As Public Relations Officer for both my local #bellringing Association and for the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers I’m always on the lookout for ways to get our messages out there and increase awareness of what we do.
I was reading an article online the other day about growing followership and there were two amazingly simple tips that could make a world of difference.
Include a sign-up link in your email signature. So, my emails signatures for both now carry not only a link to our website, but also to our social media pages, and for the Central Council a link to our mailing list sign up page. That was easy. My signature is now quite large, but I hope it will draw people I correspond with to find out more about us.
Include a “forward to a friend” link on each page/article on the website. As it happened, we had a local Association Comms team meeting last night and I mentioned it. I have no idea how complicated it is to set up or not, but before the evening was out, our Webmaster had added a link in the footer of our website and emailed me to test it. I clicked on the link, up popped a blank email with a link to the relevant page ready for me to forward to anyone I might think would be interested. I’ve also sent a request for a similar link on the Central Council website. Hopefully, it will be just as easy.
Two simple tips that have potential to increase awareness, get more engagement with our social media and spread the word.
It was also quite good fun having a look at some of the analytics from our website for quarter 1, again appealing to my inner nerd. There needs to be a bit more work on extracting relevant ones and interpreting them into meaningful data, but given that we only set it running recently, it will be great to track hits to the website during promotional campaigns. I can get the analytics from our social media sites and its all encouraging.
As you know, I bought C a pair of e-bells for his birthday last week. I also bought myself a set and the companion book. I learnt how to ring Plain Bob Minor about 2 years ago now but that was the last time I rang handbells.
Today was the first opportunity we had to properly play with them. He’d already set up all the software on the PC and on my laptop so we were ready to plug in and play.
I had a few goes on my own connected to Abel to start with and started off with Plain Hunt Minimus. Two pairs of bells swap the order in which they ring. I found the explanation in the book extremely helpful in getting what my brain already knows about Plain Hunt Minimus on tower bells should look like. First and 2nd place bells sway and the 3rd and 4th place bells swap. Then the bells in 2nds and 3rds place swap whilst the other two stay in the same position. Keep alternating this until you get back into rounds. Very simple and straight forward instruction.
I did ok at that so upped the anti by trying Plain Hunt Minor, that’s with three pairs of bells. The good thing about Abel is that it will ring the other bells you don’t. The bad news is it won’t wait for you like real ringers often do (even though they shouldn’t).
C was getting himself set up on the PC at this point so we decided to try ringing together. We moved across to Ringing Room to try that now that they have Wheatley installed. Wheatley does the same thing as Abel, i.e. rings all the unassigned bells but you have to tell it what to do. There were a few technical issues, but we had several goes and I tried it on different pairs of bells. I rang 1-2 to start with and got quite proficient at that, then rang 5-6 which is the next easiest pair as the bells course each other (follow each other up and down the pattern). Then I had a go on 3-4 which is a bit more complicated as the bells move apart and back together again in opposite directions. That was slightly less well executed.
Then we moved on to Handbell Stadium, the virtual handbell ringing platform. Took a bit of getting used to setting it up but once there, I had a go on my own ringing Plain Hunt Minor again. Then C decides we should ring together. We rang Plain Hunt Minimus together and then he decides that we’ll move straight on to Plain Bob Minimus. This means that I have to remember to dodge as well as plain hunt. 3/4 down was ok but I seemed to struggle a bit with 3/4 up. Eventually got the hang of it.
The key for me is regular practice at it otherwise I’ll forget and we’ll be back to the beginning every time. C went back to practicing by himself and was ringing touches of Plain Bob Minor, but that’s because he’s clever and can ring handbells anyway.
Long way to go yet but had quite good fun and was quite pleased with my progress. Don’t think I’ll be ringing with a mixed group, or any quarters any time soon though.
My mobile phone rarely rings. If it does its either a member of my family in an emergency (they’d text or WhatsApp otherwise), or its someone wanting some information about #bellringing. So I generally answer it in case of the latter.
This afternoon it rang and when I answered I heard an automated voice telling me that my National Insurance Number had been compromised on the Welsh boarders and that I should press 1 now to be put through to the investigation team. I’m pretty clued up to this sort of thing, so I let the call ramble on and keep it hanging until it disconnects itself. Then I Googled it.
Apparently, it’s a well-known scam that has made the national papers. According to a recent article in the Daily Express (I don’t read it, that’s what came up in the Googlesearch) if you press 1 you get connected to a criminal who can then use your personal details to commit fraud.
Action Fraud, the UKs national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, warned people about in January after the national reporting centre received more than 1,000 extra calls from the public within a week. Of course their advice is to not press 1, not speak to anyone and not give out any personal information over the phone, and report it.
