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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