Our November meeting was very well attended and after a rousing rendition of Jerusalem we got on with the business in hand which was our Annual General Meeting.
There were no alterations to the Byelaws and Decisions and then the Financial Statement was read by our treasurer Ann Morris. Ann has had a very busy year with the added work involved with our Lottery Grant. Because of the stipulation that the Lottery funds have to be spent within twelve months from the date of receipt there was a fear that it would not all get allocated. We need not have worried as all the money was put to good use in various beneficial ways including buying IT equipment, creating the web site, residential and day courses and purchasing a permanent WI archive cupboard. Our finances are still healthy and all thanks to Ann’s hard work and diligent book keeping and accounting.
The Committee’s Annual Report was read by secretary Jane Van Duijvenvoorde who reminded us of what a busy and varied year we have had including talks on The Quaker Tapestry, The Animal VC and Wine Tasting. For a couple of our meetings we had our own members telling us about their travels to South Africa and a fun evening in March, with our craft expert Janice, spent cutting and sticking. We also had several enjoyable outings.
Jenny Daniel, our president, gave the president’s address and adoption of the Annual Report. Jenny thanked the committee for their hard work and support and also all the members for their ‘go ahead’ commitment to our WI, she couldn’t emphasise enough that it is ‘our institute’. We now have various sub groups, Art, Craft, Walking and the most recent Ladies who Lunch, which is proving most popular. Jenny then stood down and Chris King took the chair and voting slips were distributed to all members for the president’s vote. Jenny was duly re-elected and agreed to stand for a further 12 months.
A Christmas Stall was well supported with all the money going to the ACWW, which is the only charity that the WI actively supports. Our ‘slimming ladies’ also kindly donated £30 from their funds which made a total of £80 to be sent to this worthy charity. We also had on display copies of archive material which members found most interesting and there was much hilarity looking at the many pictures of years gone by and bringing back happy memories of members who are no longer with us. Two members of the committee stood down, one of them being Betty Meredith, a stalwart member of the WI for 51 years and has held every job on the committee except treasurer; we shall miss her on committee but am sure she will still have plenty to say at the meetings.
Our next meeting is our Christmas lunch at the three Horseshoes at Wheathill on 10th December where we will announce and present our competition and flower of the month winners.
Nov 26