Ringing Forums

I believe the age variation is based on the likelihood of loss of income

I find it hard to believe that a personal accident policy would not pay the person who had the accident. The society can't suffer an injury like loss of limb.
The ODG policy is certainly described in terms of benefits to members, and claims made by members. See: http://ODG.org.uk/insurance/

in most cases I suspect the answer is no. But perhaps a more important question, and one they should answer first, is have they thought about what insurance cover they need (related to ringing).

intersting article. Certainly there are positive aspects of the voluntary model, which may partly explain why it has persisted. But I don't think the example in the story is a very good analogy for teaching ringing. Jack already had the skill to play and was playing with the older man as an equal. I think that would equate more closely to ringing with Jack the ringer in quarter peals, where both parties benefit. That already happens a lot, and afia no one has suggested payment for it.
The question for ringing is how to get enough Jacks an Jill's to the point where they can take part on on an equal footing in collective ringing. That requires far more individual tuition to develop the core skills than it would for a game like pool. The practical problem is the limited number of teachers who are competent to impart the skills, are in the right places where they are needed, and have enough time to give away for the number of re ruins needed. The result is not enough quality teaching for enough people.
So how do you increase the supply of hours of competent tuition? First you motivate competent teachers with spare time to give it away. We already do that, but we need more. How do you persuade competent people who don't have time to give away because they are busy trying to make a living? What happens with other performance arts? Some people make part of their living by being paid for teaching. Oh, I forgot, ringers don't believe in that. So let's carry on doing the same as before and hope for a different outcome.
I don't suggest that charging is a panacea. It's not, because we are all locked into a different way of doing things, so it's hard for any individual to change. The entrepreneurs who could make it work will deploy their skills doing other things where there is a demand. Ruling it out seems a needless constraint to impose on ourselves.

not familiar with the death slide variant, but I know of teddies descending by 'parachute'.

depends what you've already done!
Work out a nominal cost for various components and invite people to sponsor one, with the option to choose the inscription. We did that with bells and headstocks (which were fitted with stainless steel plaques). You could include wheels, pulleys, sliders, etc but maybe not practical to try to fit plaques.

realistic numbers would be a good thing surely, because an affiliation fee set to provide the required income would be more secure if the rate was based on real numbers rather than fictitious numbers that might evaporate.

a survey we did in 2017 came up with 30% of members who never or rarely ring, see: http://www.odg.org.uk/sdb/documents/minutes_reports/Results6.pdf
In most cases I don't think it was people having their subs paid, after all £8 per year is small change for most people who like to think they still belong.

I don't want to behave like I did 50 years ago, that was during the period when I hardly ever rang and life was full of other things.

I just discovered that the both the forums and conversations are paginated, which I hadn't realised, and which doesn't seem to be ideally implemented.
First, I saw a reply and tried to scroll up to see what it was responding to. It wasn't the comment above, and there were no others shown. After several attempts to scroll failed to work I spotted the tiny 1 and 2 at the bottom and realised the were pages and got to the earlier page.
I can see the benefit of hiding older comments from initial display but it would be more helpful to show the last 10 (or 20 or whatever the limit is) rather than cutting off at a fixed point.
Then I discovered 5 similar tabs at the bottom of the list of conversations. I assumed that like the lower ones listed on the first 'page' they would have no 'new' comments, but out of curiousity I had a look anyway and discovered a handful that did have 'new' comments.
I realise that 'new' means 'I have not read them'. The system obviously keeps track of that and uses that information to open each conversation at the first comment I haven't seen.
So why can't the same logic ensure that the list of conversations I am shown includes any with comments that I haven't seen?

the increased need for food banks may be a sad commentary on current political and social values the idea that povert is the main, or even a, constraint on recruiting ringers is laughable. The hang up about paying for things in ringing is something generated within the ringing community, which those outside find hard to understand.

This topic comes up most years. Rinbers who don't ring in Holy Wek seem to assume it's universal when it isn't. For example BellBoard in 2019 has around 100 performances on Maundy Thursday and around 30 on Good Friday.
It would be interesting to know the origin of the idea of not ringing. Maybe the historians can help, a

clarity isn't the problem. It obviously represents the OP. The problem is having something visually prominent at the start of the entry that goes somewhere else. But if it's Hobson's choice ...

I know what the problem is. The CC website, used to work OK on my iPad but then it was changed so that some content is inaccessible without a 'recent' browser. I use the latest version that will run on my iPad, and I'm not going to throw away a perfectly working device to suit the whims of a picky website.
When I reported the problem I had no reply so I assume it's not considered important.

unfortunately that is one of the pages that don't show any content when viewed from my iPad.

agree about a good seal. When we installed ours in 1982 I added strips of draft excluder foam, and as I closed the last one I had put the strips on we noticed the slight sound of traffic had disappeared. I still do that as a party trick when showing visitors round.

no chance of disturbing the neighbours is more complex than the sound level of the bells. Among other things it depends on the background sound level. As an example our shutters reduce the sound level by approx 20 dB when closed. You probably wouldn't notice the ringing from when there is lots of traffic but with no traffic they are audible for several hundred metres with direct line of site.
Is the sound of quiet bells disturbing? It's a bit like a ticking clock - one person forgets its there but another finds it really distracting.
I could dig out the measurements we made if they are any use.

One thing I find irritating is the icon shown with each discussion entry. It doesn't represent the topic (so no useful value) but the first poster. I keep hitting it by accident when trying to open the conversation, and then have to backtrack. Why not remove it?

or at least stop it rising?

I'm not convinced that charging would adversely affect recruitment. Do a thought experiment with a comparable skilled activity such as various sports, musical instruments or driving, where payment for tuition is the norm. Now suppose the charging was outlawed and all tuition had to be free. Would more adults and children come forward to learn? Would the same number of tutors be available? Would the quality of tuition be the same? I suspect not. Why should ringing be different?