Chair's Chat

Chair’s Chat – October 2023

Angela Chessman in a pink and white dress cutting a white cake with green decoration.

Hello everyone

I hope you are all well and have had a wonderful Summer. It was brilliant to have such lovely weather well into September, but it does highlight the strange behaviour of the weather and how our seasons are changing.

Luckily, the weather didn’t affect the Riverside Dip, Dabble and Picnic, which was held in Sunbury On Thames last month.

The event was arranged by Sunbury Village and Teddington WIs to raise awareness of this year’s Resolution, Clean Rivers for People and Wildlife.

The day was a great success – well done to all involved. More details and photos inside the newsletter – and well done to all who went for a “dip” in the river!

Last month, I was also pleased to attend the Hayes, Harlington, Iver, West Drayton and Hillingdon Group Meeting and celebration of WI Day. We all had a fantastic time; we played Skittles, tested our brains in a quiz and had to guess the identity of some childhood photos of some of their members. Unfortunately, the only one I could guess was of Georgina, our Federation Secretary. She hasn’t changed a bit!

Group Meetings are a fantastic way to get together with your neighbouring WIs and have some fun! I hope to be able to attend some more in the future.

As Autumn approaches, we are starting to plan for next year. A date for your diary is 25th March 2024, when we will be holding the Middlesex Federation Annual Council Meeting.

As we had such good feedback last year, we have decided to return to Questors Theatre in Ealing. I do hope you will join us – we had a great time last year and our speakers were excellent.

It’s a good opportunity to meet up with your colleagues from across the Federation and celebrate all that is good in the WI.

We are also hoping to revive the ‘Chair’s Challenge’. The idea is that we would like you to create a design for a new Federation tablecloth. More information will be sent to your secretaries, but we are looking for you to design a central focus for the front of the cloth.

Please start thinking about it, you won’t have to do the sewing, just the design!

Have a good month.

Angela

Chair’s Chat – September 2023

Three women in coloured, patterned dresses holding a knife over a birthday cake with white icing. — *WI Adviser Gerry Attias, Hayes Town WI President Linda Lawrence and Middlesex Federation Chair Angela Chessman cut the cake to mark the recent 30th Birthday of Hayes Town WI.*

Hello everyone

…and welcome to our late Summer Middlesex News.

I hope that you have enjoyed the warmer weather – although as I am writing this there is an amazing thunderstorm going on.

Ah, the joys of a British Summer!

As you probably know, National Federation has sent out information and deadlines for the submission for next year’s Resolutions.

Is there an issue that you feel passionate about and that the WI could get behind? Would you like to enter it for discussion as a Resolution?

Your Secretary should have a copy of the guidelines, and there is full information on My WI. Alternatively, have a chat with Alison Fremantle, our Federation Public Affairs representative, who will be able to help.

National Federation has also sent out details of next year’s Annual Meeting, which will be held on Wednesday 5 June 2024 at The Royal Albert Hall in London. I hope to see some of you there at this wonderful venue.

Just a reminder that it’s time to renew your 200+ Club shares. Shares remain at £6 and there have been a lot of lucky monthly draw winners this year, as well as the bursary winners at the Annual Meeting.

You have to be in it to win it—more details from your Secretary.

You may recall that Federation has been updating the Speakers Directory as well as trying to make it a bit more user-friendly. We are now finalising this and hope to be able to send it out to all WIs soon.

It would be great if you could send us feedback when you book one of the speakers—it all helps other WIs to decide whether the speaker is someone their members may like to hear.

Finally, plans are afoot for a Federation-wide competition that will be open to all WIs.

More details to follow…

I hope that you will enjoy the rest of the summer. Don’t forget to send in photos of your WI activities.

Angela

Chair’s Chat – July 2023

Hello everyone

I hope you are all well—and hasn’t the weather been wonderful?

In the last few months I have made a real effort to get out walking more and these last few weeks have been a joy—the parks and gardens really are at their best.

My walks have also taken me along the riverside and it has made me think more about this year’s resolution, Clean Rivers for People and Wildlife.

What is the river like near me? Is it a safe habitat for river wildlife, for the freshwater fish, voles, dragonflies and kingfishers? Even the bumblebee, foraging among the banks.

