Funds freeze and snow

Continuing the poetic turn with which I started the year, do any of you remember that poem which describes a classroom of children distracted by the snow falling outside, the wonder and beauty of it, which finishes with the teacher calling them to order with the words "It's only snow"? How chilling in every sense of the word.
I am always distracted by snow and spend happy minutes just watching it. I know it is inconvenient and I have come to an age when the last thing I want to do is suffer a fall on ice but all the same... Anyway, this snowy interval does provide a space in which to update the blog.
28th January
The local WI committee meeting was held in someone's cosy and warm house as usual and although we had members with seasonal colds and some away enjoying winter breaks in the sunshine, we got quite a lot done. We have received a certificate in thanks from ENCAMS for our efforts in the Big Tidy Up last September which is rather nice. We all agreed that the town needed doing again. Sadly we heard that there were no longer any funds to continue our work on the Let's Sew project in Bletchley. This tied in with a letter received from NFWI asking members and WIs to write to their MPs about the cuts in funding for adult education.The WI is an educational charity and we have our own residential college at Abingdon and the WI is a centre for the Lifelong Learning Project.Apparently CALL (the Campaign for Adult Lifelong Learning) is going to put up an Early Day Motion at the end of February and needs support. We will put the idea of a letter to our members next week.
The change of format last month was voted a success so we will try again to have the speaker's slot first, then break for refreshments and then the business. If we keep the drawing of the raffle right to the end, no one will sneak off before the business! I think we will have to think of a way to circulate the events book from the very beginning of the meeting and hope that the members will read their Monthly Letter as soon as they pick it up because any promotion of events which the President does in the business section will be ignored as everyone prepares to leave at the end of the meeting. There must be a way round this. What do you do in your WIs?