Over to You

This web page is to allow WI's to see what other institutes are reporting on.  The reports will be available after the publicised dates on this page by visiting Find a WI and clicking on to individual WI pages where all reports by institute can be seen.
At the moment you are unable to access the individual WI pages hope this will soon be rectified.  As there will not be monthly meetings for a month or two will leave the content  here until we are back up and running, hope this will not be to long.  Take Care everyone.

Over to You

Anstey WI

Anstey WI held their Annual Meeting on Zoom. It was good to see some members who had not been able to meet with others during the pandemic. Two committee members stood down, and there was a change of treasurer. This can be a hard post to fill, so a volunteer was very welcome. Encouraged by the success of this meeting, a Zoom meeting is to be arranged for December. A phone buddy scheme is now in place, so that each member is contacted by someone on the committee on a regular basis. This is particularly important in the case of those without internet access of course. Jan Chandler went to visit Chris Figgins, who moved to Turkey to live with her daughter, and celebrated Chris’ 90th birthday. Jan went for more than a fortnight, but Chris’ son, who has a farm, flew over just for the day, to Chris’s delight. They enjoyed a private boat trip with a magnificent buffet. Jan took the birthday card from the institute. It was made by Heather Savage, and each member signed a paper flower. Most also coloured their flower, and these were fixed into the card. Chris is looking very well, clearly benefitting from the warmer weather, care and company.

Barkby & Beeby

The doorbell rings, I look and find a small paper bag with the WI Logo and my name on it - My ‘Meeting in a Bag’ has arrived courtesy of Sue, a committee member of BARKBY & BEEBY WI. The bag contains a letter from our President, a note of the state of our finances, and a quiz, word search, knitting pattern, 2 recipes and the obligatory individual teabag and piece of iced fruit cake (for the refreshments) also a small gift of hand cream. I forgot, a picture to colour – we had crayons in our bag last month. It cheered me up no end on this dreary wet Tuesday morning and I thought I would like to share it with you all. It brings together our WI friends in spirit as we cannot meet face to face. It won’t be forever and we have to work to get back to normal as soon as it’s practical and safe.  Sheila Bullock

BROUGHTON ASTLEY WI - REMEMBRANCE NEWS

In remembrance of all who were killed or injured in war, Broughton Astley WI laid their poppy wreath at their village war memorial on Remembrance Sunday.  Made in 2018 when members were knitting poppies for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal to celebrate 100 years since the end of WW1, we knitted a few more to make our own personal remembrance wreath.

COSSINGTON WI invited Zoom speaker Jeremy Prescott to speak at their November meeting.  Jeremy’s presentation titled “The Miracle Flower - from Flanders to the Tower” told the story of the Poppy and how it has become the symbol of remembrance. An apt and informative talk for what was Armistice Day.   Prior to the meeting Centenary gift bags, containing a cake, a tea bag and bottle of Prosecco, had been delivered to all members to toast and celebrate the Centenary of Cossington W.I.

Leicester Ladies WI on a lovely Saturday in September a small but select group  ventured out into the County and had a relaxing walk around Thornton Reservoir.

We thoroughly enjoyed the setting, oodles of birdlife and the flat even path. The only downside was, no tea shop!. We do like a post walk coffee and cake.

OAKHAM

We started the year with our post Christmas meal at Rutland Golf Club enjoyably, unaware of what was to come. In March we had been due to host a horseshoe meeting with guests from our local WIs but that unfortunately was cancelled due to Covid regulations coming into force on the same day.  Little did we know that there would be no more regular member meetings this year. We soon realised that the committee would need to meet and started to hold our committee meetings via Zoom. Our president started a monthly newsletter which was e-mailed out to members and continues to be sent monthly. In June all members received “a hug in a mug” delivered by committee members.  A Whats App group was also started.

We were lucky enough at the beginning of September to be able to hold a meeting outdoors before the regulations changed again. We also ran a treasure hunt around Oakham.  It became increasingly clear that we had to take the opportunity to ensure that as many of our members as possible were confident in using Zoom prior to the winter, as things were not going to get better for a while.  We invested in a Zoom account, using the money we would have been paying for hall rental.

Whilst we were still meeting in sixes for coffee and walks, we started to embrace Zoom with our first monthly meeting held in September on Zoom where we had a session of face yoga and a quiz.  At our October meeting we held our AGM and also had a presentation by a local photographer, Richard Adams on travel.  Something we are all missing.  In November we invited members of our local WIs to join us to hear Murray Jacobs give us a virtual tour of Cambridge.  35 members enjoyed his insight into the Cambridge we thought we knew but didn’t. We have a varied programme of speakers planned for the next few months.

For lockdown 2 we have extended our use of Zoom from our normal quiz night, book club and local history club to include a games afternoon with the games played so far being bingo, a beetle drive and a virtual scavenger hunt.  We try to make sure that we have at least one Zoom activity a week, sometimes two.

In October we held our AGM as a hybrid meeting as per guidelines with some committee members together and members on zoom.  We were very pleased at the number of members attending and although we lost members of the committee for personal reasons we also gained.  One of our members followed the AGM with a talk on the meaning of Halloween and a couple local ghost stories.

On 11 November a group of ladies from Markfield WI met at the village War Memorial to lay our wreath. A few other people from the village also attended and it was good

Thurnby & Bushby WI

One of our members Pat Wesley did a sponsored challenge to knit 200 wrist cuffs for premature babies (these are used to keep cannulas in place on the babies' arms). Pat has raised over £100 for the Leicester Hospitals Charitable Trust. This charity was the one our WI had chosen to support at our annual Strawberry Tea but this of course had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.