General Committee Meeting, 26 July 2025

Bob Cox (Ely DA Chair) has produced some notes of the discussions at the 26 July 2025 meeting of the Association General Committee. These notes were originally posted to the Association Facebook Page.

Central Council of Church Bell Ringers meeting report

Lynne Hughes, one of the Association's representatives to the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers (CCCBR) has written a useful report about the CCCBR meeting in Sheffield, 5-7 September 2025. 

Ely DA 2025 AGM  - Minutes

Draft minutes of the 2025 association AGM held at Godmanchester on 17 May 2025 are now available. These may yet require correction and will be formally approved at the 2026 AGM.

Success for the Fen Tigers at RWNYC Birmingham 2025!

Congratulations to the Association Young Ringers (the Fen Tigers) on their success in the Ringing World National Youth Competition  at the beginning of July.  Two teams entered - the Advanced Call Chang team came joint 7th out of 12 teams, and the Method team came joint 4th out of 11 teams. The is the first time that this current group of Young Ringers had entered the Method competition. Well done all!

2024 Anual Report

The Association’s Annual Report for 2024 (and handbook for 2025) was published at the AGM in May. Printed copies for members who have elected to receive them are being distributed via District Secretaries.

An on-line copy of this report (along with those for the last few years) can be accessed from the “Members Page” in the membership management system - sign in to your ‘Your Membership’ page and select the option to view The Ely DA members only page.

For future years, you can choose whether or not you want a printed copy from you details held in the membership management system.

Young Ringers

The Ely DA has a flourishing Young Ringers group! They are known as the Fen Tigers and made up of youngsters from right across our area.

Please encourage any new young ringers you are aware of to come along to any of the events advertised in the Ely DA Calendar or on the Young Ringers' website and tell them that they will be welcome whatever their standard of ringing. Please do encourage them - non-ringing parents often don't realise how welcoming the ringing community is to everyone so explain how it all works. We're anxious to recruit the next wave of young ringers, build up their experience and help them organise themselves. The Young Ringers caters for every ability - some ringers are getting really good at learning to call touches and ring heavier bells, whilst other ringers are at the other end of their ringing path having just mastered backstrokes.

Coming up: Outing to Suffolk, monthly practices in Cambridge, quarterly weekend practices around the Ely DA, quarter peals, competitions, heavy bell ringing. 

(All events have adults with DBS in attendance and all safeguarding precautions are taken.)

General Committee Meeting, 1 February 2025

Bob Cox (Ely DA Chair) has produced some notes of the discussions at the 1 February meeting of the Association General Committee. These notes were originally posted to the Association Facebook Page.

Interactive Map of Towers Updated

The Association's map of towers has become increasingly out of date over the last few years, but it (and the corresponding maps on the Ely and Huntingdon District sites) has just been updated against a central record of tower information held by the Association. This is part of a longer-term plan to derive all tower listings on the Association and District sites and in the Annual Report from a single source to make updates easier and consistent, but that is for the future.

The current central record is unlikely to be error free, and in any case tower information, in particular  practice and service ringing times, changes frequently. Please let the Association webmaster (webmaster_at_elyda.org.uk) know about any errors you find on the Association web  site itself - errors in information provided by the Districts needs to be reported to the relaevent District webmaster.

Online Membership Management

The Association has implemented an online membership management system using membermojo.co.uk. 

Members, providing we have an email address for them, will receive emails from membermojo on our behalf, and will be directed to the https://membermojo.co.uk/ web site for some membership matters. Please don’t be surprised or concerned by these emails - this note is intended to help confirm their authenticity. Existing members can manage their membership online, and new members can use the system to apply to join us.

We have done this mainly to help District Membership Secretaries with the time consuming task of managing our membership lists and collecting subscriptions. The system also provides services for members, including automated subscription reminders, on-line payments, access to view and update the information we hold, a directory of members, and improved ways of keeping members up-to-date with news and event . Members don’t have to interact with the new system if they don’t want to and can still manage their membership and pay subscriptions to their district as they always have.

There is a slideshow containing more information about the new system and how it works. If you have any questions about this please contact your District Membership Secretary or email membership_at_elyda.org.uk.

Association Facebook Page

As well as the Facebook Groups run by each District, the Association has a  Facebook page at 

https://www.facebook.com/elyda.bellringers/

This is intended as a more formal communication channel than the groups for our members and the general public. It will carry announcements of, and reports about, most or all association, district and RATS (incl. Young Ringers) events and so act as a sort of ‘newsletter’ for the association. If you are a Facebook user then please take a look and click the ‘Follow” button so that you will be alerted to new posts.

Posting access to this Page can be made available to Association and District officers involved in organising events to simplify making announcements - see the Facebook Page policy for more information.

Stretham Tower Enhancement Project 

The Stretham Tower Enhancement Project (STEP) aims to keep the tradition of bell ringing alive in Stretham with the installation of a glass screen for the ringing room, some much needed maintenance and the installation of two ‘Training Bells.

Home to the Association's Ringing Education Centre, the bells  of St James' church at Stretham have been ringing out across the village since the 18th century and they now require significant maintenance. At the same time, the installation of two new Training Bells (these are easy to ring model bells which make their noise via a computer) will provide a tremendous aid to safe and enjoyable teaching, especially of children. The installation of a full-height glass screen across the top of the ringing room balcony in St will transform the experience of ringing there from freezing endurance to one of pleasant light comfort!

Follow the progress of the project on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StrethamBells and keep up-to-date with progress on raising the needed £45,000 on their JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/page/stretham-step1710494742422.