Would I want to swim in it??

I will definitely be exploring the issue more in the coming months. What about you? Are you and your WI planning anything to get involved?

In September, couple of our WIs are planning a WI Week of River Action in support of the resolution and they are starting off with a riverside picnic, dip and dabble in Sunbury-on -Thames (see page 4). I believe there will be some ‘wild swimming’ so hopefully we will have some photos to share!

The Thames swim looks like a brilliant day; do let us know what else is going on in the Federation. Please also turn to page 3 for member Sian Cooley’s report of the NFWI Annual meeting which involved… swimming!

Just a reminder that we will be holding Officer training in July. Please get in touch with Georgina, Federation Secretary, if you would like to book a place, on secretary@mfwi.org.uk.

Finally, some of you may remember that we used to hold a craft ‘Chair’s Challenge’, with the winner being announced at the MFWI Annual Council Meeting.

We have decided to revive this, and more information will be shared with you shortly, but get your creative thinking caps on.

A reminder that we do have an August/September issue of Middlesex News, then take a break from production in August, with the following issue the October one.

Have a great Summer.

Angela

Chair’s Chat – May 2023

Hello everyone

Hello everyone. I hope you are all well and enjoying the three Bank Holidays this month! Let’s hope that the weather is kind to us.

I am sure that several of you will be busy planning for the King’s Coronation—I know that my WI is.

Maybe you are looking forward to watching the event on television, or are planning an afternoon tea or street party? Whatever you do, I hope that you have a great weekend—and don’t forget to send in the photos!

There are also some lovely Coronation makes in My WI if you are feeling crafty, so why not have a go?

You may remember that Board member Julia Lewis has organised a theatre trip in May to see Frozen. I hope that all who are going enjoy yourselves; I saw the show last year and it is truly magical, whatever your age.

Hopefully, Julia will be organising more theatre visits soon.

There are also other events in the pipeline, so watch this space.

It’s not long now until our Annual Meeting in Cardiff, and I’m looking forward to seeing some of you there.

The Annual Meeting is when we debate and give our final votes on this year’s Resolution, Clean rivers for people and wildlife.

Please ensure that your delegate knows how your WI wishes to vote.

The National Federation has announced two excellent speakers for the meeting: World Cup winning Cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent MBE, and Laura McAllister, former International Footballer and now a Professor of Public Policy at Cardiff University.

I am sure they will entertain us after the hard work discussing the Resolution!

For those coming on the MFWI coach, we might just have a quiz for the journey…

Have a good month.

Kind regards

Angela

Chair’s Chat – April 2023

Hello everyone

I hope you are all well.

Well, where do I start this month’s Chair’s Chat? Ah I know, the Middlesex Federation Annual Council Meeting!

What an excellent day we had! I do hope that those of you who attended enjoyed it. For those who didn’t attend—where were you??

As I have mentioned, we changed our venue this year to Ealing, to hopefully make it more accessible to more WIs and several have said it worked well for them.

The location was very good, with plenty of space to eat your lunch or cafes and coffee shops a few minutes walk away.

We had two excellent speakers, Bonita Norris and Eliza McClelland; totally different, but they really complemented each other.

I would like to thank Gill Wildman from Hayes Town WI and her team of Stewards who helped to organise our visitors, Mary Jeffery and Maureen Stone from Stanwell WI who provided an excellent raffle and our super Secretary Georgina who was sorting everything out behind the scenes.

Of course, special thanks go to the Board of Trustees, who worked so hard to organise this event—it wasn’t easy!

Many thanks as well to all members who attended. I have had some lovely feedback from those who did attend, I am really pleased that you enjoyed it.

However, on a less positive note, we were very disappointed in the number of members who actually came. We have over 1500 members from 44 WIs in Middlesex and only a fraction of that number attended.

Why is this?

I know some of you are still a bit apprehensive about attending large gatherings and I understand this, but we really hoped that more members would come along, especially as it was the first major meeting for us since lockdown.

We changed the venue, to make it more accessible to more WIs and we had inspiring and amusing speakers. I am not sure what else we could have done.

