Annual Council Meeting

Annual Council Meeting
29 April 2013, The Courtyard Hereford

Chairman's Address - Beverley Rose

I would like to welcome our guests, from our surrounding  Federations, from the Towns Women's Guild who have agreed to be our tellers, the British Legion and especially to you,  -   all our members that are here today, it is lovely to see you all.  And most especially to the members of  Wye Women WI, which was formed earlier this year. welcome.  And I am also pleased that we have another new WI which was formed earlier this month, Leominster Lasses WI.  I hope that you enjoy being members of the WI and I look forward to meeting you all.  

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce your Trustees to you.

In alphabetical order we have:

Kathryn Bandfield from Much Cowarne WI, Chairman of the Education and International Affairs Committee and our Denman Ambassador.
Margaret Byford part of Wellington WI, who has been doing wonderful work as our county Treasurer over the past few years and is stepping down this year.
Jan Davis from The Pyons WI is our newest recruit and at the moment is Trustee without portfolio, and is on the Leisure and Pleasure committee and I would like to take this opportunity to present her with her Trustees badge.
Alison Lord from Staunton on Arrow WI  is our Campaigns representative and also our Digital Champion and also sits on the Education Committee
June Stephens, Holmer  WI has been a member of the Board for a number of years and is just about to stand down as Chairman of the Leisure and Pleasure Committee, but is also on Fundraising and is a WI Adviser.
Ursula Stewart  from Linton WI Is our Assistant Treasurer, and is also on the fundraising committee
Cicely Symonds from Bishopswood WI and is our Press Representative and is also on the fundraising Committee
Jean Thornton is from Moccas WI and is on the Leisure and Pleasure Committee and is also in charge of the Herefordshire Federation Choir.
Also here is Lynda Griffiths, the Federation Secretary, who manages to keep everything running smoothly, Jane Jenkins, who is queen of the photocopier and guards the telephone and there is Eileen Powell our bookkeeper who is not here today as she is sunning herself in Italy with Eileen Dilley.  Without their help it would be impossible to keep the federation working.
And finally I am Beverley Rose and I belong to Allensmore WI and I have been a member for 10 years, a trustee for 5 and I have been your Federation Chairman for the past year.

Now I will ask the Lynda to give the apologies.

Well, what a busy year.  I feel my feet have hardly touched the ground.  Over the past year I have been out and about to events and meeting and talking to members at their WIs, and what a lovely bunch of people you are?  I am trying my best to get to as many events as possible and I do try and get a different picture in the newsletter each month just to prove it.   

But there is one phrase that I hear that I am beginning to dislike intensely.  "Because we always do it like that."  I can understand it the other way around - We always do it like that – because.  So have a think - do you do something out of habit or because you want or need to.

Grants – Over the past year we have been lucky to be in receipt of a couple of grants, due in no small part to our grants Queen - Ursula, who manfully wades through all the red tape on our behalf.  We have had a grant from National for recruitment which has enabled us to buy the banners, gazebo, and tables, and get leaflets printed to enable us to go out and about and increase the profile of the WI around the county.  We used some of this equipment at the Diamond day last year and at the Hereford Food festival. This year we intend to use it at the Three Counties show, Longtown show and the Kington Show - Any volunteers to come and help gratefully received.  All this equipment is available to any WI to borrow and some already have.  All we ask is that they are returned in the condition that they go out.  

A second successful grant application was from the Awards for All and we have new computers to in the office for Lynda, Eileen and Jane as the ones that they had were mostly steam driven and were not up to the job any more.  There is also a new printer that will mean we can print A5 posters on request to help any WI with advertising.  (There may be a small charge to help cover the cost of ink) And we have some laptops which will enable us to hold small computing sessions to help members enter the digital world, there has already been some information gone out to the WIs about this and Alison Lord our Digital champion will have more information.

WI Guide -   On the subject of the digital age, Alison has been working on the Federation pages on the Nationalwebsite and we hope to keep you updated, but I hope you appreciate that things like this always take more time than expected.

Towards the end of last year National brought out an updated version of the WI guide.  Earlier this year Alison and I ran some workshops to demonstrate to members the new guide and the facilities that are available to members on the National Website and the WIs training section called the Moodle.  This contains a wealth of useful documentation that are well worth checking through - including the booklet "Running a WI is easy when you know How".

We are going to run some more workshops, please check your newsletter for details.
Centenary Celebrations – As I am sure you are all aware - 2015 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the WI.  The Women's Institute was formed in 1915 to help revitalize rural communities, encourage the education and improve the lives of women.   Since then the organization's aims have broadened and the WI is now the largest voluntary women's organization in the UK. The WI currently has over 210,000 members in around 6,600 WIs.

