It started with a ringing census and a working party pulling together lots of examples of successful recruitment exercises. A presentation and discussion at the AGM seemed to go down well. Then everyone started recruiting! Within six months three silent towers were ringing again with brand new bands and other towers had augmented their existing bands with new recruits! Now a second generation of recruitment activity is taking place with those who observed the success of the first round replicating what they saw at new towers.
In some ways it got a bit out of hand. The idea was to organise an ART Module 1 (Bell Handling) course and get would-be teachers to go on that. We were so worried about the towers “owning” the project rather than having it imposed on them, that we decided to get them involved at the AGM before the project was complete. A mistake in hindsight, as everyone was so excited they started recruiting before that could happen. So, there are one or two new ringers who have suspect ringing styles which might very well hinder their progression beyond rounds. however, there are lots more ringers who have good styles and bands who now know that they can make things happen.