1 December 2021

Please note calendar has been updated with the Spring Series of Craft and Chat demonstrations, plus a bee talk.

Craft and Chat is bookable through TryBooking where the spring series is advertised .

You can easily book by clicking on the  ‘Book Now’ against any of the sessions.

More details on each session will appear on the TryBooking site.

Craft and Chat is open to WI members and to non-members throughout the country.

Please pass the information on to anyone who may be interested.

Contact chair@herefordshirewi.org.uk if you require any further information.

25 November 2021

MEMBERSHIP SUPPORT COMMITTEE FOR DECEMBER 2021 NEWSLETTER

RESOLUTIONS
In this mailing you will find the voting form for the 2022 resolutions. There will also be
plenty of information in the next issue of WI Life; your WI needs to discuss these and choose
your preferred option.
FINANCIAL YEAR AND ANNUAL MEETINGS
With the change of date in 2021 for subscriptions to April, please remember that
Herefordshire Federation has also changed its Financial Year to JANUARY - DECEMBER, with
Annual Meetings now being held in MARCH.
TREASURERS
Treasurers are reminded that you should send WI House a copy of your audited Financial
Statement as soon as you can after the end of the Financial Year and no later than 31 March
2022.
MCS DATABASE
A few WIs have noted that their MCS entries re venue, times are not up to date. This is now
entirely up to your WI MCS representative to alter these, including adding website
addresses if you have one. If you are unable to do this please contact Jane Jenkins at WI
House.
SUSPENSIONS
The membership year does not end until 31 March 2022, so all memberships are valid up to
that date. If you are worried about the future of your WI and the lack of officers, you should
contact your WI Adviser to discuss your next steps, which as a last resort could be
suspension.
No WIs will be suspended unless there is a democratic vote to suspend from all voting
members. It is NOT a decision of the committee alone and also all suspensions will be
initiated and supervised by your WI Adviser.
As ever your volunteer advisers are here to help you so please get in touch. We would love
to hear from anyone who is thinking of forming a new WI, or who is interested in becoming
a WI Adviser.
Membership Chairmen: Cherril Watkins and Alison Lord

Digital News for DECEMBER 2021 newsletter

WI NEWS
Please send your concise reports and photos of your meetings to hfwinews@gmail.com and
they will be posted on the Federation Facebook page. The previous forum email is defunct.
WI HANDBOOK
NFWI have produced a new version of the WI Handbook in digital format.
A reminder that you can access the Herefordshire pages on the NFWI website at this address:
https://herefordshire.thewi.org.uk
Alison Lord digitalchampion.hfwi@gmail.com 01544 340256 07896888629

22 November 2021

NFWI have added a section to the Noticeboard on My WI.  This is called the 'My WI Weekly Update'  and lists all new documents and articles added to My WI.  Helpful if you are looking for a recent article.  You need to log into My WI to access it.

https://mywi.thewi.org.uk/noticeboard/my-wi-weekly-update

22 November 2021

NFWI resuming meeting guidance

Following updates to the Government Covid advice, NFWI has simplified and updated the resuming meeting guidance with immediate effect.

Full details of the Covid safety advice for England is available on gov.uk

Full details of the Covid safety advice for Wales is available on wales.gov

To summarise:

Musts

• Ensure the venue is well ventilated.
• Members must wash/sanitise their hands and cover coughs and sneezes.
• Ensure access to handwashing facilities and/or an adequate number of hand sanitisers.
• Stay at home if you have any symptoms. This includes members, visitors and speakers.
• If you have symptoms get a PCR test and self-isolate.
• Inform your WI Committee if you attended a WI meeting/activity and have tested positive for Covid in the last 10 days.
• Self-isolate if told to do so by NHS Test and Trace or NHS Wales Test, Trace, Protect.
• Face coverings are still mandatory in Wales. Members must wear a face-covering in indoor public spaces unless exempt. If you are exempt please inform your WI Committee before attending a WI meeting or activity.

