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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.

30/11/2016 2 Comments

Reception and resolutions

25th November
The winter reception at the Judges’ Lodgings in Aylesbury tonight proved to be a very pleasant evening. The event was organised by the Bucks Federation Chairman, Jenny Street in aid of the Denman College Appeal. The guests were Barbara Russell the Mayor of Aylesbury, Val Letheren the Chairman of Bucks County Council and Judge Frances Sheridan. The refreshments had been prepared by Posh Nosh but were served by members of the BFWI Board of Trustees resplendent in frilly aprons made specially by Tracey, one of our ACWW representatives. Cantlos provided the musical entertainment, singing and playing on a selection of stringed instruments. Each of the guests gave a short speech and Judge Sheridan promised to take parties from those attending on tours of the chambers and the cells and throw in a bit of the history of the premises at the same time. The evening also provided the members with a chance to catch up with all the news of friends in other WIs across the county.
22nd November
We wondered whether we had made a mistake about the venue when we arrived at the AVDC Gatehouse this afternoon for the WI Resolutions Selection meeting. What were all these men in suits doing milling around “The Street”? We were soon directed to the Diamond Room where we were able to sit in comfort and listen to the team of WI Advisers who had volunteered to present the six resolutions to make the short list for June 2017.
The first subject was the one of loneliness not just for old people but at every age and of both genders. We rather thought that this was something the WI was aware of and could do something about locally without perhaps using up a mandate on it. The next resolution asked the Government to make everyone more aware of and to take action against the practice of Female Genital Mutilation(FGM) which although illegal in the UK is still happening here and girls are being taken abroad for the operation. There have been no prosecutions. Why? Is the WI able to act on this issue under its “Violence against Women” mandate without another mandate?
Equal access for all who need specialised maternal mental health services was a worthy cause because it is a huge problem which suffers in the postcode lottery when different authorities have different standards of provision. Would it be enough for WI members to find out what is available locally and then challenge the status quo near them? Another worthy cause is the support of women’s refuges but again many WIs are already active on this front preparing boxes of items for homeless women and children. How can the WIs and NFWI increase the awareness of the plight of refugees in camps where women and children are at greater risk from abuse and have no safe place to sleep and eat? It is difficult enough to actually set up camps where they are so desperately needed let alone provide safe areas within them. We are all too aware of these international problems from the media coverage and are keen to contribute towards the organised charities that deal with them. Is that enough or am I being practical but heartless?
The final resolution on plastic soup is rumoured to have come from Bucks following the attempt last year to include the banning of plastic beads in cosmetics on the list for the 2016 AGM. Plastic beads are being removed from products now but here the Government is being asked to fund research and develop solutions to the pollution of the oceans by tiny microplastic fibres being shed from washed synthetics. Similar damage to what can be done by the beads can follow fibres entering the food chain. It will be expensive to combat this contamination but it is a growing time bomb for future generations.
These meetings are always interesting and helpful before WI members make their selection.

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17/11/2016 2 Comments

Deeds not words

14th November
The first coach party of Bucks WI members set off on a rainy day to travel to London to walk in the footsteps of the Suffragettes. Another group will do the same next week. We disembarked in Pall Mall to find a quick lunch before meeting our guide. Several of the party ate in the National Gallery and had found time to look at the Rokeby Venus which had been slashed by Mary Richardson and the portraits of the members of the Pankhurst family. We gathered below the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square to meet our two Blue Badge guides dressed in the purple and green used by those women. Many of us had looked out clothes in the same colours. It was interesting to hear passers-by recognise what we were representing. From Trafalgar Square we walked 2 miles around Westminster to cover the places where significant events of the campaign had occurred and where the pioneering women had lived. The guide also tied in the historical events with the recent filming. We didn’t get as far as visiting Holloway Prison. The guides were full of information and answered all the questions fired at them. We walked past the Home Office, saw the window from which Margaret Thatcher had acknowledged the crowd, admired the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst and the recent monument to the Women’s suffrage. It is an inspiring story although some of their deeds not words were very anti-social towards the beginning of the first world war. On the way home we glimpsed the Christmas decorations in Kensington High Street which were already lit up and saw the huge angels suspended above Regent and Oxford Streets which were to be switched on later this week. The journey there and back worked to time and everyone was delighted with her day and we really felt a deep admiration for what the suffragettes had achieved for us.
9th November
The topic for the Discussion Group tonight was “Automation versus Control”. I think it had been suggested following the work going on in Milton Keynes with driverless cars which is an alarming idea to most of us. However, there is so much in our daily lives which is automated that we cannot contemplate doing without: in fact, we would not be able to lead the lives that we do without the help of these computerised machines. The thought of robots wandering around our houses being helpful is unsettling. What happens when they go wrong? When they start to be master rather than slave?

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8/11/2016 0 Comments

Another year

7th November
We are now into our third session of learning to crochet and beginning to think of projects on which to use the stitches that we are able to produce. The main problem will probably be keeping the work to shape. Stuff either becomes narrower or expands beyond the desired edge. However nil desperandum: I am sure it will come right in the end and it is good fun learning together.
2nd November
It was our WI’s annual meeting tonight and there was a good turn out for a session which many members are not very keen on. We started with the ordinary meeting when arrangements were made for interest group events and the forthcoming outing to Winchester and the Christmas dinner. Then suitably fortified by refreshments and having spent time puzzling over quizzes, word searches and tested some chocolates, the members tackled the annual report which always surprises us as to the amount of things we have done in the past year. The financial report will have to wait until the next meeting to be approved as some questions on details were asked which could not have an immediate answer as our treasurer was unable to be present. The committee is to serve another year with the addition of an extra member who was co-opted. Our president is also willing to serve again which was welcomed by the members. She was thanked along with the committee for their hard work and dedication during another busy year.
25th October
The Book Group welcomed two new members to a session when there was only one absentee. We had been reading Phillipa Gregory’s “The Virgin’s Lover” which is centred on Lord Dudley’s relationship with Elizabeth I. Most of the readers had found the novel enjoyable and easy to read but felt it could have benefitted from an editor who would dare to cut it down. Some of the repetitions became annoying. The author took liberties with the historical facts in the eyes of the true historians in the group---but it was a novel when all said and done.
20th October
Today there was a jigsaw bring and buy in a member’s house. This was well attended and with a raffle and refreshments the event raised £116.70 for the Denman College Appeal. This sum brings our WI’s contribution up to about £300. The support from members for these jigsaw events is much appreciated.

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