Now, if I was slightly less savvy, stressed or pressured for time, I may well have pressed 1 and been put through to someone, who no doubt has a well-rehearsed speech that would be enough for anyone to spill their bank account, national insurance, mother’s maiden name and other details, that would give the fraudster enough ammo to take all you money, or worse, steal your identity and do all sorts of damage that you may then get done for.
So be aware folks, there are some unsavoury characters out there ready to pray on our insecurities, vulnerability or absentmindedness.
I’m on LinkedIn, the professional network on the internet that allows you to connect and strengthen professional relationships and learn new skills. You can follow organisations and groups in much the same was a Facebook and Twitter and other social media sites.
One of the groups that I follow for interest and to support #bellringing activities, rather than work related, is about Public Relations and in particular this group focuses on internal communications. In fact its called The Institute of Internal Communication. Each week a contributor called Carole Searwert, a copywriter and newsletter writer posts an article called Top Tips Tuesday which gives you some pointers that you might find useful. Admittedly, most of it relates to the business world rather than the small, social charity, activity type world, but occasionally there’s something that make sense.
This week’s top tips were all about How to Grow Your Newsletter List. In the #bellringing community, we tend to use newsletters quite a lot to keep in touch with our ringers, let them know what’s going on and what’s been coming up. We have them at all levels. Some districts do their own. Most association’s probably have one. The Central Council of Church Bellringers (CCCBR) and the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART) are currently issuing a joint one on survival and recovery strategies. ART have two of their own, Tower Talk and ART Works for slightly different audiences.
Most newsletters are usually quite well done. Lots of uplifting news and case studies, information that may help, updates on what’s been going on and useful contacts or diary information. Hopefully they come with lots of bright shiny photos too. Invariably these days they come in digital format, but some are still produced in paper, and some are both.
I contribute to many a newsletter and have at some time or other been featured in all of the above. But how do we know whether what we produce gets read? How can we increase our readership?
The article offers 10 suggestions, some of which are business orientated, but the things that I picked up that might be useful in a #bellringing newsletter context were:
Offering an interesting “lead magnet” as a sign up incentive. Now, this relates particularly to getting new business sign ups, however, the suggestions offered actually could form part of your regular newsletter offering e.g. “how to tips”, a cheat-sheet (in our case maybe an article that explains a particular method like the way I learned Double Norwich Court Bob Major as first, treble bob, last, near, full, far) accompanied by some diagrams.
Include a sign up link in your email signature. This I thought was interesting mainly from a Central Council perspective and I shall be offering it up to see if it works.
Add a “forward to a friend” button (obviously for digital newsletters). Again, I’m thinking Central Council and local Association websites News Page at the bottom of every article so that if someone likes it and thinks that a friend ought to read it, they can easily forward the link.
Promote your newsletter on your social media to raise awareness. Sounds a bit obvious but do we actually do it? Probably not consistently.
A two minute read at lunch time has now just turned into an evening’s work to see if it’s feasible.
C used to ring handbells fairly regularly and notched up several quarter peals in years gone by. When his mum died he spent some of the inheritance on a set of 12 handbells. Sadly, those handbells haven’t seen much light. We did have a couple of goes once but I was totally rubbish and couldn’t get my head around it.
I always admire the fact that he could pick up pair of handbells and without too much trouble join in something.
A couple of years ago I was a student on a handbell training course and with proper instruction, helpful advice and lots of patience I did manage to get through Plain Bob Minor on all pairs. It completely did my brain in but I was pleased to have done it. It always seemed like one of those things I should have a proper go at. I’ve not rung handbells since then.
Since lockdown handbell ringing has really enjoyed a resurgence. Its the one thing that people could meet in small groups outside, when that was allowed. Then came along the creation of Handbell Stadium the virtual version of handbell ringing with Men in Black avatars. The next upgrade came with the creation of e-bells. Realistic looking, feeling and weighted handbells that plug into your computer that you synchronise with Handbell Stadium for a more realistic experience, rather than pushing keys.
So, eventually C decided that he’d like a pair of e-bells for his birthday. I ordered two sets and the companion book Change Ringing on Handbells by Tina Stoeklin and Phil Gay. They arrived today, excellent service given he left it late to tell me that’s what he wanted. I’ll leave him to do the technical set up and I’ll have a few goes on my own with my two new avatar friends before I join in with anyone else.
Don’t think you’ll be seeing me featured on Bellboard any time soon though.
Time for another check in on motivations in life via Psychologies Magazine. This weeks quick quiz of choice was to find out what my true passion is.
This is something that I’ve struggled to answer in the past. I don’t know what I want to do or be. I’m not entirely sure what my skills are, or wants and needs out of life. I’m not even sure that I could fully answer the question about what I enjoy most. So, after 8 deep and meaningful questions, the outcome to identify my true passion is….
