April 16th
The Education and Current Affairs sub-committee arranged a day school on radio-activity at the Civic Centre in Aylesbury. The title was How safe are we? The aim was to dispel a few myths so that we realised that the nuclear industry is not all bad news and that all of us have probably benefitted from the scientific and technological wisdom that has given us this branch of physics.
I'm no scientist but at the end of the day I had learned a lot about what radio-activity actually is, how it is used and how it affects our bodies when we come into contact with it.Power point presentations were the order of the day and we started with a really good session from Steve Barlow who works for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) at Harwell: he made the physics understandable and even raised a few moments of humour.The questions showed that the audience were not only interested but keeping up with the information.
We then moved on to the medical benefits of nuclear physics under Katie Sturrock's direction. She works for Amersham International (now GE Healthcare) and told us about the advances possible in medical diagnosis and treatment. Once again really interesting, lively questions and a very good presentation.
Mike Farley, an ex-member of Bucks Museum Service described the way in which carbon-dating is used in archaeology using excavation finds from digs in the Aylesbury area.You would be amazed what a heap of bones Aylesbury sits upon!
After lunch Malcolm Grimston from Chatham House gave a very good prognosis of the future of the nuclear power industry and the reasons why we are going to have to build more nuclear power stations.Environmental solutions, although appealing and useful will not be able to meet the future demands predicted caused by a growing world population and global warming.
Then we were back with Steve Barlow for an explanation of how the UK is dealing with nuclear waste, its different categories and various solutions across the world. We got rather bogged down with the need for transparency in public consultations and enquiries but emerged at the end with a clearer idea of what was necessary.
It is difficult to make such an informative day appear as enjoyable as it was. It all seems deadly serious: it is, of course, but everyone was concentrating hard and finished up feeling that their little grey cells had been seriously challenged but they were very pleased to have attended. The standard and standing of the speakers in their professions was very high and never once did they talk down to us as a bunch of lay people.
I think I feel happier about nuclear power than I was. I did want to ask whether putting nuclear waste in containers arrested the half-life process ie.if the radio-activity cannot get out, can the radio-activity reduce itself as it does above ground? BUT I didn't, because I wasn't sure whether I would make an idiot of myself! If anyone can answer that query, please put me right.
April 19th
Back to the Civic Centre for the Bucks Federation Annual Council Meeting where the Rt. Hon Ann Widdecombe was the main speaker. Over 600 WI members attended drawn by the popularity of this dynamic personality.She talked about her writing, about her work in the Shadow Cabinet in nearly all the important departments and on television. In spite of the risk of losing her voice completely she spoke at length and with animation on these topics. It was unfortunate when she was having difficulty speaking at all, that the Civic Centre microphones began to play up and she and everyone else had to finish with a hand-held mike.
This is the meeting when the end of year financial figures are presented and our Hon Treasurer reported that although we were not as rich as we were last year there is still a profit over the year.Money had been lost on An Evening with Stella Rimington but other events had been well supported. It is only by members attending events that we survive financially. I thought Beryl Coombs deserved a round of applause as the treasuryship is a heavy load to bear.
It was interesting to hear about the Bucks three members who cycled Cuba for Denman College. Brave souls! I hope some WIs invite them to talk at their meetings because we had time only for a short account.
It was another excellent meeting, a mixture of business and entertainment. I always enjoy council meetings. It is such a good opportunity to meet fellow members and exchange news and views.
Sunday 22 April 2007
Saturday 7 April 2007
Music and DramaApril 2nd
I feel written up after the last entry! So I'll just say that we held another Book Group session when we discussed Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal which was well received. Some people had been to see the film but others didn't want to because they had enjoyed the book too much. I remember feeling like that about Cold Mountain. I thought the portrayal of the school staffroom (not Cold Mountain of course) was brilliant. I am sure Judi Dench was a marvellously sinister older teacher.We discussed why it was seen as more reprehensible for an older woman to take up with a young boy than the other way round... or is it?
