Hello everyone and welcome to the LDG Newsletter, I do hope that you have all had a great Christmas and enjoyed lots of ringing. In the two week run up to Christmas our local team pulled in 13 Christmas service rings and practices so I do feel that I earned my mince pies!

Our Guild AGM was held at Oadby at the end of October. Thank you very much to the Harborough District ringers for hosting this event and providing us with tea and a great quiz for the social afterwards. Other districts have also held their AGM’s in this last quarter and this has highlighted that the District Committees are struggling to find volunteers to keep them running. Only three of our six Districts now have functioning committees and it is clear is that although we have around 700 registered members, not many of these are involved in running the districts.

I am launching a study in 2025 called ‘The LDG at 80’ to review this position and, with the involvement and input of all our members,  I intend to pull together and implement an action plan to put us on a more stable footing for the future. I will be looking for District reps to join the group and it’s likely that you will see some surveys come out to canvas members opinions on options so please take the time to fill them in and have your say.

To get you thinking about this, Garry Mason has written an article entitled ‘Food For Thought’ which is included within the newsletter.

I will finish with some great news from Tilton on the Hill – we moved the bells back into the tower in early December and Taylor’s managed to fit the new frame and hang the bells in time to ring for the Christmas service there.  The bells now handle really well and the re-tuning of all the bells whilst they were out of the tower has been a great success. Remember that the BRF grants are there to help fund this sort of work.

Wishing you all a very  Happy New Year and here is to our continued ringing in the year ahead.

Regards,
Pete Brown,
LDG President.