Recommended

• Whilst no longer mandatory it is recommended WIs continue to keep a register of all attendees at WI meetings and activities for NHS Test and Trace and NHS Wales Test, Trace, Protect.
• Whilst wearing face coverings is no longer mandatory in England some members may feel more comfortable continuing to wear them and the wearing of face coverings in enclosed and crowded spaces is encouraged.
• Whilst social distancing is no longer mandatory you may choose to limit the close contact you have with people you do not usually live with. The Welsh safety guide specifies ‘keep your distance when you can’.
• Government advice is that it is recommended to be double vaccinated (and any booster vaccinations) to increase individual safety and help keep others safe.
  • Please remember that vaccines are not mandatory and some people cannot have vaccines for health reasons.
  • Members do not have to prove they have been vaccinated or have had a recent negative test to gain entrance to a WI meeting or activity and WIs are not entitled to request this information.
  • Use of the NHS Covid passports is not mandatory. In both England and Wales adopting them is voluntary for individual organisations. NFWI is not asking WIs to adopt the NHS Covid passport. Please check with any venues you hire if they have any Covid passport rules in place. For your information they are encouraged for large scale events such as:
    • Indoor non-seated events of more than 500 people, where people are mixing closely for prolonged periods.
    • Outdoor non-seated events of over 4,000, where people will be mixing closely for prolonged periods.
    • Any event, which has more than 10,000 people in attendance.
    • From 15 November the Covid pass is needed for cinemas, theatres and nightclubs in Wales.

There is more information on the NHS Covid pass on gov.uk and wales.uk.

This includes information on how to get an NHS Covid pass in England and how to get a Covid pass in Wales.

Please note WIs should still be thinking about safety planning for all events. This includes safety with regards to Covid and general safety to reduce the risk of harm.

Once a reoccurring event has been risk assessed the safety measures identified need to be in place for each following event. The same event does not need another full risk assessment unless something has changed or a significant length of time has passed since the last event of its type was held.

This means that for monthly WI meetings one risk assessment for the first meeting back is sufficient. The Committee then just needs to consider if any changes have happened since the last monthly meeting that would prompt a fresh risk assessment.

Please see the NFWI Health and Safety Guidance which includes a risk assessment form.

Lastly, may we extend a huge thank you to all our WIs and federations for continuing to adapt and adjust to evolving circumstances in the wake of Covid.

8 November 2021

26 October 2021

Digital News for NOVEMBER 2021 newsletter

WI NEWS

I am very pleased to say that Pauline Shannon has volunteered to put your concise reports and photos of your meetings on the Federation Facebook page.  Please send them to hfwinews@gmail.com The previous forum email is defunct.

NFWI NEWSLETTER

The NFWI have introduced a monthly email newsletter, for members and non-members, which you can sign up for.  The address to do this is: https://www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre and fill in the form.

WI HANDBOOK

NFWI have produced a new version of the WI Handbook in digital format.  See the Membership Support Committee for fuller details.

A reminder that you can access the Herefordshire pages on the NFWI website at this address: https://herefordshire.thewi.org.uk

Alison Lord                 digitalchampion.hfwi@gmail.com   01544 340256 07896888629

26 October 2021

MEMBERSHIP SUPPORT COMMITTEE FOR NOVEMBER 2021 NEWSLETTER

FINANCIAL YEAR AND ANNUAL MEETINGS

With the change of date in 2021 for subscriptions to April, please remember that Herefordshire Federation has also changed its Financial Year to JANUARY - DECEMBER, with Annual Meetings now being held in MARCH.

OFFICER TRAINING

Advisers are very happy to provide Officer training whenever the need arises, and will be offering training to all officers after your next Annual Meeting in March 2022.

WI HANDBOOK

A new online version of the much missed WI Handbook has been published by NFWI.  It is available on My WI and also the Herefordshire pages of the National Website for download.  Your secretary has also been sent a copy.  It is in digital format so that it can be updated instantly. If you would like to print out a copy in a smaller format rather than the 60 pages of colour, please send Alison an email and she will send you a file which you can print as an A5 booklet on PDF.

CODE OF CONDUCT

There is a useful document on My WI reminding members of a simple code of conduct to provide guidance about expectations of their behaviour and execution of their duties within the WI. https://mywi.thewi.org.uk/running-your-wi/wi-committee-roles/code-of-conduct

SUSPENSIONS

The membership year does not end until 31 March 2022, so all memberships are valid up to that date.

If you are worried about the future of your WI and the lack of officers, you should contact your WI Adviser to discuss your next steps, which as a last resort could be suspension.

No WIs will be suspended unless there is a democratic vote to suspend from all voting members.  It is NOT a decision of the committee alone and also all suspensions will be initiated and supervised by your WI Adviser.

