Ringing Forums

Sorry to come to this late Barbara but i agree with most of the comments about, but taking your restated question:

Is ringing about the dedicated pursuit of technical excellence (at whatever level one's natural talents permit), or should it be a stress-free leisure activity?
Is that a fair distinction, or is it more complicated than that?
How does a band decide where on the continuum it lies? Does a consensus develop? What role should the Tower Captain play in this?

I don't think its an either/or some of us make bell ringing a major part of our life and some just want to dip in and out and we should accomodate that without being too judgemental about people who don't share our passion. From the Association viewpoint the objective is to provide bells for divine service but that must be to an acceptable standard even if that means sticking to rounds; I like bands making a feature of the "Service Touch" which is the best ringing the band can achieve.

There are many ways of being a TC and their success depends on the personality of the TC and band members and on the history and tradition of the tower. Working with semi-adult learners for many years I favour the Socratic approach i.e. questions that lead learners to the right answer without directly telling them: How well did we/you do that? What could we/you have done to improve it? It works well with young people because their power of criticism usually outstrips their capability by a fair margin. The only downside risk is if the band pick on an individual, but it positions the TC as an expert coach rather than a directive leader with some reluctant followers.

Finally don't beat yourself up about it, its impossible to change people if you are only exposed to them two hours a week. The question I ask myself after some shambolic practice is "Did I do the best I could with what was available?" Secondly "Did they go away happy?"

I think the answer to the question "Do we stop teaching people too soon?" is yes. For many learners once they have mastered Pbd progress is seen as learning new methods. Learning (acquiring new knowledge) and developing a skill are different things. Skills are developed by practice and feedback (internal or external). Ringing is a peculiar skill because you generally do it with other people so the feedback has to take in consideration of others' errors as well.

A fortunate few may be able to go and ring with much better ringers so they can guess that the errors are down to them but for most they will be ringing with other improvers and there will be leading mistakes, different row length/speed inconsistency, poor covering etc etc. In this scenario feedback and improvement is very difficult.

The question is then can we do anything about it? I think the answer is yes if we start talking about it, the comments above mimic many in talking about unambitious bands, poor culture etc none recognise for many actually a very difficult task and not surprisingly they give up on it.

Interesting idea I'm sure some would do a great job, not sure how to proceduralise it. One of the interesting things of watching an association over a period of time is how unstable towers and other ringer groupings are. An enthusiast comes along, a tower blossoms, attracts a wider following, then splits and breaks down.

I've recently been reading a book about changes in societal culture. It makes the argument that there is a shift from community based values to values based on competition and individualism. He suggests that the more individualistic people still want to join organisations but not take any part in running them.

This mirrors what many of us active in territorial associations are finding and I can think of some different possibilities:

1. Carry on in slow decline hoping that there will be a sufficient residual of community minded volunteers and/or society will change back at some time.
2. Minimise the number of volunteer roles and try to focus the capacity we have on the essentials.
3. Think of smarter ways of trying to maximise the number of ringers and bells ringing to a good standard. Its struck me for a while that the Victorian processes embodied in territorial societies AGMs, elections to choose between candidates etc is well out of kilter with three months spent trying to identify a single candidate for a post and twist their arms to do it.

Split pin wins on google 225 million hits versus 7.9 million for cotter pins. I think that you have to be a bit careful that pedantry doesn't overspill into technical snobbism and create the illusion that there is an elite caste that know proper words versus the knuckle draggers who might even use an adjustable spanner!

Ely Association we have 4 District Bell Advisers plus an Association Bell Adviser. There are 5 other regular volunteers that we co-ordinate on a WhatsApp group. We have our own insurance through Ecclestiastical and maintain a competency register to determine who can lead which jobs. We will always try and get someone from the tower/local band to work with us to spread the knowledge.

We can do anything from full rehang down to inspection and rope work. (Last week was advising on bearing problem in CCT church and easing a stay that was rubbing the running board.) We also work as voluntary labour with the bell hangers where possible for skill updating and development.

Of the core team three are middle aged and 6 recent retirees all are male white. There are two female members in the wider associate group. The retirees tend to have 10 years working life but we are fairly cautious on manual handling - if we are carrying a lot of heavy equipment up a tower we will try and draft in extra help.

Sent to Workgroup Leader

For the more technical I plotted Modulus of Rupture versus Modulus of Elasticity in the form of a material selector chart. Birch was 'better' than ash, Walnut, beech and larch were OK but very small samples which is not great for looking at variability. The 'might be better,' 'might be worse' categories included Oak, Maple, Elm and Pine, although pine had a massive variability you would have to be a very good wood selector to use that.

St Clements Stays are glass fibre. The design was trialled at Great St Mary's and has yet to break and so far so good at St Clements. The ringing centre is being used to teach a lot of Ring for the King learners so the stays are getting a good test.

There is clearly no magical properties to ash its just a tradition, what matters are the mechanical properties of flexibility, fatigue and fracture resistance. However if you plot the variability of different types of wood (available from US variant of the forestry commission) you find ash is a pretty consistent wood and hence safe to use, other woods, such as some softwoods, have a lot more variability so they may work or they may not,