin because they agree with that idea. No hurry to get back to Grade 1, for example. If that happens, great, but let’s take as long as we can to elevate our standards so that, if the band is elevated to Grade 1, it’s not coming in at the bottom, struggling with the same things we did when we were there before.

p|d: That’s a great point. You’ve got people coming in who have been there, done that—they’ve weathered the storm, and they’ve come out even stronger. It sounds like a model of success not just for Ontario but for the world. And the sponsors must be thrilled to have more youths in the piping and drumming programs.

JK: Absolutely.

p|d: You’re retiring after all these years. It will be an enjoyable season, but what are you looking forward to after everything is done on the competition side?

JK: I know I’m not looking forward to my wife’s honey-do list! That thing’s getting bigger and bigger by the day!

I am looking forward to spending time with my family. Doing things like making a [pipe band] commitment like this, if you’re going to do it correctly, it becomes a huge priority. In addition to your family and your work, it becomes a big commitment. I stopped doing workshops. I stopped doing a lot of judging. I hope to return to that because I will be free on weekends. There are a lot of projects I had started, like my educational materials, that were put on hold. I want to finish that. I still intend to play. I love playing, so I’m going to keep playing. I’m still teaching locally and online and love getting involved. I live in London, Ontario, so I want to get involved in teaching here, starting to teach a crop of kids and building up what we’re doing in Peel here locally, where I’m teaching new people.

If there’s a local group that’s interested in having me help out, I’ll gladly help out. I don’t want to be pipe-major. I don’t want to manage a band or anything like that. It’s essential to keep giving back, and if we can continue to develop and train young people to play, then those people will move forward. It’s like any sport. In London, they say 10,000 kids play hockey, but only one or two might make the NHL.

We have to have many kids coming in to learn so that one or two will play at the Grade 1 level. As I move on to the next step stage of my piping career, it’s important to start doing a lot of that.

p|d: That’s good to hear you’re planning to be involved in piping and drumming going forward, even after this season. That’s good news for Ontario and the rest of the world. Congratulations, John, on wrapping up a career. We’ll congratulate you now, and we’ll congratulate you again after everything is said and done in August. We’ll look forward to the next steps in your piping life.

JK: Thank you.

Be sure to check out our extensive five-part pipes|drums Interview with John Cairns from 2021, exclusively for subscribers.