Christmas cards and calendars for sale by the women artists of HMP
Get involved and help run your WI!
FOLLOWING last month’s appeal we hope that you have managed to get at least two notices about how to recognise the hidden signs of ovarian cancer on to the back of women’s public loo doors. One WI has enthusiastically decided that the impact is greatest when they are not always in one place and will move them every month. Being laminated they are easily cleaned.
Big Green Week ended on October 2. But many of the ‘non-recyclables’ can be recycled if you know where to go. Some supermarkets will take back their single use, plastic film covers, for example. Look out for local recycling hubs in your area — there may be bins for pens, blister packs (Superdrug also recycle these), silvered crisp and snack packaging, Pringle type tubes, razors, coffee pods, old toothbrushes, and toothpaste tubes.
We know of small local hubs in Dorking, Croydon, Guildford, Fetcham and Walton-on-Thames. If you find one tell SWIN and post its location on our Facebook page — both would appreciate photos. If you are really stuck, you can get your own zero-waste collection box online, but that is not a free option. Good luck with whatever you do.
Hilary Brooks, Public Affairs Working Party
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WHAT’S NEW FROM HQ
The following mailing was sent to WI Secretaries end of August/early September:
WI Annual Review Form
WI Information Form
List of Advisers to WI AGMs
Please complete both forms carefully, accurately, and clearly in print and return them to the office as soon as possible after your Annual Meeting. We must receive them by December 9 at the latest.
The information is required to enable us to update our records to ensure that WIs and officers receive the most up to date information.
Please remember that this is written at least a month ahead of time so please check the letter that comes with the mailing for the latest information. Please contact the office as soon as possible if you have not received any of the above.
Most information and forms are being put on the Surrey Federation web pages. Here you will find the following documents that you might need this month:
WI Annual Review Form
WI Information Form
NFWI Annual Meeting 2023
The NFWI’s Annual Meeting, will be held at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, on May 25, 2023. We will send out a mailing and application forms for delegate and observer tickets to the Annual Meeting will be made available on our website.
Karen Whitehead
Federation Secretary
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Get involved and help run your WI!
NEXT month your WI will hold its Annual Meeting, when the officers and committee will be elected.
Under WI rules a new committee is elected each year, providing an opportunity for members to get involved in running their WI. All WIs need to embrace change and welcome new ideas for activities for their members.
Volunteering for the committee is an excellent way of under-standing more about the WI; it can broaden your experience, lead to making new friends and can even be fun!
Nominations of members to serve on the committee — existing and potential — should be sought at this month’s (October) meeting, perhaps via a “nominations box” for privacy.
This overcomes the problem some have of not wanting to volunteer publicly for a seat on the committee as it enables them to put their own name forward. Or if someone you know would make a good committee member, but is backward in coming forward, you do not have to ask their permission to nominate them. Nominations do not have to be seconded.
Before the AM the secretary will contact those nominated to see if they are willing to stand. Some may be surprised and flattered — and decide yes, this is something they would like to do. Others may be delighted to have been asked but have to decline for personal reasons. Knowing that someone has enough faith in them to put their name forward might persuade them to reconsider in the future.
Whatever the outcome, hopefully at the AM the Secretary will have a list of people who are willing to stand for the committee. It is perfectly OK to invite any other nominations from the floor on the day. If there are more nominations than committee places available, a ballot should be held, conducted by tellers.
Once the committee has been elected, all members are then invited to nominate, in writing, a member of the committee to serve as President, handing the paper to the tellers. They read out the names and ask each nominee if she is willing to stand. If more than one agrees, a secret ballot is held.
It is the President’s job to lead the committee and she is responsible for the overall running of her WI.
The newly elected committee appoints the Secretary and Treasurer at its first meeting. The Secretary prepares the agenda for WI and committee meetings, referring to the President as appropriate. She writes a record of the WI meeting and the committee minutes and deals with all correspondence.
The Treasurer keeps the accounts up to date, collects the subscriptions and pays these and all other monies into the WI bank account.
All these roles can be shared and each member should undertake to support her WI at some time during her membership.
So how about putting your name forward for nomination and contributing to the success of your WI?
l If you feel you need guidance in filling committee or other posts, don’t forget that we are holding workshops for committee members, secretaries and presidents on Friday, December 9 at Shalford Village Hall (see Coming Up, Page 3). This is a change of date to that published in our August edition. The cost of each workshop can be claimed from your WI with members’ consent.
Chris Butterfield, WI Adviser
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DATELINE: TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2022
This morning, on what is predicted to be the hottest day on record in the UK (39° in Deepcut, over 100° in old money) a post popped up on my Facebook feed from Surrey Environmental Partnership. Clicking through on the link I was immediately challenged by the question: “Are you a recycling superstar?”
As I delved further it became increasingly obvious that some of the content was relevant to me (emphasised by the sound of my recycling bin being trundled up the road to the waiting refuse truck).
What nuggets did this initiative have for me? Sadly, very few. Avoid ‘wish cycling’ i.e., recycling things that you know not be recyclable but wish they were; always carry a shopping bag, buy loose when possible and carry a refillable water bottle — hardly innovative.
As I write it is Plastic Free July. This global wide initiative focuses the mind and enables one to grasp the bull by the horns. An excellent initiative and one that the NFWI Climate ambassadors living in Surrey have brought vividly to our attention.
But how to sustain our actions long-term? My world seems full of climate change impacting decisions to examine and balance. Is yours? Is your WI constantly being challenged by decisions regarding the use of single use plastics, in the context of food hygiene considerations, in a post-Covid world?