As ever your volunteer advisers are here to help you so please get in touch. We would love to hear from anyone who is thinking of forming a new WI, or who is interested in becoming a WI Adviser.

Membership Chairmen: Cherril Watkins and Alison Lord

26 October 2021

7 October 2021

Denman Update

Dear all,

We are writing to update you regarding the latest developments around Denman. In May 2021 we informed you that the Charity Commission had published a notice of their intention to create a scheme to support the sale of the Denman Estate and change of charitable objects to remove reference to the College. This scheme has now moved from draft to sealed which means that the Charity Commission have reviewed all feedback received and have now granted authorisation to sell the Denman Estate and change the charitable objects. In light of this, we will be liaising with our solicitors regarding what can be done with funds restricted to Denman and will be in touch with those federations who notified us of restricted funds when we have more information on this as soon as we can.

This information has been updated on the Charity Commission’s website and will be added to My WI and the NFWI’s external facing website today.

With regard to any future sale of the Denman Estate, the NFWI Board, operating as the Corporate Trustee of the Denman Trust, will make a decision over the coming months. However in the meantime the estate remains in the possession of the Denman Trust and is being maintained by the Denman Trust. It also remains a place of work for our Centre of Training and Personal Development and Denman staff teams.

Consultation on Denman Trust Educational Model

The second part of this update is focused on the future. The proceeds of any sale of the Denman Estate will be restricted for the use of the Denman Trust for educational activities for WI members. In order to make best use of these funds we want to know what you would like to see delivered.

The pandemic has taken us into unchartered waters and we have had to adapt our thinking and this has been no different for Denman. We have been running Denman at Home for the last 19 months and we know for many of you this has been of huge support during lockdown. Denman At Home has also been an accessible platform that reached out to over 90,000 people since its launch in May 2020.

Similar to other educational providers we have to analyse the emerging educational needs of WI members as the pandemic unfolds across the England, Wales and the Islands but also to look at educational trends and how current and future members want to access educational activities. Reaching out to members who are not digitally active remained a challenge for us during the pandemic, as with many other educational providers. We are glad that the team is already thinking ahead and many of you would have noticed the new additions of Denman on Demand and Denman on Tour. It is important that we leave no one behind when it comes to education, hence why the team needs your help to look at innovative new ways to reach members.

We promised that we would consult members on the design of the new educational model of the future, a unique and exciting opportunity for members. In the coming months, a survey invitation will be emailed to members’ Federation/WI Secretaries and included in WI Life magazine. The purpose of this survey is to collect information about members’ learning preferences to enable the Denman Trust to create a new, inclusive and accessible educational Denman Trust model that responds to the needs and learning preferences of WI members across all demographics and continues to develop and evolve in the future. The more information we can gather the better we can tailor what we offer as part of the new educational model.

The questionnaire is a comprehensive survey of your views on what you want us to offer in the future and so we hope as many of you as possible will be able to dedicate the time to share your thoughts. The data collected will help the Denman Trust in building an educational model for the future for the benefit of members. The survey itself should take just under 10 minutes to complete. Surveys are very expensive and while the Denman Trust initially opted to have an online and offline option, the cost and resources needed were not feasible for the Denman Trust. We have therefore decided to produce this survey online and we hope you will understand our decision. The survey link will also be published on the Denman and NFWI website. As it is important that only WI members complete this survey, there will be a validation gateway which is simply a verification process to confirm that you are WI member and more information will be provided in the survey invitation email.

There’s been such encouraging growth in the awareness of the work of the Denman Trust over the past 18 months which has been so important for Denman and for its future. Beyond the pandemic, as life resumes to some level of normality, we have to look to the future and what the Denman Trust offers to WI members. So please encourage all WI members to tell us about themselves and be included.

Thank you for your continued support for the Denman Trust and our organisation as a whole. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Melissa Green.

16 September 2021 WI Day

What a fantastic time we had at WI Day. Withington Village Hall was filled with sunshine, heaving tables of goodies, and lots of lovely ladies (and a few gentlemen) enjoying tea and, of course, cakes. HFWI Chair, Margaret Simcock, welcomed Cllr Sebastian Bowen, Chairman of Herefordshire Council to the event, who enjoyed a tour of the tables and had a go at paper folding. Photos show some of the exhibits and sales tables. Thank you to everyone who helped and supported us today.

