Re: Pittsburgh Ringing Event

["Don Morrison" <dfm ringing org>]

There does seem to be sufficient interest in this for it to go
forward, and we're now on Southminster's calendar for 24 to 26 April
2009. As of right now we plan to

- start ringing about 6pm on Friday 24 April 2009.
- ring most of Saturday morning and afternoon, with some sort of
  informal social gathering Saturday evening
- ring for service on Sunday at noon, and then further ringing through
  most of the rest of the afternoon.

Ringing will be a mixture of general ringing and some quarter peal
attempts. If there is sufficient interest, and it can be organized
without inconveniencing those not in it, there may also be a peal
attempt at some point over the weekend.

We'll publish further details as the time gets closer, but for now
please mark it on your calendars. For those of you that use Google
Calendar, it is now in the North American Ringing Calendar there.

Also, if anyone has any good idea of what we should call this event,
please let us know. For now I've just been calling the "Pittsburgh
Ringing Event" but that seems rather dull and uninspiring.



On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 11:57 AM, Don Morrison <dfm ringing org> wrote:
> 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.


-- 
Don Morrison <dfm ringing org>
"We believe that labels are important, but mostly for bottles of
wine."  -- Christo and Jeanne-Claude (from the artists' web site)