26 March
Two of us did our bit this afternoon serving teas etc to the blood donors. This is a pleasant chore which the local WI undertakes for the NHS van whenever it visits the town. The nurses reckon it is a great help and the donors certainly appreciate a cuppa while their bodies adjust to losing an armful of blood, as Tony Hancock would have said.Actually this is a promotional opportunity as quite a lot of chat goes on about who one is and why one is serving tea so what with the Calendar Girls in the current thinking, people were interested in the WI. I must admit that quite a few male donors were wondering whether their wives and partners ought to join. We may have got one new member this way . I'll keep you informed.
25 March
The northern round of the Intercounty Quiz was held tonight in Buckingham. This is an annual event when the brains of the WI members in Bucks, Herts and Bedfordshire are pitted against each other. Heats are held within the counties so that 6 teams may be selected to compete in the final in June. So not only do we have intense rivalry between the county federations but also between the north and south of each county too.Apparently our winning teams achieved lower marks than the winning teams down south which is a bit galling! I hope the southerners contested the loom answer too and as for Kingston -upon-Hull, I'm speechless! Only joking! It was a pleasant evening as usual and very well organised too.
23 March
Tonight we went to see the "Calendar Girls" at Milton Keynes Theatre. What a marvellous show it is! Usually when we go to the theatre, I meet at least one WI member from around the north of the county but last night surrounded by WI members from all over the place, I saw no one I knew.The theatre was packed and the humour of WI activities was much appreciated. The producer has been so clever at managing the nude scenes that no passing Lord Chamberlain could have raised a legal case, only an eyebrow perhaps! The WI organisation must be forever grateful to the real calendar girls for what they achieved for the WI image as well as for leukaemia research-- and the sofa, of course.
22 March
The Group Meeting this evening was very enjoyable. The speaker was Gill Fraser an exTV presenter on Heart of the Country who had worked with John Craven who has also come to talk in Bucks some time ago.Gill was entertaining as she described the hazards of moving into a former vicarage. The locals still associated the house with the responsibilities of the parish church so that her family became saddled with the annual church fete ,carol singers and the Sunday School productions. Several people bought copies of the book recording these events called "More tea less Vicar".The hostess WI then thought to address the problem of members insisting on sitting with members from their own WIs at group meetings by playing a game which muddled up everyone and forced them to talk outside their immediate circle. IT WORKED! And of course everyone said how nice it was to chat to someone different...so why didn't they do it before? We see many members from neighbouring WIs in the local butchers and shopping in the High Street so they are not so strange.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Talk of trees and bridges
14 and 15 March
With another BFWI member, I attended the Rainforest Conference run by Taylors of Harrogate (Yorkshire Tea) at Denman College. There were WI members from all over the country in spite of the fact that it was Mothers' Day.Ruth Bond our National Chair was there and three others from the WI National Executive.Jonathan Wild, who you remember spoke so well at the AGM in the Albert Hall, had organised the event.Speakers included Tony Juniper , Special Envoy for HRH The Prince of Wales from the Prince's Rainforest Project and Simon Counsell Director of Rainforest Foundation UK who all gave excellent presentations on work being done across the world. Erika Bjureby also from the Rainforest Foundation described her experiences in Peru but as far as I was concerned the most inspirational speaker was Cristina Talens, the Ethical Trading Manager at Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate who talked about her trip to the Selva Central region of Peru's Amazon rainforest. Cristina without the aid of graphs and charts brought home to us the problems of the farmers in the forest and how the women are protecting their rights to land and their means of survival against the advances of big business, such as the timber and oil companies.
Of course there is no such thing as a free lunch and it is obvious that Taylors want those who attended to cascade information down to the WI County Federations.After all we have passed mandates on these issues. WIs help by collecting the tokens off the tea and coffee packets in response to which the firm has planted over three million trees but more importantly it has been able to employ people like Cristina to go out and give practical help to the women.And it is mostly women as there are very few men over 40 or anyone for that matter left after liquidations by the Shining Path.She gives them advice on how to prevent the people being exploited in world markets.It was really impressive to listen to these slips of girls talking about living in Peru a year at a time and learning to eat grubs for the best of possible reasons ---not to glorify themselves for some television camera crew.
I hope BFWI will be able to hold some event to highlight these issues either under the umbrella of ACWW or at an International Day or perhaps at Group level.
11 March
Most of our time at the Education and Current Affairs meeting today was spent in organising our Tudor Day but we have also written a letter on your behalf to enquire into provision of services, especially in rural areas of Bucks, for women caught up in domestic violence and abuse. We then experimented with a conversation kit issued by NEF on the pros and cons of electronic patient records.This was an enjoyable exercise which stimulated debate and we think that discussion groups would like to use this kit.If there is anyone reading this who is still part of a discussion group, please make yourself known to Sara at BFWI's Stuart Lodge.