Your core values centre on lifelong learning
You’re extremely motivated to get more knowledge under your belt, whether that’s academic learning, or through personal growth and self-development. You feel the most like ‘you’ when you’re acquiring new skills. You have a ‘growth mindset’ approach to life – you keep an open mind, and you never assume that you’re an expert at anything, because you know there is always more that can be learned. Therefore, it’s understandable that you may struggle more than most if you’ve been in the same job for a while, or feel as if your career isn’t offering any new challenges. The upside to this is that you become more motivated than most to embark on further education. You have the dedication to put in the time and effort to get professional qualifications that will support your ambition, either by advancing your career, or opening the door to a new one.
To be fair, I’ve done a number of these short quizzes now and have to say that most of them do seem to have some resonance. I do enjoy learning new things, even at an academic level. I did my Bachelors Degree when I was 40 and my Masters at 45. I’ve done a number of online courses both around academic study and personal growth and self-development. I would certainly never claim to be an expert at anything but have a decent awareness or appreciation for a number of things. I can quiet easily sit and read a 131 page long-term plan document in order to get that golden nugget I need from it. I will study a policy document, in fact I’ll write a fair number of them too. I don’t have a problem reading a text book to learn how to do something better. I am quite happy spending all day listening to speakers at conferences, work related or not. You’ll always find something out you didn’t know before, or be sign posted somewhere else to expand you understanding of an area. I’ll quite often have pen and paper to hand when I listen to certain podcasts as they often refer to other writers or articles or programmes that might be interesting.
The one great thing I’ve always said about #bellringing is that you won’t know everything. There’s always a new method to learn, or a teaching technique that you suddenly find helpful, or a resource that you could utilise that you hadn’t before. And if you think that you do know everything there is to know, that’s when you start to share it with others and help them learn and reach their potential.
I was never particularly academic at school. I did ok and enough to get by with some decent O level grades (now that ages me). I didn’t quite get enough to be able to A levels and therefore never had the opportunity to go to university in earlier years. I did feel that that held me back somewhat. One job I had, I ended up doing 3 people’s roles and doing the work of the manager, but I was told by the Director that I couldn’t have that job (and therefore salary) because I didn’t have a degree. Despite the fact that I’d been doing the role for a number of years. Suffice to say that was enough to spur me on both in terms of finding a different job, but reigniting my education.
I went on to complete 3 NVQs in Business Administration and Business Management, before enquiring about support for a degree. Once I’d got the learning bug I was off. I acknowledge that I was extremely fortunate in that my employer paid my university fees and allowed me study leave, and my family were supportive. My daughter at the time was starting on her GCSEs and we sort of became study buddies when we both got out laptops out to work. My Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management took 5 years to complete as it was part time whilst I was working full time and had family and #bellringing commitments. Then I went straight into my Masters course in Senior Healthcare Leadership which was another 2 years. I’m always interesting in courses that come up at work, but have to acknowledge that others may benefit from them and I’ve had my turn. I’m always happy to learn more. And, crucially, I like to share my new knowledge with colleagues. No point in keeping all that new stuff to yourself if you don’t help others.
I hope I continue to find new things to learn, expand my horizons, provide me with new opportunities.
My sister does a lot of walking and is doing one of these Walk a 1000 Miles challenges. She did it last year too and smashed it. Every day we get social media pictures posted of interesting things she’s spotted on her walk and last year she had a series of themed days, say, where everything was a letter of the alphabet, or a colour, or shape etc.
This year she’s decided that she’ll just post a weekly summary, so that we don’t get bored of her pictures. Not that we will, it’s lovely to see the countryside and the ever-changing landscapes throughout the seasons.
I happened to ask whether she keeps a spreadsheet of her milage. I’m a bit of a spreadsheet fiend and have them for just about most things. A trait that it seems I’ve passed on to my daughter who has a box set viewing spreadsheet of all the programmes they watch, how many seasons and episodes so they can calculate how long it would take them to get through them all if they watched x number per day/week.
Anyway, the answer was yes she does have a mileage spreadsheet. Nerd alert. Follow up questions then came thick and fast. Does it plot this year’s mileage against last years by day/week/month? Is it annotated so you know what the cause and effect was of say, poor weather, sickness, holiday etc. Does it have a trendline? A plot chart? Can you tell if you are on target to achieve the same, if not more mileage than last year? Pivot tables, charts. Oh the possibilities.
She’s not as nerdy as me, and just has the raw data of what mileage she did each day, nothing fancy. Oh, let me at it, purlease! She said that I probably have more fun things to do. But this is fun. Let me at it, let me at it.
