W&P Guild: Fundraising Tower Open Day for Ropley - 30 Sep 2023

The A&P District in the W&P Guild are organising a Fundraising Open Day at the end of September to help raise funds to restore the bells at Ropley, where the church was destroyed by fire in 2014. Fundraising to re-hang the bells is still ongoing after nearly 10 years…..so if you only support one Tower Open Day this year, make it this one!

Full details here: https://www.wpbells.org/open-day-for-ropley/

With 24 Towers situated in the South Downs National Park and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, ringing in the Alton & Petersfield District is a special treat!

  • Recently augmented, restored and rarely available Towers!
  • Refreshments (bacon rolls/lunches/afternoon tea) served throughout the day.
  • All Towers manned with local ringers, so ringing can always take place on the full set of bells.
  • Prize for anyone who manages to ring at all 24 towers during the day!

Share the day with non-ringing friends, who can enjoy shopping in the lovely market towns of Alton or Petersfield, visiting Jane Austen’s house at Chawton or The Wakes Museum (Gilbert White’s house) at Selborne…..or even a trip on the Watercress Line Steam Railway!

EARLY BIRD DAY TICKETS: £18 in advance (access to all 24 open towers)

Pay on the day: £2 per Tower, or DAY TICKETS £20 (available from the Stewards at any Tower).

Any changes will be listed/notified via https://www.wpbells.org/open-day-for-ropley/

Great Result for Sussex Young Ringers at SEECON 2023!

Sussex Young Ringers gained a fantastic 2nd place at the 2023 South East England Striking Contest (SEECON) at Caterham.

The team, led by Michael Shaw of Fairwarp a day after his 18th birthday rang rounds and call changes and achieved a score of 86%.

The team welcomed two new members of the band, Pippa and Moses of Southover, for their first experience of competitive ringing. The band was completed by Samuel of Hailsham and Luca and Francesco of Midhurst and the row counter was Kye of Crawley.

Seven County bands competed at St Mary's Caterham. The team from Essex gained first place with an excellent touch of Plain Bob Doubles.

2023 04 01 seecon2

New membership system

From January 2023, SCACR will be using a new system to manage memberships, including proposing new members and renewal of existing members. This system will automate many processes that were previously done manually, which took up a lot of our volunteers’ valuable time. Additionally, the old email system was rapidly approaching end-of-life, so urgently needed replacing.

The reasons for adopting new systems and processes are:

  • to reduce the administrative burden on our volunteer officers, so that more of their limited time can be spent serving you, our members, and less on thankless but necessary bureaucracy (which will also make it easier to find volunteers to support the work of the Association);
  • to automate payment reconciliation for card payments;
  • to improve our communication channels to you, our members, so that you get more timely notification of ringing events that may interest you;
  • to ensure that the Association is compliant with data protection regulations (GDPR) - the Association would be liable to a large fine if these regulations were breached.

How do I renew my membership using the new system?

All members will receive a personal email (or postal letter, for those without email - only 5% of members), explaining how to renew their membership and pay subs through the new system. Every member must complete their own individual renewal form. "Yellow forms" for membership renewals will not be sent to tower correspondents. (Tower information (e.g. practice and service ringing times) will be requested separately.)

NOTE: the renewal letters/emails will be sent in a phased distribution, the last group of invitations were sent on 31 January 2023.

Members with an email address will receive a link to the secure online membership system (Membermojo), through which they must review their personal details, select communications options (e.g. news and updates by District), and pay their subscription. Junior members should use their parent/guardian's email address.

To sign-in, enter your email address and then check your inbox for the sign-in details. Members can make secure payments with their credit / debit card, or Apple Pay or Google Pay from a phone. These payments are handled by a secure, commercial online payment system (Stripe). This significantly reduces the onerous administrative burden on our volunteer officers, compared to the previous procedure. Members who do not have a credit / debit card may pay offline (BACS / cheque), or another member may pay online on their behalf. Note that offline payments (bank transfer / cheque) create an administrative burden for our volunteers whose time could be spent more productively in directly supporting ringing.

For members who don’t have email or a computer / smartphone, the Membership Secretary will post a paper renewal form to their home address, and update the records on their behalf. Tower Correspondents will continue to have a duty to cascade District / Association communications to these members.

How do I propose a new ringer for Association membership?

New members can join at any time during the year (not at a meeting). New members should apply for membership via the online system, and provide contact details of their proposer and seconder. For the few people who do not have access to a computer or smartphone, a paper membership form can be completed and posted to the Membership Secretary.

As previously, new members must be proposed and seconded by current, adult ringing members of the Association.

More details about membership and joining the Association can be found here.

Q&A about the new membership system.

Hamish McNaughton

Many members are already aware that Hamish has been unwell for a couple of months. Sadly, I have to announce that he has had to stand down as our General Secretary. Rob Lane has kindly agreed to take over from Hamish in the interim period up to the next annual meeting. Rob can be contacted via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Hamish has started treatment for his cancer at home under the Royal Marsden hospital. Please remember Hamish, Sue and all their family in your prayers at this difficult time.

Gareth Higgs (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

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Upcoming Events

06Dec
Fri Dec 06 @19:30
General 8 Bell Practice
07Dec
Sat Dec 07 @09:30
Beyond Plain Hunt!
09Dec