I am sure that most of you will have seen a couple of notices on the KCACR Facebook pages and on the website about the review of the Association Rules and a forthcoming Extraordinary General Meeting.
Over the last few months I have been looking at our rules with a view to updating them to make them more relevant to the present time. I have had the help of some committee members and also some members who are not in the committee but have expertise in such areas and am extremely grateful to them all for the time that they have put in to helping to produce the document.
It was an interesting process to go through as it really showed how much society has changed since many of these rules were formulated. Things which previously were seen as being the norm are now no longer so. During the drafting, one consideration was how to ensure that the document that I have published for your comments is both workable and gives a greater degree of flexibility for how the Association can be run. If you have not had a chance to look at the proposed redraft of the Association rules, they are available via this link: https://kcacr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Redrafted-Rules-of-the-Association-for-Consultation.pdf . There is also a summary of the main changes made here: https://kcacr.org.uk/kcacr-rules-proposed-amendments-for-consultation-2025/ . Please do send any comments to me at , the closing date for comments is 14th July so that I can prepare a final draft for circulation by 1st September to be presented at the 2025 AGM for adoption.
Another sign of how times has changed arose when a fund raising project for rehanging the bells at a tower fell foul of company policies. A potential donor found that they would be unable to support this project due to the objects quoted in our Bell Restoration Fund rules. Some of you may feel that it is a sorry state of affairs that we need to remove the phrase ‘to advance the Christian religion’ form the objects of the BRF, however this phrase does now make it difficult for many organisations to support projects to maintain and improve towers and bells within our Association.
I feel that this is something which we need to change quickly, there are likely to be other fund raising projects in the offing where sponsorship or support from organisations and local businesses would be very beneficial. Consequently, notice has been given in accordance with rule 8 of the Bell Restoration Fund Rules that an Extraordinary General Meeting will be held at the Waterloo Tower, Quex Park, Birchington at 12 noon on Saturday 22nd June to get the agreement of members that we can change the wording of two rules. The details of the proposal are here: https://kcacr.org.uk/notice-of-an-egm-of-the-association-on-22nd-june-2024/ .
The 22nd June is, of course, the day of the Association 8-bell competition, to be held at the Waterloo Tower, Quex Park, and plans are nearly finalised for this event. However, the outline will be that the draw will take place at 9:45am and the test piece (280 Canterbury Bob Triples) will be rung on the back 8 by those Districts who have entered a team.
The EGM will take place at 12.00 pm at the Waterloo Tower after which the bells will be available for general ringing. In addition, we are delighted to announce that the Central Council’s brand new mobile belfry will also be in attendance at the event and there will be opportunities to ring on this mini-ring.
There will be a barbecue available from about 1.00pm (booking required) and a couple more local towers will be open to ring at in the afternoon.
If you are not involved in the competition, please do come along to listen to the teams ringing or sample the bells in the Waterloo Tower (the first ring of 12 bells in Kent and one of the earliest secular towers in the country) as well as the CCCBR Mobile Belfry. Final details will be published very soon.
Neil Jones
KCACR Chairman