This was a quiet WI week for me, relatively speaking!
On Tuesday, I was at Chy Noweth for a meeting of our Membership Support team. This group is made up of WI Advisers, one Adviser in training and two new Adviser helpers. Our meetings are spent discussing ways we can support WIs, training we can offer, etc. If you’d like to join us, either as a trained Adviser or as a helper, please drop me a line on chair@cornwallwi.org.uk. We’d love to have you.
As soon as the meeting ended, I headed straight to St Ives to attend the afternoon Annual Meeting of St Ives WI. This is a small WI I’ve been visiting for many years! The last time I saw them, they were in a different venue, and I have to say their new home is a big improvement. I love getting out to visit WIs and this was extra nice as it’s only a few minutes from home for me! It was good to see some familiar faces too.
That evening was an online meeting of CyberCats Virtual WI’s organising team. Other WIs call it a committee, but we’ve gone for a more casual approach. It’s a lovely group of women and we always have some laughs while we meet. We are also one of the most efficient teams I know of, and zip through our meeting in about an hour. This time, we were getting everything in order for our first ever Annual Meeting!
On Wednesday, I had a virtual meeting with the Senior Philanthropy Officer for the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust about ways in which the WI might help her with an upcoming project. Lots to think about!
In the afternoon, I headed north with Margaret Edgcumbe, a fellow Trustee who is also a WI Adviser in training. We were on our way to Lanivet WI’s Annual Meeting, but first up was a pit-stop at Cornwall Services to meet with a local WI member who was having some computer and email trouble. In the end, much to my shame (!), I was unable to help her. We did, however, have a nice chat over a cappuccino.
Not a very good photo of the lovely flowers presented to me by Lanivet WI as thanks for attending their Annual Meeting
It was then on to Lanivet. This is another new WI, like CyberCats, holding their first ever Annual Meeting. It was great to see such a lively group with a good mix of ages and a huge amount of enthusiasm. There were a number of visitors and prospective members present, so I really hope Lanivet’s numbers will keep growing. We all enjoyed a talk by the Cornwall Federation’s ACWW Representative, Amanda Penk. She told us all about the work of this important organisation and we all came away learning things we hadn’t known! After that was a lovely buffet and plenty of time to chat.
On Thursday evening, I attended an online session put on by the 16 Virtual WIs all about the WI Learning Hub. Helen Neal and Kelly Mauger, two of the members of staff, were present and talked us through the development of the Learning Hub and explained some little known features. We had the chance to ask questions and put forward suggestions we’d like to see implemented in the future. It was a really helpful session. I got so enthused by it, that I immediately booked myself on seven workshops! I’ll be doing everything from crafting to learning a foreign language! If you haven’t signed up for a Learning Hub course yet, what are you waiting for!?
Friday was a day off, but Jane Dover, one of my fellow Trustees, treated me to a belated birthday lunch. It was a fantastic fish and chips + a glass of fizz special offer at the Alverton Hotel in Truro – we’d spotted the advert in County News!
On Saturday, I attended a very special occasion as a guest of St Agnes WI. WI Adviser Jane Mills and I were invited to help celebrate St Agnes WI’s 100th anniversary! With guests from a nearby WI as well as former members of St Agnes WI, there was a full room at the Methodist Church, which had been decorated beautifully for the occasion. As St Agnes had formed in 1924, there was a Roaring ’20s theme, with members all wearing flapper-style feathered headbands. Some even went all the way and wore ’20s style dresses! There was a tombola as well as a raffle and I think nearly everyone went home with something! We had a brilliant talk from local historian Clive Benney, who showed slides of St Agnes in the 1920s, along with lots of images of St Agnes WI members through the years. After that was an absolutely splendid afternoon tea, topped off by a delicious birthday cake. Congratulations to St Agnes WI on your first 100 years!