One thing after another

13th May
Every two years at the beginning of May, the members of the various sub-committees in BFWI are appointed to serve for another two years. Every year in May they give themselves a shake and change officers or responsibilities.So today Education and Current Affairs met to sort itself out for another year.Unfortunately we are losing our Chairman and the sub-committee is below strength anyway at the moment and we are running up to a very active summer with big events planned. This will mean us calling in promises from helpers outside. I wish we could get some more volunteers to join us but we seem to suffer from an unfortunate image. People think we are a load of blue stockings and therefore either dull or forbidding. And we are not at all like that. Our meetings are lively and the events we plan are popular but still this idea persists. So go on prove me wrong and make enquiries: it is only six meetings a year!
Great was the rejoicing that we have won a grant to buy a laptop to go with our recent purchase of the projector which many of you saw in use at the Celebration Lunch at Newton Longville. The trip to Paris had gone well and there was talk of a follow-up to another European attraction. There are events planned for this year and next at Denman College. However the bulk of the meeting was taken up with arrangements for our Tudor Day, Henry VIII and All That which is over-subscribed. If you missed a ticket, think if you had been on the committee you would have been able to attend!
12th May
The local WI held its second Discussion Group evening and although we had come ready to talk about packaging and labelling as per this year's resolution, the subjects discussed were far-ranging. We have decided to try to bring to every meeting to start us off some item either in the media or in real life that has amused us. This practice can torpedo the whole evening but it is a good way to make people relax, along with the wine of course.We did discuss packaging but also the lack of parity in payments in for leave and allowances to natural parents and adopting parents. And of course keeping party politics out of it, we reviewed the TV coverage of the election and reminisced on elections of former years without the media coverage.
11th May
The County Library had come up trumps this time with enough copies of "The View from Castle Rock" by Alice Munro for us all to read at the same time and an audio version too. The majority enjoyed this very different way of approaching one's own family history---turn most of it into short stories. This method brought home the privations of the early Scottish settlers in Canada. Life was tough in those days; the women were amazingly strong physically and mentally just to cope with the everyday struggle against the elements, the frequent childbirths and the early loss of life. We have the Angela Huth "Once a Landgirl " in hand for next time and "Lighthousekeeping" which sounds intriguing.Our group is comfortably sized at ten members which means that even when folks are away on holiday there is a good number present. Also of course, we need time to discuss the travel as well, so we should call absentees fieldworkers.
10th May
The local WI craft group spent the afternoon pooling resources for the BFWI competition "Celebration". We have decided on our theme, now it is what to include and what to leave out, what accessories will be allowed. We didn't have time to actually do anything with a needle and thread this afternoon.
5th May
Resolution evening tonight at the monthly meeting. Members are a bit disappointed that there is only the one going up to the NFWI AGM at Cardiff next month. We entertained a member from a neighbouring WI who is to represent us this year as our delegate. Our Vice-Chairman took us through the resolution and we did agree with it in the main, although some members would have preferred it if the one about flood management had been chosen. One of our members brought up an issue about allowances for adopting parents and it was decided to write to our MP as soon as we knew who he/she was to be, to seek for support when the social welfare scheme is next reviewed. As there are only 4000 adoptions in UK per year, it was thought too small a subject to go up as a resolution for next year.
We were disappointed that our nominee for the community award in the town had not won so in true WI fashion we made enquiries about the system of choosing the winner so that we wouldn't risk being unsuccessful another year! Our new venue is proving comfortable and we will probably benefit from its garden space if we stage a barbeque-type meeting in August to replace our missed meeting because of the snow in January.
Disappointingly no one would mastermind the WI tent at the Winslow Show so for the first time for more than 20 years there will be no WI presence on August Bank Holiday Monday. The trouble is that the people who do things are also doing them for other town organisations and we shouldn't grumble at that but wouldn't it be wonderful if someone who had never done anything like that before suddenly volunteered...and pigs might fly!