The Essex Association of Change Ringers   President: The Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Chelmsford

Bequests Project

Background

In 2021 the Association received two very large bequests from Donald Health and David Cobb, totalling £373,000. It is important what we do with these generous gifts reflects the contribution both made to the exercise of bellringing and ensure that the process for deciding what to do with this large sum of money is honourable, equitable and supports bells and bellringers long into the future.

A workgroup was set up consisting of the three principal officers, Communications Officer, Education Officer, a Life Vice President and representation from each District, to consider how to approach this task. This group defined a set of principles to take forward for further discussion and consideration by the wider membership:

• Investment in the future
• Central resource
• Balance against distributed support
• Developing capacity – physical, skills
• Youth investment
• Work in collaboration with others
• In Memoriam principles
• Investment purely to support spend of capital
• Trust balanced against appropriate caution

During the 2022 Annual District Meetings, the Master and Secretary presented these themes for further consideration and asked members to provide feedback and any other ideas.

Five main themes came out of those early discussions:

• Caution and Oversight
• Recruitment and Public Relations
• Investment in the future of ringing
• Hardware
• Financial management
• Other matters

Our Aim

The aim of this workgroup is to:

• Consider the general views of the membership about how we should manage these bequests
• Confirm the outline principles are right
• Consider how to manage spend against these bequests – planned projects/grants
• How to engage wider association membership in these decisions
• Continually review to ensure possible options are considered

Workgroup Members:

• Andrew Kelso - Assocation Master
• Sharon Lacey - Assocation Secretary
• Andrew Brewster - Association Treasurer
• Vicki Chapman - Communications Officer
• Beth Johnson - Education Officer
• Mary Bone - LVP
• Paul Cammiade - LVP

  District Reps:

• Vicky Le Fevre
• Ian Kerwin
• Ian Culham
• Bryan Morrissey
• Steve Nash
• Barbara Leigh
• Sandra Murphy
• Steve Waters
• Lucas Bent
• Tony Bloomfield

Current Focus

1. Development of strategy and pilot proposals
2. Sharing the feedback in the survey responses
3. Workgroup to meet again towards the end of June to review the draft strategy and pilot proposals documents

Survey Results

172 members participated in the survey with many others providing verbal feedback at the AGM and emailed feedback directly to the Workgroup. the full report is attached here.

What’s Coming Next

The Workgroup met in May, after the AGM to review feedback from the survey, and other feedback received from members and the Management Committee. There were strong themes around education, training and recruitment, PR and communications and the use of technology. Some work has already begun to look at what some of these areas might look like and potential costs associated with them. They will form part of a Strategy, with some pilot proposals to put to the Association's Management Committee and Trustees, including further opportunity for consultation with Association members. The aim is to have a final suite of information to present for membership approval at the 2023 AGM.

A spending strategy will define how the Association will plan to spend bequest monies e.g. proportions spent on different themes, how money will be awarded to specific projects and opportunities to consider how the Association will develop and run itself.

Pilot proposals will look at specific spending proposals this group will develop in response to ideas generated from the feedback received.

Questions, Comments and Suggestions

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions (not already submitted) regarding this work, the process or information, please email the Bequest Workgroup at

The Bequests Strategy was approved at the AGM in May 2023. A copy of the final version can be found on this page.

Applicants for grants from our existing funds will be advised by the Education Officer, Technical Advisor, or Secretary how they can apply for additional funding from the bequests.

Also, if members have any other project that they would like to fund using this money, they are encouraged to write to the Secretary in the first instance, describing the project and how funding from the Association could be used to support it.