We are now at the first stages of working out how we would like to celebrate this momentous occasion.
NFWI has arranged for a Centenary baton, which will contain a computer memory stick, this will be passed from federation to federation ending up at the Albert Hall at the AGM in 2015.  We will received it from Gwent Federation on the 2nd September 2014 and hand it over to Worcestershire Federation on the 9 th with a bit of party, details of which have yet to be decided.  While it is in the county we will be adding pictures onto the stick, to reflect the WI within the county and later on in the year we will be announcing a photographic competition to find the best photos to put on the memory stick that will end up at that Celebratory meeting.

For the actual anniversary, the committees will be looking at special events, but we want to have one big one that would include as many members as possible, we discussed various options but the clear favorite (well mine, anyway) was to have a county picnic.  Again there are many options and ideas, and we would like to make it as great a day as possible with as many members as possible.  If any member would like to join the very small committee we have at the moment to help craft these events you would be very welcome.

And on the subject of volunteers, we are not up to the full complement of Trustees.  We don't bite, we don't always agree, but we all want the best for our members.  If you would like the opportunity to help the WI in Herefordshire go forward, please talk to one of the trustees.  It is interesting, annoying frustrating, satisfying and lots more ings, and with more people we feel we could achieve more.  

Also our committees are also in need of more people, without volunteers we will not be able to continue to put on the functions that you would like to attend.  If the excuse is that all the meetings are in the day time - it's not - times can be changed or we could even start a new committee that always meets in the evening.  On the subject of new committees, we would like to resurrect the Craft Competition, you only need to look at the entries for the Three counties competition to know that we have very skilled ladies among us, therefore we want volunteers to create a committee to organise it, pick a leaflet us from the stands in the foyer.  This was always very popular and we would love to reinstate it.  

I must not forget to mention the events that have been taking place over the year, the Lunch with Clarissa  Dickson Wright at Hampton Court which unfortunately had to be cancelled, The holidays, both here and abroad, the coach trip to the Eisteddfod,  the International Evening when we learnt about the Herefordshire Trow,  the weekend at Denman which was such fun, Afternoon tea at the Castle Hotel, the Treasurers, Presidents and Secretaries Courses, speakers evening, the fungus walk,  the Carol Concert A number of us got very chilly at the food festival, And that doesn't even cover the events that you have organized within your own WI's. I could go on and on.  -  So many wonderful events, I hope you enjoyed them.  And coming up another evening with Carl, the Choir Lunches and the three Counties - yet more things to get involved with, the committees have been so busy and I will leave it to them to tell you all about them.

Denman College Report - Kathryn Bandfield

As well as being Vice Chairman of the Federation and  Chairman of the Education Committee I am Denman Ambassador and I want to tell you a little bit about the past year and events in the future. 

Last year we had a federation week-end where 31 of us went to Denman together, it was a great success, we cooked, sewed, visited gardens, listened to Carl Atwood and decorated with enamel.  We also enjoyed each other's company and contributed to the carpet fund!

We have another week-end planned this year at the end of October, the closing date is 10 May but if you have only just heard about it and think you can't meet the deadline please come and see me and don't forget you can bring friends who are non-members.  There is the opportunity to enjoy Shakespeare, paint in watercolour, make stained glass, make a hat, make delicious pastries or take part in a relaxing holistic course.

We are running a Denman Dip today and for those who haven't taken part before you simply put your name on an envelope and put a pound in it. At the end of today we will pick one envelope out and the lucky winner will have all of the money raised by the Denman Dip today to put towards a trip to Denman.  Why not have a go and join us in October!

There is also a very generous new Denman Bursary available.  It is £300 which can be used for a 2-night or longer course, it is available to members who have not been to Denman before.  Denman has requested that our Federation matches the funding but as we are unable to, we are offering 2 members the opportunity to apply together and they will then be able to share the bursary.  The closing date for this is 1 May.  If you want any more details please come and see me.

We have had a worrying year with regard to Denman but just before Christmas we had good news.  Bookings were up and all appeared not to be so bleak.  The way we can all help is to use the college as much as possible and after the success of sewing bee and the great british bake off etc we can use it to brush up on our own skills.

And finally don't forget it is a wonderful place to use as B & B for the Oxford area, it is very reasonable and you can take your friends and husbands!

Campaigns Report - Alison Lord

Good morning, I am Alison Lord, campaigns representative reporting on campaign news since our last Annual Meeting.

The resolution which became the 2012 mandate with 96% of votes at the AGM was 'More Midwives' and the campaign kicked off nationwide using members' experiences of maternity services to raise awareness of midwife shortages.  The NFWI are intending to produce a report on the findings from members very shortly.  There is also a nationwide lobby of Parliament this Friday 3 May to mark 'International Day of the Midwife'.

Fair deal for Dairy Farmers rose to the top of agenda during the summer of 2012 after several dairy processors announced that they were cutting the prices paid to dairy farmers for milk.

