The BFWI Annual Council Meeting on 1st May at the Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury was enjoyable and business-like. Pat Poole, the Federation Chairman reported on the past year’s events and heralded the programme for the centenary in 2020. The finances are healthy but there was disappointment when a show of hands revealed how few of the Bucks members use the MYWI website and our own Federation pages. Steve Irons, the BCC Resilience Officer with the help of Thelma Sackman gave an entertaining report on the work of his team in harness with the WI and announced tests and exercises planned for October 2019. Ruba Asfahani told us about new courses and visits being introduced at Denman College and encouraged everyone to try to attend either on her own or as part of a small group.
Thalia Jervis, CEO Healthwatch Bucks explained its purpose, how it responds to information from the public. It needs people to report good as well as bad practice experienced. Healthwatch had visited 24 care homes and GP surgeries last year. It was also tasked with translating information leaflets and notices into language which anyone with a reading age of 9 years would be able to understand: this is the average reading age of the public nowadays. (An intake of breath here from ex-teachers in the audience). The Red Box Project was explained by Janet Kingdon from a Wantage WI who is an active founder member of the scheme. This is a system for the provision of sanitary wear in secondary schools for the girls from poorer homes who had missed 138,000 days of schooling in 2017 because they could not afford adequate protection. What a worthy, thoughtful and practical solution to a problem undertaken by a WI ahead of government action!
It was disappointing in the afternoon that Judge Francis Sheridan was unable to attend but Simon King OBE took advantage of the extra time as he showed examples of his wild life photography and recounted some of his adventures while making nature programmes for television. There was time for some federation news before the enjoyable meeting closed at 4pm.
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On the 23rd April I attended one of the resolution meetings held in Aylesbury. I was told that the attendance over two sittings was expected to be about a hundred. These meetings are always interesting and informative: the purpose is to brief someone from each of the Bucks WIs to present the resolutions at her own WI May meeting when the members are obliged to vote before passing the decision to the link delegate who will attend the Annual Meeting in June. Considering the number of Bucks WIs and knowing that most attendees came with a friend, the attendance figure becomes less impressive.
The National Federation of WIs provides good briefing notes, a power-point presentation and strategic advice on the national website as well as pretty full notes in WI Life. In these days, when there is at least one member in every WI with enough IT savvy to download and present this information could BFWI not do away with these resolution selection meetings and save the expense? What we want to hear about and why we attend these meetings is to learn about the local situation relevant to the resolutions, such as that given last week by Dr. Frances Butcher and our own advisor, Judith. Our Member Support team could do this advance research and add it for download on the BFWI site.
We could then spend the money saved on holding meetings and events planned to support the mandates when passed. Think--- hiring campaign awareness notices on the side of local buses, litter picks, training sessions to work with dementia sufferers, sponsoring a team to staff a mobile scan unit… I don’t know. It is just an idea. As they say in all the best exam papers   DISCUSS.
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Spring has certainly sprung and we have enjoyed marvellous weather over the Easter Bank Holiday. The urge to spring clean may be why the local committee is gathering together all the WI’s archives from various members’ houses in order to conduct a stocktake. Luckily there is a printed list of what has to be kept officially and what can be discarded after a set period of time so that important records do not disappear into the shredding machines. Paper is not as great a problem as the physical items that a WI collects over the years such as banners, tablecloths and china, costumes from drama events, competition entries etc. Then there is the problem of storage to be solved as WIs no longer have cupboards in their meeting places.
 Outside, several members have been taking part in the national town scheme of litter-picking which one approaches with some reluctance but once involved it is quite an enjoyable activity. Working in teams of three it is not long before a competitive element emerges as the collector of plastic and tin argues with the classification made by the general rubbish sack-holder. Of course, in an ideal world this would not need to be done at all, but unfortunately it is only a matter of hours before one notices new litter along a road or street from which one has personally just purged every cigarette end.
Recent activities include meetings of the craft group, an outing for the gardening group and a jigsaw swap coffee morning in aid of Adoption UK. The members of the discussion group enjoyed an entertaining evening sharing the titles of books which had made a lasting impression on them at some time in their lives. Children’s classics, books studied for English exams and books written by authors local to the reader’s area which brought back memories, all featured. Several people were prompted to read the recommendations of others but the majority of titles had already been read by all at some time.
Next month promises to be a very busy month for WI members everywhere with preparations for the National AGM resolutions, the Bucks Council Meeting in Aylesbury and outdoor activities such as outings and walking netball. I feel like Mole in “The Wind in the Willows”: hang the spring cleaning, enjoy the fresh air, but I’ll probably not go “ messing around with boats”.
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March has been a wonderful month for weather: it both came in like a lamb and went out like one. Don’t let us forget that, when the rain finally catches up with us. It was more difficult than usual to spot the April Fool item in the national press following weeks of unimaginable genuine news articles but there had been coverage of developments in advance of the WI’s resolutions on bus transport and the smear campaign which will provide useful material when the May resolution meetings are held. I notice also that there is a scheme afoot to get young girls interested in sport. It is named Girls Inspired. Now where have I heard a similar title to that?
The groups in our WI have been very active: they have been visiting gardens, eating out and singing together. The craft people are considering various projects and a hardy band are making vague plans for an exhibit at the County Show in August. The Book Group was given a difficult novel which was a cross between a novel and a tract against animal experimentation. I cannot say much more about it without giving away the twist on which the story depends. The title is “We are Completely beside Ourselves” by J. Fowler. It was a challenging read and I am afraid many in the group went down fighting. The discussion group members discussed the value of the Arts quite decorously.
The BFWI had produced an introductory leaflet to the WI to which the local WI had added details of its own activities mentioned earlier. These were handed out at the April WI meeting and the committee had devised a newsletter to include the record of the previous month---both were well received by members. The speaker talked about his experiences as an evacuee which revived memories for some and the younger members doubted how this could be achieved nowadays when society is cossetted by character checks and counselling and everyone expects to be allowed to question decisions. The evacuation was a huge undertaking and could not have been achieved if questioned and delayed and not conducted to the letter.
Sometimes there is a lot to be said for a decision which is imposed and cannot be disputed. Where is a dictator when you need one! I think that is where I came in so I’d better stop now before I get into real trouble.
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The local WI enjoyed a very busy March meeting. Gill Robinson started the evening as our speaker with the title “Don’t go breaking your heart...” She gave a lively presentation which included a guide to staying steady and useful chair exercises. It is never too soon to start. The committee revealed plans for a new noticeboard in the town, a summer barn dance and a member volunteered to hold a garden party in August. The implications on our finances of a group outing to a vineyard as this year’s Denman bursary were considered and it was decided to enquire into a course with a silversmith from Claydon which would not be so expensive and more truly educational. Ruth Wilkinson gave a brief report on the Investigation and Discovery Day which had been attended by several of the members. They had learned a lot and as usual enjoyed the day. Angela O’Dell had written a letter to the Blood Donors administration to express our doubts about the wisdom of using a drinks machine at the sessions instead of the WI serving them as it has done for years and years. Ideas were sought on the design of the BFWI pennant for 2020 and members were happy to let the Craft group make it however they liked, or words to that effect! Four members have begun to think about a WI entry to the competition at the County Show but considered the schedule very prescriptive this year. We heard about a planned Keep Winslow Tidy session in association with the Big Society and the Town Council. We voted for the NFWI trustees.
All this activity meant that we had to defer until next time Helen Zaremba’s planned introduction to the Winslow WI website. It was satisfying to think over the meeting and to realise that the members had covered all three levels of the WI in one way or another which makes one feel a part of the whole organisation.
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