Resources

Student ringing societies have existed for many years, and a wealth of experience and knowledge has built up over that time. This section brings together some of that learning to help support student societies, both now and in the future.

In 2025, we carried out a survey of student ringing societies to better understand how they operate and how they can best be supported. You can view a summary of the survey results.

The resources collected here have been developed in response to what university societies told us they would find most helpful. We’d be very pleased to hear from you with ideas, contributions, requests for new content, or anything else that could help improve and expand this collection of resources.

Student societies have an amazing track record for the recruitment and retention of new and existing ringers. On average, approximately half of student ringers are taught by the society that they ring with and go on to ring beyond university. This demonstrates that university ringing plays a vital role in the recruitment and retention of young ringers and we need to bottle the good stuff to help existing and potential new societies thrive.

Here are some tips on how to recruit new ringers and make sure you capture all of the existing ringers that have arrived at your university.

Case studies

  • Starting a society (wip - some content already exists via Jason Hughes)
  • Reviving a society (wip - SUGCR/BUSCR stories?)
  • Student Union affiliation (wip - BUSCR have experience working without, and others?)
  • Finances (wip - logistics of bank accounts, signatories, etc maybe also fundraising for larger projects/events)
  • Leadership (wip - including newbies/delegation to keep societies going)
  • Teaching (wip - ART LtR, M1 course free places, uni support package)
  • Socials (wip - organising a social)
  • Hosting an SUA/NUA (wip - infrequent event so unlikely for current students to have done it before to help the next generation so a basic guide would be very helpful)
  • Arranging an outing (wip - grab outing, QP outing, peal tour, weekend tour etc)
  • Annual dinners (wip - what it normally involves, financing tips, example invite templates, seating plan templates, name card templates)
  • Communication (wip - group chat, committee chat, engage older members (they can know stuff and be helpful for arranging larger ringing/social events), keeping UR entry up to date so new ringers can contact you!)
  • CC affiliation (wip - "registered small society", SUGCR case study)
  • Running ringing (wip - encouraging progress, practice vs service ringing, summarise some key points and strategies for fair ringing distribution, get lots of peoples snippets of advice?)
  • Society merch (wip - how to prepare a logo, companies to research, t shirts etc)
  • AGM (wip - why? what? how? chairing skills, writing reports)
  • Committee Positions (wip - examples of ones that exist in different societies, suggested job descriptions (by when to do them in the year), keyholders)
  • Risk assesment (wip - required by unions/guilds and some churches, for taster sessions and normal practices and handling teaching)
  • Local area (wip - joining associatiom, explaining it to newbies, insurance benefits, getting help from other ringers)
  • Constitution (wip - perhaps a template exemplar one)
Case studies

Regular maintenance
Larger projects
General guidance
  • Where to start? (wip)
  • Church logistics (wip - explaining listed, faculty, pcc etc)
  • Financing/fundraising (wip)
Case studies
  • Nottingham's war on pigeons (wip)
  • BUSCR's handbell overhaul (wip)
  • Birmingham's new clappers (wip)