Chair's Chat February 2025

Dear Ringers,

Welcome to an exciting year for the South East Region. Not only are we

currently celebrating the 25th Season for the South East Region Bell

Orchestra, but we are also celebrating the 50th year of HRGB SE!

In order to celebrate, the committee have decided that for each event or

rally held during the year, a published piece of music will be purchased for

all attendees. This means if your whole team attend a rally, you will have a

new piece for your repertoire! Obviously if only some of your team attend,

you will have to purchase extra copies to make up the required numbers, but

occasionally there may be copies available on the day. Those who attended

the Read and Ring Day earlier this month have received their first piece. I

wonder if anyone will be able to claim “full house” by the end of the year?

Some of the other pieces we use are arranged or written particularly for

the region to use at rallies and events, but again, please contact the arranger

or composer if you need more copies. Remember that it is illegal to perform

from photocopies! We also sometimes buy music digitally for sole use at an

event – for example, the two other pieces used at the Read and Ring day –

and these will be collected in at the end of the event. This does not, of

course, stop you purchasing copies for your own team and we will be more

than happy to let you know the easiest way to do this!

It was lovely to see so many ringers at the Birthday Rally last month (and

yes, we did fail to realise it was our 50th birthday until after everything had

been sent out for this – oops!). Our first ever Birthday Rally was held in

2005 to celebrate the 30th Birthday of the region and has been held annually

on the first Saturday in January ever since (with a couple of exceptions!).

As a free event to ringers, it is always popular – and you will see from the

photos and write-up that as well as full teams, we often get individuals, pairs

or small groups from teams. As the day is mainly massed ringing and there

is no expectation to have looked at the music beforehand. There is also no

pressure to perform team solos (although some do), and the day is an

excellent way to get back into ringing after the Christmas break.

At this year’s rally I put out a plea for some more teams to come forward

to host or help host events, as we are aware that events are being held at

the same few venues each year. I’m delighted to say that some teams have

come forward, and we are very excitedly trying out some new venues. As a

team you can run the whole event, or just find the venue, or anything in

between, and the committee will help with anything that is needed such as

putting together the form, choosing music, finding conductors, doing the

catering. We are happy to work with you to run a successful event, however

large or small it is. If your team are always saying “there isn’t anything near

us”, then maybe you could find somewhere?!

Finally, if you have any suggestions or ideas for our

50th Birthday Year, then please do let me know.

Someone has already suggested a badge – but for

that we need a picture. I’ve put something together,

but I’m sure there is someone out there who has a

much more creative mind – if so, please do get in

touch!

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

Yours,

Helen

HELENLSECKER@GMAIL.COM