Bright and early with the summery July newsletter!
Here’s a link to download the PDF from the Middlesex Federation website—please share with family and friends and help spread the WI word:
Here’s the link:
Middlesex News – July 2023
MFWI News
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
Reflections on Cardiff 2023
The Annual meeting at Cardiff was the first National event I had attended.
I was excited to be part of such a large gathering of WI members, and to be voting for a Resolution that really spoke to me personally. As a year-round swimmer and lover of wildlife, I feel passionate about the Environment, and our responsibility towards it.
The weather was perfect, and once arrived in Cardiff, I travelled with Debbie, Chris and Caroline to Penarth, to swim in the sea and sample local Welsh ice-cream on the beautiful Victorian pier. Walking back into Cardiff across the Barrage, with views of the freshwater lake and sea, we were reminded how important it is to look to the future and put plans in place to support wildlife and outdoor leisure pursuits. (Scroll down for info on Teddington’s river event in support of the resolution)
It was inspiring to see how Mermaid Quay (Cardiff’s waterfront precinct) supports this, with the Bay trail for cycles and walking, sailing, paddle boarding and swimming on offer, as well as a variety of wildlife, including the amazing Swift Nesting Tower, with its eerie calls ringing across the bay.
The Conference day itself was overwhelming, exciting and definitely inspirational. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled as thousands of voices sang Jerusalem together. I loved hearing the speakers talk about their personal journeys through life, following their dreams with passion and resilience.
I felt privileged to be part of such a huge group of women, working together to bring about change through education, campaigning and never giving up. I would go again in a heartbeat and am already looking forward to the event in London next year!
—Sian Cooley, President, Teddington WI
NFWI Annual Meeting 2023
The Middlesex contingent attending the National Federation of Women’s Institutes 2023 Annual Meeting in Cardiff all signed up to the old adage “What goes on tour, stays on tour” but here are a few images from the trip and the meeting.
Things kicked off with Pimm’s on the Federation coach, now a springtime tradition, accompanied by a quiz which kept travellers’ eyes down.
Do take a look at the NFWI website for information on the 2023 Resolution, Clean Rivers for People and Wildlife.
Middlesex News – June 2023
Another month and another fun-filled June Newsletter.
Here’s a link to download the PDF from the Middlesex Federation website—please share with family and friends and help spread the WI word!
Chair’s Chat – June 2023
Hello everyone
I hope that you are all well and have enjoyed the Bank Holidays.
I don’t know what we will do this month without any!
Several WIs have been sharing their events and photos from the Coronation celebrations; it was great seeing all of the banners and flags everywhere and it looks like many people had a great time with picnics and street parties.
Whatever you did, I hope you had a wonderful time.
My own WI is a member of Spelthorne Group and we recently held our Spring Group Meeting.
As usual, a good time was had by all and a highlight of the evening was the fantastic entertainment by Lindsay Barrell and her team, from WIs in Essex Federation. What an inspirational lady! She gave an amusing and uplifting talk on how she found friendship through the WI and how she was inspired to use her performance art to raise funds for charity.
If you get the chance to see her show, do go—it is great! As one of our members said, it made her feel happy—and that can’t be bad! Turn to page 5 for a report.
However, our meeting did remind me that there are very few of our WIs organising full Group Meetings.
I wonder why that is? It is great to get together with local WIs, even if it’s just for a party in the park! I know that several WIs meet up informally, so why not take the next step and arrange a ‘real’ group meeting?
If it’s anything like our last one, you will have a great time.
Turn to page 4 or see our website for a list of all our groups: time to get in touch and organise to meet up?
By the time you are reading this, we will have had our Annual Meeting in Cardiff. More about that in the next edition… But turn to page 3 for some images from the meeting (and the trip there)!
Have a good month.
Angela
Middlesex News – May 2023
Here we are with a bright and cheery Middlesex News for May: spring is here, the King has been crowned and hopefully its not raining where you are!
It’s May Newsletter time: here’s a link to see what we’ve been up to in the last month—do take look!
Remember you can see an archive of our old newsletters here: have a delve if you’re a new member and see what we got up in years past. Middlesex news archive
We are going to try to add to this with older issues over the coming year, too.
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
MFWI Annual Council Meeting 2023
What a fabulous day we had at The Questors Theatre in Ealing for our 2023 Annual Council Meeting on Monday 20 March.
It was amazing to get back together in person for the first time since 2019 in a lovely venue, only made even better by two truly fabulous speakers. Presenters stood at the front of a thrust stage with the set of Death on the Nile behind, adding an exotic atmosphere to the proceedings!
To echo Angela’s comments, members who were not there really did miss out on a lovely time. We’ve had much lovely feedback from so many of our members, which is very reassuring.
Enjoy these photos of the day!
Scroll down for our Federation Archivist Liz Alcock’s take on the day.
Liz Alcock’s ACM Reflections
Boss: So, the ACM… Would you introduce and thank the morning Speaker?
Me: No probs… after all I was President of Finchley WI for a few years AND faced classes of boys for 19+ years!
Boss: Oh! And can you give a report on archiving?
Me: Sure thing!
The ACM day arrived, and me—with a spare folding table and folder of Introduction & Report. But (you knew there’d be one, didn’t you?), after a brief chat with the awesome and very friendly Bonita Norris I took the spotlight at the podium… and started shaking! I really had no idea how I was progressing with my short contribution, but I assumed the delightfully kind audience laughed with me rather than at me, but laugh they did. To be honest, it was a relief after all the serious facts and figures of business! Bonita was fabulous, as were her magical slides.
Lunch break gave time to wander, reconnect with old friends and make new ones then it was onto the afternoon session. Shorter (no business except me again; I do hope everyone got the message to contact me with any queries) and extremely well entertained by the versatile actor, Eliza McClelland. Such professional skill, relaxed and fun. Could have listened (and laughed) with her for hours!
Then—all too soon—we were folding away tables, loading cars and wandering off with silly grins stuck to our faces.
If you attended, thank you for generous tolerance of a newbie. If you thought it wasn’t worth coming—you were wrong! You missed a treat, but don’t beat yourselves up—we’ll do it all over again next year and will welcome you with the open arms of WI sisterhood!
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