1997 saw the national launch of the “Ring in 2000” publicity campaign. This was followed by local initiatives in newspapers and radio for example publicity featuring Bishopstoke bells and ringers in the Southern Echo resulted in over a dozen telephone calls from people wishing to learn to ring. The 1997 publicity drive seems to have made it easier to persuade people to take up ringing.
Two Guild Newsletters were issued during the year, in March and in October. My sincere thanks to all people who contributed articles and information. All districts but one now produce their own newsletter, with great variations in style and substance.
The Winchester district produces an annual district directory listing the names addresses and phone numbers of all district ringers which is distributed free to all members. The directory is widely used and I encourage other districts to follow suit.
Items from the PRO Inventory were used six times during the year. This is double the use of previous years and illustrates one aspect of the local publicity initiatives referred to earlier.
Our World Wide Web site received well over 1000 visits in the year. My thanks to David Forder for maintaining the site. 47 tower contacts agreed to have their details place on the web.
The items listed below are a Guild resource that can be used for tower Open Days and other appropriate events. There is no charge for use, other than return postage. Simply write or telephone me before the planned event and I will send you what you want. There may be a significant increase in the material available this year as our W&P “Ring in 2000” initiative gains momentum. I lend out items 1-5, make copies of item 6, and give away from item 7.
| Income | Expenditure | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| £.p | £.p | ||
| Balance b/f | 90.79 | Printing newsletters | 107.10 |
| Transfer from Guild a/c | 75.00 | Stamps and envelopes | 19.66 |
| Telephone | 2.60 | ||
| Balance c/f | 36.43 | ||
| £165.79 | £165.79 | ||
Ian McCallion