8 March
Well, the Join me on the Bridge campaign for International Women's Day got some good publicity although I don't know of anyone from Bucks who went down to the Millennium Bridge. We could have used Marlow Bridge, I suppose or one over a motorway. The most media interest seemed to come from the Humber Bridge where I am not sure what happened between the WI and the Hull Football Club but it did result in the WI being mentioned on Match of the Day which must be a first!.
With another BFWI member, I attended the Rainforest Conference run by Taylors of Harrogate (Yorkshire Tea) at Denman College. There were WI members from all over the country in spite of the fact that it was Mothers' Day.Ruth Bond our National Chair was there and three others from the WI National Executive.Jonathan Wild, who you remember spoke so well at the AGM in the Albert Hall, had organised the event.Speakers included Tony Juniper , Special Envoy for HRH The Prince of Wales from the Prince's Rainforest Project and Simon Counsell Director of Rainforest Foundation UK who all gave excellent presentations on work being done across the world. Erika Bjureby also from the Rainforest Foundation described her experiences in Peru but as far as I was concerned the most inspirational speaker was Cristina Talens, the Ethical Trading Manager at Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate who talked about her trip to the Selva Central region of Peru's Amazon rainforest. Cristina without the aid of graphs and charts brought home to us the problems of the farmers in the forest and how the women are protecting their rights to land and their means of survival against the advances of big business, such as the timber and oil companies.
Of course there is no such thing as a free lunch and it is obvious that Taylors want those who attended to cascade information down to the WI County Federations.After all we have passed mandates on these issues. WIs help by collecting the tokens off the tea and coffee packets in response to which the firm has planted over three million trees but more importantly it has been able to employ people like Cristina to go out and give practical help to the women.And it is mostly women as there are very few men over 40 or anyone for that matter left after liquidations by the Shining Path.She gives them advice on how to prevent the people being exploited in world markets.It was really impressive to listen to these slips of girls talking about living in Peru a year at a time and learning to eat grubs for the best of possible reasons ---not to glorify themselves for some television camera crew.
I hope BFWI will be able to hold some event to highlight these issues either under the umbrella of ACWW or at an International Day or perhaps at Group level.
11 March
Most of our time at the Education and Current Affairs meeting today was spent in organising our Tudor Day but we have also written a letter on your behalf to enquire into provision of services, especially in rural areas of Bucks, for women caught up in domestic violence and abuse. We then experimented with a conversation kit issued by NEF on the pros and cons of electronic patient records.This was an enjoyable exercise which stimulated debate and we think that discussion groups would like to use this kit.If there is anyone reading this who is still part of a discussion group, please make yourself known to Sara at BFWI's Stuart Lodge.
8 March
Well, the Join me on the Bridge campaign for International Women's Day got some good publicity although I don't know of anyone from Bucks who went down to the Millennium Bridge. We could have used Marlow Bridge, I suppose or one over a motorway. The most media interest seemed to come from the Humber Bridge where I am not sure what happened between the WI and the Hull Football Club but it did result in the WI being mentioned on Match of the Day which must be a first!.
Friday, 5 March 2010
Plus and minus
4th March
Now that's what I like to see! "Supermarkets will cut down on packaging after WI campaign" headline in today's Daily Telegraph. Apparently the supermarkets will cut down on needless packaging such as individual wrapping for vegetables and cardboard trays for fruit after a campaign led by the Women's Institute.They are also going to help consumers to waste less food by selling smaller loaves of bread and providing recipes for leftovers. Shops will offer more recycling facilities for plastic bags and other packaging. I know it has taken a while from the start of our campaign but it has been a success and just proves that we can make the difference which all the political jargon urges us to do.
3rd March
The local WI enjoyed a very lively talk about superstitions and it showed how many of us profess not to be superstitious but don't take any chances, either just in case...Our next meeting is going to be an open one because it is on a subject that will appeal to family members too. We spent a lot of time planning the coming fashion show and the Group Meeting which sounds fascinating because its title is More Tea, Less Vicar---should be fun.
The vexed topic of ballots for WI events which are over-subscribed came up again. The system of decision dates was explained because the county federation cannot work on a first come, first served basis. Places have to be allocated in ratio not only of applications per WI but also on how they have been allocated for recent events. For this reason an account is maintained of the allocations made and this is referred to each time and taken into consideration. Unfortunately, like criticism, it is the disappointment that is remembered more than the success so that people feel done wrong by, whenever they miss out. No one realises the heartache of having to turn members away even though it tells the organising committee that it is planning things that the members want to attend.
