surreyfed

Bees in Your Garden, the Zoom talk arranged by the Home Economics Committee and delivered by Michelle Ernoult, was most enjoyable and extremely informative.

Michelle, who is an excellent speaker, has an allotment and took over a beehive from an adjoining plot when the previous owner retired. She has since become completely and utterly fascinated by bees and bee keeping.

Who knew that bees were active in the dinosaur era and mainly collected nectar from ferns?

There are approximately 22,000 catalogued bees, with over 200 types of social, solitary, bumble and honey bees in the UK alone. From very early in the year bees are collecting nectar from a wide variety of flowers, and in the process pollen adheres to their legs and bodies.

Some of this pollen is taken back to the hive or the bee’s home, but some is deposited on the ovary of subsequent flowers that the bee visits. This then fertilises the flower’s “egg” and leads to the development of fruits and seeds. Hence bees are essential to the production of most foods.

Flowers have developed various strategies to attract different species of bees. Poppies, for example have to be “shaken” by the bees to get to the pollen and nectar, whilst others have developed bright colours and signals to direct the bee towards the centre of the flower.

Michelle gave suggestions of how we can help bees: build or purchase bee hotels, provide shallow dishes of water, arrange small flowered plants in clumps and provide both early and late forage.

Herbs are a particular favourite of bees and when vegetables are allowed to “bolt”, their flowers provide them with extra food and seeds for the gardener. Planted containers can be a “pit stop” for a weary bee, as can a wild flower patch in your lawn. And we should all avoid using pesticides and fungicides.

If you go to Michelle’s website, www.thelittlehoneybeecompany, you will find even more information about bees and can view the items she produces with their help.

Chris Butterfield

back to News

Do you know any young people furnishing their first home, or students off to university looking for  nicer furniture for their digs? Or maybe you need something on which to practice your reupholstery skills? If so read on.

We need homes for some of the furniture from the Surrey room at Denman. On offer are:

• One wingback chair, 35½ inches high, 16½ in. wide and 16in. deep. Light green in colour, in very good condition with a fire safety certificate. Ideal Money for Nothing project à la Sarah Moore! (There was a pair but one has been taken.)
• A dining chair with a wooden frame and wicker seat, 37¼ in. in high, 27 in. wide and 30 in. deep. It is old but useable and in good condition with just a few scratches on the wood.
• Mirror, 50¼ in. high, 39¼ in. wide and 1¾ in. deep, in a gold frame. This would make a lovely addition to any home.

We also have available a four drawer brown/cream Bisley filing cabinet, which is surplus to requirements.

Please email offers on any of these to info@surreyfedwi.org.uk by Tuesday, 31 August 2021.

If more than one offer is received for an item it will go to the sender of the highest offer. You must arrange your own transport to collect the item from our Guildford office at a mutually convenient time.

back to News

Walking netball is a sociable sport that can be played at the level and pace determined by the members of the team. It helps participants to maintain mobility and coordination in an enjoyable and friendly manner.

Does your WI play walking netball?

If so, the Home Economics Committee would like to hear from you. We are carrying out a survey across the county to find out how many members play walking netball either within their own WI, or at a venue with other members of the public.

We would be interested to know how many of your members play on a regular basis, where they play and who coaches or leads the sessions. Do they play matches against other teams and do they take part in any tournaments — if so, where and when?

If you have members who wish to take up walking netball, the Federation has registered an expression of interest in available funding, in order to be able to offer groups a six week course with a trained coach.

Your WI will need to find a venue, either at a suitable hall or leisure centre. Your WI can then apply for a grant towards the cost of the venue and a coach will be provided to run six sessions for approx. 20 people; they will also train up a person to lead the group after the six-week course has finished.

If there are insufficient members from your WI to make up a game you can combine with a neighbouring WI so that a course can be offered. Just let us know how many interested members you have and the venue you wish to use.

We are awaiting confirmation as to whether SFWI applies for the funding or whether WIs have to apply directly.

Please contact the SFWI office with information to help in our survey, or for further details of coaching sessions if you have members wishing to take part in the sport.

Meriel Sexton
Home Economics, Craft and Gardening Sub-committee

back to News

I am hoping to hold these workshops, but as we do not know what the rules will be by then for social distancing we might be limited on numbers for that reason as well as the limit I have for the workshops to enable participation. Hopefully, it will not be the case, but we might still have some sort of lockdown in place.

