The AGM et al

11th June
Only eight of our local WI members took advantage of a patchwork day class sponsored by the WI's annual bursary today. Every year the WI gives a bursary for either one member to go to Denman College or on alternate years to enjoy an educational course or an event free to the whole membership. This year we visited a craft shop which runs different craft courses and we chose patchwork. It was an excellent way to spend a few hours and we all came home with a small cushion, a covered notebook and enough lumps of co-operatively made patchwork to make a quilt which we will probably raffle to raise funds for the WI. The benefit along the way was to become familiar with a variety of modern sewing machines which seemed quite capable of doing the work without much human intervention at all.Also of course we enjoyed a good crack and sitting in the sun in the pub garden over lunch.

9th June
I am not going to say much about today's Book Group because there were few of us there and the novel was politely described by most as tripe so I had better not reveal the title for fear of legal repercussions.It is very rare for this to happen: someone will usually rise to the author's defence but there wasn't much anyone could find this time. However the good thing is that we are now back and synchronized with the County Library reading group pattern so shouldn't incur fines under the new system. We just need the local branch to remain open for our use.

8th June
The NFWI Annual General Meeting at Liverpool. We were back in the Echo Building on the dockside at the foot of one of these London Eye-like wheels which wasn't there last time.It's a good hall which held 4583 WI members comfortably.The singing of Jerusalem was as usual impressive and the business part ran like clockwork. The WI is in good heart;we have 102 new WIs and financially we are doing well. There was a statement about the proposed abolition of cheques which was meant to allay members' fears and a vague hint that the subscription might have to be raised next year. Our National Chair Ruth Bond reported on her activities on our behalf and tried hard to whip up a bit of enthusiasm among the members but it was hard going in a hall that size and so early on in proceedings.
We then heard from Erwin James, an ex-prisoner about being inside and his work now for prison reform which was relevant to the WI campaign for Care not Custody. This led naturally to the Campaigns up-date from the Board of Trustees.Two city librarians brought conflicting views on the closure of libraries resolution and although on different sides, they both talked a lot of sense. The discussion from the floor was lively but we all knew the motion would succeed.A report on Denman College followed in which Anne Harrison suggested every member made 5 cups of tea or coffee and sold them at £1 each and lo and behold, we would raise enough money to up-date the main house at the college which was beginning to need some TLC.
After lunch we tackled the agricultural resolution which had been billed all along as against mega farms. We knew the decision on this was going to be tight as many delegates on the coach had said they were holding different decisions from the WIs they were representing.The proposer from Wiltshire opened her speech by declaring she was against intensive farming per se and it was fascinating to watch the unrest spread from the WI Advisers at the back of the hall through to the delegates.Helen Browning spoke as usual very well for the resolution, very fairly not talking about organic versus non-organic but about the effect on Britain's countryside of mega farms and our lack of infrastructure to deal with things which the USA'S vast size could house comfortably. Peter Kendall, the Chairman of NFU spoke equally well about the threat to British farming if a blanket ban was put on large farming units and how if we lost our farmers we would be importing food produced abroad where animal husbandry was nowhere near up to our standards of humane animal welfare. Again excellent speeches and well argued views from the floor. The delegates were now thrown into confusion: the wording of the resolution was bad; the proposer hadn't stuck to the notes issued; what was "mega" anyway; and "I know these WIs would have voted differently if they had been here but they haven't given me leave to alter the vote"; this is too important an issue for the NFWI to get it wrong. The result was that someone moved to reject the resolution altogether, to go back and work it out properly and move immediately to the next business . For some reason this confused the Chair but eventually she was persuaded that this was a legal move, and the delegates as a woman rejected it. Exciting stuff and it was being discussed all the way home,in the cold waiting for coaches, on coaches and in service stations.
We simmered down and listened to Dr Rita Gardner begging us to support the teaching of geography to produce people who could tackle the problems of climate change. Then Sir Steve Redgrave told us about the work of Fairtrade in the cotton fields of Mali and Gambia. We finished with the singing WI group The Harmonies.

We didn't arrive home until after 11pm but even so I wasn't the only person there who will always try to attend the AGM because it inspires one for another year. If you are asked to be a delegate, say yes and go and see for yourself what happens. You can always go as an Observer but then you have to meet your own expenses: the delegates are assisted by the WI and their link WIs. As for the reporting back---it will all appear on the NFWI website and in WI Life so you just need to add what you saw and did around the meeting.Easy! Just don't rely on the national press to cover it because they hardly ever do unless we handbag someone.


7th June
Off to Liverpool for tomorrow's NFWI AGM. The coaches were on time, there were stops for refreshments and after an unscheduled trip through the Mersey Tunnel while trying to locate the hotel, we had several hours to explore the city and re-establish contact with the Beatles of our youth. A pleasant dinner all together in a comfortable hotel mixing with members from other Federations, in our case the Isle of Man and Somerset and then off to bed to watch the ferries on the Mersey twinkling with lights along the banks.