The AGM this year was held at Goodworth Clatford with the Striking Competition being held in the morning. This was well attended with four teams competing for the trophy resulting in the Winchester District maintaining their lead from last year by a narrow margin. Unfortunately, attendance at the AGM itself and the towers open for ringing was down on previous years which may partly have been due to the 12 bell striking competition in London. Congratulations go to David Hughes of Buriton, Gwen Mackrell of St Lawrence, Alton and David Wilson of Ringwood who were presented with Honorary Life Membership of the Guild having all achieved 50 years’ membership. At the meeting it was also agreed to extend an invitation to the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers to visit the Guild for their annual meeting on the Spring Bank Holiday weekend in 2016 or beyond. This will be considered by the Central Council in May.
The Guild dinner was held in Winchester this year and was well attended by approximately 100 people. 2009 was also the 40th anniversary of the Guild Dinner which was attended by Roger Savory who had organised the first Guild dinner. The Child Protection legislation is also now in force and is not as onerous as we once feared it might be. John Davey is now responsible for any issues concerning child protection.
The Alec Gray trophy for the inter-tower 8 bell competition now has a shiny new cup thanks to the efforts of Chris Caryer. The Alton & Petersfield District also have a new wooden shield as the old one ran out of space for recording future winners. It is to be hoped that striking across the Guild has improved as a result of these competitions.
The triennial elections will once again take place this year at the AGM on 3rd July 2010 in Basingstoke. It has now been a decade since the recruitment of 640 new and lapsed ringers who started ringing for the millennium. Unfortunately, the statistics do not show that membership has increased due to this influx of new ringers. In 2009 there were 634 full members and 488 senior members. In the year 2000 there were 937 full members and 261 senior members. It is easy to see that whilst membership remains fairly constant, the average age of a member is steadily increasing so that before much longer there will be more senior members than younger members. There are also fewer members attending meetings and other events with the result that the Guild and the districts are struggling to find members willing to fill posts which then remain vacant. Encouraging younger ringers to become members is vital if we want to maintain a healthy organisation but there are no easy answers. Unfortunately, I will not be standing again as Guild Secretary as although I have enjoyed the last three years, I feel that with increasing work commitments I am now unable to devote the necessary time to carry on with the post. I would like to thank everyone who has supported and encouraged me during the last three years.
Pam Thompson