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I do understand what is being said in support of the proposal; however, there really are two problems with it and they are both rather large problems as far as I'm concerned.
- It is the North American GUILD of Change Ringers and not the North American Association of Those Who Want to Support Ringing. The organization IS a guild, has been a guild and has as its core purpose supporting the activity of Change Ringing. Yes, that could be changed — of course it could. But that would be a major, core change in mission and should be understood as such. And supporting Change Ringing means -- at its core -- maintaining the actual practice OF change ringing. And that means having ringers, not just or mostly persons who are interested in ringing. Simply having a church tower doesn't actually support ringing -- think about how many abandoned rings there are that are in want of ringers. Yes, having a tower is critically important -- no one doubts that. But so are ropes -- of the right kind -- so are stairs in most cases (to get up to the ringing chamber). But the core point is the actual ringing -- not the interest in it.
- The premise of the proposal is that this kind of change is NECESSARY or the Guild — and change ringing in North America — will die out quickly. I've heard that story before and the idea that we NEED to change our membership rules to attract more members is actually contrary to the very facts stated. We have more towers than ever in our history and we have more ringers than ever before in our history. And we have more members than ever before. Do we really want -- let alone need -- a large influx of non-ringers who would have full voting rights? Why really is this seen as desirable, let alone NECESSARY? I just don't get it.
The issue of reaching out to those who are interested in ringing and not yet ringers, as well as to those who may never become ringers but want to support ringing, certainly can and should be addressed pro-actively. In analogy we need non-military personnel to support the efforts of the military; however, we do not have them participate in the military on an “equal” basis to those who serve the core function of the military.
Some may want to characterize the difference in status between a ringer and non-ringer as ensconcing a “second class” and, in and of itself, that kind of language makes the recognition of the difference sound like an inherent evil. From my perspective it is quite clear that there IS a difference — and a profound difference — between those who those who do NOT (and will NOT) engage in change ringing of any sort as distinct from those persons who actually ring, are learning to ring, or are returning to ringing after an absence whether their ringing involves change ringing in hand or in towers. Yes non-ringers should have status but not as full, regular members. It just doesn't make sense.
To sum it up. The Guild is appropriately a Guild of those who have learned and exercise a craft. Moreover, the Guild is enjoying unprecedented growth in North America so, from that perspective alone, must not be doing too awfully bad.
