(Commenting on ringers’ congregations, the mighty Inveraray, Results Day, and something about a logo) 

At my office the background noise is usually some street traffic and construction noises from the building next door being de-cladded.  This past week we had a continuous flow of pipes and drums.  Oh yes, it was the World Piping Championships, held at Glasgow Green.  My office is a short walk from this park, but it doesn’t exactly overlook it, so I was thinking that was quite a noise.  I wonder if anyone living on the Green complained.   

It so happened that this year’s winners were the Inveraray and District Pipe Band (again).  These guys are the St Martin’s Guild of Piping.  And of course they come from the place with the best bells, the best whisky shop, best destination pub?    Counter arguments on an email to someone else.   

This year marked the 50th Inveraray Ringing Festival, where my first task was running the initial ringing session, my second was shedding the role of Ringing Master, and my third was thoroughly enjoying myself.  It was great to create opportunities for ringers to step out of their comfort zones a bit, mix up some bands, and ring with friends from far and near. 

The other interesting thing was a comment that came out of the meeting of the Inveraray SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation), which was formed to preserve the bell tower, bells and ringing activities.  It was noted to Bob Hancock that the SCIO’s membership of about 40 people made it effectively one of the largest ‘congregations’ in Argyll, and we should be leaning on that a little more.  At how many other churches can we make a similar argument, and would it move the dial on decision-making around the viability of a church? 

It is food for thought as we swing towards the Council’s AGM in Exeter on 6-8 September.    On Sunday 8th, we will have a special presentation (for the second year running) on Ringing 2030, which will feature a presentation on ‘Changes in Churches’, research from Alison Hodge and Simon Linford.  It is sober stuff, but we anticipate a good discussion to follow from it.  What we ask of the 95 people signed up to attend is that each of you take the message away and spread it around. 

This research is part of our Pillar Three of the Ringing 2030 strategy, and Pillar Three is dedicated to improving the environments in which we ring and making them more welcoming.  I say this because out of the feedback from our consultations over the summer, it seems that some people aren’t too sure what Ringing 2030 is.  ‘Something vague about recruitment and a new logo’ somebody said at a Zoom meeting.   

Ringing 2030 is about recruitment, but it is also about awareness and better marketing of ringing to people who aren’t ringers.   This means taking ringing to more events like the Scouts and Guides Jamboree recently held in Essex.  This was a trial run of our new branding (including, yes, a logo), which was positively received and helped bellringing be visible amongst the other competing activities going on.  Lots of thoughts and feedback are coming in, and our Marketing for Ringing 2030 working group is putting together a playbook for future events. 

In my head I talk about Ringing 2030 all the time, but looking through some blog posts, I haven’t always mentioned the words ‘Ringing 2030’.  Expect that to change going forward. 

One of things that has also changed is the volume of work required for managing the Council’s money.   The Central Council Treasurer has always worn two hats – that of managing the day-to-day payments and books (things that a bookkeeper would do), and that of setting and monitoring the budget, future spending and other things that financial director would do.  The two hats are very important and it is getting bigger than one person can easily do.  So we are looking for someone to help us with the invoicing and payments part – contact me at if you are interested. 

The returns on the association membership numbers are telling us a mixed story about how well ringing is doing.  While quite a few associations have seen significant increases in membership (and a couple have had very significant increases), other associations, not so much.  We are trying to find out what has caused some of those steep drops in membership.   

We know that some of them are due to introducing membership software, which has had the effect of weeding out inactive or lapsed ringers that were still on the books.  Some of those decreases are a necessary correction, some of the decreases are temporary due to transitioning to a new membership system and are anticipated to recover.   We don’t think that accounts for some of the steepest decreases.  Are we seeing that last of the COVID lockdown effects?  Or is this the start of a serious decline in ringing in some areas? If so, what is causing it? 

Not the North West Ringing Course, at any rate.  Now in it’s third year, I was pleased to be able to attend part of it, and it was great fun.  I helped at a Foundation Skills group, and it was satisfying to see the students grow in confidence and ability and step out of their comfort zones quite a lot.  I learned some things too, so win-win. I also had some feedback on the ‘really lovely’ ringing at the Lichfield Mobile Belfry on the last day of the course – so take a bow, ladies!      

In the middle of all this exciting activity there was also Results Day, which was a big day in our household.   Cue the fantastically positive and welcoming posts from various ringing societies to new students.  To the person who said ‘oh no not again’ on Facebook, I say go and be a misery somewhere else.  Me, I love seeing them each year.  More please.