Ringing Forums

a journalist's role is to write stories that will sell, not to act as free PR for ringers, and it's a sad fact that that bad news sells better than good news.
We need to be aware of this, and try not to provide any hooks on which to hang a bad news perspective. But since people will still come up with negative stories anyway so w need to be able to defuse them.
I once wrote a series of articles called 'A Reporter Called', each describing how a journalist turned up with a negative story, and how the ringer from whom he wanted extra details managed to turn the story round and send him (or her) away with a positive story. I was over ruled because it was considered unwise even to mention anything negative.

I think that the saying: "There is no such thing as bad publicity." applies. We need to raise awareness of what Bellringing is. The public need to appreciate it as skilled physical and mental activity, one that when done well is a positive contribution to the soundscape and that is more a communitarian church activity than a 'churchy' church one. When I tell people that I am a bellringer there quite a few that are surprised that bells are not rung automatically, disabusing people of that is important. Add in that it is a relatively low cost voluntary activity and you start to arose interest.

Improved awareness of ringing is a good thing in its own right, arousing interest will naturally lead to improved recruiting.

I have a list of about 120 national, international and local media contacts and depending on the story will send a press release to a sub set, or all of them. With the Ring for the King PR all my contacts were sent exactly the same story. How they interpret it, and how the local ringers they are put in contact with explain it varies greatly. The YCRA piece was off the back of my press release as were several others. I then offer those people guidance on what message we need to try to get across.

Having said that I was interviewed live on our local BBC Radio station,during their Volunteers Voices segment, and the interviewer just wanted to keep coming back to how many times do people get pulled up by the ropes. I think he mentioned it at least three times. Each time I had to explain this was a very rare occurance and only generally happens when inexperienced people don't do as instructed. Andit's not like the Mars advert.

There is some guidance on the CC website about how to engage with the press, then how to handle them once you've got engagement https://cccbr.org.uk/bellringing/ring-for-the-king/

The Press like a good "story". Doom and gloom seems to be their modus operandi at the moment, with the occassional good news story.

I'm happy to give support to anyone dealing with the Press in what to say and how to come across.

Interesting to see that Hobart got on ABC News with a story that ringing is so popular that they have started a waiting list for learning
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-22/hobart-bellringers-st-davids-cathedral-how-to-ring-the-bells/101877920?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

One of the challenges is hooking up people wanting to learn to ring with people able to teach them and then get them into a band (we all know that).

I was teaching someone this morning (my daughter was teaching his wife under the supervision of an experienced teacher) at the Birmingham School of Ringing. I asked him what had attracted him to ringing and he said he had heard an item on the radio after Christmas about there being a shortage of bellringers, they had thought it sounded like an interesting new thing to do, got home and searched for where to learn to ring, found the St Martin's Guild, emailed, and now are being taught on a Saturday morning with (at the moment) three other learners at various stages. How can we get to the point where their experience is the norm rather than, as I suspect, the exception?

What those two people reacted to must have been more towards the first of the three descriptions in the title of this thread. I don't remember exactly what the radio piece said but it was basically about there being a shortage of bellringers - that's the sort of thing that makes a story. Imagine how many more people might want to learn if they got the third of those three messages, combined with knowing what is involved and been able to make an assessment that it might suit them well. But then there needs to be a really good way of channeling those people into a system that will meet their expectations.

(I will forgive one of this couple for saying "I guessed you must be either Charlie's dad or grandad"!)

Not sure national or even local press is our only avenue for recruitment though. It has a role but recruitment at a more grassroots level can work as well, and will avoid the sensationalist approach that the national press like.

I agree - it's a combination of raising awareness generally of ringing, what it's like, why its enjoyable, etc, but enabling local recruitment. It should be possible to make it easier to run local recruitment campaigns.

