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A member's blog

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I have been a WI member for over 40 years in various English counties. More than half this time I have spent in Buckinghamshire. I am interested in all crafts, reading and writing and in travel.
The WI has provided me with fun and laughter and given me the opportunity to make friends. I believe that the WI has done marvellous work in the past for women's welfare and education and still has an active part to play in today's society.

17/1/2019 8 Comments

Welcome 2019

The decorations are down and stowed away. There is a light dusting of snow outside. All the sweets and chocolate have been eaten so, except for the national state of uncertainty, we may all return to the normal routine. For your blogger, that means catching up with WI local events and activities.
Last night the discussion group met to consider what London meant to individual members. Our hostess began by asking everyone, in a sentence to identify her focus on the city, so from the word go we knew that all had a different slant on the topic. Talk ranged from history and culture to recent changes and future developments as well as pressing problems such as flooding and disintegrating sewers. It proved a very interesting subject. The final conclusion was that we were all proud of the city and found visits exciting but we didn’t want to live there.
The Happy Stitchers re-convened last week. In spite of the distractions of the festive period, progress had been made on various craft projects. One member has started on an entry for the Silver Cup at the Council meeting in May but we haven’t got much further with ideas for the WI pennant required for the 2020 celebrations: it seems to be going to be a lot larger than we had originally envisaged.
Each of the last four Januarys for me has started with a WI funeral and this was no different when I attended the memorial service of a much-loved former member. It occurs to me often on these occasions that we find that we hardly knew anything of the achievements and gifts of the women celebrated until the eulogy. What a lot of talent is almost wasted to the WI at all levels. Other organisations I am told make a point of finding out the skills of a member’s working life and drawing on them. I am not suggesting that if one has no specific expertise one shouldn’t be welcomed but if one was responsible for splitting the atom or matron to a large hospital or taking part in some important event that information or skill could be harnessed in the WI. Why are members allowed to hide their lights under bushels?
The local WI monthly meeting was well attended, the new officers coped well and a lot of news was exchanged. The speakers were two young farmers talking about today’s farming. Several members were a bit doubtful about how interesting this would be but they need not have worried: these two were lively and brought to us a lot of information. Of course, Brexit raised its head but how could it not if one is hearing about an industry involved with international trade. We would recommend these speakers to other WIs---perhaps with the proviso that there is not large number of vegans in the audience! Afterwards two members whizzed through the resolutions before members handed in their vote for what they wanted to be discussed at the AGM of the NFWI in June. I say “whizzed” because they just added points to what they hoped members had read already in WI Life. After all we will be able to do more when the decision is made.

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18/12/2018 0 Comments

December meeting

Merry Christmas to all blog readers and a prosperous new year!
The December monthly meeting is traditionally a party but also sees the introduction of a new committee and this year was no different. There were loads of items for the festive buffet, a secret Santa sack and glasses of wine. The entertainment was provided by the Downley WI group who have visited us before. They looked very smart in their co-ordinated outfits, their jokes were just right for the audience and the revue pieces made everyone laugh. The whole performance was fast-moving and slick so we would certainly recommend them to others.
A quick quiz had been devised to gently introduce the members to thinking about the resolutions from which they must select one next month. We then discussed whether we wanted to buy our own head mike or whether we would share one with the other WI in the town. The handheld mike that we have is difficult to use when the speaker has notes or items to demonstrate so we were all in favour of replacing it with a head mike. Problems of storage and of organising the swap between WIs and costs were all aired but the final vote went for the purchase of our own.
The programme for 2019 will be available for everyone when members pay the annual subscription at our next meeting on the second Wednesday of January instead of the first because of the clash with the holiday for New Year.

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5/12/2018 0 Comments

A Guest Blog from Deb Sanders, Beaconsfield WI

BUCKS FEDERATION Member Deb Sanders was fortunate enough to receive an invitation from her MP to attend the 21st November 2018 #AskHerToStand event organised with the Fawcett Society, 50:50 Parliament in partnership with the Jo Cox Foundation, and the Centenary Action Group. The reception, exhibition and panel discussion was to mark the centenary of the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 when women were first able to stand for Parliament.

Here she recounts her experiences during her day at Westminster.

