Saturday, 30th October 2010 saw the gathering of the Methods Committee at the kind invitation of Roger Bailey - geography playing a major role here.
The meeting was attended by the entire committee; Peter Niblett (chair), R. Bailey (house guest!), R. Edwards, L. Simpson, P. Saddleton and R. Woolley. It was convened at 10.30am and apart from a welcome lunch break, the meeting closed at 5pm.
Items on the agenda included; minutes from previous meeting (remembered and agreed), matters arising from those minutes, general correspondence, matters referred to the committee from CC Derby; notably S. Pettman 1440’s and GVT (Grandsire Variable Treble). Further items were, revisiting method extension explanation, a TB Minor spreadsheet/wall chart showing the relationship of work above the treble against below it, ideas for the Ringing World centenary celebrations and how the committee could help, consideration from Records and Analysis committee on rules regarding record length achievements and their implementation by some bands and not by others. In addition, the committee reviewed the contents of the RW Diary pages for which we are responsible and discussed how to raise the profile for the Methods Committee in recruiting new members from subsequent CC meetings.
However, by far and away, the item that consumed a lot of our time was GVT. The concept of which appears, on the surface, to be so simple, yet below hides a vast complexity of rule change and ramifications going forward. The committee are in no doubt, that any rule change to accommodate GVT is not undertaken lightly and requires due diligence, to ensure what is concluded does not fundamentally detract or weaken the status quo. For this and a couple of other reasons, the committee has agreed to have a further meeting in the New Year to continue our discussions on this matter.
Finally many thanks to our hosts, for their generous hospitality and for providing us all with an excellent lunch.
R. EDWARDS
The Ringing World, November 26, 2010, page 1194