Ringing Forums

The Editor was reluctant to see it promoted via the Ringing World because of the potential impact on the Letters page. So it is really for others to try and promote it to the members of their associations?

It's a fair point which I will take away and address as best I can

There were lots of call for recruitment campaigns as lockdown came to an end, but they were resisted because we wanted there to be more teachers. ART has been flat out running M1 courses over the last six months, so we are in a much better position than in the past for dealing with recruits. Not thousands of course, but that's probably wishful thinking anyway. You can never tell whether promotion will be picked up by the media or not.

We had three new teachers on an M1 course in Birmingham three weeks ago, and all are now teaching new learners at the BSoBR.

There would have been more criticism for not promoting the Coronation as an opportunity to do some recruitment than there will be for doing it. And it is up to those introducing new recruits to make sure they are teaching people who see this as an activity that will continue for a long time, with being available to ring for the Corontation as maybe their first milestone. As someone who was bitten by a Millennium learner who gave up ringing at 00.10 on 1.1.00 I am not going to make that mistake again. I should have realised she was only learning for the event.

Ring for the King is not replacing the long term strategy of looking at who and how we recruit, targeting the people who we think will be interested, keen and committed.

That's been discussed actually!

Yes I think that goes on the list of possible benefits. Someone mentioned to me yesterday that if there was a 'membership card' of an organisation with 40,000 members you might start to get into the realms of negotiating discounts for things.

Doesn't sort by Distrct though does it? I can ask the Dove team if that data is stored

Vicki Chapman, CC PRO, is working on it. There are only so many spare hours in the day and she's been a bit overwhelmed by how quickly this has snowballed. You can never be sure what the press will pick up on, but after the initial appearance of the article in the Times there have been multiple requests from TV and radio and the PR workroup has been busy arranging half a dozen bands to satisfy the demands of media around the country. I caught the Newport ringers on Radio 4 this morning - another very good piece. Apparenty she even has German radio wanting to come and do some recording!

So please bear with the PR team, and something will be forthcoming so all tis coverage can be exploited at a local level.

I don't think there is any evidence that the organisations that now do mix paid posts and volunteers, i.e. ART and MRDC, have found volunteers disincentivised. The paid posts come with responsibility whereas the volunteers are under less pressure I suppose.

Like @Rebecca Banner I haven't managed to read all this thread yet (but hope to beause it looks very good!) so laos apologies if I repeat. But I think depending on the sorts of questions being asked, it ought to be possible to get small enough units to survey, branches and districts, such that across that unit a complete picture could be got, just by asking around or doing a few visits. We do have a complete database of towers, and can map those to the smallest unit of organisation that they are in.

It would need everyone to buy into the value of this, and then associations to help make sure it got done.

Thanks to @Tristan Lockheart and @Jason Carter for taking this on.

We also know that there are a number of people fed up with the current system, and thus reforming the system and attracting them back to organising and leading ringing could inject additional capabilities and resources into the system. — Tristan Lockheart

That's an interesting point, but what would be attracting these people back? Presumably this is people who just live somewhere where they are fed up with the leadership of their local branch or district? Knowing that they could operate outside the existing 'system'? I have come across situations where people have thought they cannot organise some ringing because it was not in some way "approved".

The intention is for peals and quarter peals analysis to move to quarterly so more can be learned.

@John Harrison may know more of the history of this because the Ringing Centres committee existed when I was on the Education Committee that he chaired. I remember wondering why it was separate - I think we all did. But it was thought that separate focus might help ringing centres develop. There was a limit to what could be done though, as ringing centres tend to be a very local initiative, and short of puttin them on a map, I don't suppose the CC could add much value. ART created its 'ART Hubs' which were more about people, which is true of any ringing centre.

So many places have a simulator now that it doesn't form the definition of a ringing centre. It's about people and organisation. There is presumably value in knowing where someone could go to use a well set up simulator without needing to be a member of the local band, and what they might expect when they get there.

Just yesterday @John de Overa was citing lack of quarter peal opportunities as a barrier to completing the higher (4 and 5) levels of ART's Learn the Ropes scheme, because it requires you to ring quarter peals. In my home area that's just not an issue - when someone needs their quarter of Bob Minor we just organise it and there is unlikely to be a delay of more than a two or three weeks to find an opportunity to do it when ready. But I imagine that is a relatively privileged position.

@Graham John ?

That's good - I think I will try and work that out for the St Martin's Guild which is a smaller sample. I expect the median ringer probably has rung a peal here.
I think the Median ringer overall can ring Bob Minor - nothing more. I can't remember how I worked that out as it was some time ago, but I am sure it's about right. So not surprising that the median ringer overall has not rung a peal.
@PeterScott was lunch good?

@Graham John was suggesting this sort of survey a little while ago - we have much better tools to use for surveys now than we did when previous surveys were undertaken. I also think he was suggesting the same idea as you Jason - a consistent set of questions which could be used regionally and repeatedly.

It is important in any area to get data from towers that do not respond, otherwise you will not learn about the towers with not enough ringers.

Following up on people valuing what they pay for, one of the Brumdingers missed three consecutive weeks because she was doing some TaeKwando, and I found out that the reason she went there instead of bellringing on those days was because her parents pay more for the TaeKwando...

That's how CAMRA is organised. National Exective of about 12 including the Chairman, all of whom are volunteers, but then they have a Chief Executive as the head of the paid staff https://camra.org.uk/about/about-us/our-staff/

Would it be worth pooling resources to get a good set of survey questions that could be asked, that anyone could then use locally? — Jason Carter

Yes

Yes a very interesting development indeed. And potentially precedent setting for those contemplating setting up new ringing centres. @John de Overa - coming on the day we were discussing what salary would be needed to attract people to be president of the CC!