April 3rdAnother WI Group meeting where we were entertained very professionally with monologues and sketches. The only props consisted of selection of hats. Everyone enjoyed the occasion and laughed a lot.
April 4thLocal WI meeting was a musical event when a lady who had lately become blind talked about her life playing the violin and how the instrument was helping her to face the future with a positive attitude.A very gifted and strongwilled character who filled the audience with admiration and made them laugh too.
April 3rdAnother WI Group meeting where we were entertained very professionally with monologues and sketches. The only props consisted of selection of hats. Everyone enjoyed the occasion and laughed a lot.
April 4thLocal WI meeting was a musical event when a lady who had lately become blind talked about her life playing the violin and how the instrument was helping her to face the future with a positive attitude.A very gifted and strongwilled character who filled the audience with admiration and made them laugh too.
ACWW Associated Countrywomen of the World
I met 4 other members of Bucks' WIs when I attended the ACWW Conference in London on March 30th.We were not delegates but had seen the information in our newsletter and in WI Life.The audience was about 100 in number and the World President of ACWW gave a report on the work which had been done following the appeal to help the victims of the tsunami. The WI is associated with the ACWW and it is to this organisation that our Coins for Friendship are given. It is a worldwide organisation and many on the administrative board have come up through the WI. £200,000 was raised for the tsunami appeal which has now closed. The money went into income generation schemes mostly directed towards women.It was designed to be 100% practical and a rapid response.In India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia help was given to buy fishing tackle, sewing machines,agricultural tools and seeds, education and training, sanitation provision and the setting up of orphanages.There was a heartbreaking session on human trafficking in UK when we were told of the work being done by the WI with M&S and Amnesty International to combat the modern slave trade in sex and menial jobs.Remember we have a mandate to fight against this trade and we, as members must keep our eyes and ears open to try to check that it is not happening under our very noses. If it can occur in all the big cities and in the fields of Cornwall and East Anglia, what's to stop it being in Bucks?Then we heard about the state of women living in Zimbabwe. The statistics beggar belief:life expectancy for a woman was 65 ten years ago, now 34 years:4200 deaths in childbirth:1800% inflation and the HIV/Aids epidemic just grows and grows.The women cannot afford to buy sanitary protection even if it was available and they are beaten up when they protest.Do look at www.dignity!period.campaign.Bodyform is trying to get cutprice products into Zimbabwe but the local government imposed a tax of $32,000 on the first shipment so the firm is setting up a line through the trade unions against stiff opposition and corruption. The listeners on Friday were plotting to try to get an emergency resolution for the AGM in June.There was a brief report on the work done at United Nations where we have six women working to protect the rights of the girl-child and to improve the status of women across the world.Then we heard how the Ceredigion Federation of WIs had adopted a community of Khosa women in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, again helping in a practical way with health and education as well as providing chickens to kick start the economy.The final item was on global warming and its effect on Bangladesh, Indonesia and the drought-ridden areas of Africa.We came out into the gentle rain in an affluent area of London with fruit and vegetables in shop windows and commuters chatting on mobiles and I for one was full of indignation that so few people seemed to care about what was happening elsewhere in the world BUT also felt a sense of pride that the WI was trying to do something, was a vital part of ACWW and was able to act if it put its mind to it.I wish Bucks was more interested in ACWW. It is a while since we got together to provide water standpipes in Lesotho. Mind, we knitted teddies to buy bricks for schools in Burundi, didn't we ? So perhaps I am being a bit hard.
Fencing and a volunteer wanted
Well, what do you know? My entry last weekend was published without a hitch!
I see in the April Bucks WI newsletter that there is planned a taster day for fencing, an opportunity for WI members to try fencing. That's a first for our Federation, I think. I hope the students can learn somewhere where there are stairs so that they can stage a duel up steps in the best cinema tradition. "Have at you...!" What's the female for varlet?
