Ringing Forums

When I rang my first peal in 1992, I rang the treble to plain bob major. There followed peal of Grandsire Triples inside, Tenoring behind and other fairly "simple" performances. This meant I was able to get experience of ringing at a higher standard and for longer periods of time, without worrying about method complexity. One effect of the historic increase in peal ringing has been that the complexity level and entry bar, has hugely increased, I suspect leading to an exclusion of many ringers who would ring regular peals but cannot or do not wish to because of the high bar of entry. Looking 100 years ago a majority of peals were of of Grandsire, Stedman and Kent. Then, a young ringer with good striking capability, would be welcomed, today they would be excluded after a few peals if they did not ring Surprise. There is a certainly a place for cerebral excellence, but non-cerebral peals are often sniffed at by the very people in a prime position to offer opportunity to the in experienced. Some years ago I was asked to join a regular peal band but it was made clear to me that unless i was prepared to learn 23 method in as many weeks, I was not welcome. Lacking the time and brain to do this, I declined. This band has since collapsed. Perhaps if we want to see a resurgence in peal ringing we might want to stop treating ringing as a solely cerebral exercise and welcome young ringers who regard it differently.

Rehoming a 30cwt 10 - the Roman Catholics have some fantastic empty towers.......

Speaking from personal experince as a late starter for peals, most of my opportunities have come from it being known I was keen and avaliable and then someone being ill or unavailable at short notice. This has given me feet in the doors. However feet in doors is only a start - to find oneself in a regular band (usually the better peals) it is important to capitalise on opportunity by ringing well and within ability. As Andrew says, be upfront about what you can and cannot do and be prepared to receive feedback about your ringing, sometimes during the peal. If you want to attempt something ambitious, arrnage this yourself or ask for some help arranging. Oh, and don't forget to enjoy yourself!

There are a number of issues here.
1. Bells needs matinenace as well as capital investment and many assoc only seem to fund the latter. I wouod actually suggest widening the criteria to include this wouod actually be better use of money. The current models are the equilivant of buying a car then doing nothing to it until it (prematurely) falls apart then rebuilding it.
2. We should invest equally, if not more in training and PR than we do in maintenence. Most assoc seem to lack any form of meaningful training budget or have any criteria of how to spend it.
3. I play in several amateur and semi-professional musical outfits. I expect to pay between 10 and 40 per month to enable these places to invest in music, publicity and recruitment. Why are ringers so cheap?
4. I have often wondered if a more central model of funding might be more effective. If there was direct CC membership, then admin costs would be reduced and arguably bell funds wouid distribute more of the money they are given. Furthermore, a central fund might be better able to attract significant campaign funding or sponsorship in a way local.assoc cannot, thus further increasing access to training resource and funding.

I think looking at how individual assoc spend the odd quid here are therr is rearranging deck chairs on thr titanic - what is needed is better strategic and more centralised invested and a proper strategy of how to invest in ringing nationally. In my opinion.

it represents the views of officers who have just departed. I know no more. New officers are shortly coming into post so hopefully this will change.

The G and B has a strict "no social media policy". However we have unofficial social media streams that two of us control from outside the organisation.

I play in a 5 or 10 piece band who play for weddings. We have about 20 years experience each, a good range of music for all styles (providing it's brassy!) and will take an afternoon out to entertain you. We charge £2,500 for 2x 45minutes set for the 10 piece and £1,250 for the 5 piece although we also have a mates rate where we only seek to cover expenses. Of the 2.5k, £200 goes to each of us and the rest in the kitty. Like ringers we have to rehearse and play at a professional standard on the day, we have expenses to get there, we have time given, unlike ringers we have to purchase and maintain our own instruments and buy music. While I am not suggesting ringers start charging these professional fees, we should consider ourselves musicians in the same way an organist or choir does and charge accordingly. The three towers I look after charge between £250 (£25 per rope x8) and £275 (£40 x5 plus raising fee), both for ringing after for 25 minutes. I think this is the minimum fair fee.

Chris Pickford might be a good starting point.... his email is available

As a musician, if I memorise or learn tonthr poj thr score is just a prompt, my music I have an understanding and grasp far beyond the score. I can also focus on my performance alone and not divert energy into reading music. That is why musicians practice, as should ringers, to hone skills so they need only focus on performance, not technicality and distractions. If you are having to read the music, you haven't practiced enough!

It usually depends who made them. I found one firm used to make ropes that were terrible - always springy particularly in the Sally, l although I never noticed a seasonal difference. That firm used to wind losley so inguess if ut was very dry and fibers might contract and increase spring. The best ropes I have found are Avon and i suggest getting some better quality ones.

G and B charge 50p, which is collected by everyone giving the conductor the cash then each conductor is billed by the peal sec at the end of the year. All very archaic. Most towers have their own peal fee per rope which varies from £3 to £10, not always related to the quality of the bells! The G and B advise that peal fees make up a majority of their income, much of which is used to for the bell restoration fund rather than the cost of a report. I have been suggesting for years that a significant raise in subscriptions would be a fairer way of achieving income, particularly given the aggressive anti-peal stance of some association officers but I think the association see taxing peal ringers to fund the non-peal ringers activities as fair!

We have a sound monitoring report, undertaking by a [professional company. This covers all the points raised above and provides a robust and independent report should we ever need it. I am happy to share this if anyone wants to see it.

Donors like tangible benefits but often do not want low cost items like tea towels and sandwiches. Suggesting thinking about offer sponsorship of a bell (either individually or as a collective). Do think about how this will be rewarded (plaques, photos of donors with bell at installation, offering chances to help lift the bell etc).
Regards more traditional fundraising think about consumables and also the effort - reward ratio. You want low effort, high reward items and not tat you expect people to buy. Think about offering something people really want, not that they feel obliged to buy. We persuaded a local brewery to brand a beer for us which was then sold by the local with the bell fund taking a cut. This then looks after itself with some publicity. Also think about offering an "experience", perhaps a free ringing lesson on the new bell and a tower tour after the rehang for a party. We also found an auction of promises works well if you have the local contacts. Find a good local auctioneer and get some high value and broad range experiences - we worked our contacts for a afternoon out in a classic car, basket making day and a coach tour of the Cotswolds for 2. Aim to get 2-5k from each event. Finally, whatever you do, brand professionally. Always worth getting a graphic designer to pull your material together and create a professional look, it's worth the money! Hope that helps

Cheltenham St Mark have become a cashless tower as of a year ago. We use a system called iZettle https://www.zettle.com/gb which costs £30 to set up and has a fee of 1.75% per transaction. It consists of a card reader, connected by Bluetooth to a mobile phone, so when payments are made either by contactless or chip and pin, the money is transferred direct to our account and an e-receipt can be issued. Other similar systems are available at about the same price. It works with any bank account.

We really like the system as it ensure funds are processed directly to our bank thus reducing risk and providing a direct audit trail for gift aid purposes. It also means no cash is in the tower - a particular benefit for ground floor rings. We use it for all use it for all tower donations, taking payments at events (branch fish and chip supper most recently) and peal fees. It could also be used for taking large donations by card and can be carried anywhere. We have found donations actually increase as people are more willing to make a £5 contactless donation than hand over a £5 note!

Where people only have cash or bands all want to chip in, (very unusual) we ask that one person makes a payment and they then sort it out in the pub. So far feedback has all been positive.

iZettle do offer some additional banking services we do not use, such as phone payments and account management. However even the basic service, combine with online banking makes our treasurers life so much easier and is support by the church.

If anyone wants a chat do message me ringingsimon1980atbtinternetdotcom or come and try the system out by making a donation.