September came round quickly, didn’t it? No sooner was it March 20th and Jill and I became Co-Chairs for Surrey Federation and now we are half-way through our first year. You will have noticed that we have invited a member from every WI to come along to meet us at the Federation office and attend a Board of Trustee meeting or a sub-committee meeting. Please do encourage at least one member of your WI to take up this offer – the details of this are on page 8 of the August SWIN and on our Social Media channels.
I have had an incredible six months’ getting to grips with how the various aspects of the Federation slot together and complement each other. It is wonderful to see sub-committees working together to arrange events, and as we move forward you may notice a few changes. Public Affairs are going to take more of a leading role in the Resolution Briefing Meeting arrangements with support from the Membership Committee. The Membership Committee has Advisers and non-Advisers as full members of this sub-committee, and going forward you will be introduced to everyone. All sub-committees are working towards supporting a large scale AFM24 (Autumn Federation Meeting 2024) with a focus on raising awareness about Environmental and Climate Crisis issues and what we (as individuals and a Federation) can do to make positive changes. The HE (Home Economics) sub-committee are working towards supporting the AFM24 event by running a workshop to make the most of your autumn harvest in October, and how to make chutney next April. This will develop skills in members to make chutney which could be entered into a competition that will be judged late next summer. Please do consider booking onto the courses and look out on our social media for hints and tips about entering competitions and what the Judges are looking for. Our wonderful HE sub-committee members (led by Jill Arthur) are available to help you with any questions you may have. Please contact the office to be put in touch with them.
Our Events, Leisure and Fundraising sub-committee are busy arranging events for you all to get involved with and next year this is widening to include some more sport-based events. Please do contact us if you are able to offer us support in helping to arrange events you think our members would like to do together. We will be adding the NFWI partnership with England Rugby to our events calendar, in whatever way members would like, so please let us know if you want to play (walking rugby, sevens, tag, training), watch games or learn about the game. Women’s cricket, football, lawn bowls and water sports are all on our agenda and we welcome members’ support and help to arrange events. Please do contact me if you have ideas of things we could do and/or if you are able to help us arrange events. You do not have to attend meetings in Guildford to help us with events, we can meet partly or entirely online.
Please remember it is your Federation and we would love to hear your ideas and receive your offers of help.
Angie Leach, Co-Chair, Surrey Federation
I like this time of the year, the weather is still warm enough to sit out to have a coffee or a glass of wine. I visited Denbies Vineyard at the end of July with Sanderstead Village WI, to tour their prospective harvest – it’s looking good. My pears, plums and apples are ripening (yes, the bluetits did leave some apple blossom to ripen into fruit!) and I will be able to turn them into pies, mincemeat and chutney. Do you make chutney? Would you like to learn? Join our Autumn Harvest Course.
In September, there is such a buzz at our meetings, friends sharing their holiday news and looking forward to the Autumn programme, Christmas and Annual Meetings.
If you would like to be on your WI’s committee, this is the time to start thinking about it. Programme planning is easier if you have attended our New Speaker Auditions and can feed back to your WI with fresh ideas. These Speakers are applying to be in next year’s Yearbook.
We can offer you a lovely way to get into the Christmas mood with a view of London’s Christmas lights, shopping at Greenwich Christmas market with a cruise up the River Thames ending with supper before the return home.
Jill Mulryan, Co-Chair, Surrey Federation
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