• 1.00m – 4.00pm Monday, 23 August 2021 at SFWI HQ, 6 Paris, Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford GU2 9JX – BOOK HERE
• 1.00pm – 4.00pm Tuesday, 31 August 2021 Oakhall Church, 181 Chaldon Road, Caterham CR3 5PL BOOK HERE
• 10.00am -1.00pm Thursday, 23 September 2021 at SFWI HQ BOOK HERE
• 10.00am -1.00pm Saturday, 25 September 2021 at Oakhall Church. BOOK HERE

As in previous workshops I plan to cover what I consider the essential areas together with the areas I am asked about most often.  This includes:

• What is the role of the treasurer?
• How or where to record transactions?
• Reconciling the bank account,
• What is an agent?
• Discussion of type expenditure that is allowed,
• Practical problems resulting from bank closures and other topics as required.

The workshop format means you can have input and will learn from other Treasurers, not just me. Participation is helpful but not essential. However, this also means the topics covered in most detail are flexible as I will concentrate on what appears to be the main requirements of the attendees.  These are for Treasurers, Assistant Treasurers, anyone thinking about the role.

If you have specific queries about your WI’s figures I might have a chance to answer them, in which case please bring laptop or accounts book with you.  WiFi access cannot be guaranteed.  The current version of the Surrey spreadsheet and the Treasurers Handbook are available in the WI Treasurers section of the Document Library page.

Tickets cost £9 for the session.  With the agreement of your Wl’s members the ticket cost and reasonable travel costs may be reclaimed from your WI. Tea and coffee will be provided.

I look forward to seeing you there

Sheena Landgraf
Federation Treasurer

back to News

The Membership Committee have been asked various questions by WIs recently.  They’ve kindly compiled a list of these and provided responses to them below. 

1. Do we have to have an annual meeting in November?

Most probably yes you do. The constitution requires you to have an annual meeting within 12 months of your previous one. Some of you were unable to hold your annual meeting last November and held it in March/ April of this year. This means you could move the date of your annual meeting, or you could revert back to November. 

IF you are planning to move your annual meeting from November, please speak to your Adviser and we will make sure the right permissions are sought and update Federation records.  

2. Does our WI Financial year still end on September 30^th? Even though the date for subs collection has changed.

Technically yes. The date of the end of financial year in Surrey WIs is not linked to subs collection, more it is in line with the annual meetings being in November and then all tying into the Federation financial year end. If you wish to change your financial year end please speak to the Federation Treasurer Sheena, via  treasurer@surreyfedwi.org.uk   

3. How much money should my WI keep in reserves?

Because each WI’s main source of income is subscriptions and they are collected annually, it is fairly easy to guesstimate your large annual income. Fundraising will supplement this. The money each WI has is members money and should primarily be used to benefit the members. The constitutional aims and objects of the WI are wide reaching and WI money should be used for these purposes. A WI should only ever have around 6months to a year’s outgoings in reserves. All other money should be spent prudently on running your WI and fulfilling the constitution. It is not in the aims and objects of the WI to amass funds.  

4. Who decides what WI money is spent on?

Each WI committee should produce a budget to be presented to members at the annual meeting. Members can ask questions and make suggestions for spending money, at the annual meeting or any other time. All suggestions should be discussed by the committee and put in the minutes of the committee meeting. Decisions about spending money that was not in the budget lies with the membership. Please take all proposals to the members and ask for a vote. (Secret voting where possible) It is not up to the President, Secretary or Treasurer to decide what can and cannot be purchased, paid for etc. The officers and wider committee can make suggestions, backed up with the constitution and they are responsible for ensuring the keeping of good financial records but all members should be consulted. 

As you have all been physically apart for so long, if you have spare funds, it would be good to use them over the next few months for funding a good speaker, advertising materials (if you need to recruit), an educational visit or extra craft workshop, a voucher for each member to attend a Denman online course or a Surrey Federation online course. There are many other ideas. 

If your WI is not in a healthy financial position then please speak to your Adviser. We do have some funds available if required and ideas to help you grow your WI.  

5. When we meet in person, do we still have to do Zoom options for those unable to attend?

NO. With the exception of the Surrey Vixens Virtual WI, you are all members of WIs whose constitution states 11 free meetings, in person unless government guidelines stipulate otherwise.

That does not mean you can’t offer an online option if you want to, but there is no obligation for you to do so. 

If you choose to have an online option, some WIs record their meetings and put them on their own private WI you tube channel for a week or so. Permission needs to be gained from the speaker. Other WIs are talking about the officers and speaker presenting from the front and using Zoom as well as being actually in the meeting. This would enable those at home to hear the notices and speaker and those in the meeting could carry on as normal. 

 If you have other successful ‘hybrid’ meeting solutions, please share them with us so we can pass it on. However, you are under no obligation to hold hybrid meetings and if you do the members attending in person should be able to enjoy all the benefits of being at an in person meeting so disruption to their experience should be kept to a minimum.  

