As mentioned in the October Newsletter, the President of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, Mrs Kate Flavell, writes a monthly 'blog' about what her month as President and that of the Council in general consists of. Her November blog contained two particular items of interest:-
Firstly, Kate tells us there is to be another Ringing Roadshow in 2014. It will be held at Newbury Racecourse and will be on 6th September. The Roadshow is the opportunity for ringers, bell-related suppliers, ringing societies, ringers and who/whatever to show their products and services to a large audience.
Secondly - and this is a very interesting one; this is about insurance; and I will quote Kate direct: 'Having spent my working life in insurance I am always interested to see the insurance queries that crop up from ringers, although these are now expertly handled by the Tower Stewardship Committee, chaired by Christopher O'Mahony. As President I still enjoy our annual meetings with the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group (EIG) and our successful efforts to demonstrate to them how safe ringing is, compared to other dangerous popular pursuits such as driving and DIY. Just recently a query came up involving a tower whose ringers had, like so many others, opened their own bank account to manage their own money. Their PCC then told them that EIG had told the PCC that this meant that the ringers were now a separate body from the church and needed to arrange their own insurance. Despite several calls to EIG, along the lines of "this can't possibly be right" they appeared to be adamant. Through the Council's contacts at senior level within EIG we were able to establish that ringers can indeed have their own bank accounts and still be covered by the PCC's EIG insurance, as they are still just as much a part of the church's family. They have taken steps to ensure that their staff will not give out this incorrect information any more. Much relief all round, and a demonstration of the value of our regular meetings with senior EIG executives.'
My tower has such a bank account to look after money that is for bell maintenance. There will be other towers that do this. It's well worth having the weight of the Central Council to help sort out little sillies that big organisations tend to inflict on little organisations occasionally. Kate's blogs are worth reading. They can be found at: http://cccbr.org.uk/blog/. CMP