The NFWI linked up with the SOS Dairy campaign of the National Farmers Union. After a lot of media attention and protest, the proposed price reductions were withdrawn and major supermarkets and food operations responded to pressure to ensure farmers are being paid a fair price.  By the end of August 2012 a dairy coalition had produced a voluntary code of practice to ensure fairer contracts between dairy farmers, milk processors and retailers.

In December 'The Great Food Debate' was launched on food security, with a number of other interested organisations.  A discussion document 'Food for Thought' has been produced. The document considers the effects that climate change, population increase and war will have on the world's food supplies.  Another report published recently claimed that almost half the food produced in the world, up to 2 billion tonnes, ends up as waste every year.  The NFWI has also pledged to work with the IF… campaign, a coalition of charities dedicated to answering the question "If there is enough food in the world, what can be done to reduce hunger?"

There is a 2 page article on this subject in the April edition of WI Life.

The 2011 mandate Love your library remains an issue locally.  Community libraries run by volunteers have been set up in various parts of Herefordshire after the axing of the mobile library service.  
One of the concerns is the risk that a two-tier library system will develop, with volunteer-managed libraries operating in isolation from the public library system.

The 2010 COOL campaign (Country of Origin Labelling) and 2009 SOS for Honeybees have also become ever more relevant recently with the 'horsegate scandal' in the headlines, emphasizing our lax food labelling, and the possibility that neonicotinoid insecticides are affecting bee health and wellbeing.

And finally our resolution for this year is a call for WI members to play a part in saving the high streets: if it gains a two thirds majority vote at the AGM this June it will become a mandate. At our resolutions meeting 2 weeks ago we heard from Councillor Powell representing Herefordshire Council about the scheme to develop the old Cattle Market in Hereford and introduce new transport plans, and Annette Crowe from Ledbury,  a small business holder and member of the Chamber of Trade, who presented a compelling argument for doing all we can to preserve independent businesses in the market towns.

Many of us already support our local high street and their independent businesses, but a WI mandate would add even more emphasis to the issue and I am sure that if it is passed WI members in Herefordshire will want to become more involved locally.

Digital Champion campaign

A brief word about my role as Digital Champion for Herefordshire WI: Beverley and I led some training sessions in January and February introducing the new WI Guide and the Moodle to representatives from some of our WI's.  We will be repeating this session once more in May so please see your May newsletter and contact us as soon as possible if you weren't able to attend first time around.

Through a lottery award we have new laptops on which we are offering training to all members on subjects of your choice and there has already been some interest in this from WI's.  I am very pleased that several of our WI's now have or are planning their own websites to publicise themselves and hopefully attract new members.

I would encourage you to look on the national WI website at the Herefordshire pages which I have been updating recently. There is information about us, our events, news and reports. Just go to www.thewi.org.uk/herefordshire. There is also a page for your own WI; if you would like the opportunity to edit that page you will need to nominate your own WI editor. I am hoping to run a course for WI editors later in the year so see the newsletter or the website for dates.

My digital champion email address is also in the newsletter should you wish to contact me or see me around today.

Thank you.

Education committee report - Kathryn Bandfield

Education and International Affairs Committee 

We have had a successful year and have run some very enjoyable and informative events.
In July the day out to the Llangollen International Eisteddfod was a great success and we are running this trip again in July.

In September the trip to Chester was also very enjoyable; the success being that you could enjoy a good shop in the beautiful historic arcades or alternatively the historic side of Chester, walking the walls etc.

In the autumn we enjoyed an educational day and went on a Fungi Foray which took place on a beautiful sunny day, we did have one last year!  We walked and picked fungi and then returned to the village hall where we ate our packed lunch whilst the experts identified our finds and explained a little bit about them.

In November our International Evening was GREAT BRITAIN which seemed appropriate in the year of the Olympics and the Jubilee.  We ate stew and trifle or crumble and a veggie option and were entertained by Colin Myers who played the piano for us and then Andrew Wynn talked to us about the building of the trow which took part in the Jubilee Pageant.  The hall was beautifully decorated in red, white and blue.

We have several events planned for this year including the Eisteddfod in July, a willow workshop, the Cogan Cup the spoken word competition the subjects are The Blandings series of books, Cranford by Mrs Gaskell or any novel by the Bronte Sisters, the Lady Denman Cup where you can let your imagination run wild – If I were……..for a day, I would…..  The International Evening is to be held on 4 November and the country is Ireland and the speaker an international rally driver.  We also have a trip arranged to St Fagans in Cardiff on 4 June which we have run in the past and it has proved very successful and the poetry competition.

Details of all of these events can be found on our table in the foyer or talk to any member of the committee or look out for details in the Newsletter.

Finally I want to thank my fellow members on the committee who work very hard to put on the events and to make them a success without them it would not be possible.

Thank you.