Having a strong, local presence is an advantage.
We recently gained a new learner from a nearby parish, who's parents had contacted ART, then contacted me. I emailed them and referred them to our website and FB page, which they researched before coming along to see us. He is on lesson 4 this week and has been to practice nights since day 1.
This coming week I am attending a village "Coronation Planning" Zoom session, by invitation, which has been organised to discuss the coronation weekend. Our interest is to make sure we know what ideas are put forward for village celebrations so that we, as ringers, can be an integral part of the weekend.
This morning I was approached by someone asking if it would be possible to teach a couple of youngsters.
Next Saturday I am giving a tower tour to non-ringers who won it in a raffle at our ringers' coffee morning last November. Probably no ringers from this but excellent PR!
We don't have much luck with direct advertising, personal contact is best, but continued involvement in the community and drip feeding people with information about our ringing helps maintain awareness.

"We don't have much luck with direct advertising, personal contact is best, but continued involvement in the community and drip feeding people with information about our ringing helps maintain awareness." This is exactly our experience. Regular posting on the Village Facebook page, ringing for events, demo at the local village festival, articles in the parish magazine, throwing teddy bears (with parachutes!) off the church tower... We get lots of positive reaction, and the occasional recruit. People still need to be pushed over the threshold from 'positive reaction' to 'recruit' though, and that's where the personal contact comes in. All the band need to be involved, at least in a village setting.

Publicity is the key, and that's down to all of us. Frequent short articles in local/Parish mags. emphasising what's happening, occasions you're ringing for, outings you're going on, etc. Intersperse these articles on why anyone may wish to try bell ringing. Helps to keep you physically and mentally fit and active, meet a new social group of friends, it's a cheap hobby, you're always learning something new, outings in the Summer to see other lovely churches/villages you would rarely go to, and a pint afterwards if you wish. An all round great traditional activity that's quite often over looked/missed out upon by many people. What's not to like!

"Success breeds success", as someone wiser than me once remarked. The death or demise of ringing is not the right peg on which to hang a recruiting story. Very few people want to join a failing organisation. Look for the positive spin every time. Rather than 'ringing is on its last legs at Saint XX's church' try 'St XX's bellringerrs now have vacancies for new members'.
Our last recruiting drive was based on 'Do you want to say that you rang for the Queen's Jubilee? Join us - we'll teach you'. This brought in 4 adult recruits, 2 of whome have stayed the course and joined our regular Sunday Service band. 'Ring for the King' should be just as effective if it is promoted with positivity and imagination.

The death or demise of ringing is not the right peg on which to hang a recruiting story. Very few people want to join a failing organisation — Peter Sotheran

I agree, but round here it's not a popular view. The number of times I've been told 'what's the point if it doesn't get any recruits' to suggestions of spending money or effort on raising public awareness.
That partly motivated the series 'Us and then' that I wrote some years ago, the first of which was headed 'Begging bowl or welcome sign'. See: https://jaharrison.me.uk/New/Articles/UsThem/index.html#Top

You don't really need to spend money to recruit ringers. As I mentioned earlier, I found 4 recruits by talking about ringing for last year's Royal Jubilee on the local FB page. On a previous occasion I arranged to put a small display in the window of a regional building society - they like to have something unusual to attract attention to their otherwise rather bland savings adverts.

Our tower is quite accessible. Most summers we have a tower open day in August on a Sunday afternoon. There is no attempt to recruit although we usually have plenty of promo material on show and often run a very brief Ppt display on an endless loop. Visitors can visit the bells, see the clock mechanism and, in small groups, go on the roof to take photos across the roofs of the town. Then a few weeks later in early/mid September we will have a recruitment evening with ringing demo's and an opportunity for visitors to try their hands at a few pulls. We quite deliberately say nothing (unless asked) about change-ringing as we don't want to blind them with science.

We have has up to 180 visitors on the Sunday afternoon Tower Open Day; up to a dozen or more at the September recruiting night and most years we win two or three new recruits who stay the course and join the Sunday Service band. Probably not many towers are as accesible as ours, but most should be able to work out a local variation of the plan to suite their circumstances.