Denman College bursary and Winslow Show

August
This month tends to be a time when nothing much happens on the WI front. Most people used to be on holiday but nowadays a high proportion of WI members wait until September. This makes booking for autumn events a dodgy operation and necessitates early opening dates.
There have been several mentions of the WI in the media. A Bucks member had a very good letter about the Foot and Mouth crisis published in the Daily Telegraph:100% practical criticism of the carting of the culled livestock across the country from Surrey to Somerset. Well done, Kathleen!
Then there was the announcement of the publication of the final WI Calendar. It was also proclaimed that there were chocolates being traded by Waitrose with pictures of the Calendar Girls on the wrappers. Profits once more in aid of Leukemia Research. However, the local branches of Waitrose haven't any in stock yet. Let's hope the store gets its act together for the Christmas market.
August 14th
The annual get-together for all the volunteer members of Bucks WI sub-Committees was held at Milton Keynes.This is a pleasant evening when there can be a bit of fraternization or cross-pollination between the committee members outside the confines of meetings.I hasten to add that this is not a financial perk as everyone must pay for her meal and travel! Central Milton Keynes WI catered for the first time and made an excellent job of it.Thanks to its members!
August 22nd
The local WI held an extra and rather special evening event. This meeting is for the members only and is financed by the money which is allocated every year for an educational bursary. Originally this bursary was for one member to visit Denman College, our own WI residential college near Abingdon. We used to ballot for the chance to attend but some years the winner prefered to use the bursary locally. It has been used for a driving course and for swimming lessons. Then it was suggested that all the members could benefit from a purely educational meeting. The decision for next year should come up for discussion at the November annual meeting.
If a WI decides to award a bursary, then every member, no matter how long or how short a time she has been a member, has the right to win: the unlucky should not be heard to grumble and certainly not have their complaints minuted in the record book. What sort of a friendly welcome is that?
Our members thoroughly enjoyed learning how to start work researching their personal family tree.There were many notes taken, loads of questions and a lot of comparisons of family legends. One thing that became very obvious was that there were only two out of 40plus present who had been in Bucks for more than one generation.
August 27th
Ideal weather conditions for Winslow Show today in comparison to some previous years. Once a neighbouring stall's tent became airborne and landed on top of the WI's gazebo which was very exciting. This year there was a gentle cross-breeze and warm sunshine.
I don't know the official figures for the gate yet but the absence of the cattle show classes because of Foot and Mouth restrictions did not seem to have affected the numbers at all and there were definitely more stalls.We had many visitors to our tent, members from local WIs as well as others from as far afield as Yorkshire, Somerset and Wales. It was most enjoyable to afford a base for pleasant talk and promotion of our own WI in which we take great pride. We were one of the few sites not out to make money or sell raffle tickets but just to advertise the WI. When one saw displayed all the events and occasions in which our members had participated both locally, countywise and nationally it was easy to be enthusiastic when people made enquiries about joining. We are reasonably confident in having attracted several new members but will not know for sure until after the next couple of meetings.