6. How much will Office 365 cost my WI?

Nothing. 

Office 365 has been bought and paid for by the Federation. It will enable smoother running of our Federation at all levels once we are all using it. There is no cost to individual WIs at all. WIs will be fully trained to use the system and where they then choose not to use it, information will still be sent using one of the current methods.  

back to News

Well done to all committees! We have survived one of the most difficult years in the WI’s history, giving us all much pause for thought, learning new ways of doing things and learning different skills to communicate and encourage our members with friendship via telephone calls, emails,  newsletters, Zoom, small appropriate gifts, quizzes, garden groups of six, picnics, walks etc. and much more. We have had to think “outside the box” of our normal format of monthly meetings and activities and take on projects like making scrubs and face masks and helping with food banks.

Annual meetings are on the horizon and new committee members will need to be encouraged to join existing ones, bringing their vision and new ideas. It is a golden opportunity to adjust the long held ways of doing things, sometimes using new technologies as well as the longed for face to face meetings.

Is your President, Secretary or Treasurer wishing to step down in November?

By September we hope you will already be planning as to who would be willing to take over a vacant role. If any of your WI Committee members are thinking of stepping down, now is the time to tell your fellow committee members so that they have time to approach those who are not on the committee to think about standing.

If you are an officer and feel you have been there for ever and would like to stand down, please be definite and give notice as early as possible. Others may feel they wouldn’t be able to ‘fill your shoes’ but sometimes it is necessary to force the issue. Training is available by the Federation and WI  Advisers.

Make sure those standing down, particularly Secretaries and Treasurers, take time to hand over to whoever takes their place and discusses what they do throughout the year. It can be very daunting for Secretaries to start from scratch with a big Secretary’s box handed over with no instructions. Remind her also where to find all the information on MYWI about running a WI and the library section on the Surrey Federation website.

Rules

Don’t overload your committee members. It is wise to spread out tasks that need to be done every month among as many WI members as possible so that the committee has time to concentrate on its responsibilities. The committee’s main function is to enable the smooth running of the monthly meetings.

Once we get back to some sort of normal other members can be meeters and greeters, bring supplies for refreshments, run sales and book stalls, organise walks, lunches, coffee mornings, outings, theatre and cinema trips, gardening clubs or whatever grabs your members’ interests so long as they report to the committee throughout the year for the monthly newsletter, Facebook or website pages etc.

It may sound a bit daunting to be known as Trustees of your WI if you are a committee member but  this is because of charity rules. Be assured it is the committee as a whole which is responsible for decisions made with the  agreement of the general membership.

Being on the committee is a wonderful way for new members to get to know a small group and  being able to help with ideas. Generally, as a new member you won’t be asked to take on more than a light job e.g. keeping the register or helping to plan next year’s programme.

If you have been on the committee before and there are vacancies, do volunteer again! Experience is valuable but expect change. It’s much better to be involved rather than just arriving at meetings and expecting others to do everything and becoming rather detached from what is going on in your WI. Of course there are smaller jobs you can volunteer to do to help during the year even if you are not on the committee.

Please ask for help from your friendly WI Advisers; we are here to support you. We receive many requests to attend annual meetings because some WIs are having difficulties in forming committees or finding officers. If you foresee problems ahead please invite one of us to come to a committee meeting or monthly meeting in September or October, face to face or on Zoom, to see if we can help, rather than leave it to the last minute at the actual Annual Meeting.

By the way, at other times of the year WI Advisers love being invited to visit your WIs and meet your members!

back to News

Madgie de Kock, World President, opened her address in the current issue of The Countrywoman (issue 2 part 4) by returning to the theme for this triennium, Our Diversity is our Strength.

Maya Angelou, the American poet, describes diversity as being a tapestry with all strands being of equal value irrespective of the different sizes, colours and lengths.

Former World President Aroti Dutt said ACWW creates an unseen bond of friendship among women of the world whose skin colour, religion, social customs and way of living are different and diverse.

Nick Newland (Policy and Communications Manager at ACWW Central Office) has been working with the UK government to ensure that rural women were fully represented in the negotiations of the Annual UN Commission on the Status of Women, 65th session. This was a critical opportunity to influence international policy and safeguard the rights of rural women in major agreements.

There was also a report on Project 1054; Safe Drinking Water for Families of Low Caste Arunthathiyar and Dalit People, which provides safe, sustainable and potable sources of drinking water to 755 families in five villages across Namakkal District in India. Many of the families involved in the Project have faced discrimination in their communities, to the extent that they are prevented from accessing communal supplies.

