The third session of the 41st Council (116th Annual Meeting) will be held on Monday 27 May 2013 in the United Reformed Church, Portsmouth Road, Guildford, starting at 9.30 a.m. It will be preceded by a Corporate Communion Service at 8.30 a.m. in St Mary’s Church, Quarry Street, Guildford.
Will members please sign the roll and be in their seats by 9.20 a.m. - the roll will also invite you to sign in as a member of The Ringing World Limited.
The morning session will be adjourned at 12.30 p.m.; at 1.45 p.m. the Annual Meeting of The Ringing World Limited will be held; the afternoon session will resume after that Meeting.
Opening prayer.
Report of the Honorary Secretary as to the representation of societies and subscriptions.
Application to affiliate: Barrow & District Society.
Welcome to new members.
Apologies for absence.
Loss of members through death.
Minutes of the 2012 Annual Meeting (p.426).
Matters arising from the Minutes not covered elsewhere on the agenda.
Annual Report of the Council (p.431).
Accounts for 2012 (p.433).
Election of Additional Members:
Stella Bianco, Roger Booth and Robert Cooles retire. The following nominations have been received; in accordance with Rule 6(ii), supporting statements for the candidates are given in Appendix A (p.425) of this Agenda:
| Nominee | Proposer | Seconder |
| Stella Bianco | Alan Glover | Alan Baldock |
| Roger Booth | Brian Meads | Pip Penney |
| Robert Cooles | John Baldwin | Jeremy Cheesman |
Motions:
(A) That the subscription be increased to £30 per representative member from 1st January 2014.
Proposed on behalf of the Administrative Committee by Derek Harbottle (Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Association), seconded by Mary Bone (Ex-officio).
[Explanatory note: The subscription is currently £25 per representative member and this has been the amount since 1st January 2012. This provides income to the General Fund of £5,000. At the Council meeting at Hereford in 2011, it was stated that the Administrative Committee would review the level of the subscription rate on a regular basis, enabling a more frequent but smaller rate of increase. The Administrative Committee reviewed the level of subscriptions at the meetings in March 2012 and March 2013.
The affiliation subscriptions are intended to cover the cost of the conducting the business of the Council. The cost of the Council’s meeting venues has steadily increased and together with other costs of the annual meeting and committee expenses amounted to £6,351 in 2012 and £6,057 in 2011. Notwithstanding the result of a small surplus on the General Fund in 2012, due to a further grant in respect of the New Music 20x12 project, there is an underlying deficit of the Council’s costs exceeding the affiliation subscriptions. There is considerable work planned by committees and costs of travel and the hire of meeting venues are increasing. The Administrative Committee also intend to revisit the basis of levying the affiliation subscription to associations and consider the longer term requirements.
This proposal will provide an additional £1,000 income to the General Fund.]
(B) That Rule 16(xv) (Terms of Reference of the Ringing Trends Committee) be replaced by the following:
To identify, evaluate and record trends of relevance to church bell ringing for the purposes of guiding Council policy.
Proposed on behalf of the Ringing Trends Committee by Alison Hodge (Worcestershire & Districts Association), seconded by Elva Ainsworth (Additional Member).
(C) That Rule 16 (vi) (Terms of Reference of the Compositions Committee) be replaced by the following:
To promote the art of composition and to encourage aspiring composers; to encourage innovative ideas in composition and facilitate publication of articles and reviews promoting the art of composition; to maintain an on-line representative collection of peal and quarter peal compositions and prepare for publication such collections as the Council shall direct; to select, check and prepare relevant articles for publication in The Ringing World.
Proposed on behalf of the Compositions Committee by Paul Flavell (Surrey Association), seconded by Richard Allton (Ancient Society of College Youths).
(D) That Rule 16 (xiv) (Terms of Reference of the Ringing Centres Committee) be replaced by the following:
To promote, support and provide information, and appropriate recognition to all groupings where two or more bands work together to recruit and train ringers, and to encourage more local bands to do likewise. Such groupings to include Ringing Centres, Teaching Centres, ART Centres and young ringers groups.
Proposed on behalf of the Ringing Centres Committee by Roger Booth (Additional Member), seconded by Norman Mattingley (Truro Diocesan Guild).
(E) That the second paragraph of Decision (D)D be amended to remove the sentence “Any such performance not rung in full compliance with these conditions shall not be published in The Ringing World”.
Proposed on behalf of the Methods Committee by Peter Niblett (Winchester and Portsmouth Diocesan Guild), seconded by Richard Allton (Ancient Society of College Youths).
Change Ringing for the Future.
To receive, discuss and if thought fit to adopt the reports of the following Committees; and to pass such resolutions as may be necessary on matters arising from the reports. In all cases one-third of the present members retire and are eligible for re-election if still members of the Council.
(a) Administrative (p.435):
Michael Church, Alan Frost, Angela Newing and Derek Sibson retire. There are 4 vacancies.
(b) Information and Communications Technology (p.435):
Stephen Nash and Leigh Simpson retire. Leigh Simpson is not seeking re-election no longer a member of Council. There are 2 vacancies.
