PRC report to 2008 Council

The committee sets out to develop ringing publicity materials, to be proactive in seeking publicity for ringing and to act as a link between the Central Council and ringers as well as between the general public and ringing. This includes liaison with overseas ringing societies.

Ringing Roadshow 2008

The main focus of activity for public relations in ringing is the Ringing Roadshow which for the first time will be a two-day event on the 5th and 6th September 2008 at the Royal Showground, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire. www.ringingroadshow2008.org.uk gives up-to-date information about the event. The public relations committee organises this event on behalf of the Council and gratefully acknowledges the hard work of the Roadshow Team (John Anderson, Eleanor Linford, Derek Smart and Stephanie Warboys) as well as a range of consultants for catering, mini-rings, seminars and website development. The aim is for a Roadshow poster to be displayed in all towers with bells as well as on church and other public noticeboards to attract the general public. Advance tickets are on sale at a concessionary rate. Council members are requested to act as local agents to promote the Roadshow, ensure posters are on display and arrange groups to attend. In particular the focus for this Roadshow is to motivate attendance by non-Ringing World readers, who perhaps do not attend local society events but have an interest in ringing, and also by the general public. Plans are being developed to attract lapsed ringers to attend and for those who have attended previous Roadshows, this one will have several new attractions to try. The committee has reviewed the possibility of organising a future Roadshow and recommends that if it is decided to do this a minimum of three years should elapse before a future event.

Development of publicity materials

The committee has published a ringing publicity poster this year which is being distributed by CC Publications. 1000 A3 and 2000 A4 were printed and so far 150 A3 and 650 A4 have been sent out. No charge is made for the posters - just a charge for postage and packing. The poster was designed professionally - using the same house style as the publicity leaflet published in 2005. Contributions towards the cost have been made by The Ringing World and an anonymous donor and this sponsorship is gratefully acknowledged. The poster is also available at www.cccbr.org.uk as a pdf in both A3 and A4 sizes as well as a MS Word document which can easily be modified to include local contact details. Work has been done jointly with the ICT committee to redesign the frontpage of www.cccbr.org.uk and it is planned to continue with this style throughout the website. A CD has been produced and is being distributed by CC Publications. The CD sets out to be a publicity tool and lecturing aid. There are two versions of a PowerPoint presentation (around 80 slides) covering the history of bells, bellfounding, bellringing (including carillons) and change ringing. It is aimed at audiences of (probably) non-ringers who are interested in learning more about bells. There are two versions of the presentation on the CD: one has an auto-run and pre-recorded soundtrack to run in 'kiosk' mode so it can be left running continuously at tower open days etc and the other is for use with a set of optional presenter notes, so that presenters can add their own commentary. Ringing publicity leaflets continue to be distributed. 74,000 have been distributed, 15,000 of them during the last year, with 26,000 in stock. In addition the committee has agreed to overseas printing of the leaflet (at local cost) and this has been taken up at Perth, Western Australia where 12,000 have been printed of which 1,200 have been used. Work is in progress to produce a leaflet for distribution in Cathedral bookshops with local information added and a review of what is available for each Cathedral with bells is currently taking place.

Overseas liaison

Overseas liaison has continued with a personal approach to each society for an update report. This report about overseas ringing will be published as a news item in The Ringing World.

UK publicity

Liaison with ringers and the general public has included a range of radio and TV pieces about ringing as well as an article in The Daily Telegraph and in Country Living magazine. Both of these latter two articles involved considerable input from the committee, including arranging interviews for the reporter with the chairmen of the education and ringing trends committees.

Scouting centenary

In the summer of 2007 the celebration of the centenary of Scouting was promoted to achieve publicity both for ringing and for Scouting. Ringing took place in different parts of the country with much local publicity and this was featured in an article in The Ringing World.

Requests for information about learning to ring

A personal response is given by the committee to requests for information about where to go to learn to ring. This is via a website link on both www.cccbr.org.uk and www.ringingworld.co.uk The website statement about ringing has been updated during the year. About one hundred enquiries have been received this year, about 90% of which were from people wanting to learn to ring and feedback responses are usually received. Contacts around the country are given about where to go locally to find an active tower to learn about ringing. The contacts list has been updated during the year. Disappointingly there has been no evidence of greater activity at the time of specific publicity about ringing eg the Scouting centenary, media coverage etc.

Contact lists, email groups, 2012 Olympics, Ringing Foundation

In addition the committee maintains a database of society contacts which is supplied on request to the officers and committee chairmen. An email group of ringing PROs has been established and has proved useful for distribution of 'soft' copy for use in local newsletters etc. A database of university societies and contacts is maintained on www.cccbr.org.uk The committee has established an email group for those interested in developing ringing around the Olympics. The work in establishing a group to promote this in London has resulted in regular meetings taking place and this has been reported in The Ringing World. Consideration about preparing a proposal and seeking funding for a major recruitment drive in connection with ringing for the 2012 Olympics was referred to The Ringing Foundation. The Foundation's focus is still being established and consideration of the Foundation seeking funding for using the build-up to the Olympics as a ringing recruitment drive may be a possibility for the latter part of 2008.

Complaints Helpline

The committee operates a 'Complaints Helpline' with a widely publicised contact telephone number as well as information about dealing with complaints in The Ringing World diary and on www.cccbr.org.uk This year nine complaints have been received and advice given. Contact is usually made directly by a member of the ringing band affected, but a close watch about ringing complaints in the press and other media is also maintained. Advice has been offered and guidance given from CCCBR sources. In most cases a calm, informative response from the local ringers has led to a satisfactory outcome, often involving the complainant visiting the tower during a ringing practice. A complaint about the sound of clock chimes at night was referred to the local PCC as being beyond the remit of the CCCBR.

Review of the Committee's work

A review of the work of the committee has been carried out during the triennium with the outcome that there are too many detailed projects being undertaken for the manpower available. Additional members have therefore been requested to fulfil the remit. Some members of the committee are not standing for re-election and there are therefore several vacancies to be filled. There is a heavy workload at grassroots level needed to carry out this committee's work. The committee chairman acts as PR officer for the Council. Committee skills needed vary from PR and developing PR good practice amongst ringers with an understanding of the subtle sensitivities needed for this, to advising a wide range of ringers about local ringing publicity, to website content, to storing and posting leaflets, to monitoring media coverage, to responding to 'learn to ring' enquiries, to university societies liaison, to designing and developing publicity materials, to advising on ringing complaints, to liaising with overseas societies, to coordinating a database of society contacts. The Roadshow has now developed to a very large event which the committee oversees on behalf of the Council. Liaison with other committees and the Ringing Foundation increasingly needs further time allocation.

Changes in membership

Peter Robson has resigned from the Committee during the year because of work commitments and his major contribution in creating a university societies' database as well as leading on the Scouting centenary is acknowledged.

Bruce Butler
Alan Chantler
Neil Donovan
Robert Lewis
Bobbie May (Secretary)
Judith Rogers (Chairman)
Adrian Udal
Stephanie Warboys
Jane Wilkinson