The Project continued within the Covid-19 lockdown measures. The siting of the borewells was agreed by the community to be on accessible public land and safe enough for women and girls to collect their water. Oh, how I think of these women as I casually turn a tap on!

As we cautiously return to pre Covid-19 lifestyles my thoughts turn to Women Walk the World and raising funds for the various projects undertaken by ACWW.

Could we arrange a walk with neighbouring WIs? Re-establishing friendships that have lapsed during our observances of  lockdown restrictions? Maybe a walk to a local beauty spot or along Surrey’s River Wey (all on the level with the reward of a cream tea beckoning).

I would love to hear if your WI is able to arrange a Women Walk the World event in September. Email jmulryan@surreyfedwi.org.uk

Jill Mulryan
ACWW Representative

back to News

I hope you are enjoying the summer. At the end of August we will be sending a mailing to secretaries which will include:

• the List of WI Advisers who will attend WI Annual Meetings; and
• a form for WIs to make nominations for Federation Trustees for the period March 2022 to March 2024.

Please remember that these are available via email if requested.

We hope to be able to re-open the office and phone lines with effect from Wednesday, 1 September 2021 providing there are  no further government restrictions.

Please note that although the office is manned by a reduced number of staff during August, it is closed to members from 3pm Thursday, 29 July to 10am on Wednesday, 1 September 2021.

Karen Whitehead
Federation Secretary

back to News

One of the relatively few joys of being chairman during these covid times has been to write my monthly column. It has been an opportunity for me to introduce myself to you and to share with you some thoughts about the world as I see it, its issues and challenges, and the part that the WI has and can play in making it a better place for our fellow members, families, friends and communities. What I am very aware of however is the lack of opportunity that I have had, in the words of Hammerstein in the song from the iconic musical ‘The King and I’, of ‘Getting to know you, getting to know all about you.’

In recent days, despite the month’s long extension to the final lifting of lockdown restrictions announced last night, but hopefully gone forever by the time you read this, the opportunity to get to know you now seems possible. It has been good to meet many of you at your own Zoom WI meetings and to share in your enjoyment of the online events put on by the federation and ‘Denman at Home’. It has been wonderful to be able to accept an invitation from Ockford Godalming WI to judge some classes in their Craft and Produce show in October, with a packed schedule that tells me that their WI is, in the words of Lynne Stubbings ‘Open for Business’. It was a truly heart-warming experience recently to join the Federation’s camera group for coffee, a walk around Effingham Ponds and an outdoor lunch in a café, a first for me to share in the joy of relative normality, and to meet a trustee face-to-face, only the second since March last year. It was even better to see Betty looking so well, and as full of wacky ideas for federation events as ever, many of which we will act upon! Tomorrow I will meet my own WI, Deepcut and Frimley, for what will be our first meeting, a BBQ in the park. I cannot wait. I do sense a real and lasting return to the fellowship and fun that the WI offers us all, and that we have so missed, despite all your wonderful and imaginative ways that you have devised to offer an alternative experience. To meet in person once more will be very special!

Autumn 2021 will be a critical period for the federation as we set about the serious business of electing the Board of Trustees that will lead it for the period March 2022 to 2024. We were recently inspired at the NFWI Annual Meeting, by HRH Sophie, Countess of Wessex, a member of my other WI, Bagshot, who described women as ‘strong, brave and capable’, by Dame Cressida Dick, the first woman to lead the Metropolitan Police, who exhorted us to ‘do good, make a difference, empower, help, encourage and to give courage to women’ and Lady Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, whose motto for her coat of arms is ‘Women are equal to everything’. Do you share in these aspirations? Do these words inspire you to do more?

As you, the SFWI members, elects the board that will lead your federation well into this decade, it will also be your opportunity to shape the future of your federation, your chance to participate in the election of your representatives and even to step up and let you voice be heard. Have you read the articles in the July and August editions of Surrey WI News about what the federation does for its members? Can you see a role for yourself in shaping the federation to meet the needs and interests of its every changing membership profile and the challenges all women face? I have always believed that opportunities only arise once in life, so one must take them. This philosophy has served me well, and has taken me on many unexpected journeys, including becoming the chairman of your federation. This is your opportunity now, so please take it.

I could not resist ending this column with the final words of Lynne Stubbings, in her parting speech as Chair of the NFWI. What an extraordinary job she has done, and in such difficult circumstances. Thank you, Lynne, we are in awe. Well done and good luck! ‘We as WI members should be loud and proud, and not keep the WI as a best kept secret’ and that we should do this in such a way that others are inspired to say, in those immortal words of the mother of director Rob Reiner in, ‘When Harry met Sally’, ‘I’ll have what she’s having!’

Carol A. Gartrell
Federation Chairman

back to News