It’s newsletter time again, and the first newsletter for our incoming Chair, Angela Chessman.
Our WIs are really getting back into their meeting vibes – lots of great speakers, crafts, food, ideas. read about some of them here!
As I’m sure most readers will know, NFWI was at COP 26 in November 2021. That wasn’t the end of a story, but the beginning of a new chapter—the UK is president until next November and there is still plenty of opportunity to put pressure on the Government to do what’s needed. The WI is keeping the momentum going—we had Show the Love in February, there will be the Great Big Green Week in September and NFWI and WI Climate Ambassadors are continuing with activism, craftivism and events.
The WI was not the only women’s group present: there were many gender-focused events. Not only does climate change have disproportionate impacts on women and girls around the world, but women are important as leaders in their various communities.
One organisation, the Malala Fund, organised an event about education. Its report says, “In 2021 alone, climate change impacts will prevent four million girls from completing their education. If current trends continue, by 2025 climate change will be a contributing factor in preventing at least 12.5 million girls from completing their education each year.”
In the areas most affected by climate change, families will often take girls out of school to help cope with chores or to marry them off . Yet Malala’s research has found that every additional year girls spend in school leads to a significant improvement in the country’s resilience to climate events.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Met Office hosted an event on What women bring to climate science. This showed some of the outcomes of education for girls via a panel of very senior female scientists from global organisations involved in meteorology and climate change. They discussed why diversity is essential for climate science, the importance of equality in education and how to ensure representation from those countries most affected. There is a recording on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zt4MHDNVYHQ
One key subject is the importance of mentoring and role models, to give younger women and girls the courage to step forward into the sciences, being supportive of them and of collaborative approaches to leadership to make this happen.
Empowering women is, of course, very much part of the WI’s ethos. There is a lot we can do, each in our own way.
The website https://unfccc.int/gender has an overview of gender and climate change with lots of interesting links.
The WI climate action pages are here.
For the third year running, our Middlesex Federation Annual Council Meeting was held online, following a poll of our members. It was disappointing for us as we hoped to begin or end our centenary year in person, however we were pleased to have a healthy turnout online.
Outgoing Chair Lorraine Reed-Wenman, in her final ACM, welcomed Zoom attendees and spoke of the challenges of the past year and her period as Chair as a whole, while Treasurer Sarah Endersby presented the Financial Report.
We were very pleased to welcome an excellent speaker, Petra Wenham, a member of Cake and Revolution WI in Ipswich, Suffolk. Petra was the first openly transgender WI member to appear on the cover of WI Life magazine (July-Aug 2021). Petra shared her personal journey, of coming out to her wife Loraine in 2015, to living full-time as a woman in 2018, and joining the WI.
We hope you enjoyed the meeting if you were able to attend, but very much hope for a fabulous in-person meeting in 2023!
| Following the ACM, the Board of Trustees, without departing Chair Lorraine, continued the online meeting to elect a Chair to lead us through the next three years, assisted by Hertfordshire Federation Trustee Maggie Eccleston. We congratulate Angela Chessman on her appointment! Angela, a member of Stanwell WI, was co-opted onto the Board in 2016, enjoying her role as Denman Ambassador while Denman College was operating. More recently she ran the 200+ Club. Good luck Angela: we wish you well for your term as Chair! |
Congratulations to the winners of our February 200+ Club draw!
West Drayton WI
2nd prize – £20
Pat Hook, Hillingdon
3rd prize – £15
Trish Quinlan, Greenford
De Beauvoir – 3 April 2015
Sunbury on Thames – 15 April 1980
East End – 16 April 2007
Well, what a month that was! After an excellent Annual Council Meeting, here I am—the new Chair for Middlesex Federation. Thank you—I think!—to my fellow Board members for your votes.
The first thing I would like to say is a massive thank you to Lorraine Reed-Wenman, our outgoing Chair, for everything she has done over the last four years.
