Chairman’s Chatter – May 2015
Chairman’s Chatter is published in the quarterly ART WORKS magazine for ART Members and Teachers.
ART Conference 2015
The ART Conference this year was held in Birmingham. It certainly was an action packed day, with over 70 delegates present. The lead speaker was Professor Alison Hodge talking on the subject “What can bell ringing learn from the world of education” – a thought provoking presentation. Clare McArdle and her new ringer Tim Sunter talked about the method of teaching at the Birmingham School of Bell Ringers. Tim had responded to a newspaper arcticle saying that towers were falling silent due to lack of ringers and it was good to hear about things from the learner’s side!
New Conducting Course
For the first time ART offered a conducting course. The new ART Conducting Course was piloted at the ART Conference having been developed by Simon Linford, Niel Donavan and Andrew Wilby. It covers the basic steps of calling and conducting Plain Bob Doubles and Minor. Would you like a conducting course to be run in your area? If you would like a course to be run for your Teachers and Ringers, please do contact me.
A Pool of Ringers
Tony Goodman from Thanet had a good idea! He has a large area to cover and not all towers have enough ringers to ring for events. So Tony started a “ringers pool”, the idea is that if any tower is short of ringers they can find help from the “pool”! He hopes his innovative idea might be of use to others!
Are your ringers signed up for the ART LtR 50/50 CLUB?
Encourage them to join! When the logins go out to new ringers for the SmART Ringer website, all new ringers are sent a link to the ART LtR 50/50 CLUB. The first draw took place at the ART Conference, with prices of £40 and £20 to two lucky Members.
Draws that place every quarter and as more people join, the top prize next time should be over £50 even at this early stage of the scheme. The Big Prize to be drawn at Christmas will be £300 and likely to be even more! The more people who join the bigger the prizes will get.
Accreditation… eventually
We want all our Day Course delegates to go on to work for accreditation and ART Membership but sometimes other life events can take us away from our teaching.
Trisha from London contacted me to say, “I only did Module 1 and never followed up the accreditation process. However, I am very aware that I do use many of the ideas and tips that I learned that day with you, and it has made me much more confident when I am standing by a learner in a circle. I know I am not the only student you’ve had who has not pursued accreditation but found great benefit from the programme. So this is just a note to say thank you for all you do. I hope you don’t measure your success by certificates only, as I am certainly proof that the ART Training Scheme has intrinsic value.”
You may be glad to know that Trisha is now, several years later, planning to take a Module 2 Day Course and go for her accreditation! She may also return and repeat the Module 1 at a later da
Mentor Development opportunity
Both the roles of Mentor and Teacher are so important to ART. Mentors assist Teachers until they become confident in their teaching to increase the numbers of ringers taught. Mentors do you feel competent and confident yourself as a Mentor? Are you a Mentor who would like to understand the Mentoring process more comprehensively? Why not ask for a Mentor Development Workshop to be held in your area? This short workshop can be presented as a half day interactive course which a growing number of Mentors have found very useful. Contact me if you would like to hold one locally!
Pip Penney