shades of Groucho Marx

Hello, all. I cannot claim to have read every single post on the subject of the proposed constitutional amendment. But in those which I have read, the discussion has mainly turned on the question of the proposed change itself, and whether allowing in non-ringers would be a problem to the guild. Much has been said both ways.

For me, though, this isn't the interesting question. What I really want to know is— why has the change been proposed? Are there actually people clamoring to join the Guild but not interested in learning how to ring? Have people actually been put off or offended by our membership policy? I am having a hard time imagining anybody who would or even could be.

I am a new ringer. For years I wanted to learn to ring; and I finally got around to making it happen. Membership in the NAGCR came a few months later, almost as an afterthought; and surely that's as it should be — ringing itself is important; the guild-as-a-bureaucracy is unimportant and the guild-as-a-social-club is uninteresting to somebody who hasn't yet made friends in the tower.

So that's what I don't get — who but a ringer would want to join the Guild? As I understand it, we have only a handful of associate members, and most of them are clergy of churches with bells. Are they clamoring for the vote? Or are there outsiders who are somehow turned away from us because they've burrowed down into the unimportant parts of our website, found out the minor details of our membership policy, and taken offense?

I understand for some people it's a matter of principle; and I respect that. But I'm curious about whether there's any real-world effect. Thanks.