9 September 2021

RESULTS

Congratulations to the winners and thank you all for taking part.

26 August 2021

The following guidance is applicable from Monday 19 July. From My WI

NFWI meeting guidance:
in line with the roadmap out of lockdown

We realise that each WI is an independent charity operating within our national federated structure. As such each WI can, by a committee decision and member vote, decide on its own interpretation of the Government guidelines; however the suite of documents prepared by NFWI provides you with the national position and guidance to support your decision making. This is NFWI’s position based on our interpretation of the Government guidance and it is our strong recommendation to use this to support your planning. Please do bear in mind that if you do choose to take a different position then you must document this clearly with minutes of any meetings where this was discussed along with details of the actions being taken to mitigate any identified risks.

Please note this guidance is in line with the lifting of the majority of legal social restrictions in England from 19 July. Please be mindful that Covid-19 is still with us and the potential for spikes in cases with subsequent impositions of greater social restrictions for specific areas or the whole country continues to exist.

It is the responsibility of each federation and WI to keep up-to-date with local restrictions if planning meetings. Stricter local rules or a total lockdown will always supersede NFWI guidance.

NB Where “you” or “your” is used in this document to make it easier to read it refers to all WI members.

Where “we” is used it refers to NFWI.

Thank you to all federations and WIs for how much effort has been made to adapt the membership experience to online and offline activities such as virtual meetings and speakers, and providing activities through meetings in a bag. We would like to ask WIs to continue to consider providing an element of online activities for those members who have found a benefit from virtual activity during the Covid crisis and who would continue to appreciate the greater accessibility this gives them.

2. England

From 19 July

England is now on step four of the roadmap out of lockdown. This means there is an end to most legal social restrictions and WIs can meet in-person in full numbers.

This is very good news and we hope that all our members can enjoy coming together again. We thank you for your patience, resilience and inventiveness over the last 16 months. You are all truly inspiring and a testament to the spirit of the WI.

There are some precautions that need to be taken into account and some safety measure which still need to be in place which the Government outlines on gov.uk and which this guidance will go through.

Changes from 19 July:

• No limit to the numbers of people who can meet either indoors or outdoors.
• No requirement to social distance.
• Face coverings are no longer mandatory but are advised for crowded spaces.

2.1 Precautions and safety measures that must be in place: 

• While any number of people can meet indoors for meetings and activities it is still safer to meet outdoors if practical. When meeting indoors please make sure your meeting space is ventilated. This can be as simple as opening windows. Partially opened is fine as long as fresh air can circulate around the room.
• Please make sure members are continuing to clean their hands regularly. This can be hand sanitising or hand washing. Please make sure there are facilities for members to wash their hands in indoor venues. Please remind members to bring their own hand sanitiser as well as providing a hand sanitiser for all. This is for both indoor and outdoor meetings but especially important for any outdoor events.
• Make it very clear that any members or visitors who have any Covid-19 symptoms must stay at home. Please be aware that this may increase the possibility of speakers or demonstrators having to cancel at short notice and factor this into your meeting plans. Please see below for more information on Covid-19 symptoms.
• If you have been told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace or NHS Wales Test Trace Protect you must do so.
• Make sure frequently touched surfaces and/or surface that are likely to be touched by many people are regularly cleaned.
• Continue to carry out risk assessments as working to ensure an event is as safe as possible is a legal requirement. It is also recommended that records are kept of any safety planning in case decisions are questioned in the future. Risk assessments are best practice as they help with both planning and record keeping. Please see below for more information on risk assessments.
• If you experience any Covid-19 symptoms you must get a PCR test. If you test positive and have attended an in-person WI meeting or activity within the last seven days you must inform the Secretary or President.

2.2 Best practice:

• NHS Test and Trace is no longer a legal requirement but it is recommended best practice. Please continue to keep a register of members and visitors at meetings and events. Please see below for more details.
• While it is no longer mandatory to wear face coverings / masks  indoors the Government has stated that face coverings still provide protection and help reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission. Those members who still wish to wear face coverings indoors or outdoors should not be questioned about their decision.
• Please be aware that face coverings make communication more difficult in general and this impacts people with hearing needs. There is more information available from the National Deaf Children’s Society and here are five tips for communicating with people who lip read from Deaf Unity.
• It is recommended that members carry out a rapid lateral flow test before attending a meeting to ensure they are not unknowingly infected with Covid. (It is still possible to catch Covid-19 even if you have been vaccinated).

