Pittsburgh Ringing Event

[Don Morrison <dfm ringing org>]

My apologies to those of you that get this more than once: I'm sending
it to several mailing lists with overlapping membership. Please feel
free to forward it to others that might be interested and are not on
any of these lists.

While Pittsburgh is a little too far off the beaten path for most folks
to be able to come to even as regularly as every year, there's some
evidence that folks would like the occasional special event to to be
scheduled here. We'd of course love to have visitors whenever they find
themselves in the area, and can usually arrange extra times to suit
visitors' schedules if they let us know when they're going to be here.
But I think some folks would like an excuse to schedule a specific
trip, and also to be sure of gathering a goodly crop of visitors to
augment our tiny band.

We're thinking that perhaps organizing something every two or three
years might be a good idea. Not at the same point of the year each
time, but rather moving around a bit through the calendar to
accommodate the varied schedules of different people.

Since it's a long way for most folks to come, rather than making it
just for a few hours,, we're thinking of instead making it a whole
weekend, starting with ringing on the Friday evening, continuing
throughout the day on Saturday, service ringing on Sunday, and then
ringing on Sunday afternoon as long as there are sufficient folks here.
Of course, folks that just wanted to come for a day, or even just an
hour or two, would be most welcome, too.

Our thinking is that it would be a mixture of general ringing, catering
to all levels, together with some quarter peal attempts, trying to get
something with everyone that's come visiting. With luck there would be
sufficient visitors from multiple towers for folks to perhaps get more
opportunities for ringing surprise and other advanced eight bell things
than might be regularly possible at some of their home towers. If there
is sufficient interest from the visitors, and it can be scheduled so as
not to unduly inconvenience those visitors that would be excluded from
the tower for three hours, a peal attempt might also be a possibility.
If sufficient folks express interest we might also arrange some rooms
and opportunities for handbell ringing.

We're a small band, so the odds are poor that if we had a good turnout
for such an event we'd be able to put everyone up in ringers' homes,
though we'd certainly be able to put up some. On the other hand,
Pittsburgh is a relatively inexpensive city, and hotels are likely to
be cheaper than in many other places.

Unless the airlines implode completely, Pittsburgh is an easy city to
fly to. Or it's certainly a practical, though longish, drive from
nearly a dozen other towers. The tower is easily accessed by public
transportation, though we'd try to provide more convenient lifts for
everyone visiting as well that didn't have a car.

As the rest of this year's calendar looks to be fairly full of ringing
events across North America, we're thinking perhaps in the spring of
next year. Early April would likely be awkward for many because of
Easter and then the N-Towers Festival the following weekend. But
possibly the last weekend in April, 24-26 April 2009 might work for
folks. Or instead the following weekend, 1-3 May 2009.

This is just an early proposal right now. We don't even know if it will
work locally, but want to gauge what level of interest there would be
in the North American ringing community for such an event, if it could
be hosted here.

If you wouldn't mind, please fill out the following form indicating
your interest in such an event. If you're reading this in an HTML mail
client, and the mailing through which it's been delivered to you hasn't
stripped out the HTML, you should be able to fill out the form right in
your mail client. Please be sure to remember to push the "Submit"
button when you're done!

If you can't, or prefer not, to fill it out in your mail client there
is also a URL below that you should be able to visit (probably just by
clicking in this mail message) to fill it out in a web browser. Again,
please don't forget to push "Submit" when you're done.

Or if neither of the above works or is comfortable for you, please feel
free to just email me (Don Morrison <dfm ringing org>) with your level
of interest.

Thanks!





If you cannot view this form properly, you can fill it out here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pBJbACLdjwBq9wtLApeJKEQ&email=true


In general are you interested in such an event?
This is not a firm commitment to attend, just an expression of possible 
interest.


Yes
No


How likely are you to attend if it were 24-26 April 2009?



Likely to attend 24-26 April 2009
Might attend 24-26 April 2009
Unlikely to attend 24-26 April 2009


How likely are you to attend if it were 1-3 May 2009?



Likely to attend 1-3 May 2009
Might attend 1-3 May 2009
Unlikely to attend 1-3 May 2009


Is there another time that would be more convenient for you?
Please check all that you would PREFER to either of the above dates.


Sometime in the summer of 2009
Sometime in the autumn of 2009
Somtime in the winter of 2009-2010
Sometime later in 2010


Please enter any further comments or explanation you'd like to provide.



Your name



Your email address
If you are interested in this event, please do provide an email address
so we can be sure to stay in touch as plans progress.