And so we come to our Annual Meeting, something that we are obliged to do... err annually! So with glasses of wine, tea or coffee we sat down to hear our first ever AM
Rowena our President delivered a speech thanking everyone who has been involved in the birth and the first baby steps of the Broadbridge Bombshells WI and then she went on to outline what we hope to achieve as a group going forward:
We believe it is important to embrace the traditional values of the WI focussing on women’s issues, education and friendship and supporting the WI’s campaigns which are about changing things for the better and tackling the issues that matter to members, for example last years’ resolution was about plastic soup and this years’ concerns mental health.
Our WI is also keen to keep the traditional, crafting and baking activities that the WI is well known for, but we also intend to create a more modern, hopefully different and slightly edgier WI, we are looking to explore areas not traditionally expected at WI meetings. So for example our crafting may have an edgier theme…
Another thing that is important to us is to keep it local. Whilst we will be organising fun and fact finding trips further afield, our hope is to explore where we live, and the interesting people we live alongside. We also want to support local businesses, entertainment venues and events that take place in Horsham such as the recent Americarna weekend and The Big Nibble.
We have the following ideas which we hope to make a reality, which should hopefully give you an vision of how we hope The Broadbridge Bombshell’s WI will look:
All of our meetings will be open and friendly, non-judgmental and inclusive, you will be positively encouraged to bring a bottle!
Friendship building evening’s such as quizzes and board games nights, where we can meet each other properly and have some fun.
Activities such as a Stoolball match and picnic (a traditional Sussex sport invented and played by milkmaids)
Educational evening’s with visiting speakers/performers, our ideas for next year include a burlesque mini class, cake decorating (with a saucy twist), a mental health speaker (to support this year’s resolution) a nature with a local flavour by a speaker from Warnham Nature Reserve and a visit from a white witch!
Crafting evenings, where those who wish to learn a new craft can, or just bring something of their own to work on.
Seasonal evenings for Easter, Halloween and Christmas.
Local outings to film, theatre, live music and comedy.
Alongside our monthly members meetings we run sub-groups, which are entirely driven by our members and what they are interested in. Currently we have a book club, photography club and a stitch and natter group. But we hope to expand these to reflect your interests and passions, be it baking, naked gardening, yarn bombing or a film club… the choice is yours!
Next up was Jo our Secretary who updated us with a full and comprehensive list of the meetings we have already enjoyed (see previous blog posts on the website www.broadbridgebombshellswi.co.uk for a reminder of them) and emphasised the importance of our members getting involved with ideas and suggestions of what they would like the Bombshells to be, and not to be afraid to step up and run a sub-group or help the committee. Jo also told us about the reams of paperwork that floods in monthly from WI head office that she has to wade through, it is a hugely time consuming role and we simply could not run without her guiding us through all of the red tape.
Then it was the turn of Debs our Treasurer: she has had a very busy last few weeks getting to grips with and completing our very first audit, she presented us with a copy of the accounts to show where the money is coming from, how it is split and what it pays for. It's her job to make sure we don't go into debt and she has done an amazing job, the accountant said it was the best one she'd ever seen! It isn't the fun part of the proceedings by any means so we are very grateful for her time and dedication.
Dawn, the membership secretary, Fiona, the PR/Media secretary and Lynda, our 6th member of the committee, were also present and thanked for their valuable contributions.
We then had two very important jobs to do, our first to vote for a logo for our WI. The resounding winner is below.
Because of the proximity to Halloween we also had a pumpkin carving competition, so our second important job was to vote for the winner who was to receive a lovely bottle of Prossecco! The winner was our Secretary Jo, picture of the winner (second from left) and all entrants are below.
Then, under the guidance of Rowena, we started part one of our Christmas wreath. Lots of our members started on their wreaths, whilst others watched and chatted, or got on with craft projects of their own. Our next meeting will be part two of wreath making so keep checking the website and Facebook for pictures of our efforts.
