April 2006
Preparations continue for the big launch on April 29th. Julie Kirkbride has agreed to open the event for us and, although Carl Chinn is busy on the day, he's promised to cover it on his BBC WM show. Invitations are going out to everyone in the village who might be interested or able to help and we'll be showing everyone the bells, our problems, and the plans we have to put them right. There are more details about the day on our web site - www.alvechurchbells.org.uk.
Our collection boxes have arrived but you might not be seeing them for a while. There are other appeals going on in the village, more urgent and important than ours, and we don't want to get into competition. Our campaign is liable to last several years so there will be plenty of opportunities for us later. Having said that, if you do know of a suitable place for a collecting box, if you would like to take one to work or to any sort of event or meeting, we would be delighted to hear from you.
We are getting a lot of interest from the local ringing community. We took our displays along to the Quiz Night on the 10th in Beoley, raised a little money and got a lot of useful advice. Neither of our teams won any prizes but we all enjoyed ourselves.
The other activity of the month was that we held a practice night for the county association on the 19th. One of the problems we're hitting with last year's trainee ringers is that they're now very nearly as good as the rest of us and there's not much more we can teach them. Bell ringing is like any other team activity and the visiting ringers gave our trainees a chance to work with a better class of player and try a few techniques that are a little more difficult (and interesting) than usual.
Visitors to our regular Tuesday night practices help too. Last week we had Robin from Beoley (and we must thank him for his contribution to our fund) and Greg from Barnt Green. Two good ringers who added a bit of stability to the night's practice. We also welcomed a new trainee from the Middle School who came up to see what it was all about and whether she could cope. She did very well and we hope we've gained another new recruit.