I am hosting Bagshot WI’s Summer Garden Party — a strawberry tea. Scones I can bake myself and store in tins. None of the ingredients are packed in plastic so good to go.
Craft ideas
Next strawberry jam, lots of tiny individual glass jars, necessary for ensuring minimum cross-contamination. Already I have lots of ideas of how they can be used in a craft session. If you have any imaginative craft ideas about how these jars can be put to a different use, please let me know via SWIN.
I have made my own butter from sell-by dated, bottled cream as per a recipe from a Denman course. But I must wrap it. That’s not a problem, my grandad managed a grocery shop. Butter wrapped in greaseproof paper in a precise way, my hands still recall how.
Cream – one large box, useful for storage after. Finally, the strawberries. But what to serve them in? I find some decades old plastic single-use bowls. “To [use], or not to [use] that is the question…” Single use better than no use. Maybe I can wash and use them as seed trays for salad leaves. I’m comfortable with that.
The strawberries come in nasty single use plastic trays with horrible cellophane lids. No, they don’t, they grow on plants and in the UK. The obvious source would be my vegetable garden, but alas the strawberries found their way into the stomachs of myriad squirrels the moment they were ripe.
With no farm shop or pick your own within miles, I must use the supermarket. Drive or cycle? Cycle with 200 strawberries? — risky. So the car it has to be. New housing development has ousted the one general store we had. I feel full of guilt.
Did you take part in the Big Plastic Count run in conjunction with Greenpeace? My major sins turned out to be packaging for cheese, butter, cold meats and soft fruit, and medication blister packs and inhalers. Thankfully the latter two can now be recycled — medication blister packs at branches of Superdrug.
Life has been an incredible challenge over the last two and a half years. Would we have been able to cope so magnificently if we had known what lay in store, how long it would go on for and how much it would influence even the simplest of tasks? As WI members I am sure that we would.
Can we be similarly resilient and determined in our journey to dispense with all unnecessary plastic? How can we harness this strength going forward? The challenge to Save our Planet is a much greater one, and the decisions and actions we make now will, however small, make a huge and long lasting difference.
We are being called on, once again, to make substantial changes to the way we live our lives in order to ensure the survival of our planet and to ensure health and longevity for succeeding generations, although they might not always be grateful.
My smallest grandson was not happy when I proceeded to dry him with a line dried towel made brittle by the rays of the scorching sun.
‘Grandma, its scratchy, you’re hurting me, ow, OW, OW!’
Carol A. Gartrell
Federation Chairman
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October’s Surrey WI News is now available for you to read online. It is available to view on your phone, tablet or computer via Flipsnack@ October Surrey WI News.
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Wanted: Someone to compile our electronic newsletter
We also need someone who can spend a couple of hours a month writing our electronic newsletter which is emailed to subscribers each month.
This can be done from your home; there is no need to attend the Federation office and your feedback to the Board of Trustees can also be done virtually.
We have a template, a mailing list and can show you where to find the relevant information to include each month.
This role could grow into something more or simply stay as this valuable task.
Please get in touch if you can offer help, or if you would like more information please email
officerb@surreyfedwi.org.uk or aleach@surreyfedwi.org.uk — we look forward to hearing from you!
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JOIN OUR DIGITAL TEAM – AND HELP MEMBERS
DO YOU have an hour or two a month that you could use occasionally supporting fellow WI members? The Federation would like to form a Digital Team to help members get to grips with information technology in various ways.
You would not have to attend meetings at Federation HQ but would report back when necessary. Tasks could include:
Helping members to open email attachments and attach documents to emails;
Setting up new email addresses;
Understand internet shopping;
Use WhatsApp;
Safely enjoy social media;
Understand how to stay safe on the internet;
Storing things online;
Video calling and ways to do it for free;
Setting up Social Media Accounts for a WI;
Explain words and concepts.
We are looking for lots of volunteers with one or more of these abilities. You do not have to be able to do all the things listed, and the time you can offer is at your discretion. If you can help, please email Ruth Bolton at officerb@surreyfedwi.org.uk
This project will grow depending on the volunteers we recruit and it would be wonderful if we could have a large range of talent to help our members improve their skills, grow their digital confidence and retain their independence.
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HELP US TO SPREAD THE MESSAGE ON OVARIAN CANCER
WE HAVE just had the first meeting of our new Public Affairs sub-committee and now have a real plan in place — but we need your help to achieve it.
No, it is not knocking on doors or waving a banner in a politician’s face — but something far simpler.
And we are inviting every WI in Surrey to take part.
How often have you been in a ladies’ public loo and seen the same notices on the back of the doors? Now comes our challenge.
Go to www.thewi.org.uk/campaigns/key-and-current-campaigns/see-the-signs, scroll down to How You Can Get Involved and click on Download Our Campaign Action Pack. Scroll down to Page 15 and you will see two copies of a poster.
We would like each WI in Surrey to print this page, laminate it, cut it in half and seek permission to put the notices on the backs of the doors of ladies’ loos used by the public. The village, church hall or community centre where you meet might be an idea for starters.
Normally we would deprecate the use of plastic but this a sensible use of it as hopefully the signs will be up for a long time and they need some protection in that environment.
It would be amazing if we could put a notice on the back of every ladies’ loo door in Surrey, as the WIs in Cheshire Federation did, but that is an enormous push and our Federation does not have that sort of money available. We are not asking you to spend a lot on this — just a little.
You may choose to print and laminate more than one page, but if you only manage to cover two loos it will be enough if the notice is seen by women whose lives might be saved as a result. — Hilary Brooks
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