1st March
A nice bright new federation newsletter arrived today. I took it away with me and compared it to the one from Avon Federation which was very like our old Green Letter but blue. The members from Avon thought ours very swish so take heart those on the editorial team when people criticise the change.
I told you the weather and the cancellation of the Resolution Selection Meetings would have a detrimental effect on the voting for the resolutions. We should be ashamed of ourselves at how few members put in a vote---just about a quarter of the Bucks membership. If in the general election this apathy is shown among the female votes we deserve to be tied to railings and have tomatoes thrown at us instead of forced feeding!
23rd February
Local meeting of the WI Book Group. The distribution of "set books" had been a bit chaotic so we finished up discussing "The Rose of Sebastopol" again and indulging in a book swap. We have now submitted a new list to the library and begun investigating prices of some recent titles to buy multiple copies.We all enjoy these meetings because we throw in travel reports of members' holidays as well but I will not embarrass anyone by mentioning some of those! Next time we should have read another Katherine MacMahon, "The Alchemist's Daughter".
A group of us had a little meeting to try to organise a better website entry for our local WI with a tie-in to the Town Council website as well as BFWI's new website. This was very interesting as we could gather round a couple of laptops and see what we were talking about. We need the Town Council mention for promotion so that needs to be aimed at the newcomer to the town but we also want to show off to other WIs in the County and advertise ourselves on the county federation for casual enquirers. Different horses for different courses. Luckily we have some IT whizzkids as members so I am sure something wonderful will emerge in the fullness of time.
Now that's what I like to see! "Supermarkets will cut down on packaging after WI campaign" headline in today's Daily Telegraph. Apparently the supermarkets will cut down on needless packaging such as individual wrapping for vegetables and cardboard trays for fruit after a campaign led by the Women's Institute.They are also going to help consumers to waste less food by selling smaller loaves of bread and providing recipes for leftovers. Shops will offer more recycling facilities for plastic bags and other packaging. I know it has taken a while from the start of our campaign but it has been a success and just proves that we can make the difference which all the political jargon urges us to do.
3rd March
The local WI enjoyed a very lively talk about superstitions and it showed how many of us profess not to be superstitious but don't take any chances, either just in case...Our next meeting is going to be an open one because it is on a subject that will appeal to family members too. We spent a lot of time planning the coming fashion show and the Group Meeting which sounds fascinating because its title is More Tea, Less Vicar---should be fun.
The vexed topic of ballots for WI events which are over-subscribed came up again. The system of decision dates was explained because the county federation cannot work on a first come, first served basis. Places have to be allocated in ratio not only of applications per WI but also on how they have been allocated for recent events. For this reason an account is maintained of the allocations made and this is referred to each time and taken into consideration. Unfortunately, like criticism, it is the disappointment that is remembered more than the success so that people feel done wrong by, whenever they miss out. No one realises the heartache of having to turn members away even though it tells the organising committee that it is planning things that the members want to attend.
1st March
A nice bright new federation newsletter arrived today. I took it away with me and compared it to the one from Avon Federation which was very like our old Green Letter but blue. The members from Avon thought ours very swish so take heart those on the editorial team when people criticise the change.
I told you the weather and the cancellation of the Resolution Selection Meetings would have a detrimental effect on the voting for the resolutions. We should be ashamed of ourselves at how few members put in a vote---just about a quarter of the Bucks membership. If in the general election this apathy is shown among the female votes we deserve to be tied to railings and have tomatoes thrown at us instead of forced feeding!
23rd February
Local meeting of the WI Book Group. The distribution of "set books" had been a bit chaotic so we finished up discussing "The Rose of Sebastopol" again and indulging in a book swap. We have now submitted a new list to the library and begun investigating prices of some recent titles to buy multiple copies.We all enjoy these meetings because we throw in travel reports of members' holidays as well but I will not embarrass anyone by mentioning some of those! Next time we should have read another Katherine MacMahon, "The Alchemist's Daughter".
A group of us had a little meeting to try to organise a better website entry for our local WI with a tie-in to the Town Council website as well as BFWI's new website. This was very interesting as we could gather round a couple of laptops and see what we were talking about. We need the Town Council mention for promotion so that needs to be aimed at the newcomer to the town but we also want to show off to other WIs in the County and advertise ourselves on the county federation for casual enquirers. Different horses for different courses. Luckily we have some IT whizzkids as members so I am sure something wonderful will emerge in the fullness of time.
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