Christmas seems a distant memory now, but think back... to that embarrassing moment around the tree when you open your presents and find that there's that one Christmas gift that makes your heart sink and can never find a home in your heart, or house for that matter! But no need to worry as our January meeting was 'Unwanted Gift Bingo'. Everyone brought something they didn't want and hopefully went home with something that they did want!
The prize table was groaning with all sorts: chocolates, a jigsaw, plants, candles, smellies and a couple of cookery books. We got started with a full house and then went on to play lines, another line and full house... our callers had some amusing ways of announcing the numbers, the most amusing being 'ooooooh 6 and 9, 69!'
We had lots of prize winners but we eventually ran out of time and so any remaining prizes will be raffled off in the near future.
However, before we got started we had to discuss the prospective resolutions which we will be campaigning on next year. The WI have a very strong history of campaigning of important issues and have been a force for change in women's issues as well as issues which concern us all. Everyone remembers the slogan 'Keep Britain Tidy', well that was down to the WI, so it's not all baking and chatting, it is important stuff too!
We had four different resolutions to vote on:
Resolution 1: Dental health matters
Resolution 2: Impacts of poor housing conditions
Resolution 3: Say 'no' to gambling advertising
Resolution 4: Improving outcomes for women in the criminal justice system
If you would like to find out more about these resolutions please refer to p22 of WI Life Magazine or take a look at the My Wi website: https://mywi.thewi.org.uk/welcome-to-my-wi
If you are a Bombshell and weren't at the January meeting and haven't already voted via email, please can you do so by the 10th Feb. Email for the attention of Maire @ bbhwi1951@gmail.com
As the elections are coming up in February we also discussed the committee and officer roles and how the Bombshells are run. Firstly we are all volunteers, the committee comprises of three officer roles: President (Sandra), Treasurer (Joan) and Secretary (Maire) it is important to mention that we cannot run without these three officers. The rest of the committee currently comprises of a Vice President (Fiona), a Membership Secretary (Kelly), two Social Secretaries (Lorena and Mel), a calendar coordinator (Mel) and a Marketing/Social media coordinator (Fiona).
The best part of being on the committee is you get to decide what we do as a group, but it takes everyone of you to make a successful WI, members participation is key to having a WI with a buzz!
If being a member is enough for you that's great, but if you have a little spare time and some good ideas, you could be a perfect fit for the committee. Fiona will be stepping down from the committee at the end of February and we are excited to announce that Sara will be joining us. There will be no Vice President role from that point, but Fiona has agreed to maintain the website and social media platforms, (that is of course unless someone else would like to take over who has a specific interest in this area, full training will be given). Fiona is also looking for budding writers who could put a blog together if she cannot attend a meeting. Please get in touch with Fiona if you think you'd like to have a go at blogging, it is a Federation requirement that a record is made of each meeting, so it is very important that we find someone.
If you would like to discuss any of the above please let Sandra/Fiona know.
And finally, our WI has recently been approached by Horsham Matters asking for us to encourage our members to donate to the local food banks that they run. Our member Vicky, who works for Horsham Matters very kindly gave us a little talk on the 'Tintastic' campaign, details can be found here: https://www.horsham-matters.org.uk/tintastic We had all been asked to bring a tin to the meeting, and as you can see, Vicky went away with a huge boxful for the campaign. We also created our logo in tins as you can see below which has been shared with the #tintastic to social media platforms.
Please continue to bring tins to our meetings going forward. Thank you!
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