It’s a bit late but it’s here: our April newsletter landed in our members’ inboxes today, with hard copies on their way to those who subscribe.
Here’s a link to download the PDF—please share with family and friends and help spread the WI word!
It’s a bit late but it’s here: our April newsletter landed in our members’ inboxes today, with hard copies on their way to those who subscribe.
Here’s a link to download the PDF—please share with family and friends and help spread the WI word!
Spring has almost sprung, and here’s your and your Middlesex News for March. We have lots of updates from across the Federation, and hope you enjoy the read! Please feel free to share the link, the PDF or a printed copy with your family, friends and wider community.
Looking for back copies? Click here for them!
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
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
Welcome to 2023 and your first Middlesex News for the year – packed with updates from across the Federation. We look forward to hearing everyone’s news as the year progresses, and sharing it with our wider community.
Here’s your final Middlesex News for 2022. Thanks for all our WI’s contributions throughout 2022. We hope you have a restful festive period. We’ll be back in February 2023 with the next edition.
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
Here’s the Middlesex News for November 2022: we hope you enjoy the read!
Click here to read the newsletter.
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
Here’s our October 2022 edition of Middlesex News: we hope you enjoy reading about what our WIs are up to… and they’re busy!