It’s amazing where your WI membership can lead you! I’d never have thought I’d be going to a conference aiming for 50/50 gender representation in Parliament. After asking my MP, Dominic Grieve, for a formal invitation, within 48hrs I had an appointment to have coffee with him in Portcullis House, Westminster, even though I was a non-political delegate.

In the exhibition all the political parties had a stand including the Women’s Equality Party. The Fawcett Society was advertising itself as “the largest women’s campaigning organisation in the UK” so I reminded them of the nearly quarter million WI members nationwide!

The next port of call was Portcullis House by Westminster station. 213 MPs have their offices in this impressive building so security is key. The meeting with Dominic Grieve was a good opportunity to ‘flag wave’ for the WI. We had an interesting discussion about the intense workload of MPs and how this can be so disruptive to family life.

Mr Grieve then escorted me to Westminster Hall. What an impressive building, you could feel the years of history around you. A full size Lego model of a suffragist has been given the name 'Hope' by the Pankhurst family (see photo). All participants gathered for photos with many female MPs including Harriet Harman, Penny Mordaunt and Amber Rudd.

Then back to Portcullis House for the keynote conference: ‘Ask Her to Stand’. The Rt.Hon Harriet Harman QC MP, Mother of the House, was the keynote speaker. Other women MP speakers included Vicky Ford, MP - Chair of the APPG on Women in Parliament, Layla Moran, Rosena Allin-Khan, Mhairi Black, Penny Mordaunt, Maria Miller and Helen Whately. The Q&A session was much more positive and friendly than BBC Question Time.

All spoke passionately about the rewards of being in Parliament and having the opportunity to make a difference. Despite the pressures and long hours, the job is rewarding was the unanimous thread. There are a few disadvantages: Penny Mordaunt had to turn down an evening with Hugh Grant so that a committee of which she was a member was quorate! Other threads were that women take years to make the decision to stand for Parliament and often lack the confidence to do so but that the collaborative nature of working together in Parliament was rewarding, and women seem to be more compassionate. ‘Women network together to communicate, men work together to gain information and power’ was another statement. ‘The dynamics of Westminster, and all other levels of local government change when there is a fairer representation of women’ was another thought. This was a powerful and uplifting session which left me with much to think about.

The final part of the day was a seminar event in Church House. Delegates were looking at the problems of ‘hard to reach’ women in the community. It was suggested that the term used should be ‘Easy to Ignore Women’. I sat at a table with a group of women from a variety of backgrounds which included councillors from a very deprived area of the country. We all faced similar problems but I was impressed with the energy and compassion of these councillors who really understood their area and were so committed to action. Discussions ranged around measures that government can take and practical local solutions for these women with no ‘voice’. We all agreed that austerity has made social isolation a bigger issue and especially in adult education.

This was a fascinating day and I returned home with more questions than answers. Why was I there as a WI representative and what can we do to improve 50/50 representation at all levels of public life? The political parties (and one party in particular) are making great efforts to train and support women who wish to stand for election. This, however, creates a body of women who owe their allegiance to a party and less to a community.

I joined the WI thirty years ago. With the mentoring and friendship I received from local members I have chaired a number of committees, been a school governor, been a town councillor, and gained a Diploma in Stitched Textiles. The founding members of the WI were not afraid to campaign in public. The WI is in a unique position to encourage and train women to get involved in all levels of public life without the mantra of party politics. Are we doing enough? Have we got a little fluffy at the edges and concentrate too much on the craft and baking skills? It’s really hard to get local members inspired to campaign for our resolutions, should we be doing more to boost the confidence of members to speak in public and thus have the tools to be able to campaign?

It is time we had equal representation in all levels of local and national government but this requires giving women confidence and the tools to do the job. What can we as WI members do to facilitate this?

