Even if you’re a member of a very busy band with lots of enthusiastic ringers, people do sometimes move away, give up ringing, take on other commitments and gradually over time, if there’s been no ongoing recruitment, teams can start to struggle to find enough ringers on a practice night or for services. Therefore it’s important to maintain a steady flow of new people who want to start learning.
Helping with recruitment can mean thinking creatively – where did you first hear about bell ringing? What made you want to start learning? Do you have friends and neighbours who might be interested, or are you part of a school group or club such as Scouts, WI or the U3A where there are people who might like to take up a new activity?
As well as recruiting through word of mouth, why not hold an open tower day where members of the public can come along and have a tour of the tower, watch some ringing and find out more. Perhaps you’d like to give a talk about ringing to a special interest group, or write an article about ringing for a local newsletter or paper. Does your local radio station feature community events? Has your team got a website, Facebook page or twitter account so that information about ringing in your tower is easy to find online?
Leafleting your area in advance of an open day, putting up posters and leaving flyers in shops, libraries, pubs and cafés are great ways to stimulate interest. During an open tower day, you’ll need stewards to chat to people whilst they wait to visit the bells, people to demonstrate ringing, a display board with information and someone to take names and contact details of anyone who would like to receive further information.
If your team has an ongoing recruitment campaign, the chances are you’ll have a steady stream of people who want to learn – which is great news. So what can you do to help with recruitment?
Give those interested a copy of ‘Discover Bellringing’ and have a copy of ‘Bell Ringing – The Inside Story’ running on a screen. Both available from the ART shop.
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