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.