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The Members' Blog

Authorship
Until January 2020, this Blog was the voice of an individual WI member. Over her 40 years of membership, our Blogger had made a very fine contribution to this and other Federations in England. With interests in crafts, reading and writing and in travel, she also took an active part in campaigning for women's welfare and education and on environmental issues. While she has now handed over the Blog to the wider Bucks membership, her archived blog posts are a testament to someone who always made the utmost of her membership, and a rich source of information about the part the WI can play in today's society.

16/4/2020 2 Comments

Chairman's Chat - April 2020

Hello to all our members in Bucks Federation!

I have been given the Members' Blog page for my Chairman’s Chat in this challenging and fast changing period in all our lives.
This will be the first month that some of you in your various WIs will receive your copy of the Bucks News digitally. In this very difficult time for many of you, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we are unable to collate and deliver hard copies of the newsletter to our members and then expect these to be distributed to your individual WI’s members as we are all now having to Stay Home.

Please keep looking at our website,

explore our Facebook pages, and maybe follow us on Instagram and Twitter because we are putting a great deal of our information on these sites. Information from the government is changing daily and we update our pages accordingly. Together with information from the Federation you can source more details about life on MyWI, this is an online magazine from National giving you recipes, craft ideas and news about anything to do with the WI. Over 30,000 members have signed on already and this is a great membership benefit for all of us so do have a go!

Many of you will be using the media of Zoom, Skype,

Tik Tok, Houseparty (to name a few) to communicate with colleagues, friends and families; to have virtual dinner parties, host quiz sessions, hold committee meetings and many more instructive uses. Do let us know how you get on!
The Trustees held the April Board meeting by Skype, 13 of us together with Sara, our Federation Secretary, if you wanted to speak a red item had to be held up! I have had Pilates by Zoom, over 30 of us, normal meeting is only 14! I’ve sung in a choir on YouTube with Gareth Malone and shortly will be joining other Federation Chairmen for a National Federation meeting with Melissa Green the National Secretary!

We are all having to adapt very quickly to this unprecedented, serious and very scary time; for all of us our families and friends cannot visit but what a comfort WhatsApp video is, it’s as though they are in the room with us.

Bearing in mind this is our Centenary year,

the Trustees have had to make some very difficult decisions for the future; the Annual Council Meeting is cancelled this year and everything associated with it will be forwarded to April 2021 where we will resume our celebrations of 100 years since the formation of Bucks Federation. The pennants will be hung in front of the stage, the table panel will be revealed and we hope to have all the same speakers that were originally planned. We will draw the big Centenary Raffle with large cash prizes at the 2021 Annual Council Meeting. We have informed the regulatory authorities of this change, and we still want you to sell and send your tickets sold to Stuart Lodge HQ; you’ve just got a little longer to do it!

Do please send in your Bursary draw entries as normal if you can this year, as Bursary winners will be drawn on the allocated date and winners will be notified in the usual way.

We have also decided to cancel Waddesdon’s Celebration Garden Party in July.

We do all this with a very heavy heart because we have no idea when this lock-down will end and our main criteria always is the safety of our members and staff. As you may know we have been working on the 2020 celebrations for over 2 years and we have had to think out of the box and accept this is the way to go.

We have two smaller events planned for later in the year, in October and December; we are keeping our fingers crossed that these go ahead. Details to come in future Bucks News.

We may well hold two pre Christmas shopping days, one in the North of the County and one in the South where we would like to showcase and sell all our 2020 merchandise.

Here's where you come in!

We would love to hear from you all if you have news, experiences or creative projects to report on for the upcoming months in Bucks News; tell us how you are coping as a WI, how you are reaching out to your communities, what you are making, reading, and where you are walking. Some of you have already had ‘virtual' committee and monthly meetings – tell us how it went, as this may encourage other WIs to follow suit.

We are a wonderful organisation...

...kind, considerate, compassionate and caring and it is at times like these that the WI shines. It is very difficult for many of us that we cannot help as we would like because we have to self-isolate, but this is a time for our younger members and communities to step forward and many are so doing in a magnificent way.

