33 members and 2 visitors attended our very busy March meeting which began with the important business of the Annual meeting. Members received reports on events over the past year and also our finances. Our thanks to Angie and Rosanna for these excellent reports.
After 3 years our President Sally decided to step down. She has done a amazing job and we are delighted she is staying on as Vice President (not sure what we would do without her!). We are now VERY pleased indeed to have Jenny as our new President!

Next, we had a visit from St John’s Ambulance who showed us how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator. This was a really useful and informative session in support of the WI resolution ‘Bystanders can be Lifesavers’ and we were pleased to donate the proceeds from the sale of refreshments to St John’s.

However that was not all! 27 members stayed on for a discussion on the changes to the rules regarding membership which affect trans women. The WI has always been a safe and inclusive space for women including trans women so this is a difficult and controversial issue. The committee felt it was important to give everyone a chance to share opinions and consider options going forward.

Finally we need to thank members for their very generous contributions of Easter Eggs – 56 in total! These have been donated to the Forget me Notts charity which supports local families and vulnerable children.

For our February meeting we had arranged a talk on Recycling in Nottinghamshire given by
the Veolia waste management company. Unfortunately, the speaker in question is retiring at
the end of January and so was unable to join us. The good news is that (thanks to our fabulous programme planning team!) we brought forward Paul Wilkins, a speaker we had booked for next year to talk to us about the
women who worked in the First World War munitions factories.

This topic is of great local interest as there was a National Shell Filling Factory close by in Chilwell!

It was really interesting to learn about their vital contribution to the war effort, the dangers they faced and how they came to be known as the Canary Girls.

Paul provided us with the following link which gives us a lot of additional information about the munitions
factory at Chilwell specifically with clear photographs:

Following the talk we had an email from Paul. Paul really enjoyed the visit and to quote
from his e mail he said ‘what a great group of ladies at your WI ‘ (we definitely agree!)

The January meeting was another evening full of fun and laughter! Members and visitors played Kurling in teams – although only a few “stones” made it onto the target it certainly was entertaining to play and watch!!

The 8 teams also enjoyed completing quizzes between rounds and there was lots of time for tea, cake and a good chat.

The request for food and toiletries to go to the food bank, operated by the Russell Trust at the Hope centre, generated a great response from members (check out our picture below!). We were joined at the meeting by Helen Voce from Hope who thanked everyone and explained how important these donations are for those referred to the centre (we also convinced her to stay for some Kurling & quiz fun which we hope she enjoyed!).

There was a book stall which raised £8 towards Hive funds.

Our December meeting saw us in festive spirits. The non alcoholic mulled wine went down a treat as did the mince pies, stollen and yule log. Christmas jumpers, sparkly tops, Santa hats and the like were much in evidence, and we enjoyed an interesting, well researched and entertaining talk by our speaker Dave Mooney. He traced the origins of Father Christmas right back to medieval times through to nineteenth and twentieth century poetry and storytelling. Along the way he enlightened us as to the significance of his pet goat and how the reindeer came into the picture and tracked the rise of his American rival Santa Claus.

We also raised £45 (by guessing the number of baubles in a vase) for Knitted Knockers UK (our fabulous October speaker!

At our November meeting we welcomed Clare O’Donnell who gave an interesting and entertaining talk all about the history of Melton Mowbray and its famous pork pie. From humble origins as the food of labourers it became popular with the aristocratic hunting fraternity. This included the Regency ‘King of theDandies’ Beau Brummell and his pals whose visits to the area made it a fashionable resort. Clare concluded with a pie raising demonstration after which we very much enjoyed tasting some genuine Melton pies.

In November the craft group also met one Saturday afternoon for our first Crafternoon where we enjoyed making rag wreaths for Christmas, The room was a ‘hive’ of activity and ‘buzzing’ with chatter. We hope to run more Crafternoons (in addition to our regular monthly Craft Group meet-ups) over the coming year! I’m personally quite impressed with how they all turned out…