Further reading:
https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/Pages/Category/what-we-do
https://www.centenaryaction.org.uk/
https://www.jocoxfoundation.org/
http://www.womensequality.org.uk/about
https://5050parliament.co.uk/
28.11.18

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3/12/2018 2 Comments

Stir-up Monday

It is a strange thing but nearly always after the WI members have been alerted to a problem one opens the national papers and reads something relevant to the issue. My last entry on the blog was a report of the modern day slavery meeting at Wolverton and a few days later there was an account of police investigating the suspected trafficking of hundreds of prostitutes into an exclusive block of flats in Chelsea. Let’s hope that a prosecution follows.
The most important thing for WI members in November is the issue of WI Life because it contains the voting slip for the selection of next year’s resolutions to go to the Annual General Meeting in June. We have to choose one from six this year. Personally, I wish that at least two of them could have been combined under a female health title of some sort as they are both addressed to the Government. Because the smear one is directed at the membership for action, that might arguably be kept separate but couldn’t a subject with more general appeal have been chosen instead of three focussed on our femininity? Contemplating one’s navel seems to have given way to centring one’s thoughts on one’s vagina which is physically more difficult and one hopes exclusive. Do you remember the shock when Jenny Murray on Women’s Hour first drew attention to the menopause on radio with “Is it me or is it hot in here?” We have fortunately come a long way from those days but I bet there are many who will cringe at quite so much public discussion of these issues ---important though they are---so perhaps we could have made a more gentle approach.
There is another problem with the resolution procedure and that is the time at which the discussion has to take place. Do we talk about them at the Christmas party meetings---enjoy a mince pie while doing your pelvic floor exercises---or when everyone is trying to sort out the payment of annual subscriptions in January? Some WIs don’t meet in January in fear of bad weather: what about them?
To go back to my first point in this blog, just this week there was a long article in the national press saying that the level of cervical cancer screening tests being taken is at its lowest level since 1997 which adds weight to one resolution. Also in the news, that MP Sir Christopher Chope blocked the bill on FGM just as he did the motion about “Upskirting” cameras. Perhaps he should change his name to Choke.
Anyway, our WI has held its usual group activities, been on an outing to a Christmas market and celebrated with a Christmas dinner. We are looking forward to a December meeting with a musical entertainment and a seasonal buffet.
On re-reading this I am looking forward to stirring up some reaction from my readers. Over to you.

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16/11/2018 1 Comment

Slavery near you

On the 15th November a meeting was held at the Ridgeway Centre in Wolverton. This was arranged by the BFWI Science and Society sub-committee and chaired by Thelma Sackman. We listened to the facts and figures behind the problem of modern day slavery from Dr Akilah Jardine who is involved with Rights Lab. Research at Nottingham University. This organisation is working to help to end slavery which involves 40 million people worldwide. The first thing she wanted us to realise was that trafficking on which the media likes to concentrate is only a means of establishing the state of slavery for about 10% of slave victims. To be a slave is to be treated as an object which belongs to someone and can be bought or sold without a right to food, shelter or feelings: everything has been taken from that person. Slavery is big business across the world but all the finances go back into the criminal world not into a country’s economic status. The centre in Nottingham is using expertise from all areas of study at the university in conjunction with government departments and the United Nations to explore the very nature of the world of slavery and what can be done to stop it and to support the victims who can be of either sex and of any age.
April McCoig and Victoria Butler from Thames Valley Police gave us the local statistics: 2500 slaves in their area, around 12,000 nationally of which only 289 cases had come to court. Slaves might be forced into street crime, benefit fraud or drug running. They could be providing unpaid labour in factories, on building sites or in the fields. There were many in domestic servitude---they are the hardest to spot---and of course sexual exploitation is rife. The officers encouraged everyone to be vigilant and to ask themselves why articles or services could be so cheap and to report anything that didn’t look right.
An account of the work of the Salvation Army followed. It provides accommodation, psychological and physical support to victims and undertakes to transport people to safe houses and gives positive help in starting a new life. Reverend Tim Norwood spoke of the work of the Clewer Initiative “We see you” which provides materials for schools to help them to recognise the dangers of being co-erced into acts of crime.
Liz Gough then described some of the work that she and her husband had been doing in Greece with victims trafficked to the beaches and across Europe lured by the prospect of jobs and a better life. They are then beaten into submission and made completely dependent on their slave masters by emotional manipulation and fear of repercussions for their families back home.
There followed a table activity on what we thought the WI could do about the information which we had heard and we were promised that some of the ideas thrown up would be considered for action.
An informative but depressing afternoon was experienced by all. Man’s inhumanity to Man never ceases to appal. However, we were glad to have attended and promised to spread the word.

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