Is there anyone out there who would volunteer to report on the Resolution Briefing Meeting in Aylesbury on 11th April? For the first time for donkeys' years, I cannot go and it is one of the most important WI meetings of the year. This is when BFWI calls in experts to talk about the subjects to be raised as resolutions at the Annual General Meeting of the NFWI at the Royal Albert Hall in June.
I see in the April Bucks WI newsletter that there is planned a taster day for fencing, an opportunity for WI members to try fencing. That's a first for our Federation, I think. I hope the students can learn somewhere where there are stairs so that they can stage a duel up steps in the best cinema tradition. "Have at you...!" What's the female for varlet?
Is there anyone out there who would volunteer to report on the Resolution Briefing Meeting in Aylesbury on 11th April? For the first time for donkeys' years, I cannot go and it is one of the most important WI meetings of the year. This is when BFWI calls in experts to talk about the subjects to be raised as resolutions at the Annual General Meeting of the NFWI at the Royal Albert Hall in June.
Sunday 1 April 2007
Groups and Quilts
24 March
I spent lunchtime today at a local WI member's house where we shared soup and sandwiches in aid of WI funds.We needed to make a small amount to help to finance our Great Milk Debate event which is going to be free entrance.The array of food is always marvellous at these gatherings and they do provide a time for general chat which prove difficult to find at monthly meetings. Also members bring in friends who are not necessarily WI themselves so it is promotional as well.
26 March
This was a crafty day with a vengeance! In the afternoon the local WI Craft Group hosted a speaker from a neighbouring WI to talk about her patchwork and embroidery. She had picked up ideas from all around the world and showed us samples of her work. She said that craft work in Australia and America was of a higher standard than here in UK and that a higher percentage of women in those countries actually still carried out traditional hand sewing.I wonder whether that is what you other travellers believe?
In the evening it was our WI's Group Meeting. Nearly all the WIs in Bucks belong to a Group. These are made up of 4-6 WIs geographically close to each other who join together twice a year to have a large meeting.The beauty of this is that one can hear a more expensive speaker than is possible in some of the smaller WIs.Not that the higher price necessarily guarantees a better talk or demonstration but it does mean the hostess WI may be able to engage a big name to attend.
We listened and watched a marvellous speaker who had travelled up from Portsmouth to describe the Travels of a Nipper and Tucker! I think several people in the audience thought they were in for a session on cosmetic surgery but no: it was about quilting as you have never heard it described before.The work shown was breath-taking in its beauty and execution but the presentation was so amusing that everyone was exhausted by laughing before she finished.I am not going to tell you how she finished but it was completely unexpected and it involved a whip!
An evening to be remembered for a long, long time.
One of the things that many WIs do wrong in my opinion is to give too detailed a report of their speakers' talks in their press reports.Yes: it is important to tell everyone who spoke about what and how good it was etc. but I wish they wouldn't give a potted account of the whole address and especially I wish they wouldn't reveal the final surprise or climax to the talk.It must be so annoying to the speaker and spoils the talk for others who have read the paper.
28 March
Local WI committee night with lots of discussion about the summer programme and of course, this Great Milk Debate. Our finances are still satisfactory but the amount actually in the bank has fallen rather spectacularly this month as the Treasurer has paid out our part of the annual subscription to the County Federation and the National Federation. The local WI just gets to keep almost half of the subscription but the other part goes to support county and the national administration and now the new WI Life.Some WI members resent having to pay this money away but those who object are usually the members that do not appreciate the wider aspects of being a WI member.How could we manage without a county newsletter or the council meetings or sub-committees to organise events or a treasury department to steer us through the minefields of tax and charity commission and insurance? Who would be able to represent us in government petitions, organise the Annual General Meeting at the Albert Hall or Cardiff, produce the magazine and issue press reports? In other words how could the WI maintain its status as an important element in the nation's community without a national and regional presence? Hundreds of groups gathering in little village halls without an overall umbrella would have no voice at all.
