Still not booked your place yet for the Central Council weekend and mini-roadshow?  Perhaps this might help entice you…

Confirmed exhibitors so far include:

• The Central Council Publications;
• The Association of Ringing Teachers;
• The Whiting Society;
• The Ringing World.

Time Hine (Workgroup Leader) and Stephanie Pendlebury will be giving an update on the work of the CC Volunteering & Leadership Workgroup. The V&L Workgroup has been concerned especially with leadership, recruitment and retention, and youth matters.  This presentation will flesh that out, together with opportunities for you to help the group to realise ambitions for the future.

In his talk on what you need to know about insurance and bell ringing, Marcus Booth, from Ecclesiastical Insurance, seeks to de-myth the world of Church Insurance and how this applies to bellringing from the perspective of Ecclesiastical Insurance.

David Pearson and young people from Guildford, Suffolk and London will be helping us find out what makes a good Young Ringers group, by asking the young ringers themselves! There will be a panel of seven young ringers from different groups in the south east who will give us the insight into making a successful Young Ringers group.

Alison Hodge and others want to know would you want to sit for an hour or so, in a damp, dingy, dusty room getting very cold on a winter’s evening? So, why expect new (not so new!)  ringers to do so, particularly during their first most impressionable handling practices? In this session we will discuss how we can improve tower environments so that conditions are more similar to those that we expect at school and work, and most have at home,  while respecting the constraints of historic towers in which we usually ring.

Lesley Belcher, Chair of ART, will be asking Where now for the ART? By taking a look back at ART’s first five years and forward to its plans for the future.

Chris Ridley (with Claire Pearson of York University ringers) will be looking at creating an inclusive University Ringing Society (and what this can do for ringing) and the value and place of university ringing societies – what they can offer:

• Recruiting new ringers
• Accelerating existing learners
• Establishing support from a network of experienced ringers
• Setting up your society; obtaining finance and dealing with compliance ​issues
• Where to turn to for support

Chris Mew will be looking at the why and how of Safeguarding.  A look at the background to the need for Safeguarding and associated state and church legislation. How Safeguarding requirements impact on ringers and how they can be met without detracting from tradition. Dealing with perceived problems and ensuring that good practice helps everyone.

Full details of all exhibitors and speakers will appear in the final version of the weekend programme, but the outline programme is already available and will give you a flavour of what’s on offer.  You can download it from the Council’s London 2019 page at https://cccbr.org.uk/about/annual-meetings/2019-meeting/.  We hope that this sample has given you something to look forward to.

Don’t forget to book your place at the weekend at https://events.cccbr.org.uk/product/annual-meeting-2019/

Next time we’ll take a closer look at the offerings under Bells & Engineering.