Notes from the Chair

Greetings Area 11, 

Every September, a new chapter begins for Area 11 as our Board of Directors holds an annual in-person meeting to plan for our upcoming year. This year, our Board met at our 2026 Ringing Up! Festival location at the Embassy Suites and Conference Center in Loveland, Colorado. From September 12-14, we spent time finalizing upcoming events, planning for the future, and dreaming about some short, medium, and long term goals for our upcoming Festival and Area. It was a productive and inspiring weekend connecting with our Festival Committee, C.H.I.M.E. Chair, and celebrating our 5 states.  

Over the course of the weekend, we expanded upon our Strategic Plan and decided to enact the following things: 

• Host a Virtual Directors Seminar on November 8, 2025 from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm. This event is going to feature two presentations and a roundtable discussion led by Anne Kelley and LeAnna Willmore. You can register for the event on our webpage here: 
• Create an opportunity for youth ringers by hosting a Youth Workshop in each of 5 states. This one-day event will provide youth ringers an opportunity to prepare and rehearse pre-decided music with a local Area 11 Clinician. We are going to pilot this event in Arizona this upcoming spring and expand it to all of our states in 2027. 
• Moving forward, we will offer two Area 11 Camps. Starting in 2027, we will host a Youth Camp in Utah and continue our traditional Intergenerational Camp in Colorado.  
• Update our Website to make all of our Event pages more informative and information for Site Hosts and Event Chairs more readily accessible. 
• Show our appreciation for our Area 11 Leadership by acknowledging our current and past Area 11 Leaders on our website. 

There were many other ideas, conversations, and decisions discussed, but these are a few specific updates that you’re going to see this upcoming year. Our Board also welcomed our brand new Chair Elect, Sharon Schmidt. Sharon joins our board with a wealth of knowledge, great questions, and a desire to learn and serve our Area. 

As I enter my last year as Chair, I’m overwhelmed with joy and excitement for this upcoming year and the future. We have some really exciting additions and our entire board is looking forward to seeing how these additions help continue our mission to expand the art of handbell and handchime ringing. These new events not only bring new opportunities to serve and connect to our members, but it also brings an opportunity to get involved and help shape the history of these new events for our Area. If you’d like to get involved, please don’t hesitate to reach out to myself or one of our Board Members. We’ve got some inspiring events to look forward to and I can’t wait to see how these continue to serve our handbell community. I hope everyone has a wonderful Fall Season, and I’ll see participants at our Directors Seminar in November.

Love and Bells, 

Anne Kelley

Chair Elect

What do Thunder and Mountain Chic have to do with Area XI?

Sept 12-14 was my first Area XI board meeting, and both those topics were discussed as well as the amazing things Area XI is doing in 2025-2026! Our board meeting was held at the Embassy Suites & Event Center in Loveland, CO – site of the 2026 Area XI Festival “Ringing Up.” Thunder (the Bronco’s mascot) was present at a fund-raising event for an equine therapy non-profit, and we took a break to see him. Along the way through the Event Center, we saw many versions of mountain chic. My husband and I were attending a gala in Golden the next week, and I had asked the group what a mountain chic dress code meant. I learned that my Midwest wardrobe is not really up for the challenge as I don’t have boots, a proper hat, or that many sequins! In addition to those two living-in-the-west items, I learned how Area XI provides so many resources for you, our members. Did you know that in 2026, there are at least 16 in-person events – 15 at the state level plus the June Festival. One of my tasks, which will serve to educate me about the Festival format, is to create a bullet-point description of Festival and what benefits it offers to handbell musicians in Area XI. Watch for that when Festival registration opens.

Area XI Ring of Fame
Another duty of the Chair-Elect is to collect nominations for the Area XI Ring of Fame. The Area 11 2002-2004 Board established the Ring of Fame to recognize exceptional service and commitment to handbell/handchime ringing in general.

You can learn more about the selection criteria here:    https://area11.handbellmusicians.org/ring-of-fame/
Do you know someone who has made exceptional contributions to our art? You can nominate them! The link above contains links to both a digital and PDF nomination form. Nominations are due by January 1, 2026. If you have any questions about Ring of Fame, please contact me.

Past Ring of Fame Inductees

Until next time, just keep on ringing!

Sharon Schmidt

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