Ringing Forums

We'll be looking at teasing out, documenting and prioritising our initial requirements fairly soon. Will be good to have feedback after that?

I'm always in favour of a pilot :) I was just pointing out that 'free' isn't really free. People's time has value even if it is volunteered.

Interesting.

Whatever we self-host we have to support, which means ensuring regular security updates (which would be essential because of the personal data stored. The sustainability of that is also something we need to take into account.

Hi Lucy, understood, that makes sense. The Council exec is taking a look at this in terms of whether it is a solution that could reduce effort/cost for associations. It probably makes sense to feed into this process, and also to keep discussions open on this forum.

This is very timely, because we are starting to look at MemberMojo to see what capacity there might be for economies of scale, and also to Alison's point of reducing duplicated effort (which is really key). As Roger points out, a trial is an obvious way to test this out, and doesn't require everyone to make a wholesale change all at once. If it can be made to work, then one customer with a big subscription has more ability to influence rates and also to be heard when discussing changes or customisations.

Lucy, there has been a lot of chat about this particlar software on these Forums. Is it worth organising a bit of a workshop with some interested people?

I have been thinking for a while that something more like 3 ringers per bell is what you need to have a long term viable and self-sustaining band. One, it takes the pressure off ringers to absolutely be there every Sunday or no ringing will occur. With that pressure off, it is easier to welcome ringers who have young children/work shifts/ etc, rather than having them self-select to quit.
Also it gives you some contingency for when or if you lose a lot in one period of time.

I think it could make for a challenging practice night, in the category of good problems to have

On the back of last night's successful and interesting consultation, Cathy Booth has shared this YouTube video that supported Spain's application for 'manual bellringing'.
https://youtu.be/_ZcYr4UiG34?si=Gu3PcujKloABtHcg

It was part of last night's discussion what we might or might not include in a similar application - but the Spanish approach appears to have been 'all possible variations and supporting crafts'.

It's a good video

Hello,

Further to this discussion, the Council exec have created a couple of open public consultation sessions. This is early days on this topic but we would like to get a good range of ideas and thoughts to help shape how we present ourselves for this. You may join either call via the eventbrite registration links below:

Sunday 28th January 8pm

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/803237483937?aff=oddtdtcreator

Sunday 11th February 3pm:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/803311655787?aff=oddtdtcreator

Look forward to seeing you there!

Thanks John, that is a useful piece of information. Worth keeping on top of though.

We do need to look into this before leaping into anything (lthough clearly there is a long process just starting on the whole scheme).

The immeidate benefits are likely intangible, but a concrete and public recognition of the cultural value of bellringing could be important. It might help when talking to other stakeholders - it might mean that the UK government has to commit to preservative or protective actions (which may not be financially defined but might exist).

Interested in hearing what people think.......

And a good guess John. Our idea is to bring these sources together, but also as John Harrison points out, build on those connections to create a good end-to-end journey for a new ringer.

We have learned some lessons: so for Ringing Remembers, there was an effective but quite manual process, which took a lot of effort from the volunteers who ran that. For Ring for the King, the process was a little more automated but still required a considerable number of person-hours to get recruits to a reasonable destination. And we weren't successful at getting all the queries to a reasonable destination. Some just disappeared into a black hole of non-communication, due to not knowing where to send them. In other ways, the number of recruits simply overwhelmed the available resource to manage it.

So, without jumping straight to solutions, we can define some desirable outcomes:
- better information online for new ringers
- make that information easier to find
- ensure that potential ringers (or simply curious public) has a positive experience of bellringing (regardless of whether they continue to become ringers)

Some tactical solutions are reasonably easy to define - a single entry point into a good recruitment website/channel well supported with marketing is a practical solution that solves part of the problem.

How do we determine where they go after that? That is the trickier part, and we don't have easy answers to that. That is why this is a marathon rather than a sprint.

We aren't going to solve it all straight away either. That is no reason to try and make it better, and there are a lot of creative problem solvers in bellringing.

In response to part of your original question, we have been grappling with this at Glasgow for quite a while, due to a large number of learners. They are all very welcome and have enhanced the band, but we have been aware that progress (which isn't just about method ringing) for more intermediate and advanced ringers was stalling. For example, we were finding it hard to bring ringers on to 10-bell ringing of any sort.

What we are experimenting with now is to designate one practice a month for a 10-bell practice (and in the same week have a separate 6-bell practice. I wonder if it would be worth thinking about dividing your practice just a little bit to help you and the other ringers in the same situation. The more confident you are, the better framework you can create for your learners as well.