Ringing Centres Committee: 2001 Annual Report

During the year Gail Cater took over from Phil Gay as Chairman of the Committee. It was Phil's ideas and efforts which got the Founders Company scheme off the ground. Now, having guided the scheme through its early stages he has stepped down from the chair and will take on increased responsibility, with Roger, for planning courses.

The main work of the Committee has again been the administration of grants from the Worshipful Company of Founders. Five grants were approved during the year bringing the total to 13. The amount of money allocated was £11,650 bringing the total to at the end of 2001 to £24,550. Eric Godfrey has looked after the purse strings and Stephanie Pattenden has taken over management of the application procedure from Louise Bland.

Approximately 60% of the £50,000 available for grants is given to Ringing Centres to spend on teaching equipment. The other 40% is being spent on training courses which cover ringing centre management, teaching skills and use of equipment especially simulators, dumb bells and video.

Roger Booth organised weekend courses at the Docklands Ringing Centre during May and November. Future courses will be refined using feedback from students on recent courses, and will make use of ringing centres around the country.

The Founders continue to take a keen interest in Ringing Centres. Their annual prize, a cheque for £500, was awarded to the Docklands Ringing Centre for their work in 2000. The cheque was presented at the Founders Hall during the May 2001 training course.

We are now moving closer to having a network of ringing centres throughout the country. In order to support them and encourage the sharing of information, Roger Booth has set up an email support group. The Committee also continues to support towers while they are applying for Central Council recognition and/or for a Founders Company grant, and afterwards as well.

The Central Council Training Directory is a joint publication between the Ringing Centres and the Education Committees. The eighth edition was again produced by Gail Cater who is a member of both committees.

Greater information has been made available about ringing centres during the year, largely through The Ringing World. This increased publicity has resulted in an increase in the number of enquiries about becoming a ringing centre, some of which will come to fruition in 2002. Further publicity was engendered by the Committee's participation in the 2001 Ringing World Roadshow.

A Committee email discussion group has been set up by Andrew Wilby to improve and speed up communication between members of the Committee.

Preliminary steps have been taken to establish a Committee website which will link with the Central Council website, and progress is being made. We thank Tina Stoecklin and Peter Trotman for agreeing to assist us in this.

Gail Cater (Chairman)
Stephanie Pattenden (Secretary)
Louise Bland
Roger Booth
Alan Frost
Phil Gay
Eric Godfrey
Andrew Wilby