3 Risk assessments further information

If you are simply meeting as a group of friends, even if the entire group are WI members, then you do notneed to carry out a risk assessment.

You can find a blank risk assessment in Appendix A and a completed example in Appendix B^* .

Please make sure you complete any identified actions for safe meetings. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) information on risk assessments is available here.  Please remember that as well as continuing to think about Covid related risks all potential risks should be assessed such as trip hazards. Copies of the risk assessments must be sent to the committee for final authorisation and filing.

4 Vaccines

Very important: The vaccine programme has started and many members will now have received vaccinations. Please remember that, at the same time, some members will not have received the vaccine. Some may not have been invited for one yet, some may not be able to have a vaccine on medical grounds and others may not be comfortable having a vaccine.

The Government has introduced a ‘NHS Covid Pass’ which proves you have been double vaccinated. These are currently for international travel only. The Government has asked that organisers of ‘large scale events’ such as music festivals and ‘higher risk settings’ such as nightclubs ask attendees to show a NHS Covid Pass. However it is not compulsory for attendees to show a pass when asked. There are no current plans for Covid passes to be used for smaller scale events. For these reasons WI members and visitors should not be asked if they have been vaccinated in order to gain entry to an in-person WI meeting or activity.

The Government has stated that it reserves the right to review Covid passes and whether showing them will be compulsory in the future. We will continue to monitor this and take any changes into consideration in our guidelines for members.

Please remember that safety measures such as ventilating your venue and washing hands must still be in place and these have been designed by the Government to reduce the risk of transmission as much as possible regardless of whether a group has had vaccines or not. Please remind your members of this for reassurance.

For more information on the NHS Covid Pass including how to get one see here.

For more information for members in Wales please see here.

5 More information on NHS Test and Trace (England) and NHS Test Trace Protect (Wales)

Keep a record of everyone who attends a meeting. This is in case you need to provide details for a NHS Test and Trace procedure (In Wales this is Test Trace Protect)

• Make sure it is dated.
• Have a page for visitors and speakers (if applicable) where they add their contact details. People do not have to leave their contact details if they object but make sure you note this on your records.
• Keep this document safe according to GDPR rules e.g. keep in a locked drawer or password protected if electronic.
• Make sure all attendees understand it will be used for NHS Test and Trace / Wales Test Trace Protect if necessary.
• Make sure it is kept for 21 days.
• Never attend meetings or visit a vulnerable member if you have been advised to isolate by NHS Test and Trace / Wales Test Trace Protect because you have been in contact with a case of Covid-19, even if you feel fine.

For more information about the administration of NHS Test and Trace, including what to expect e.g. what number this service calls you from, please click here.

For more information about Wales Test Trace Protect, please click here.

6 More information about Covid-19 symptoms

• Make it clear members, visitors and speakers must stay at home if they have any of the Covid-19 symptoms – list what these are and send out a reminder, ideally on the day of the meeting, so that members are fully aware of their responsibility.
• Make it clear members, visitors and speakers must stay at home if they are self-isolating due to symptoms in their household.
• Make it clear all attendees, including visitors and speakers, must inform the WI if they develop Covid-19 symptoms within seven days of attending a meeting.

If you are informed of an attendee becoming unwell you must contact all attendees and let them know. They will need to check the government’s information on NHS Test and Trace / Wales Test Trace Protect or call 111 in England and NHS 111 Wales (currently available in the following health board areas - Hywel Dda, Powys, Aneurin Bevan and Swansea Bay - including Bridgend). If you are outside this area, please call 0845 46 47.

• Never attend meetings if you have been advised to isolate by NHS Test and Trace because you have been in contact with a case of Covid-19.
• If you need a test but are having problems with the internet or you do not have the internet call 119.

7 Including all members

Remember to consider members who may not feel comfortable meeting in person yet. Please continue to keep them involved in the various ways WIs have been supporting their members such as by providing meetings in a bag, phone calls, pen-pal schemes, and actions they can do from home to support local causes such as baking for a foodbank etc.

Do also consider whether you need to keep an element of virtual meetings and activities going forward. This will help keep your WI accessible and open. It will support members who cannot attend physical meetings or who joined during the pandemic because you ran virtual activities. More information is available on My WI.

