Ringing Forums

for my own part, yes, I am new to having taken on a CCCBR workgroup role so there are lots of things I don’t know yet and I have limited spare time so progress will be gradual.
My sister recently told me that volunteering is a frustrating experience because you get nothing for it but still get all the criticism of a professional and I know that this is a barrier to getting people to take on responsibilities to try to tackle difficult situations.
Working in one tower you can make a manageable difference fairly quickly, extending to a district I find I achieve less or there are more people still dissatisfied with the practices and outings organised, taking it to the international level where there are few avenues for easy communication makes it even harder to know what people want and then to meet those needs (with a specific remit and limited volunteer capacity) so I’m taking my time to find my way and using everything from Facebook, the RW, these forums and the many ringers I talk to through ringing to learn.
My first effort was promoting National Volunteers Week and one of my learnings from that is that it’s not easy to get ideas from CCCBR to individual tower contacts or ringers.

I agree that at the moment Ringing 2030 is not a clear vision which all Associations or all towers can consider and then start to build into but I think this is part of what is planned.
Lots of towers are already doing a lot and finding ways to gather those examples and share the news on what works well is important. Currently I see this mainly in Ringing World articles, Facebook posts, etc rather than in a structured way which makes it easy for people to search and find ideas to fit their tower needs. This definitely falls into my intention in Leadership Information (but obviously with a focus on ‘leadership’ rather than recruitment, etc. I think volunteers in every workgroup area are aiming to make it easier for towers, districts, guilds, etc to learn from each other and be more successful but I also think there will always be multiple views on the best way to do this.

Yes, there is a danger that following one bell for too long, as in CC's, is detrimental to the skill required for looking around for other ropes. — Phillip George

I like most was taught call changes before I was taught to plain hunt. They can be a useful step to method ringing as btw can be the various kaleidoscope exercises in the ART Level 2 module. What is important is that an emphasis is put on striking, as it should have been when learning to ringing rounds. Clean shifts of position that give accurate CCs at the 1st handstoke after the call; not some gradual drift to the new change over a number of rows. Ringers placing their bell in the right place not just 'following' a bell. Good bell control and awareness of place using listening, sight, rhythm and feel are key skills needed for all decent ringing. This of course will involve a significant culture change in many towers. Changing culture is a hard and slow process. Something that makes the Ringing 2030 timescales look ambitious not lagardly.

I've never heard so much rubbish about call change ringing, there are many elements of call change ringing that method ringers can learn from, rising, lowering and striking a bell being a few of them. Also better good call change ringing than crashing around by inexperienced bands, particularly when visiting other towers. In addition , I'm a Devonian born and bred I'm Captain of three call change towers, which all ring regularly. I ring with call change ringers who can ring method , many of which have rung over a thousand peals, rung a few myself. A good call change ringer will normally pick up method ringing quickly , on one occasion we had an individual go from scratch to ringing the treble compently to doubles in one evening.

I think there are a number of issues, firstly trying to push ringers forward to quickly, on occasions having failed to address bell handling, striking and understanding of what they are trying to achieve. Also as individuals struggle they become dissalusioned . With the age of learners going up there is a lot to be said for sticking with call changes and improving the overall quality of service ringing.

Call change ringing has a lot to offer both as a skill in its own right and as a stepping stone into other things please don't disrespect those who practice it.

I'm more than welcome to point anyone in the direction of good Devon call change ringing.

I've never heard so much rubbish about call change ringing — Robert Brown

The words are used as shorthand for two different things. The Devon call change tradition of high standard, skilful ringing of call changes, raising and lowering is one of them. The other is the widespread use of call changes elsewhere by unskillful ringers, and the way they are taught

please don't disrespect those who practice it. — Robert Brown

No disrespect intended, the quality of the ringing that Devon bands demonstrate is second to none and yes, much better to have well struck call changes than poor method ringing. I think the existence of the CCCBR Devon Call Changes website, written by an ex-CCCBR president to promote the art to the wider ringing community shows that Devon CC ringing is valued. My own tower, well away from Devon, rings 60 on 3rds regularly and one day we might even get to a level of striking that wouldn't get us laughed at in Devon - although I suspect we'll never cut the mustard when it comes to raising and lowering.

The issue, as @John Harrison says, is the way CCs are used outside of the Devon tradition when the striking is poor and people try to ring methods the same way, by bell number and not place and so on. So the criticism is about Method ringing, not Devon ringing,

Since I retired from ringing I'm obviously a little out of touch, but we regularly rang 60 on 3rds for weddings. With my calling it lasted nearly 20 minutes, we could always add in a few more call changes if I'd been fast. As others have said, far, far better to competently ring the changes for a brides special day than to go off into some method that the working bells are uncertain of.

There is no sense in the CCCBR doing ANYTHING which ART has already developed & provided.

As an example ART off lots of guidance on Recruitment & Retention (what more is needed?):
https://ringingteachers.org/index.php?cID=625 — Ken Webb

1. a national marketing campaign - to an extent we need learners to come and find us; with help from the centre.
2. engagement with the current ringing population - lots of people don't know how to go about recruitment, don't read the Ringing World, don't go to any branch or association activities, and haven't heard about ART either.