News

Invitation to tea with the World President! 

As Surrey’s ACWW Representative I was invited to a virtual tea party with our World President, Magdie de Kock. It was uplifting hearing my fellow representatives being acknowledged as they joined the meeting; it reinforced the feeling of being part of Women of the World uniting to work for women’s empowerment. 

Phillipa Croft, Southern Counties representative co-ordintaor, hosted a Zoom information and discussion session with Tish Collins (Chief Executive Officer) and Nick Newland (Policy and Communications Manager). Items arising from the meeting to note are: 

• Cheques, either for individual membership fees or donations can still be sent to ACWW, A04 Parkhall, London, SE1 8EN. A member of staff collects the post and does the banking twice a week. Please do not send money for ACWW to the Federation office. 
• Please carry on knitting jumpers and hats, but hang on to them for the time being as the post box at ACWW office is too small to take parcels.
• An appeal for funds has just been sent out – look under SupportACWW on www.acww.org.uk for ‘2021 Secure ACWW for Future Generations’ appeal. They are looking to raise £50 from each member or member society by April 29.

Jill Mulryan, ACWW Representative 

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Meet Ruth, the newest member of the BOT

Ruth Williams, who has just joined the Federation’s Board of Trustees, has been a member of the WI for over eight years, firstly with Ewell Court and then Stoneleigh where she has been President since 2017. 

Ruth grew up in Fulham and went to school in London. Her working life was in marine insurance as a Lloyds broker, when women were in the minority, and then in the legal world as a fee earner with London solicitors in the litigation department. 

Ruth is a member of the Arts Society and volunteers as a church Recorder. She spent many years with amateur dramatic companies, sourcing, making and managing props. She enjoys a variety of crafts and says she loves a new challenge. She is researching her family tree, learning French and re-visiting Russian, keeps fit with pilates and has added more walking to her regime. And she admits she never resist a rummage in an antiques shop! 

Ruth says: “I very much value the WI, and am proud to have been co-opted to the Board of Trustees. I am looking forward to this next chapter with the WI.”

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Subscriptions are due for renewal next month (April), and this will be the renewal month in future. The 2021-2022 subscription is £44, of which your WI keeps £21.60, the Federation receives £10.30 and the NFWI £12.10. Dual members pay £21.60 to their second WI.

However, the NFWI has decided to let each WI choose how much of the £21.60 to collect from its members. NFWI decided to introduce this after requests from members, discussion at Annual Council and a comprehensive survey across a range of WIs. Your WI committee now has the power to decide whether to:

(a) reduce its share of the subscription, or 

(b) waive it altogether. 

The amounts payable to the county and national federations remain the same. So if your WI decides to waive its share completely, a year’s subscription to the WI will only cost £22.40.

In a statement accompanying this major alteration, the NFWI says: “This decision must be made whilst ensuring that your WI still has enough funds year on year to carry out its charitable objects and offer a meaningful WI experience. 

WIs need to ensure they are making the best decision for their WI, and although we advise WI committees to discuss this annually with members, the decision is ultimately down to the committee based on the above considerations.”

If your committee decides to reduce or waive the WI portion of the subscription, members can still opt to pay the full amount as a donation to WI funds.

Alteration to the WI portion will also affect the pro rata rate payable by new members joining during the year, although their contributions to the NFWI and SFWI will remain the same. 

The NFWI recommends taking the following action:

1. Organise a committee meeting where the committee will go over the WI programme and budget for the coming year in order to present a decision to the members on what to do about the WI portion of the subscription. Ensure the decision is minuted.

2. Consider new members and how your WI would cater for an increased membership. This is particularly important if your WI is waiving or reducing their portion, as this might attract new members (including new dual members) and your WI needs to be prepared, logistically and financially, for this.

3. Present the decision to your members, giving the rationale and background to your decision as appropriate.

4. Ensure that all members are aware of the decision in time for membership renewal in April, and that you promote this to prospective members when thinking about recruitment.