8 Annual Meetings

Following a member-wide consultation the Constitution has been formally updated to allow for hybrid Annual Meetings. An updated Constitution is available on My WI. 

In the meantime, should you have any questions about holding your Annual Meeting, please contact your federation in the first instance. You can also contact the Membership Team membership@nfwi.org.uk

We wish all our members well and thank you once again for all your efforts to keep your WIs active. Please enjoy getting back together again and feeling confident to open up your WIs. Adapting to this new world and learning to ‘live with the virus’ has been and will continue to be invaluable for the future of the WI and without our members there is no WI.

The following Appendices are also available:

• Appendix A: risk assessment template.
• Appendix B: risk assessment example.
• Appendix C: if a member becomes unwell at a meeting
• Appendix D: handling money
• Appendix E: WIs and federations that own their own halls

*Please note this is meant as a starting point to help highlight the kinds of risks you may need to think about. Each WI must assess its own risks, some of which will be unique to them.

Public Affairs and Campaigns News Sheet

July 2021

Target: Make July plastic free

How could you try and achieve this target?

Here are some simple ways you can try to help save the place we all call home. If everyone
does just a few of these we can make a big difference.
Do not buy anymore plastic bottles/containers as the following are available plastic free.

Shampoo bars and conditioner bars
Bamboo toothbrushes
Toothpaste in glass jars or chewable tablets

Mineral salt deodorants
Wash up with natural sponges made of walnut shells or coconut husks
Use soda crystals for limescale removal
Go to zero waste shops to fill up your own containers
Use beeswax wraps for food
Ask your local butcher to wrap products in paper
Make your own yoghurt
Cut up old net curtain to make airy bags for fruit and vegetables
Use matches for lighting candles and not lighters as they can't be recycled
Save left over sauces in jam jars in fridge
The latest government figures reveal we have used an astonishing NINE BILLION less single
use plastic bags since the bag charge was introduced in October 2015 as a result of a
campaign by Keep Britain Tidy. This is an amazing 83% reduction and enough bags to wrap
round the world more than 100 times.
Single use plastic bags are an environmental disaster, particularly if they get into the ocean, so
this reduction is helping to make a measurable difference to the amount of litter that ends up on
our streets, in our parks and on our beaches and, ultimately, in our oceans.
CAW Rural women in action
Worldwide campaign highlights the following: -
80% of plastic pollution in the ocean comes from land sources.
Every minute the equivalent of one truck of plastic is dumped into our seas.
Most plastic waste breaks down into microplastics making clean-ups more difficult.
These microplastics are then ingested by baby fish, leading to early death for the fish
and falling fish stocks.
Climate Ambassador

One Easy Switch to Save the Planet

Peat bogs, from which peat is extracted, are amazing – they are the UK equivalent of
the rain forest – they absorb and retain greenhouse gases and lock in billions of tonnes
of carbon. They help to prevent flooding – acting like a sponge to soak up rainwater
and release it more slowly. Peat bogs also filter 25% of the UK’s drinking water and in
itself, peatland is a precious landscape – it supports a wide range of increasingly rare
flora and fauna – potentially to be lost forever.
But the damage being done to peatland is extensive. The vast majority of peat bogs in
this country are now damaged and instead of holding on to the carbon they store,
collectively they release 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
annually. To put this into context, a return flight to New York produces 1 tonne of
carbon dioxide.
So why do we persist in draining peat bogs to extract peat? Well, quite simply, to meet
the demand for compost -did you know that home gardeners account for a staggering
69% of peat usage in the UK? We use a total of 3 billion litres of peat in our gardens
every year. That’s enough to fill 1200 Olympic sized swimming pools. If we stopped
asking for it, there would be no market.
Most of us who still use peat think we have to - that the use of peat in horticulture is a
time honoured tradition – it isn’t. It didn’t really become widespread until the 1950s.
Before that we used a mix of soil, sand and charcoal but peat is lighter, so cheaper to
transport and therefore more profitable to sell. Peat actually isn’t even particularly good
for growing plants – it contains little to no nutrients so will always require additional
fertilisers to be applied, providing minerals and nutrients that would already be present
in soil based compost.
So, what can we do? Actually, as individuals this is an area where we can all make a
difference. Very easily. Don’t buy peat based compost. End of. Always ask for a peat
free alternative because if it doesn’t say “peat free” clearly on the bag, the compost
WILL contain peat. Bear in mind also that most potted plants, herbs and mushrooms,
are mostly grown in peat.  So, ask! Make the garden centre/supermarket etc aware that
you want peat free products. The more we ask, the more the message will get through!
And finally, let me leave you with a quote from David Morris, the RSPB area manager
for Cumbria and North East.
“The presence of peat in compost should be as unwelcome as lead in paint – is it
worth wrecking the planet just so you can grow some petunias?”