Then, one of our mutual friends joined in. He’s also a data nerd. Between the two of us, we got very excitable. My sister was probably thinking that we’re a pair of freaks. What’s one person’s idea of hell is another’s idea of fun.
Anyway, she has sent me her spreadsheet, and I shall enjoy having a play and see what I can come up with. This is gonna be fun.
I watched the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART) Awards ceremony this evening. Considering we haven’t been able to do much ringing in the real world over the last 12 months there were so many inspiring stories of what people have managed to achieve.
From young ringers who haven’t been #bellringing very long themselves, achieving great things, contributing to their local towers and beyond, teaching and inspiring. Others made contributions in print and on line, recruiting new and retaining existing ringers, encouraging, leading, educating and developing.
The big winners of the evening, which were thoroughly deserved, were the joint runners up in the award for Excellence in Development of technology Graham John and the team behind Handbell Stadium and e-bells. Handbell ringing has taken off massively and having a real handling experience has been a massive benefit. The undoubted winners of the night were Bryn and Leland, the creators of RingingRoom. Over 10,000 registered users across the world have had the benefit of being able to ring with each other on the virtual platform which has been a real life saver for ringing.
It was quite emotional to hear all the testimonials for each nomination. If all the nominees were together the power of the tower would be palpable.
Ringing is in very good hands. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners.
Some of the more advanced #bellringing methods are variations on a theme. The work that you do in one method often becomes part of the work that you do in another. Quite often experienced ringers will describe methods as “so and so over thingy” (obviously using real methods names). For the educated this makes it easier to put those two methods together to create a new one. For the rest of us though its pure gibberish. I understand that its relative to where the treble is.
In the virtual #bellringing sessions that I run on a Thursday night we’ve been ringing York Surprise Minor and now moved on to Durham Surprise Minor. You can see a lot of similarities between the two. The experts in the group say that York is London below and Cambridge above. That’s ok if you know London and Cambridge. Durham is Wells below and Cambridge above. Wells is Wells below and London above. Confused?
There’s a really useful table at https://www.ringing.info/minor/minor_41.html and Complib gives you more information on what’s above and what’s below in each of the 41 Surprise Minor methods.
This week I’ve rung London below and Cambridge above, Wells below and Cambridge above, Wells and London. I can’t learn them as one thing above and another below. That just fries my brain.
I can see that 5th place Wells is the same as 6ths place Durham and that 5ths place London is the same as 6ts s place York, which is, I suppose the same as the above and below bit, but I wouldn’t be able to figure that out without the line in front of me.
Someone (you know who you are) came over to see me today and very kindly brought me belated birthday gifts. They were brilliant, thank you. However, it was what she was wearing that got most of my attention.
It looked like she’d just had her hair done, but she professes to have coloured it at home. It looked like it had recently been cut too, but she swears not. She was wearing a fabulous coat. It was blue with white checked lines, a belt and collar. To be honest, she looked very glamourous in it, not that she doesn’t always look fab, but this was really rather special.
All the while we sat and chatted I was thinking “I want that coat”. I offered a very sincere compliment on it and how it looked on her and she told me where she’d bought it from. I’m going to google it later.
But do I need another coat? Probably not. I have several lightweight jackets. I have what I call my autumn jacket, one that is slightly thicker than but not as heavy as a winter jacket. I have a winter jacket. I have a winter coat. I have a rain coat. I have a posh long coat. I probably don’t need another one. But it did look good.
It looked good on her, but would it have looked that good on me? I don’t know. We are different body shapes, height, hair colour and skin tone, so maybe it suited her style better. Maybe I’d just look like a beached whale in it.
I’m trying to inject some colour into my wardrobe as quite a significant amount of it is black or white. I’m trying to find more stylish items rather than the functional or office style. I’m buying more things I can mix and match with other things. I’m trying to move away from the same old stuff. I did actually see a photograph of someone in a bright pink trouser suit the other day and I thought she looked fantastic. I actually felt that I wanted that suit too. Last summer I did buy a bright blue suit, which is very different for me, and I wore it to work a few times and got some really nice compliments.
I think the problem is I’m not really sure what my style is. I like comfort but I like to be smart when I’m at work. I used to wear skirts and dresses but for about 15 years or so I probably have only wore a skirt or dress a handful of times. I have some long dresses that I wear to formal dinners, but that’s all I have in the wardrobe now. Everything else is trousers. I have a long body which makes some styles impossible to wear despite the fact that they might be flattering for my girth!
I think I like an urban casual look. Something fairly soft and comfy with an occasional edge to it. I’m slowly amassing that kind of wardrobe. But every now and then I want a statement piece. Maybe the coat could be this years’ statement piece.
Bells, Bakes & Bettering Myself 