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.
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.
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!
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
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 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.
A weekly craft get-together on a Monday, hosted by members of the MFWI Craft Committee. Bring along your unfinished objects (UFOs) or your current project to craft and chat, maybe bring along a glass, cup or mug of something…
Every Monday evening, 19:30
Meeting ID: 845 2969 7238; Passcode: 829648