Next issue
The next news sheet will be SEPTEMBER when we will be highlighting the GBGW, Great Big
Green Week, which is 18-26 September.
Please email sjwalker253@gmail.com any items you wish to share for the next news sheet
which will be sent out to members via secretaries in the last week of August.

29.5.21

CHANGE OF HFWI FINANCIAL YEAR END

As you know, NFWI have altered the subscription year to run from 1st April until 31st March each year – three months later than that previously set.  However, the accounting year in Herefordshire currently runs from 1st October to 30th September.  This obviously means that the accounting year would be out of kilter with the subscription year by six months.  With this in mind, the Trustees and WI Advisers have discussed this and agreed that the accounting year should be brought back into alignment as previously, i.e. a three month gap, which allows time for finalisation and examination of the accounts prior to the Annual Meeting.  Therefore, we are asking all Herefordshire WIs to hold their Annual Meetings in March each year instead of November (as at present).  In addition, we are asking all Treasurers to run this year’s accounts for fifteen months - from 1st October 2020 through to 31st December 2021.   Subsequently each year’s accounts will run from 1st January until 31st December.

The benefits of this change are that:

The original timescale between financial year end and Annual Meeting is maintained.

Treasurers will not have to cope with having their accounts completed, audited/examined and ready for presentation to members prior to the run-up to Christmas, which we all know is a busy time.

Those auditing/examining the accounts will have more time available to carry out the process prior to Annual Meetings.

Holding Annual Meetings in March instead of November will, hopefully, encourage more members to attend – in March the weather should be improving and there are more hours of daylight, making it much easier to get out and about.  Also, should there be a third wave of Covid-19, it is more likely to be in the winter.

We hope that Treasurers and, indeed, members will welcome this change.  If anyone has any questions, please contact WI House and we shall do our best to help you resolve any issues you may have.

Jacqui Woodhouse

Vice Treasurer

01.02.2021

What does my subscription fee include for 2021/2022?

Subscription Fee poster

20.01.21 CLIMATE AMBASSADOR

Herefordshire Federation has a new Climate Ambassador, Christy Crouch, Longtown & District WI. Christy has a new page exclusively for Climate Ambassador Announcements.

10.2.21 Zoom Speaker List

With grateful thanks to Carole Donovan of the Unofficial WI Facebook group who has compiled this list of speakers from information sent in from WIs and speakers themselves.  Feel free to download this to your computer for reference.  It will be regularly updated.

Zoom Speaker List

02.01.2021 News from NFWI

Pro-rata subscription rate eligibility

NFWI are delighted to announce a change to the former pro-rata subscription rate ineligibility period of 10 years. Following feedback from members and very careful consideration by the Board of Trustees, this ineligibility period has been reduced to 1 year.

The aim is to maintain the function of having an ineligibility period for former members so WIs are not disrupted by individuals switching their membership on and off while bringing in the most welcoming and encouraging approach possible for our former WI members who wish to re-join. This will also support WIs wishing to reach out to their former members and invite them back – helping to retain as many members as possible.

This will come into action from 1^st April 2021 so it can be active and applied throughout the next pro-rata year.

There are so many life events that can lead to women feeling they have to give up their WI membership, such as moving house, new career, becoming a mother, periods of debilitating illness, increased demands on time due to caring etc. We know that many of these members would like to re-join as soon as they feel able to and their WIs want to be as accommodating as possible to help them do so. Reducing the pro-rata ineligibility period to 1 year will we hope be a very practical and impactful way of enabling WIs to offer this understanding and support.

There are a few elements we want to clarify that you may get questions about:

• This only applies from April 2021 going forward (no retrospective refunds or arrangements can be made for former members who re-joined before this date).
• The rules on dual membership remain the same. Dual members only pay the WI portion to their second WI so there is no pro-rata rate for this.