Tower Captain Report 2012/13

Tower Captains Report 2012/13

'Let's hold a recruitment week to encourage new or lapsed ringers' little did Richard know how successful it turned out to be, more about that later.

An AGM was not held last year because of changing our year to run from 1st November to 31st October which is in line with the Association year.

So what have we achieved in the past two years?  It has been a time of change where we have lost 6 of our ringers for various reasons but gained 8 not counting our associate members of Ben and Emma.  Rob and Georgina joined us in May, Karole, a lapsed ringer, joined us during the recruitment week and I would like to welcome Carol, Frances, Kate, Emma, Donna, Cliff and Eric who have come into ringing as a result of our very successful Recruitment Week, one of these only came in to see what it was all about with no intention to become one! Which leads me on to the Recruitment week -  I would like to thank the ringers who made cakes, teas and coffee and generally welcomed visitors into the Church, a special mention to Richard, who mastermind the event including appearing on the radio,  and to Keith and Sean who also came in every day.

We have rung for St George's Day, where we appeared in Ringing World and Mana magazine, Forces March, Diamond Jubilee, Olympics, Richard's special birthday, Mayor Making Ceremony, Open Tower Days,  the birth of Prince George of Cambridge, hosted Coffee Mornings, rung for several weddings, Light up a Life Service, Carnival Day, Town Carol Service and sold Home-made sweets and biscuits at the Church Craft Fayre.

Practice nights have been successful with regular visiting ringers who have become 'honorary' members of our tower, namely Keith, Jane, Sean, Bob, Belinda and Melinda.  We are now progressing on to having a 'Method of the Month' to advance our ringing.

As many of you know we had 4 bellhangers visit in 2012 to check on our bells and to investigate the possibility of  augmenting our bells to 10, this is an ongoing discussion which we will revisit next year.

I would like to thank you all for your help and support over the past two years and I look forward in moving our ringing forward, it's an exciting time for us at St Mary's.

Margaret Lee
Tower Captain
2013