Peal Compositions Committee 2000 Annual Report
The committee currently holds no face to face meetings, but is in electronic contact via email several times each month. In addition to the committee members, much of the work of the committee is done by advisors, most of whom are not Council members, and to whom we wish to offer our deep thanks. These advisors include Alan Ainsworth, Richard Allton, David Beard, Jeff Brannan, Paul Flavell, Britt Hartenberger, Roddy Horton, David House, David Hull, Rod Pipe, Philip Saddleton, Mike Schulte, and Glenn Taylor. Tony Smith, chairman of the Methods Committee, also offers invaluable service to this committee, both in advising on matters pertaining to methods, and especially for his work in maintaining the Index to Compositions published in The Ringing World.
The most visible work of the committee is publication of compositions in The Ringing World. We are especially grateful to the Ringing World Editor, Tina Stoecklin, for having made available a regular, monthly page devoted to peal compositions. This practice, in place for the past twenty months, has contributed immeasurably to the orderly publication of compositions. In the twelve months preceding the writing of this report 180 were published, and this is similar to the number published in the first twelve months this practice was in place. Before this practice went into place there had been considerable variation of the numbers published each year, but a very consistent average of just over 100 published per year if computed over a span of years. In particular, this former average was virtually unchanged if computed over the preceding 10, 20, 30, or 40 years. We are very pleased that, with Tina's help, we seem to have significantly improved this publication rate, and we look forward to similarly working with Robert Lewis to continue this valuable practice.
The monthly peal page has allowed us to better strike a balance between reducing the time to publication for worthy recent submissions, and making a noticeable dent in the backlog of compositions awaiting publication. Some of the compositions published most months have been awaiting publication for over half a decade. We have also attempted to broaden the variety of reviewers whose comments are printed along with the compositions.
A major goal during 1999 has been continuing to improve our processes around construction and delivery of compositions to The Ringing World, which efforts had begun the previous year. This year's efforts added a particular emphasis on eliminating errors. We are now able to deliver the page electronically over the internet to The Ringing World offices, constructed in the software used by it for page layout, both reducing the possibilities for error and increasing efficiency. We have now also introduced an improved proof reading scheme, which hinges on rapid dissemination of the page via email to several readers each month, who typically return their comments and corrections within 24 hours. We are pleased to report that since putting this scheme into place in the second half of 1999, there have so far been no material errors reported in any of the compositions printed. The Chairman is personally embarrassed that he cannot say the same about all of the reviews!
We have now started to make compositions published by the committee also available in electronic form on the World Wide Web. We have in electronic form most of the compositions published by the committee over the past decade, and are in the process of adding them to this collection, which we hope will rapidly become an extensive and valuable resource.
For some years we have published on the web an electronic version of the Index to Compositions published in The Ringing World, the print version of which is so admirably maintained for the committee by Tony Smith. Our electronic version was somewhat primitive and awkward to use, and was updated only infrequently. We have given it a face lift, made it searchable and easier to use, and are now adding compositions to it within a few weeks of their publication. We are pleased to report that it appears to be a valued resource to the ringing community, and has been accessed every day since being made available, and by ringers from across the world.
Both the composition collection and the index to published compositions can be accessed from the committee's web site at
http://www.cccbr.org.uk/compositions/collections
Progress on printed collections has been slower than hoped, but two collections are in the draft stage, and we hope that they will be in print soon: the long awaited universal treble dodging major collection and the new popular major collection. There is also work continuing on a new ten and twelve bell collection, albeit more slowly.
Roger Bailey
Mark Bennett
Julian Morgan
Don Morrison (Chairman)
Stephen Pettman
Published in The Ringing World 7 April 2000, page 359.