I would be really grateful if you would give us some feedback of why you didn’t attend.

Is there something else you would like from these meetings? We have to do ‘the business’, but after that we are always open to your thoughts and ideas.

As mentioned, the Federation is hoping to put on more events in the coming year. We are starting with a Theatre outing to Frozen on 12 May, which Julia Lewis is organising for us. More information was sent to WI Officers on 27 March.

Finally, It’s renewal time for those of you who have a paper version of the Newsletter, Information on how to order has been sent to your Secretaries.

Have a good month

Angela

Chair’s Chat – March 2023

Hello

As I am writing this the sun is shining and the early daffodils are starting to bring the garden alive again.

I really love Springtime. I know that in this part of the world we are quite lucky with the weather, but it really lifts the spirits when the warmer weather comes along.

The Board of Trustees is still busy planning our first face to face Annual Council Meeting since before the pandemic.

As you probably know, we have changed the venue this year, mainly in the hope that more members will be able to attend —the theatre has excellent transport links. Many thanks to Board member Julia for recommending her local playhouse!

I do hope we will see a lot of you there.

Tickets are available from your Secretary or from Federation Office and you will be able to order a packed lunch, bring your own or take a short walk to the local cafes. If the weather is nice there is a lovely park just opposite the theatre. We also have two excellent speakers, so I am sure that you will have an enjoyable day.

The deadline for Resolution votes has now passed and the results for the Middlesex Federation WIs have been sent to National Office.

The results for Middlesex were: Save our Water – 210, Women to Women – 67, Online Gambling – 218, Clean Rivers – 299. The total number of votes cast was 794.

Thank you to all WIs who took the time to discuss the Resolutions and send in their votes—but it was a bit disappointing that this was only approximately half of our membership. However, I am sure that we are all looking forward to finding out which Resolution has been chosen to be voted on at the Annual Meeting – we should hear the results at the end of the month.

As you know, we are hoping to start organising some Federation events and one suggestion was a cross-Federation quiz.

As soon as we have more news we will be in touch—so please do put your thinking caps on!

Take care and keep in touch.

Kind regards

Angela

Chair’s Chat – February 2023

Hello

…and a belated Happy New Year to you all.

I do hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and are now looking forward to what the next few months have to bring.

I always feel that this is a strange time. Lots of people make New Year Resolutions, but how long to we keep them up?

One I am really trying to keep to is to get out and about more.

During lockdown our daily walk was a blessing and it’s easy to forget how much just getting out into the fresh air raised our spirits—I want to get that feeling back! Maybe I will start counting my steps…

By the time this reaches you, your WIs will have hopefully had their Resolutions meeting and maybe some of you attended the Zoom presentation. I hope you have found the Resolutions interesting this year and have made your choices.

Please remember that your votes need to be with the Federation by 14 February at the latest, either via your WI or directly from yourselves.

At the moment, your Federation Trustees are busy arranging our Annual Council Meeting, the first face to face meeting since 2019. We are so excited to be doing this and I really hope that many if you will be able to attend.

You will see that we have changed the venue this year. We have done this to try to make it easier for all areas of the Federation to be able to get there—it has excellent transport links.

However, the downside is that there is very limited parking, other than in local pay-for car parks. I am sure you will understand that finding suitable venues in our area is quite difficult; we think that this venue offers lots of benefits and I do hope that you will come along and enjoy the day.

Also coming up is the NFWI Annual Meeting in Cardiff. As you know, there has been a reduction in the number of tickets available; this was because of the lower numbers who applied to go to Liverpool last year. I know that some of you have been disappointed as you have been unable to attend, but don’t forget you can join in the day via Zoom. Details are available on the WI website.

Let’s hope more of us will be able to attend next year!

As we look forward to the warmer weather, we are hoping to do more to bring individual WIs together. Do you have any ideas? What would you like to see Middlesex doing? Do let us know your thoughts.

Finally, have you ever thought about joining the Federation Board as a Trustee?

It isn’t an onerous job and we are a friendly bunch! It is an interesting way to find out more about the WI in general, both locally and nationally and really won’t take up too much of your time. Our meetings are hybrid, both face to face and via Zoom, so please don’t worry if attending County Office in West Drayton is a problem.

