Audlem WI meeting report

Audlem WI meeting held at 2 pm Thursday 5 January 2023 at Audlem Methodist Church

After the singing of Jerusalem accompanied by June Perry on the piano, the President welcomed everyone to our new Venue, Audlem Methodist Church.

Two visitors were welcomed and apologies given.

Minutes of the previous meeting were read out, approved and signed by the President

An invitation to Worleston WI meeting on Wednesday 8th February had been received, inviting up to 4 of our members. The speaker for the evening will be Mr. Steven Cornes giving a talk about the Battle of Barthomley.

Lin Nicholas, the Treasurer gave a short report on our finances and explained that we still hadn't got access to our funds as the new cheque signatories had not yet been verified by the Bank. The money from the raffle pays for the birthday flowers for members during the year, plus £10 being the first raffle prize, any surplus going into the funds.

Sheila Jones was working on the new programme of speakers for the year. When the subs are paid in April at the AGM a copy of the programme will be handed out. After a show of hands, the Marina was voted as the venue for our August meeting.

The Speaker was now introduced, Mrs Isabelle Large on 'The Beekeeper's Year'. She was an enthusiastic bee keeper and went through the whole process for the year, the honey being harvested in August . Mrs Large brought along 3 jars of honey, one from hives in her garden, one from hives located in a country field and the third bought from a supermarket – the environment has a big impact on the taste of the honey. Members were asked to do a 'taste test' to see if they could pick out the bought honey – the majority guessed the supermarket honey! Mrs Large said that her fee of £25 would be donated to the Charity 'Honey Bees Abroad'- with the money from producing and selling the honey, going towards educating their children.
We now adjourned for afternoon tea

The Annual Lunch will be held on Tuesday 17th January 2023 at 12.30pm to be held in the Methodist Church hall at a cost of £22 per person. This was being organised by Pat Jones.

The Annual Resolutions were now discussed. 'Save our Water', 'Women to Women', 'On-line Gambling' and 'Clean Rivers for People and Wildlife'. Members were asked to complete a Voting form and hand in to the Secretary at the end of the meeting. The result will be passed on to NFWI.
The next meeting is on Thursday 2nd February 2.00pm at Audlem Methodist Church, Speaker is Joanne Marie Williams 'The Great Miss Becker' Suffragette. A warm welcome will be given to any visitors who would like to come along to our meetings.

After the raffle, the President thanked everyone for coming and wished them safe journey home.