Business before pleasure

19th November

Four members of our WI attended the Resolution Selection Meeting tonight at the AVDC Offices in Aylesbury. Actually our WI was very well represented as two of our members were helping to run the event. It was disappointing that the attendance wasn't huge because every WI is really honour-bound to discuss the resolutions before the end of January next year and there could not have been 140 plus WIs represented at the meeting. Anyway it was a very informative evening with a lot of audience participation. All seven resolutions were introduced by members of the BFWI sub-committees.If your WI missed the meeting, the list is on the BFWI website and it will be in the next issue of the WI Life with some notes attached.Do we want a huge resolution for the centenary Annual General Meeting or will a more specific one concentrating on a national problem be sufficient? The most ambitious resolution  asked us to build on our WI achievements over the last 100 years in removing the barriers in gender discrimination. The most local issue was to make the public aware of defibrillators set up in their home areas.The two next biggest issues were ending female genital mutilation in the UK as well as abroad, and then the thorny question of how to sort out the assessment of the needs of the rising number of those in long-term care in the UK. Finally, can WI members influence the professionals and the public to be aware of the dangers of the over-use of antibiotics, or can we encourage everyone to cut out even more food waste, or lastly should we all take up our spades and go off to plant trees to celebrate our centenary?

A lot to think about before we send up our individual voting forms in January. Most of these topics appear in the national press in some form or other every week so let's all keep ourselves up-to-date so we can spot where the WI's influence is most wanted and where it can achieve most good.

 

5th November

There were just a few flashes from fireworks as we drove across town to the school where we hold our monthly meetings. There was a good turnout for the annual meeting which members often say they don't find interesting or entertaining. It is a pity if it has that reputation because it is the occasion on which a WI takes stock of what it has achieved in the closing year and chooses the committee for the next year. Certainly 2014 has been extremely busy for us and we have gained new members. The speakers have been well received and we have raised more funds for the local school's life skills flat than we ever thought possible. The variety of events held has been wide and we have enjoyed every event staged.Our own WI funds are healthy, we had more than we needed standing for committee and these included some new volunteers.One can tell if a year has been successful if the president is voted in for another year and I think we will be having the same treasurer and secretary but that is yet to be decided in committee.The craft group was congratulated on its teaching session with a neighbouring WI and several people went into a huddle to plan our entry in the local church Christmas Tree Festival and numbers were taken for the dinner at Adstock.Of course the organisers had planned to sugar the pill of all this business by laying on a short quiz and a silly game which raised the noise level but ended the evening in a light-hearted fashion.