Advent Guild Mtg, 4/27 - Call for nominations & volunteers

[Britt Hartenberger <bhartenb bu edu>]

Dear Members of the Advent Guild (*see list of members at bottom),

We will be having our annual Guild Meeting on Thursday April 27th, at 
8:30pm in the church library. We will have new officers to elect, 
especially since Dale is leaving soon. I'd like to open nominations 
for the following positions (described in detail below):

  Steeple Keeper
  Tower Captain
  Ringing Master
  Area Representative
  Secretary/Treasurer and/or Historian

You can nominate someone for any of the above positions by emailing 
me. I'll keep a running list of nominees in the tower and also send 
out a note a few days before the meeting listing all the nominees. 
Current members may vote at the meeting. If you can't attend the 
meeting, either send me an email of your vote or ask someone who is 
attending to be a proxy to vote for you. If you'd like to join the 
guild, please attend the meeting if possible or send me a note saying 
you'd like to join and support the ringing at Advent.

I think we will be able to keep the meeting short if everyone could 
please a) think in advance about who they'd like to vote for, and b) 
think about how they could volunteer to help a particular officer. 
The second part is new this year. The current officers discussed the 
various parts of their jobs recently, and we thought it would be 
useful to have a 'team' of several people who were interested in 
helping each officer, who could be called upon for help as needed or 
with special tasks. This would let more people be involved in 
organizing and maintaining ringing, spread out the work, and let 
people learn more about that officer's tasks in case they'd like to 
become that officer in the future. Ringing is a fun activity, but 
there are also some maintenance and organizational tasks that must be 
done to keep things safe, clean, and running smoothly.

Please look over the various parts of the jobs below and think about 
where your skills or interests might be useful - are you a neat freak 
and could help the steeple keeper in organizing? Are you a social, 
outgoing person who likes to organize social outings, which would 
help the Secretary/Treasurer? You can certainly pick specific parts 
you'd like to help with, and pick more than one. Either sign up for 
your favorites at the meeting or if you can't make it, email me about 
how you would like to help. Thank you!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,
Britt Hartenberger
Advent Guild President


[not all of the following are currently being done, but this is the 
ideal scope of each area]


Jobs by Area and Officers Responsible

A) Physical Plant (Officer = Steeple Keeper):
1) Maintain ropes, bells, fittings, monitor condition of frame;
2) Maintain (regular cleaning, plus repair as needed) ringing room 
and anteroom:
  2a) Vacuuming grit from floors, shelves, and other surfaces;
  2b) Cleaning blackboard, fans, and water cooler reservoir;
  2c) Removing recyclables from yellow bag;
  2d) Replacing supplies - batteries, trash bags, paper cups; and
  2e) Keep floor space clear - remove frames on hallway floor, keep 
stacks of paper from spilling over, etc..
3) Research and source required materials as necessary; and
4) Alert Tower Captain of emerging financial needs and anything that 
might involve the church, e.g.:
  4a) Window in anteroom is rotted;
  4b) Interior wired doorbell is needed.

B) Overall Ringing Management (Officer = Tower Captain):
1) Plan and direct regular practices;
2) Plan and direct Service Ringing;
3) Organize and schedule special ringing events such as Peals, QPs, 
ringing festivals;
4) Co-ordinate with RM to provide optimal opportunities for 
individual and overall ringers' development;
5) Respond to issues raised by other officers with necessary 
co-ordination, funding, support, direction, etc.;
6) Interface with the Church; and
7) Provide first response to outside inquiries and redirect them to 
appropriate officer.

C) Ringing Development  (Officer = Ringing Master):
1) Develop a strategy for teaching ringing from first handling 
lessons through Spliced Surprise Major;
2) Form and carry-out ongoing development of a team of people who can 
teach handling;
3) Make out-of-regular-practice handling lessons available to new learners;
4) Get contact info for all potential learners, maintain email or 
phone contact especially in early weeks;
5) Co-ordinate with Area Rep to learn about and promote among our 
members ringing opportunities available at other towers in No. 
America and abroad;
6) Co-ordinate with TC to provide staged ringing opportunities in 
practice and service ringing; and
7) Arrange for occasional importing of ringing teachers/conductors 
from outside our regular band in co-ordination with the TC and the 
Guild President for special weekend workshops.

D) External Affairs  (Officer = Area Representative)
1) Establish and maintain close two-way contact with ringing 
activities across NA - both NAGCR and more local or informal 
initiatives -- letting them know what we are interested in and 
letting us know what they are doing:
  1a) Monitor the chat lines;
  1b) Attend meetings and festivals outside Boston;
  1c) Mail, receive, and post Christmas greeting cards to/from other 
towers;
  1d) Maintain special contact with other NE towers with eye to joint 
activities; and
  1e) Write the quarterly area report for "The Clapper;"
2) Co-ordinate with other Boston area towers, especially Old North, 
regarding ringing events/use of bells;
3) Maintain Advent Guild website (co-ordinate with church) and 
web-based Boston Ringing Calendar;
4) Plan and carry out various initiatives designed to raise the 
awareness of change ringing, especially on Tower Bells in Boston, 
among target sections of the public:
  4a) Place ads/notices in various publications and websites;
  4b) Plan special events to promote awareness, such as Open Tower 
Days, demonstrations of ringing, solicitations of named Peals and 
Quarters;
  4c) Work with filmmakers/publishers to get articles/films about 
change ringing developed and promoted; and
5) Initiate/maintain regular contact with "fallen away" ringers in 
Boston area to keep them informed and feeling connected and to 
stimulate their renewed ringing where possible.

E) Administrative Support (Officers = Secretary-Treasurer and 
Librarian/Archivist/Historian)
1) Keep Guild's current records:
  1a) Updated lists of access information for area ringers, including 
but not limited to Guild members;
  1b) Minutes of all meetings taken and published;
2) Manage Guild's money:
  2a) Dues, fees, and donations -- set, collected, and recorded;
  2b) Financial transactions  -- carried out, recorded, and 
periodically analyzed;
  2c) Acquire and maintain stock of Boston Common Garage parking tickets;
  2d) Manage the Ringing World subscriptions and donations
3) Maintain "team spirit":
  3a) Organize and coordinate social events/outings, or at least be 
the initial clearinghouse for them;
  3b) Organize and carry out the Boston Change Ringing "shirt" operations.
4) Generate new materials - Signs, Address labels, Stationery, 
In-tower notices, Liability Forms, etc.;
5) Handle occasional general correspondence;
6) Organize, maintain, and store Guild's Historical Archive:
  6a) Regularly sort and store new materials including photos from 
anteroom on ongoing basis;
  6b) Prepare and post a catalogue, however brief, of materials in 
storage and their location;
7) Organize, maintain, and catalogue the Ringing Room Library:
  7a) Co-ordinate with Ringing Master to inform about and provide 
materials to learners;
  7b) Make electronic catalogue of materials available to members;
  7c) Update sign-out sheets; and
  7d) Maintain the Ringing World and Clapper libraries.



*Current members of the Advent Guild are:
Mira Blumberg, Dianne Cermak, Greg Cermak, Nancy Chadburn, John 
Danaher, Matt Farmer, Alex Feather, Jackie Feather, Anna Gladstone, 
Elaine Hansen, Britt Hartenberger, Oliver Kosut, Piers Jalandoni, Amy 
Moore, Hat Morgan, Don Morrison, Cally Perry, Rachel Saunders, 
Deborah Skeath, Maurice Southworth, Ana Tam, John Wahl, Kerry Walsh, 
James Whiting, and Dale Winter. Laura Dickerson is an honorary member.