I spent lunchtime today at a local WI member's house where we shared soup and sandwiches in aid of WI funds.We needed to make a small amount to help to finance our Great Milk Debate event which is going to be free entrance.The array of food is always marvellous at these gatherings and they do provide a time for general chat which prove difficult to find at monthly meetings. Also members bring in friends who are not necessarily WI themselves so it is promotional as well.
26 March
This was a crafty day with a vengeance! In the afternoon the local WI Craft Group hosted a speaker from a neighbouring WI to talk about her patchwork and embroidery. She had picked up ideas from all around the world and showed us samples of her work. She said that craft work in Australia and America was of a higher standard than here in UK and that a higher percentage of women in those countries actually still carried out traditional hand sewing.I wonder whether that is what you other travellers believe?
In the evening it was our WI's Group Meeting. Nearly all the WIs in Bucks belong to a Group. These are made up of 4-6 WIs geographically close to each other who join together twice a year to have a large meeting.The beauty of this is that one can hear a more expensive speaker than is possible in some of the smaller WIs.Not that the higher price necessarily guarantees a better talk or demonstration but it does mean the hostess WI may be able to engage a big name to attend.
We listened and watched a marvellous speaker who had travelled up from Portsmouth to describe the Travels of a Nipper and Tucker! I think several people in the audience thought they were in for a session on cosmetic surgery but no: it was about quilting as you have never heard it described before.The work shown was breath-taking in its beauty and execution but the presentation was so amusing that everyone was exhausted by laughing before she finished.I am not going to tell you how she finished but it was completely unexpected and it involved a whip!
An evening to be remembered for a long, long time.
One of the things that many WIs do wrong in my opinion is to give too detailed a report of their speakers' talks in their press reports.Yes: it is important to tell everyone who spoke about what and how good it was etc. but I wish they wouldn't give a potted account of the whole address and especially I wish they wouldn't reveal the final surprise or climax to the talk.It must be so annoying to the speaker and spoils the talk for others who have read the paper.
28 March
Local WI committee night with lots of discussion about the summer programme and of course, this Great Milk Debate. Our finances are still satisfactory but the amount actually in the bank has fallen rather spectacularly this month as the Treasurer has paid out our part of the annual subscription to the County Federation and the National Federation. The local WI just gets to keep almost half of the subscription but the other part goes to support county and the national administration and now the new WI Life.Some WI members resent having to pay this money away but those who object are usually the members that do not appreciate the wider aspects of being a WI member.How could we manage without a county newsletter or the council meetings or sub-committees to organise events or a treasury department to steer us through the minefields of tax and charity commission and insurance? Who would be able to represent us in government petitions, organise the Annual General Meeting at the Albert Hall or Cardiff, produce the magazine and issue press reports? In other words how could the WI maintain its status as an important element in the nation's community without a national and regional presence? Hundreds of groups gathering in little village halls without an overall umbrella would have no voice at all.
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3rd weekend in March
Would you believe I had difficulties again getting my blog to print. I had to put it out to tender for the last instalment to appear.This is not a great way to introduce what I am about to write but I want to make it clear that, if you wish to make a comment on the blog, it does not cost you anything. The first time you want to write you register your name and think up a password (not your private password from other activities), write your piece and publish.You will not be billed nor have to go through that process again. Some things I write, you may want to argue about or add your agreement or give your account of the event.That is if there is anyone out there reading this...
Would you believe I had difficulties again getting my blog to print. I had to put it out to tender for the last instalment to appear.This is not a great way to introduce what I am about to write but I want to make it clear that, if you wish to make a comment on the blog, it does not cost you anything. The first time you want to write you register your name and think up a password (not your private password from other activities), write your piece and publish.You will not be billed nor have to go through that process again. Some things I write, you may want to argue about or add your agreement or give your account of the event.That is if there is anyone out there reading this...
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