Ringing Trends Committee
Terms of Reference
To identify, evaluate and record trends in church bell ringing for the purposes of guiding Council policy.
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Activity Summary
2009-2010 achievements
- Survey of ringing societies
- Phase 2 results received from four more societies, 6 in total
- Analysis updated, now covering nearly 12,000 ringers
- University ringing trends
- Survey forms similar to main survey now mostly returned and analysed
Ongoing work
- Ringing Society survey final report under preparation
- Completing University survey analysis
Future plans
- Individual, and perhaps wider ringer surveys to get a view of what encourages them to 'stick' with ringing
- Develop online surveys to obtain a fuller picture of city centre ringing
- Ringing World article on University ringing trends
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Annual Reports
- 2010 Annual Report — discussion/adoption/elections at 2011 Council Meeting
- 2009 Annual Report — discussion/adoption/elections at 2010 Council Meeting
- 2008 Annual Report — discussion/adoption/elections at 2009 Council Meeting
- 2007 Annual Report — discussion/adoption/elections at 2008 Council Meeting
- 2006 Annual Report — discussion/adoption/elections at 2007 Council Meeting
- View menu page for Council Reports from 1945 and Minutes from 1890
- Are We Trendy Enough? (September 2005 article in The Ringing World)
- Trends in Ringing (2002 report by Administrative Committee Working Group)
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Committee Membership
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Alison Hodge (Chairman)
Worcester & Districts Association
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Stephen Elwell-Sutton
Scottish Association
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Ashley Fortey
Hereford Diocesan Guild
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Tony Furnivall
North American Guild
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Keith Murphy
Four Shires Guild
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Tim Pett
Oxford Diocesan Guild
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Background
A Trends Working Group was established by the 2000 Central Council meeting to develop an effective strategy to address the perceived negative trends in ringing. In 2002 it published the report Trends in Ringing. The first of its 12 recommendations was:
- That the Administrative Committee construct the framework under which an historical record of the 'state of ringing' may be developed.
The Trends Working Group had found that, although there was a great deal of data that might have indicated trends, it was neither comprehensive nor organised. Consequently the Group used some limited surveying and joining of disparate data to identify trends. However, most of the twelve recommendations required further substantiation of the data from which the trends were derived.
It was clear from experience of previous surveys and of the Trends Working Group that there would be sufficient work to justify the establishment of a permanent committee. This, as opposed to periodic working groups, would provide consistency in data collection and analysis which could assist the Council and the Societies to be more effective.
Subsidiary benefits would include an improved ability to respond to requests for funding, and a more detailed and accurate record for future historians to draw upon.
At the 2004 Council meeting in Colchester a successful motion on behalf of the Administrative Committee paved the way for the establishment of the Ringing Trends Committee at the 2005 meeting.
For the year-ends 2002 through 2007 the Towers and Belfries Committee published an analysis of total and unringable towers by region. This shows a trend of gradual growth in the number of ringable towers, demonstrating that the decline of ringing could not be related to the availability of ringable bells.