Stay positive all of you and look forward to seeing all your WI friends soon.

We will crack one of those BFWI G-Inspiration bottles open and toast each other when next we meet…. mmm shall we have it with tonic, a martini stirred not shaken or on the rocks?!

2 Comments

1/4/2020 1 Comment

Should we continue to eat meat?

Must we all go vegan to save the planet or is it OK to eat meat as a treat?

This New Year for the first time I came across the word Veganuary and wondered what it was so I searched and discovered that it is a month-long vegan pledge to not eat meat each January. The Veganuary organisation encourages people to go vegan for the month of January as a way to promote and educate about a vegan lifestyle. https://uk.veganuary.com

The UK Vegan Society is an official Veganuary partner and on their website are interesting articles about how choosing to adopt an increasingly plant-based diet can help the environment. It has been campaigning for politicians to recognise the contribution veganism might make in tackling the climate crisis - https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/environment and
https://www.vegansociety.com/take-action/campaigns/climate-emergency

There are also many more vegan recipies appearing in newspapers and magazines and television and radio features about the issue as well. The more I hear and research about the issue of Meat, Livestock and Climate Change and the more I find that things are not black and white. It’s a complicated and complex topic.

I agree with arguments made that the planet cannot support current levels of meat eating alongside all the other climate changes already evident because of the use of fossil fuels and as counties develop more meat is eaten. Recent reports have said that there is likely to be demand for an 80% increase in meat production as a consequence of development.

A case can be made that grass fed livestock does have a place in agriculture, especially in UK as it is appropriate for our climate. Many experts say that the conversion of rainforest to pasture vastly reduces the planet’s carbon sink potential and should be halted. Rewilding pasture to forest would help as a forest ecosystem can lock up the same level of carbon as well managed pasture but ploughing poor soil and slopes can damage soil structures and risk run off and loss of nutrients via soil erosion

The UK National Farmers Union argues that livestock contributes to soil fertility and that grassland and pasture are good for wildlife. Good grassland cover actually captures more carbon than poor agriculture. UK dairy cows are more efficient than others in emitting less methane and the NFU suggests that there is scope to improve the climate credentials of all cattle worldwide.
https://www.nfuonline.com/news/latest-news-rh-panel/nfu-reports/

On reflection I am happy to reduce my meat consumption but I am not yet ready to give it up completely. I do think that food production should be sustainable and locally grown and that we should pay the true cost of production for food. Fellow BFWI Climate Ambassadors Cath and Rebecca have chosen to eat a plant based diet for the benefit of the planet and in December gave a public cookery demonstration of their festive vegan fusion recipe.

The BFWI Investigation and discovery Day on 10 March heard Dr Ceris Jones, the National Farmers Union Adviser on Climate Change who told us about the NFU’s ambitious goal to aim for net zero greenhouse emissions from agriculture by 2040.

Yvonne for the BFWI Climate Ambassadors

1 Comment

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YOUR CART

The Members' Blog

Chairman's Chat - April 2020

Hello to all our members in Bucks Federation!

Please keep looking at our website,

Many of you will be using the media of Zoom, Skype,

Bearing in mind this is our Centenary year,

We have also decided to cancel Waddesdon’s Celebration Garden Party in July.

Here's where you come in!

We are a wonderful organisation...

Should we continue to eat meat?

Archives

Categories

YOUR CART

The Members' Blog

Chairman's Chat - April 2020

​Hello to all our members in Bucks Federation!

​Please keep looking at our website,

​Many of you will be using the media of Zoom, Skype,

​Bearing in mind this is our Centenary year,

​We have also decided to cancel Waddesdon’s Celebration Garden Party in July.

Here's where you come in!

We are a wonderful organisation...

Should we continue to eat meat?

Archives

Categories

Hello to all our members in Bucks Federation!

Please keep looking at our website,

Many of you will be using the media of Zoom, Skype,

Bearing in mind this is our Centenary year,

We have also decided to cancel Waddesdon’s Celebration Garden Party in July.