5. Always remind your members that any decision made is only for the coming renewal. It is not a permanent decision, and the WI portion of the membership subscription will be reviewed every year.

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We are aware that many members are unable to access SWIN online and would love to read a printed copy each month. But that this can prove expensive for some WIs. 

The office can print black and white copies and post them to your WI for you to distribute. The high quality of the office copier means that they are still easy to read. 

The proposed monthly charges to WIs are: 1 copy: 40p; 2-3 copies: 75p; 4-5 copies: £1.10. If you would like more than five copies please contact the office for a price. We can do colour copies, but that would be an extra 75p per copy, making the cost of one copy £1.15, for example. 

In the days when your WI had five copies of SWIN delivered every month, £1 a month was charged for postage, so the charges have been set to reflect this. 

If your WI would like to request copies, please can one of your officers email the office at info@surreyfedwi.org.uk stating the number of copies required and the delivery address. The WI will be invoiced once normal printing is resumed and not each month. You can order copies of the March edition of SWIN, and once in place your order will continue until the publishers start printing the magazine again. 

Sheena Landgraf, Federation Treasurer

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What’s new from HQ

All WIs should have by now received the secretaries’ mailing that was sent out at the end of January/ early February. If you have not received this, please do not hesitate to contact the office via email info@surreyfedwi.org.uk so that we can get this re-sent to you.

Please could you all make sure that the Presidents’ and Secretaries’ list 2021 is checked, and any errors or changes are emailed to us as soon as possible, together with any changes to your meeting places etc. Don’t forget that non-data protected documents can be downloaded from our document library. This includes a new, updated version of the Treasurer’s Handbook.

Karen Whitehead, Federation Secretary 

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Will hunger be the next pandemic? 

As I gaze out of the window, I look on a dull, grey sky, skeletal trees, a freeze- dried garden covered in icing sugar-snow, with no sight of bird nor beast, all frozen in time, or so it would appear. Is today a metaphor for the last 12 months when, en- trapped by Covid-19, all that we knew to be normal was paused? Theatres and sports venues closed, family meetings forbidden, holidays cancelled, non-essential shops closed and even travel to the next village discouraged. Can this be real? How could this have happened? But this is not the first time. 

Did you know that in 1592, during the ‘London Plague’, public houses and theatres were closed for two years and Queen Elizabeth I was evacuated to Windsor Castle, mirroring last year? Maybe we should be grateful as, once plague had been diagnosed, the whole family was locked up and the door anointed with a red cross, effectively signing the death warrant for all. 

Fortunately, this has not been repeated, although being voluntarily confined to one’s own home for months on end has been particularly challenging. 

Perhaps we haven’t had it so bad after all. 

With the roll out of the vaccine, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. 

So how have you passed the time? Food has certainly been a focus in our lives. Mealtimes have established routine and celebrating events on our own, normally shared with family and friends, has marked the passing of time. 

Have you shared a family birthday cake virtually? Have you experimented with that random selection of ingredients left in the fridge or cupboard prior to the next food delivery? Have you faced the challenge of online food shopping where an item ordered is replaced by something completely different? 

Sustainable 

I am currently enraged by having to receive my shopping in single-use plastic bags to save delivery time — a letter of complaint is on its way! 

On retirement, I had committed myself to living a more sustainable life. Therefore, pre-pandemic, I sought to buy locally, reduce food miles, eat seasonally, grow fruit and vegetables, and throw away as little as possible. Why has this become such a challenge? 

As a child I could hop over the garden wall, pick mushrooms in the sheds, and leave payment in a tin. This week, much to my horror, the mushrooms that I purchased came from Poland! Thankfully, the rest of my vegetables came from the UK. Buying local, when travel has been limited to one’s own village, has become such a challenge. 

