Middlesex Federation of Women’s Institutes
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Middlesex Federation of Women's Institutes

chair's chat

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

Chair’s Chat – April 2023

Angela Chessman standing at a lectern at the ACM

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

Angela sitting down wearing glasses, a blue top and a purple and white scarf
Federation Chair Angela Chessman

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 – 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

Chair’s Chat – October 2022

Hello

Angela Chessman wearing a white sweater standing in front of the Middlesex Federation banner

I am writing this in the days following the funeral of our dear Queen, Elizabeth II.

What an awful shock her death was—I am sure none of us was expecting it; I think deep down we all felt that she would be there forever, guiding us with her quiet dedication. I am sure that we all agree that we will miss our fellow-member very much.

However, we must now look to the future with our new King Charles III and I know you will all join with me in sending him our deepest condolences and our good wishes for the future.

You will probably have seen that most of the events that National Office had planned for September were cancelled or postponed, including the annual celebrations for WI Day on 16th September. As soon as we have more information on the revised dates we will let you know.

As an extra thought, if you log in to MyWI on the National website, you will find lots of ideas for crafts and recipes in memory of Her Majesty, including a floral corsage and some Scottish shortbread with rose petals.

We have some good news to share: we now have a Secretary for County Office! It has taken a while, but we are sure that our new colleague, Georgina Glynn, will be an excellent addition to the team. Georgina has written a little bit about herself—see page 3. I know you will all welcome her to Middlesex Federation. The Office will now be open 9am-1pm on Monday and Wednesday, as well as for Craft Days and County training sessions.

At long last it feels like we are getting back to normal.

As we look towards the Autumn days, I wonder what your Wis will be doing.

Do you have a Halloween Coffee morning fundraiser planned? Do your walking groups brave the mist and frosts and keep going? Are your crafty ladies knitting or stitching wreaths and pumpkins? Do let us know – and don’t forget the photos!

We will soon be receiving the shortlist for next year’s Resolutions. Please look out for the information so that your WI can make your selection.


Kind regards

Angela