(c) Library (p.436):
Stella Bianco and Gregory Morris retire. There are 2 vacancies.
(d) Methods (p.436):
Peter Niblett and Robin Woolley retire. There are 2 vacancies.
(e) Peal Records (p.437):
Alan Baldock, Mark Bell and Derek Sibson retire. There are 5 vacancies.
(f) Public Relations (p.441):
Rupert Littlewood has resigned. Bruce Butler, Barrie Dove and William Dowse retire. William Dowse is not seeking re-election. There are 4 vacancies.
(g) Publications (p.442):
John Couperthwaite and Beryl Norris retire. There are 2 vacancies.
(h) Redundant Bells (p.443):
Bob Cooles and Robert Lewis retire. There are 2 vacancies.
(i) Ringing Centres (p.444):
Michael Clements has resigned. Peter Dale and Pip Penney retire. Peter Dale is not seeking re-election. There are 3 vacancies.
(j) Ringing Trends (p.444):
Alison Hodge, Keith Murphy and Tim Pett retire. There are 3 vacancies.
(k) Towers & Belfries (p.445):
Roland Backhurst, James Clarke, Alan Frost, Andrew Preston and Bernard Stone (co-opted) retire. There are 4 vacancies.
(l) Tower Stewardship (p.446):
Chris Mew, Christopher O’Mahony and David Salter retire. Chris Mew is not seeking re-election. There are 2 vacancies.
(m) Bell Restoration (p.446):
Jay Bunyan, William Nash, Ian Oram and Peter Wilkinson retire. There are 3 vacancies.
(n) Biographies (p.448):
Pat Halls (co-opted), Richard Andrew, Hilary Aslett, Bill Butler and Brian Hullah retire. Hilary Aslett and Brian Hullah are not seeking re-election. There are 4 vacancies.
(o) Compositions (p.449):
Paul Flavell, Paul Seaman and John Thompson retire. There is 1 vacancy.
(p) Education (p.449):
Peter Dale, Sue Faull, Gill Hughes and Pip Penney retire. Sue Faull is not seeking re-election. There are 4 vacancies.
Report of the Stewards of the Carter Ringing Machine Collection (p.450).
Report of the Steward of the Rolls of Honour (p.450).
Report of the Stewards of the Dove Database (p.450).
Central Council Rescue Fund for Redundant Bells (registered charity no. 278816) (p.451):
Report and Accounts.
Future meetings.
Any other business.
Mary Bone
Hon Secretary
Stella Bianco was first elected to the Council as an Honorary Member in 1989 and has served it well in various rôles ever since. She served on the Public Relations Committee and was joint project co-ordinator for the ‘Ringing in the Millennium’ project, leading the distribution of £3m in grants to 150 projects. She continues to support the Council’s bell restoration fund through selling ringing-themed wooden jigsaws.
Stella joined the Library Committee in 2008 and has been its chairman since 2009. She has organised two successful outreach days to encourage people to enjoy ringing books and publicise the rôle of the Council Library. Back in Sussex, Stella is Association Librarian and organises an open morning each year to encourage members to use and enjoy this valuable resource.
Stella would like to continue to serve on the Library Committee for a further three years. The members of the Committee would very much welcome her experience and enthusiasm in promoting the use of the Library.
| Proposed by | Alan Glover |
| Seconded by | Alan Baldock |
Roger has played a leading rôle in the restoration of a number of rings of bells, being involved from inception, through helping raise the necessary funds to coordinating the delivery of the physical work itself. Projects include rehanging at Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Isle of Dogs and Walworth, as well as installing a new ring of bells at Limehouse, and the transfer of redundant bells from Ealing and Homerton. Roger is a former member of the Council’s Towers & Belfries and Redundant Bells committees.
Having been involved in so many projects, he has changed the emphasis of his work to promoting the recruitment and training of ringers as he firmly believes that there is limited benefit to restoring and augmenting bells if there is not a sustainable supply of the ringers needed to ring them.
Roger is a founder Trustee of the Charmborough Bell Trust which operates the Charmborough Ring to help promote ringing. He has served as a Director of the Ringing Foundation since it was formed five years ago. He has qualified as a full member of the Association of Ringing Teachers and is an ITTS Tutor, helping to train more teachers and mentors.
If re-elected as an Additional Member of Council, Roger wishes to continue his work as a member of the Ringing Centres Committee, helping to bring together and improve the effectiveness of the various current initiatives and innovations in the fields of recruitment and training.
| Proposed by | Brian Meads |
| Seconded by | Pip Penney |
Bob Cooles is currently an Additional Member of the Council. He serves as Chairman of the Committee for Redundant Bells and Secretary for the Council’s Rescue Fund for Redundant Bells.
He has also been a member of the Administrative Committee not only for the last three-year period but for some time previously.
In those rôles, he has served the Council well for many years, and I feel that his experience and expertise thereby gained would be a sad loss to the Council should he not be re-elected as an Additional Member.
| Proposed by | John Baldwin |
| Seconded by | Jeremy Cheesman |
The Ringing World, April 26, 2013, pages 425 to 426