Busy,busy meetings

25th March
Today three of the local WI members travelled South to visit the WI shop at Stuart Lodge. Although they planned to buy a few items, the main reason was to view the BFWI Offices. They were really impressed: of course, it was post a bank holiday weekend but the level of activity was amazing. Besides the usual three members of staff and the shop people, there were some judges working on some secret mission and members of Executive popping in for paperwork and equipment for forthcoming events. If all Bucks members could visit Stuart Lodge, they would understand just what running a WI Federation involves and also be able to put a face to the voice on the phone.
It was great to see the finished upstairs bathroom and to view the redecorated committee room.
26th March
Local WI committee tonight, the main purpose of which was to plan next week's Open Meeting. We want to cover everything in as short a time as possible because, hopefully there will be lots of visitors.We also want to fly the flag a bit. We don't usually have a timed agenda but for this we must and take the record of the last meeting "as read".However, the committee refused to abandon Jerusalem as part of the time-cutting exercise!
31st March
What a day! In the afternoon the local Book Group met. Everyone was very pleased to be in print in WI Life but not so pleased to have been given away to another County! We discussed the "Book Thief" which all rated highly.
Then it was a short meeting to sort out a ballot for a couple of the WI summer rambles which are oversubscribed. Anyone involved with running an event hates to turn any members away. BFWI has been criticised for opening events to non-members but sometimes we need those extra bodies in order to actually hold the event. If the number of tickets is cut, it is up to the WI to locally distribute the tickets on the basis of members first, non-members next.
In the evening three members of the local WI attended the Briefing Meeting in Aylesbury. This is when experts are called to give information to the delegates to use at their own WIs in May. It was a lively meeting and there was lots of informed discussion which augurs well for the AGM in Liverpool in June.
2nd April
I may be biassed but I think our Open Meeting was a success. We did have lots of visitors and also we had an excellent speaker who appealed to a general audience. His subject was his experiences around the world while in the diplomatic service. We kept to time and there was a healthy buzz of conversation during social time. We were also able to arrange some dates for working party meetings and fix attendance at the Town Council's meetings to produce a Town Plan and to attend the Bucks CC day school on Closer Links with the Community. All part of the social conscience of being a WI member but it does make for a busy couple of months.