Report on the Central Council AGM

A Report on proceedings by our Guild Central Council Representatives.

The 127th Central Council of Church Bellringers AGM 2024 was held in Exeter at West Exe School and three of your Guild Representatives attended: Anthony Lovell-Wood and Julian Newman (Vice Presidents), and Vicki Rowse (Master).

The CCCBR hold a weekend of events with ringing routes into Exeter on the Friday followed by a social event in the Evening.  On Saturday there are presentations by all the Workgroups, the Ringing World AGM and the CCCBR AGM followed by another social event on the Saturday evening.  On Sunday there was Service ringing at various churches and the Cathedral hosted a practice.  

Your representatives attended on the Saturday, and here’s some feedback from the three of us:

Workgroup Presentations

The CCCBR workgroups are:

Historical and Archive; Volunteer and Leadership; Young Ringers; Stewardship and Management; Taxonomy and Technology; and Public Relations.  There are also leads for Publications, Safeguarding. Performance Analysis; External Liaison and The Touring Tower.  

There is a huge amount of work going on these Workgroups, some of which many ringers use regularly without realising that the CCCBR is the instigator – such as data to inform Mobel, Abel, Dove’s Guide, and various method databases. There is a range of publications, covering methods and other things such as Belfry Maintenance, Being a Tower Captain and many more. (Further information can be found at the CCCBR website with most of the workgroups under the ‘Resources’ tab).

A good example of the work being undertaken is the poster from the Stewardship and Management workgroup available to download from this article which is a useful resource for towers. 

Ringing World (RW) AGM

The Ringing World is both a limited company and a charity with trustees from the CCCBR members so their AGM is part of the CCCBR weekend.  They reported that finances are getting tight due to having increased costs over the last 12 months.  There is an increase in postage coming up and although the RW have managed to absorb increased costs to date, there will have to be a price increase to cover the additional postage charges.  Subscribers currently number 2150 and are a mix of individual and tower subscriptions, but are reducing by around 45 per year. The RW also manages Bellboard where the majority of ringing performances are publicised, donations via Bellboard mainly from Quarter Peal ringers make up a significant portion of the Ringing World income.  Peal Ringers apparently rarely donate.   Questions were asked about charging for the use of BellBoard as more ringers move to viewing performances online, rather than take The Ringing World. It was stated by the Chairman that BellBoard will remain free to use for now and the software that currently underpins BellBoard was given to The Ringing World on the condition that it remains free to use forever.

The Ringing World National Youth Competition was a spectacular success this year, but needs a radical rethink as the numbers (37 teams plus supporters) was a logistical challenge and it is almost unmanageable now due to its popularity.  It is starting to look like only cities with a number of towers in close proximity will be able to host the event with the suggestion that London shall be used every other year. Next year it will be in Birmingham.  

The editorial team continues to look at ways to improve the appeal of the publication and generate new revenue streams. Take a look at their website as they have available a number of different books and teaching aids. Will Bosworth, The Ringing World Editor, asked for more content from ringers, even if it is just a series of notes in an email, as they have a team that can turn that into an article.

CCCBR AGM

All the standard items that one finds on an AGM agenda went through with little discussion.

One of the main items on the agenda was the proposed increase in in the affiliation fees to 40p per member in 2025 and £1 per member in 2026. As directed by the Executive Committee your representatives voted against the motion but the motion was carried by a simple majority.

So what does this mean for the SDGR? Currently for each member of the guild, 20p or 2% of the £10 membership subscription is paid to the Central Council, next year this rises to 40p (4%) and in 2026 the Guild will pay £1 per member (10% of current subscription).

Why does the CC need this additional revenue? Currently the CC spends 80% of its expenditure running the organisation and 20% on its charitable aims. It now wants to increase this percentage on the charitable aims of the organisation.

What will the additional money be used for? The main project is Ringing 2030 which is the Council’s major project to create a sustainable future for change ringing, currently focussing on three areas (or “pillars” as used in their plan)

• Marketing
• Recruitment and Development
• Unified Ringing Platform

This was presented to the meeting; however, it was obvious that the plans were at an early stage as there were no objectives and costings presented to the meeting. The mood from the floor was that the executive were to provide more detail to these plans over the coming months and it will be the council workgroups who will be implementing the project.

How does the SDGR benefit from being affiliated with the CC? We continue to have access to all the services the CC currently provides through its workgroups. With the Ringing 2030 project there will be additional benefits:

• A recruitment portal available on the CC website for the Guild to use, this saves us having to develop and maintain our own.
• New promotional materials including feathers and banners that we can either borrow or purchase ourselves. Again, saving time in having to design and produce these ourselves, these should have links into the central recruitment portal.
• A targeted marketing campaign with the aim to bring Bellringing to more events (County Shows like the Gillingham & Shaftesbury and Dorchester Show/ church fetes)
• The young ringers group is looking to go into schools to introduce the concept of Bellringing early. They have already devised a lesson plan to be taught by non ringers which is currently being piloted, and they are looking to grow the young ringers hub.
• A new residential training course being developed in the South West will be run at Millfield School in October 2025. The Guild should look to promote this to prospective students, as it is now our closest course, provide helpers and follow on courses for anyone from the Guild who attends. There is also the development of ‘bite sized’ leadership & diversity training which will be available to members.
• The CC are also considering central overhead provision for membership systems (Member Mojo was mentioned), insurance to reduce costs to associations, plus the arrangement of a Financial Conference.

The 2025 AGM will be held in Sheffield by the Yorkshire Association and for 2026 in the Coventry Association area.