Welcome to my first missive as Squire of the Ring.
For those who don’t know me, I am Emma, musician of Anker Morris Men (come and meet us on the 19th July at our day of dance in Nuneaton to celebrate our 50th) , musician and sometime dancer with Dolphin Morris Men and dancer with First Class Stamp Appalachian (you can find us at Chippenham Folk Festival this year).
I also run the Hinckley Bullockers who terrorise the poor people of Leicestershire on plough Monday. I have spent all my life in and around morris dancing so I can hopefully bring all that experience to bear in my new role.
Some of you may know me as ‘Bonnie Green’ on facebook (I have to avoid my students finding me) but, unlike some of my predecessors, I do not spend a lot of time at Belgian Beer Festivals, or being sent to Egyptology conferences in exotic places. Therefore, as the best I manage is the odd day course in the middle of Birmingham and nobody needs pictures of the Aston Expressway at rush hour, you will have to make do with pictures of morris dancing with the odd newborn grandchild thrown in.
I will start with an apology to those who I don’t manage to get to see over the course of the next two years. I will do my best but events – like buses – seem to come along in threes (actually, I have already had 4 invites for the 7th June) so I am afraid I am going to disappoint some people. Please do invite me, though. I will get there if I can.
Last weekend showed me that the 2 main issues for the Ring at present are preserving the past and securing the future – ie Archives and Recruitment.
Hopefully, somewhere in a future Bagman's newsletter you will find a report from Uttoxeter Morris about their efforts and successes in recruitment over the past year. Their squire and Bagman spoke of their recruitment of 16 (yes, that’s right, 16) new members this winter so I have asked them to give you all some idea of how they managed this.
Meanwhile, I know every team is building an archive of their history and has little idea of what to do with it when it isn’t sitting in someone’s loft. I have spoken to the Archive Group and they, hopefully before the next ARM, will prepare a paper for teams on what an archive is, how to look after it, where it can be stored, whether it should be digitised, and so on. If you have any questions in the mean time then you can contact them through the Ring website (Matt Simons is the current Chair) and they may be able to advise.
Well, I think that’s about all for my first go. I look forward to meeting you all over the course of the year and sharing a dance, a song, a tune, a drink - and the joy and fellowship of the morris.
Emma