Chair's Chat April 2026

Dear Ringers,

I am writing this while at the National Skills Day (which has turned into a full National Rally as so many people chose to stay the whole weekend!). Having just run a workshop on Shelley Ringing, while others attend sessions on topics such as 4-in-hand, bass bells, chimes, conducting and sight reading, I am reminded how fortunate we are in the South East Region. Not only do we have people to teach these (and other) workshops, the equipment to be able to run them and places suitable for holding smaller events, we also have ringers who are wanting to attend workshops and learn or improve these skills.

We recently held our own 4-in-hand workshop afternoon, which was extremely well attended, and we have a 12 bell day coming up in September, along with Ring Something Simple 6. We have also just been asked to run a team leaders workshop. As I have said before – if there is something you would like a workshop on, please do ask us and we will look into putting it into the calendar. We have decided to postpone the Read and Ring planned for June, but this will reappear in the calendar, so keep an eye out for a new date.

Before we head into the summer (and a large number of us head to Aberdeen for the International Symposium), we have rallies at Headcorn and Weybridge - forms for these two rallies came out just before Easter.

If you want to see a large team in action, then the South East Bell Orchestra have their concert at 3pm on Saturday May 9th at North Camp Methodist Church. Tickets are available online (www.hrgbse.org.uk).

Finally at our recent AGM we said a huge thank you to John and Valerie Boon as they retired from the SE Committee after many years of service to the region. A full report (along with the AGM minutes and accounts) will be in the next newsletter. This does mean that we are in a period of change for - 2 - the newsletter and our finances. Sue has taken over as newsletter editor (this being her first one) and has worked hard to get everything together. Please help her by sending lots of things in for the next newsletter, but also if you have any helpful comments on this edition, let her know (I may have tweaked a few things before sending this out!).

We also welcome our new treasurer, Tim Ockendon. Inevitably it takes time to get everything changed over, so please bear with him while we make the necessary changes to the accounts (these things are never straightforward!). When making BACS payments for events, please ensure that you are using the reference given on the form and your team name for rallies (or your name for workshop events if this is more appropriate) so we can match up the forms and the payments.

I look forward to seeing many of you at an event soon!

Helen

HELENLSECKER@GMAIL.COM

My view during the massed ringing at the National Skills weekend. I have been using a tablet at school as much of our music comes as a pdf and it saves printing, but this was the f irst time I have used it for handbells!