Well, the individual Annual District Meetings have come and gone, and not without some problems, mainly concerned with not enough people volunteering to be on a committee, and therefore help to run their District, or even the Association itself. However, saying that, we now do have four district committees, albe

Remember, we are all partaking of a hobby, which I hope the majority of us enjoy, but we do need some form of structure, and it really would be nice to see more varied people involved, rather than the same faces the whole time. Even if you are a new member, you must have some ideas about what could be done, and your input would be most welcome. It was good to see a couple of the Young Ringers willing to help out with the South’s committee, and even prepared to put together the newsletter.

Talking of Sussex Young Ringers, I have just heard that they have once again triumphed in the South East Youth Competition. Many thanks to Anne Franklin and Sandra Alford for helping to organise practices and the teams. The contest was held at Kings Langley in Hertfordshire, and this year, Sussex managed to enter 2 teams, so it was only right that they came first and second. Well done to all our young ringers, even if you were not in one of the teams this year, you may be there next year.

The next big item on our agenda is the Annual Meeting for the whole Association. This is to be at Billingshurst. Open ringing starts at 10:30, followed by a service, in which I hope you will all attend, even if you are not Church of England. Your hobby is to ring church bells, the least you could do, would be to attend a service especially when it is an Association service.

Talking about the AGM, during the past year when Sandra Alford has done an absolutely marvellous job as association secretary, even though she had not even been on the General Committee beforehand; has decided that for personal reasons, she is unable to continue as secretary beyond the AGM. I thank her most sincerely for all she has accomplished, and now we must look for a new secretary. Please do consider yourself for this role within OUR Association, or ask someone who you think would be good, and let either Sandra (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or myself (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) know. This role could quite easily be split into 2 parts, thereby reducing the commitment.

I look forward to meeting many of you at the AGM on 13th May.

Graham Hills