The big stage

1st June
I know that I am not the only person quite thankful that the temperature has dropped.I have emptied my fridge to await delivery of salmon for the Jubilee dinner in the town which the local WI is to provide.The shopping is to be done today and the food distributed around to storers and cooks.We are very glad to report that we now have 4 members with Health&Hygiene certificates following the latest course so we are under strict controls! It's going to be a very posh do with waitresses in black and white with little aprons a la Lyons Corner House. No bunny girls!
In the morning a meeting was held at the County HQ for the chairmen and secretaries of the 6 sub-committees. This is held every year once the sub-committees have fixed their members so that everyone is following the same practices when organising events and writing minutes It was also an opportunity to chew over the AGM at the Royal Albert Hall.

30th May
An early start for the coach journey up to the Albert Hall for the NFWI Annual General Meeting. Two coaches travelled from Bucks and both arrived in good time.It is always impressive to see the hall filled with colour from the summer clothes but I never saw a single hat this year.The singing of Jerusalem is wonderful and then it is straight into the business side of the meeting. Ruth Bond, our National Chair(man) announced a successful year with 19,000 new members and reported on a busy twelve months of campaigning. She spent some time introducing the new National Federation website which hopes to incorporate links into each county so that they are all combined under the one umbrella. This may prove the answer to Bucks' problems with its website: if our members don't seem so keen on going immediately into ours, outsiders can find their way into Bucks via NFWI. After all, it is through the website that the WI is gaining new members.Ruth gave an up-date on the sale of WI Foods but there were none on show at the meeting.
Aleathia Mann then presented the Annual Review and the financial state of the WI, very cleverly comparing the financial report to a piece of knitting.The NFWI is financially sound but Denman College had made a worrying loss because of the falling numbers of students. This trend must be stopped or the future of the college becomes problematical. It needs 60 beds full per night.
The Lord Julian Fellowes then spoke tying in his theme of "strong women" with his books, television series and films including Mary Poppins.He spoke well and was amusing and was much appreciated by the audience.
The resolution on providing more midwives was moved with a back-up from Professor Lesley Paige, the President of the Royal College of Midwives. Professor Bosanquet from Imperial College agreed with our aims but suggested different ways to answer the problems. Unfortunately when he sought to encourage more money to go to management, the members began a slow handclap. It was obvious that this was unpopular, but his other ideas were acceptable and well reasoned.The debate from the floor was good and well managed. The resolution was carried 5939 to 214 votes.
After a resume of the campaigns it was a picnic lunch in the sunshine on the steps of the Albert Memorial before our return to the hall for the Guiness Book of Records attempt on the largest number of people knitting for 15 minutes at the same time.I don't know whether we were successful but it was fun to watch.
Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock with 2 year old on her hip then spoke about the need to encourage women and girls into science and talked about her work with global telescopes in South America and the mind-boggling information gained from the Hubble telescope.I don't know whether the presence of the child was to shame the WI for not encouraging better childcare facilities when it came up as a resolution years ago or to show that the modern woman can have it all--motherhood and a successful career--but it was distracting for the listener, already struggling with a very fast delivery and God knows what it was doing to her spine.I found what Maggie was saying as an astronomer, was interesting but many found it difficult.Mind, the child behaved very well as she must have known it would.
Ruth Bond gave a rather valedictory speech in tone but warned that the WI's constitution was coming under review and that all WIs should make time to consider it.Then the stage was cleared for a brief commercial demonstration from 2 couples from the Strictly Come Dancing series which was very colourful and the meeting closed with the singing of all 3 anthems.
An interesting day as always, but not one of the greatest. We are off to Cardiff in 2013 on a Saturday which is a change. See you there!