Resident Membership is Important

Dear Fellow Ringers,

If this amendment passes - people who do not ring and never have done so can become full voting members of the NAGCR – then we will no longer be a "guild of change ringers," but merely a change ringing appreciation society. Is this really what we want? I believe we should remain a Guild i.e. “an association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards.” We are a club of people with similar interests.

Why do we need to admit any "Tom, Dick or Harry" to our "club"? Or for that matter any person walking along the street, who wants more information on ringing, pays their money and has "access.”

Our name should then be changed to something else and the Guild should be disbanded according to the NAGCR Constitution - Article 12.

I think we should be extremely careful. I do not think there is a Change Ringing Guild anywhere in the world that does not have membership qualifications and what we have now is extremely simple and excludes nobody. We merely do not give voting rights to everyone. Why should non-ringers have a voice in our Guild, especially if they know little about change ringing?

The Membership requirements now are a lot easier than when I joined the Guild. At that time there was a ringing requirement that kept many fledgling ringers out of the Guild. I think that the current wording is not at all exclusionary, although perhaps we need to amend the word Associate to something like Friend.

At the AGM several members got up and voiced their opinions. I hope that they too will speak out once again against this proposed amendment.

I urge all Resident members to vote - and to vote NO.

Eileen Butler - NAGCR member since 1988