The cost of doing nothing
Ringing 2030 is important because of the cost of doing nothing is not just high. The cost of doing nothing will be all current ringers witnessing our unique art get worn away by fewer and fewer ringers, a public that doesn’t comprehend what we do and is indifferent to the cultural value we add, and a physical environment disappearing through financial pressures.
The cost of doing nothing is the end of ringing as we know it.
The case for sustainable funding
The full ambition of Ringing 2030 (and to achieve it by 2030) can only be achieved by spending money. Up to now the Council has been powered by volunteer effort. It is impossible to say enough about how much the Council and ringing accomplishes with its army of dedicated volunteers. it is a lot. However, how sustainable is this model?
We can do things on a fully volunteer basis, but it will be slow, and while slow is happening, we are losing ringers and we are losing places to ring. We may not have time for slow.
In future, third parties will be needed to drive key components (Branding, Unified Recruitment platform, Marketing campaigns, Hosted services). Some of these are things we already pay for to a certain degree and we have to accept that to grow we will need more of this.
Projects will involve a ‘cost of ownership’ – they will create new ongoing support needs once launched. Campaigns like Ringing Remembers and Ring for the King took a lot of activity behind the scenes, as did the Recovery Champions network. But some future projects, such as lessons in schools, increasing the number of ringing courses, centralised administration efforts to take some load off associations, all require ongoing support.
So here we are, looking to ensure that we have a funding model fit for purpose.
This is just the start
Ringing 2030, from the point of view of the Central Council, consists of a series of specific projects that we can achieve as a Council. However, Ringing 2030 is much more than that – it is a transformation to the way that we approach the governance of ringing, how we manage recruitment, and how we keep our members. For it to work, every ringing organisation has to be involved.
We began this process by asking three questions: Are we spending our money in the right places? Are we spending enough? Do we have the funds to achieve our ambitions?
Many ringing associations are already asking themselves those same questions, and sharing that thinking, the looking at things in different ways, the good ideas that are being generated is also vital.
Every time we do something well, we do it together
In its current guise, the Central Council is simply an umbrella organisation that gathers a loose affiliation of individual ringing associations. It is not, as has been pointed out many times, the single representative body for all ringers. However, it has acted in that role, by representing bellringing to other stakeholders and bodies.
In the same way that Council workgroups are interdependent and need to communicate, if each association acts alone, we will not achieve our goals. Closer working between the Council and other ringing associations, as well as closer working between ringing associations is essential for the survival of ringing.
So strict attitudes towards diocesan boundaries and narrow definitions of ‘benefit’ don’t help us. It keeps activities, projects, and money ringfenced in unhelpfully small amounts. Or it leaves us with restricted funds we are unable to spend where they will do the most good. What are the barriers to better financing?
One of the specific projects of Ringing 2030 is a financial conference, where we can dig into more radical ideas, share good practice and find a funding models and practices that
- are sustainable
- put money where it needs to be
- work outside of England
With our open consultations, we want to build the topics for our forthcoming conference on ringing finance.
