What a busy month we have had! Firsts Week was a success with over 120 people achieving something for the first time, the young ringers have been practising for the Ringing World Competition in London in July and the Guild Festival and AGM took place in Trowbridge on May 11th.
One of the Festival highlights is awarding the Ringer of the Year trophies. This year was no exception as we had some very impressive nominations which highlighted the breadth and amount of work that is being done to support our art. Only two people can win, but it was such a tight competition for the adult award that two people were highly commended, Duncan Loweth and David Miles. They were pipped to the post by Nick Dallison from Mere Branch who is doing so much in his Branch I am not sure when he sleeps. The Young Ringer of the Year is Conni Cottingham who is deputy ringing master in the Dorchester branch and a leading light in the Go Bellistic team. Congratulations to them all.
At the AGM the motion to adopt Membermojo as our membership system was passed with a big majority. I truly believe this will help us with managing our Membership records in a secure way; to communicate directly and efficiently with members and to produce an accurate Annual Report each year. I urge all those in the non-pilot branches to follow the guide in the article below and register now, or to contact your Branch administrators for help.
The AGM also passed some amendments to our Rules which were required to facilitate us using Member Mojo, and to meet our obligations under the Data Protection Act. You may be wondering what has happened to the Rules Review that started 2 years ago; the workgroup had a pause to redraft the rules in respect of MemberMojo and the Data Protection Act, but are now continuing with updating and modernising the the Guild Rules. We will be consulting with members over the coming months.
There are a few important events coming up over the next month; First is The 80th Anniversary of D-Day on Thursday 6th June. We have been asked by the Central Council of Church Bellringers to ring as many of our bells as we can to coincide with national celebrations at 18.30 (or any convenient time during the day). Please let your local communities know what you are ringing for and upload your performance to Bellboard to be a part of the National record. bb.ringingworld.co.uk/event.php?id=18973
The young ringers are gearing up for the Ringing world young ringers striking competition on 6th July which is being held in London this year, based around St Mary Bow. The team of 8 doing call changes includes three for whom this will be the last year they can enter. We wish them the best of luck and a lot of fun. If anyone would like to help sponsor them please do contact Hilary Child.
A look at the Calendar shows there are lots of Branch activities happening too. Outings planned targeted practices arranged and activities with a food and drink focus such as Bells and Beer and East Dorset’s Ring for your Cream Tea, which sounds delicious and perfect for the warmer weather!
The next Guild Executive meeting is on 20th July. If you have anything you would like to raise to the Executive, please do let your Branch Committee know and your branch representative on the Executive can raise it. We are very keen to hear from our members and to have our work shaped by you, so let us know what you think and even better, consider helping by joining a short term workgroup.
Wishing you all a bright and sunny spring and happy ringing.
Vicki Rowse
Guild Master