If you are interested, please get in touch with me or any Trustee.

Angela

Chair’s Chat – December 2022

Hello all

Well, where has this year gone? This is our last Newsletter of the year and by the time it reaches you I am sure a lot of us will be making our Christmas plans.

I am aware that this year the holidays will be challenging for many of us, the cost of energy and food is rising rapidly and at the moment there seems to be no end in sight.

I hope things aren’t too difficult and you can all enjoy yourselves in whatever way you choose.

I have been pleased to able to meet some of you over the last few months—many thanks for the birthday invitations—and hopefully I will get to join in some of your meetings next year.

It has been great to see how different WIs work, but they all have one thing in common—they know how to enjoy themselves!

It was also good to meet up at the Annual Meeting in Liverpool. Fewer members attended the meeting this year hence next year in Cardiff will be a smaller affair, but hopefully a few us of will still be able to attend. The Annual Meeting gives us all a chance to meet other members and I truly feel that meeting face to face is a major benefit of the WI.

As you know, our last few Annual Council meetings for Middlesex have had to be via Zoom—including, unfortunately, for our Centenary. However, we are planning to get back to a ‘live’ meeting next year—hopefully in March. As soon as the date is confirmed we will let you know and I really hope you will be able to attend.

Leading on from this, I would like to ask you all to think about joining your Board of Trustees. Although there will be no elections next year, we would love to hear from anyone who is interested in becoming more involved in the running of the Federation. Do please get in touch with any Board Member if you would like more information. The main commitment would be attending our monthly Board meetings; this can be in person or via Zoom, so it doesn’t matter where in the Federation you are based. We really would welcome your ideas, so please give it some thought.

We are conscious of the fact that the restrictions of the last few years has meant that we were unable to provide many events for our members and that is something that we are hoping to change very soon. Watch this space—and if there is anything you think we could be doing, or if you’d like to be involved in hosting an event, please let us know.

Unfortunately, there were no Middlesex winners from the National Raffle, but did you know that a small portion of the proceeds is shared with the Federations? I would like to thank everyone who bought a ticket, as it all helps.

From the Trustees, WI Advisers and Representatives at Middlesex I would like to wish all of our members a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Angela

Chair’s Chat – November 2022

Hello all

I hope you are all well and enjoying this mild Autumn weather. The seasons really are changing, and they are no longer as clear cut as they used to be; I must confess that I enjoy the lingering summers.

However, as winter approaches, I know a lot of us will be thinking about the cost of living—especially, maybe, the cost of heating our homes, and if we will be able to keep warm.

Please have a look at The Cost of Living Hub in MyWI, where you will find information about the government support for energy bills.

The WI also supports the Warm this Winter Campaign, which calls on the Government to address this crisis.

This will be a difficult time for many people, so it’s important to know what help is available.

We are well into the Annual Meeting ‘season’—many of Middlesex WIs have their AMs at this time of year. Most meetings will be chaired by one of our WI Advisers, so do take this opportunity to talk to them about any queries you may have, and let them know what you have been doing to encourage new members. It is good to share ideas.

WIs will also be getting their accounts audited and many now take advantage of the County’s IFEs (Independent Financial Examiners) to do this. Is this something you might be Interested in doing? Full training will be given—if you think this is something you might enjoy please get in touch with our Treasurer, Sarah Endersby.

October marked the new year for the 200+ Club. As you will see later in the newsletter (refer page 3), we have increased the number of prizes and the prize amounts! Good luck to everyone who has a share.

You will know by now that the shortlist for next year’s Resolutions has been published. All of the information, guides and discussion points will be available on My WI and will be published in WI Life and I am sure that your WI will set aside some time to discuss them at one of your forthcoming meetings.

Resolutions are an important part of your WI Membership, so please do get involved.

Just a reminder that County Office is now open Mondays and Wednesdays, 9am to 1pm, as well as for Craft Dabble days. Hope to see you there sometime.

Kind regards

Angela

Middlesex Federation of Women’s Institutes MFWI - Inspiring Women

Chair's Chat

Middlesex Federation of Women’s Institutes
MFWI - Inspiring Women