Lorraine remained in office for an ‘extra’ year to steer our Centenary celebrations, but unfortunately the Covid situation meant that we were unable to arrange the events that we had been planning.
Lorraine also had to deal with helping our wonderful WIs to keep going through lockdowns, social distancing and all the other restrictions we have all been facing over the last two years. Not an easy job!
Although we had to cancel our planned activities, I am sure some of you have been celebrating with your own WIs—and hopefully there are more celebrations to come!
Don’t forget to let us know what you have been up to— and send some pictures! Middlesex News would love to hear from you.
As mentioned, our Council Meeting was well attended and we had a thought-provoking talk from Petra Wenham from Suffolk Federation – more details later in the magazine.
The Resolution for this year has been chosen: ‘Women and Girls with ASD & ADHD—under- identified, under-diagnosed, misdiagnosed, under-supported’. Please discuss this with your WIs; your delegate will need to know how you want them to vote at the Annual Meeting! You will also need to let them know if they have your permission to change that vote if they are persuaded by the arguments on the day!
Hopefully, the weather will start improving now and with Easter coming, are you getting crafty? There is a Craft sale (and coffee morning) at County Office on Thursday 7th April and Saturday 9th April. Why not come along – you might find just what you are looking for.
I am sure many of you will be organising your own celebrations for the Queen’s Jubilee; let’s hope for some lovely sunny weather in June. Have you seen the pattern for Winnie the corgi in March WI Life? Who has been busy knitting?
I am really looking forward to the next few months and I hope to be able to meet with some of you soon, but please get in touch with me or any of the Board if we can be of any help—it’s what we are here for.
Take care
Angela
Middlesex Federation is pleased to announce the election today of its new Chair, Angela Chessman, succeeding Lorraine Reed-Wenman, who stands down after four years. The Board of Trustees thanks Lorraine for her leadership and welcomes Angela to the helm as we enter our 101st year. A full report on the ACM and reflections on Lorraine’s four years will appear in the April issue of Middlesex News.
Happy Birthday to our WIs celebrating in March
Ruislip Evening 04 March 2011
Gothic Valley 08 March 2012
Field Dames 09 March 2015
Teddington 09 March 2011
Hampton Tudor Rose 14 March 2017
Harlington 22 March 1932
Norwood Green 25 March 1985
Congratulations to the winners of our January 200+ Club draw!
Stanwell WI
2nd prize – £20
Dianne Butler, Stanwell
3rd prize – £15
Sunbury-on-Thames WI
Our WI meeting held on Thursday 2nd December at the GAA Club, McGovern Park, was our Christmas meeting. Many members wore Christmas jumpers and hats making the evening feel festive.
Dorothy and Lorraine provided various Christmas craft items, many of them recycled, for us to make a Christmas tree ornament and with advice and a demonstration to give us ideas we enjoyed making our own, while we chatted and had tea organised by Linda. Cheese, biscuits, chocolates, and mince pies were enjoyed by all.
Lesley made and donated a delicious Christmas cake for us to guess the weight – won by Hazel. A book swop was also available.
The second part of our evening organised by Lorna was a presentation from Helen Astrid, who runs a singing academy in Twickenham, on the history of Christmas carols. Carols date back to the 2nd century AD, and many of our favourite carols were mentioned together with their history.
Singing carols became popular in the Victorian times. Christmas carols, as opposed to Christmas songs, usually have a religious basis. Each of the items mentioned in the 12 days of Christmas was a metaphor for a bible story, the tree being God’s true love and the partridge, Jesus.
Helen had hoped to join us in person but still managed to join us on Zoom while we sung carols, Once in Royal David’s City, Silent Night, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: a lovely start to the Christmas Season. We finished the evening with member-donated gifts for a raffle.
Many thanks to Lorna who organised our Christmas meal at the Ascott in Eastcote where we had a very good meal and very pleasant evening with friends; it was so nice to be able to have a little normality in these difficult times.
REWI wishes everyone a happy & healthy 2022.
