Celebrating the new and old

14th March
This evening the local WI discussion Group tackled the topic of agriculture which influences all our lives to a larger or smaller extent. One doesn't have to go back many generations before we can all recall a family member engaged on the land.The WI itself started off with a strong rural base with tie -ins with agricultural colleges.Of course the threat of drought, not just in the UK this summer, but as a worldwide problem came up and the availability of food out of season throughout the year. We also aired the attitude of the public towards farming on land use when some local issues were discussed: would we prefer pigs to new housing across the road?
Have you read about this graffiti knitter who is posting knitted landscapes in public places in Saltburn?Now they are appearing over telephone boxes in London. I do hope that it turns out to be the work of WI members but I don't think a WI member would have the time to spare to produce these works of art.

13th March
The local WI President held a new members' evening in her home tonight. Because our WI continues to grow at a healthy rate, it was felt that anyone new to WI was rather thrown in at the deep end.There is always so much going on at meetings that a first-time joiner doesn't know what she has joined nor about the place of the WI in the community and in the general fabric of society.Most of the information one needs as a member is in the WI diary but one never orders one of those until the second year of attendance. Anyway it was a very pleasant evening when we touched on the history, the resolution process and the jungle of shortcut capital letters such as ACWW, WI Adviser, Green letter, ACM etc. We also heard of new WIs being formed in the county of which we had all been unaware because there has been no notice in the newsletter or on the website.We would have liked to share in the success and perhaps invite members from a new WI to visit ours which is celebrating its 90th year.

8th March
Today was the meeting of the Education and Current Affairs sub-committee. We only just made the quorum which was a pity as there was so much to arrange.Over the Easter break the WI is being given a stall at the Chiltern Food and Drink Festival at Great Missenden. We hope to display and promote the new range of WI foods and recipe books.However it is proving very difficult to obtain samples.An exercise in hard sell, it certainly isn't.

7th March
The local WI was full to bursting today to hear a speaker on the house and gardens at Stowe.Although many of us visit Stowe quite regularly we didn't know a lot about its history and the speaker's amusing and almost diffident presentation was most enjoyable.The business side of the meeting consisted of a string of dates for the summer because of the Jubilee , the Olympic Torch and our own 90th Anniversary and the county programme of events. Some members had visited Denman College and had been very impressed.The WI Treasurer presented a budget for the year which prophesied a deficit because there wouldn't be time to organise a big fund-raiser this year. However we should be able to live on our fat for one year and accept the need for something special in 2013.