Survival and Recovery toolbox
The Survival and Recovery Toolbox has been released in the last few days. It is designed for i) Ringers (helping yourself), ii) Tower Captains (helping your band) and iii) Ringing Societies (helping bands). It contains numerous tips, ideas, videos and case studies:
https://ringingteachers.org/survival-and-recovery-toolbox
The Leatherhead District has already circulated the toolbox list of exercises and stretches. These were drawn up by two ringing physios to prepare unused muscles for the return to ringing. If you used to ring three times a week, that would have equated to over 1800 plus shoulder stretches!
The Toolbox contains a link to the excellent Farnham District newsletter (as providing an exemplar of a simple ringing survey). I suspect that it was also chosen for its quality of publication and for keeping ringers engaged and interested.
Interestingly, before ringing resumed last Summer, members of the Chipping Norton branch were offered a session on a ringing simulator to restore confidence – 25% of Branch members took advantage of this!
Survival and Recovery Newsletter
The next edition of the Survival and Recovery Newsletter is now out:
http://ringingteachers.org/application/files/2316/1296/5957/Survival_Recovery_Newsheet_Issue_3.pdf
It contains an article by Guildford Guild member – Deborah Margason-Baker – tower captain at Crondall. I’m hoping that future editions will contain articles about Guildford Guild activities.
Questions for Tower Captains and Band Members
Are you in touch with all your ringers during lockdown? This will certainly help their feeling of belonging and increase the likelihood of them returning after lockdown.
Are they aware of, and are they members of a district email group? These are a useful mechanism for staying in touch with the wider District / Guild community.
Guildford Guild Activity / Staying in Touch
I’m particularly interested in activities going on across the Guild to keep ringers engaged. I would recommend giving Ringing Room a go. You do need to persevere with it, but it is worth the effort. Last Monday, Crondall Tower had 18 ringers at its popular weekly Ringing Room session and, amongst other things, rang some plain hunt on 15!
Well done to Chertsey District for hosting a District Ringing Session (to include complete novices). Interest in a District Ringing Room session was expressed at the Farnham DGM – a district initiative would help ringers overcome the initial challenges (including technical) of using the tool. I have had queries from some individual ringers who want to give it a go – I am pursuing these. Chiddingfold were looking to use Ringing Room – I look forward to hearing of their progress. I hear that Shalford and Dorking are even progressing their learners using it – so rather more than just ‘surviving’.
There are other activities apart from Ringing Room. At the Cathedral, we had a virtual tower dinner via Zoom. The Cathedral’s Chief Operating Officer spoke along with tower officers. It was preceded with a slide show (with audio) highlighting activities from 2020 and containing numerous photos contributed by the band. The link is below for those interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz-NbCyL49E
Let’s Hear about your Activities
There is much ongoing activity across the Guild that people are not aware of. Although the Chertsey District Newsletter has just been published, the next issues of the Guildford and Farnham Districts newsletters are due out soon. Please do ensure that your activities are fully covered in these and / or use the District email groups.
It would be great if one of our newsletters could again get national recognition.
I look forward to hearing from you – please do get in touch with any views, ideas or updates.