Welcome to London West End WI

Monday 30 December 2013

December Meet and Festive Quiz

It's a truth universally acknowledged that as soon as somebody is hailed as being quite good at something they will immediately not be able to log in to write this post...

Meeting times

Our meeting opened with Pam giving a couple of important announcements regarding the next few meetings. Unfortunately next year we will not be able to use the Upper Vestry on a Tuesday so we will have to make some changes:

  • January and February we will be meeting on the third Tuesday as normal but we'll be holding the meeting in the main part of St George's Church. Initially we'll gather as usual in the Upper Vestry hallway for drinks before we go in to the church itself.
  • March... We have to be a little vague as the time and location is still to be confirmed.
  • From April and onwards we will be back in the Upper Vestry but unfortunately have to move to a Wednesday night.
The alternative would have been to try and find a new venue which the committee agreed would prove difficult. Near the time we will send out email reminders to members of the changes and the A-board will also be updated to show the change of venue. I for one am really looking forward to seeing inside the main church as it is reputed to be one of Hawksmoor's finest!

Our craft evening will remain at the Seven Dials Club on the first Tuesday in the month, our next evening being on January 7th 2014.

Campaigns

Pam handed over to Jenny to manage the voting for both next year's WI major campaign and whether we should support the No More Page Three campaign we learned about last month. Jenny explained that only members could vote and we all had one vote each! The potential campaigns are:
  • Increasing organ donations
  • Campaign against female genital mutilation
  • Provision of non-acute hospital beds
  • Funding for Women's centres which cater for the specific needs of vulnerable women at risk of offending 
The vast number of votes cast on the evening were for the campaign against female genital mutilation. If you couldn't vote then please contact Jenny with your vote as detailed in the last email!

Jenny explained that for the No More Page Three campaign vote we were looking for a simple majority and if carried our support would take the form of:
  • Add a supporting article on our blog
  • Our website would link to their website
  • And finally if we decide they can use our logo (Helena is working on it!) then they could also use the NFWI logo
Just before the vote Jenny pointed out that the Shoreditch Sisters have already voted to support the campaign. After a quick show of hands we had a simple majority and the resolution was carried!

Finally, Jane stood to explain about the a Shoreditch Sister campaign to raise awareness of the women detained in the Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre. If you'd like to support them by making a 10cm x 10cm square to add to the Knitted Together Quilt then please make sure your knitted, crocheted, embroidered or stitched patch to the campaign by the 8th of February 2014. Jane has kindly volunteered to coordinate any submissions!

Festive Quiz

And on to the quiz! The quiz master for the evening was the actor Steven Wickham. The quiz format was deviously simple, the teams would consist of pairs of two or even three ladies divided as the A player and the B player. At the end of each round after self scoring the A player would stay where they were and the B player would move on to another team. This is wonderful as it means you get to socialise with lots of different ladies and it does symbolise what the WI does best, working together.

The winning team!
In the end, after an excellent selection of rounds put together by Steven, the winning team was Jenny as the A member with my guest for the evening Clare as the B member. Astonishingly they were dressed in what looked suspiciously like a team uniform so any accusations of a fix may be well founded...

All in all it was a wonderful evening, our thanks go to Steven for arranging the challenging questions and Jane for locating some suitable prizes.

See you all in 2014!