February Audlem W.I. Meeting

Once again Audlem W.I. ladies descended on the Scout and Guide Hall with a spring in their step and a twinkle in their eyes in anticipation of a full afternoon of fun activities and frolics – all done in the best possible taste of course!

Much to our member's surprise, well we don't tell them everything, as a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, Frances Woollam – Chairman of the Cheshire Federation of Women's Institutes attended along with Serena Prescott. Frances is hoping to attend all of the W.I's in Cheshire during this year, and we were her first. We'll be a hard act to follow.

Now we all know that if we laugh a lot it clears the lungs and if we sing out loud it embarrasses our children, which is probably why we are all so skilful in our rendition of 'Jerusalem' at each meeting. Fortunately June Perry, our dedicated pianist, always ensures that we all end up on the same note!

After the initial signing of the register, raffle ticket purchasing and a general appraisal of the homemade Valentine cards arranged on the competition table, our President Lin Nicholas opened the meeting.

Now I know that sometimes the minutiae of a meeting can be a bit – well shall we say – boring, however you can never say that about Doreen Hubbard, our secretary, who is key to the efficient functioning of our Committee, combined with Lin Nicholas, our President, both of whom are anything other than engaging.

Their combined light hearted approach to minutes and correspondence ensures we are always fully informed about important dates, meetings and other W.I. issues without a chance of nodding off!

Lin informed the group that Anne Watson would be arranging the flowers for the Cheshire Federation Annual Council Meeting on March 3rd, ably assisted by Pat Smith, great recognition for two talented ladies. It pains me to say this, but Anne Watson also won the Valentine's Card competition, demoting my own effort into second place, whilst Anne Poole came third.

This is the W.I's Centenary Year, and to mark this special occasion, the committee had, after a cup of tea and biscuits, very necessary when brainstorming, come up with an innovative idea!

We would print bags with our Centenary Emblem on them and sell them to our members at the ridiculously low price of £2.00. Joe, from Audlem Printers, was immediately commissioned and for all we know worked day and night cutting, stitching, pressing and mopping his brow, in order to produce the first 50 bags ready for our meeting!

Lin held up a bag to show our members, and we were delighted to see how well they were received. Frances Woollam purchased 20 immediately to give to her Cheshire Federation Committee and the rest disappeared very quickly, we ladies know a bargain when we see one!

More importantly, as this is our Cheshire Federation's 95th anniversary, we are being encouraged to do something in the community, and we are hoping that our members will fill their bags with foodstuffs ready for the next meeting, which we will donate to the Nantwich Foodbank. For further information on the type of foodstuffs required, please follow this link nantwich.foodbank.org.uk

Formalities over, we settled back to listen to Barbara Taylor who talked about her time as a 'Norwegian Vice Consul.'

This was the first time that Barbara had given a talk, and as none of us had any idea what the job involved it was certainly an enlightening and often humorous account of her experiences.

Barbara is a lady who, when offered the position, had never been to Norway, didn't speak the language and wouldn't receive any payment for the honour of taking up this office! All reasons not to do it you might think, however fortune favours the brave, and as well as doing a full time job as a professional secretary to a group of Chartered Accountants, she appears to have embraced the position and along the way enjoyed many formal dinners, meeting the Norwegian Royal Family, finally getting to visit Norway and ending up with a Norwegian Knighthood for Services Rendered!

Barbara said it was all about gaining contacts and the ability to 'think on her feet' was vital to her success at the job!

June Perry thanked Barbara for her talk, an interesting insight into an otherwise unknown world.

Time always flies when you are having fun, and before we knew it, along came the tea and cakes to refresh our cognitive functions, enabling us to admire the display of memorabilia that Barbara had brought whilst generally catching up on news – as I have said before, we don't like to refer to it as gossiping, we simply refer to it as sharing our opinions about other people's life choices!

Finally raffle tickets were drawn, flower bouquets, so beautifully arranged by Pat Smith, were handed out to our birthday ladies and a final reminder to apply our artistic thoughts to next month's competition – to decorate an Easter egg.

The photos show:
Frances Woollam- Chairman of the Cheshire Federation of Women's Institutes
Audlem W.I. Centenary Bag
Valentine Card Winner- Anne Watson

See you all in March.

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