Disappointment 

A change in our food buying habits, accelerated by the pandemic, has been greater use of the corner shop, although on closer inspection it’s clear that most are owned by supermarkets or are franchises. What a disappointment. 

My grandfather managed a corner shop in my hometown. I recall sacks of flour and sugar, huge truckles of cheese, loose vegetables in plentiful supply and butter in barrels, the hoops of which I detached, carefully removing the nails, and used as hula hoops. I was fascinated by the hams hanging from the ceiling ‘in the back’ where, each morning, Grandad would scrape off the maggots and then rinse. Nothing was wasted. 

During the pandemic, despite early concerns, our food supply chains remained remarkably resilient. Any shortages were due largely to our initial overbuying and differing food demands as more meals were being cooked at home. 

Problem

For the developing world, however, food security is a huge problem. In December 2020, the World Food Programme (WFP), established 60 years ago ‘as an experiment to provide food aid’ and just as necessary today, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Its aims: to ensure that all people always have access to nutritious food necessary for an active and healthy life. 

The WFP predicts that due to war, climate change and the widespread use of food as a political and military weapon, this huge problem which was already unfolding has been greatly accelerated by the pandemic and that 2021 will be the year of the ‘Hunger Pandemic’, for food and peace are inextricably linked. Without food security there can be no peace; without peace there can be no food security. 

This year 270 million people are on the brink of starvation and 690 million go to bed hungry every night. 

Difference

What can we as WI members do about this? How can we make a tangible difference? Maybe we could look closer to home. 

As the clutches of the pandemic weaken and we can engage with our community, can we make a difference? Covid has propelled many families in the UK into financial difficulties, with a doubling of the number depending on food banks. Currently 4.2 million children in the UK live below the poverty line, particularly from lone parent families, black and ethnic minority communities, and large families. 

Although a relatively prosperous county, ten per cent of children in Surrey currently live below the poverty line. It may be a relatively small percentage, but any is too many. 

How can we, as WI members re-engage with our communities to the benefit of the lives of women and children? The Let’s Cook initiative springs to mind. What ideas have you? Could they provide a project for your WI in your community? 

Carol A. Gartrell, Federation Chairman

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March’s Surrey WI News is now available for you to read online.

This month’s edition includes the launch of Surrey Federation’s new email newsletter, an update on possible subscription changes, SFWI’s first ever virtual balloon race, highlights from Show The Love, Easter recipes, plus lots more! 

Please click on the following link to view on your phone, tablet or computer via Flipsnack the March edition of Surrey WI News.

If you would like some help accessing the digital version of SWIN, there is now a user guide on how to access the online version, download it and print it. The user guide can be read here.

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Up, up and away! SFWI’s first ever virtual balloon race!

We love the excitement of a good old balloon race – adding your name tag to a balloon, then crossing your fingers that it gets found in some far off location, or simply that it has made it out of the field without popping on a nearby tree!

Plastic balloons pollute the planet and with the need to protect our precious helium resources, traditional Balloon Races are no longer an environmentally friendly activity.

So, we’re getting involved in a virtual balloon race lasting 7 days, with virtual balloons being ‘launched’ from Jerusalem Old City on Sunday 4th April at 12pm.

There are prizes for the 3 balloons that “travel” the furthest. To take part, you buy a virtual balloon which you are then able to ‘customise’ by changing various parameters of the balloon size, shape and composition to enhance your chances of winning.

The race is ‘real’ inasmuch as the organisers use actual weather conditions over the 7 days but they only fly high in the sky virtually and so your eco-friendly balloon simply disappears upon completing its journey, wherever that may be.
Once your virtual balloon has been “released”, you can follow its progress on Google Maps and see how it fairs against the elements. The race will feature balloons from a number of charities, all competing to see whose will get the furthest!

Balloons cost £3.00 each and can be bought here.

You can read the FAQ’s here or if you have any other questions, please email the SWFI office on info@surreyfedwi.org.uk.

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