September 2011 - Dates for the Diary

Dear Ladies
I have a day by day calendar called Mottos for Success. And the thought for the day over the weekend was: One secret to Victory is the Never Twins - Nevergiveup and Nevergivein, which I thought was quite inspiring.
At times when things seem quite bleak and at times I think they do for everyone, it is hard to remember but important to hold onto such powerful but true statements.

Changing tack completely as we did not have flower arranging as planned for our August LWWI meeting, I thought I would share with you that in WI Life this month (page 55) there is the opportunity to get a free step by step guide to flower arranging on DVD. You just have to pay the postage which is £1.99
Speaking of WI Life there is a cookery competition in the magazine on page 8, draw closes at the end of the month.
A competition to visit Highclere Castle which is the setting for ITV's Downton Abbey. Draw closes on 14.09.2011 so do have a peak in your Wi Life.
There are also details about a free fitness event at Denman College in September, news about a series of offers open to WI members and a reminder about the Jam festival/competition run annually by the WI full details available at http://www.thewirealjamfestival.com/
Now onto business.

Phoenix gardens was on Saturday September 3rd.
The weather promised to be and was indeed lovely.

Many Thanks to all those who came and staffed the stall and/or baked.

We have made enough for about 4 months rent at the very least.

More details about our success at PG in the October D4D email.

Open House - Sunday September 18th at St George's.
LWWI have been asked by the vicar to provide tea and coffee and cake during Open House Weekend when St George's will be open.

If you are interested in helping or baking please email Londonwestendwi@gmail.com and we let us know.

Once again costs will be refunded upon production of receipts.

VAC courses
Ladies, Camden are running a series of courses we thought some of you might be interested in.
Courses are one day or one afternoon and cover such topics as letter writing, grant applications, community facebook pages, producing e-newletters, etc if you wish to attend any of these courses for the benefit of LWWI please let us know, we will send you as many details as we have about the courses and LWWI will pay your fees.

LWWI September meeting - Tuesday 20th September
"September 20th meeting is a discussion with James Dellow, the senior youth worker from Dragon Hall Youth Group who took a party of local youngsters to help clean up the streets following the riots and has some interesting ideas to share with the WI"
It appears the recent unrest has provoked a lot of soul searching and we are happy to announce our current President of LWWI Heather also went cleaning up the streets post riots and her husband Peter is going to volunteer at Dragon Hall with the youth group.
We suspect James will have a number of ideas of how we might all better engage in our local community.

Reminder about October LWWI speaker
Don't forget we have Diana's friend David coming in to talk to us about Women and Iranian Art in October.

The rest of the planned programme for the year was listed in August's dates for the diary email. But will be repeated in next month's DFD email.

WI office holders role courses
If you would be interested in taking up a formal office holder position within the WI please be aware that NFWI are running a series of courses helping office holders/potential office holders understand more fully the role and responsibilities involved. If you wish are interested in attend or wish for further details please email londonwestendwi@gmail.com

LWWI Brighton trip
An enjoyable day was had by one and all who attended, a few pictures fromthe day are available now on the blogspot.

More pictures will be uploaded to our photographic gallery as they come in.

LWWI Canterbury trip
Don't forget those who are attending the canterbury trip on Thursday 15th of September that the coach, (which is large and yellow and will have "Empress" emblazoned across the front,) will be departing from Bedford Way which is the North (SOAS/Birbeck) End of Russell Square at 9AM.
Jane will be at the coach from about 8:30 and should be contacted if you are having an issues on the day.
For those involved we will send out a reminder closer to the time.

LWWI are busy planning more trips for 2012 so watch this space.

Publishing/Printing contacts?
Kate and I are working on a little project and would like to maybe investigate the possibility of getting it published for the benefit of LWWI and so we wondered if any of you have any publishing/printing contacts that you would not mind sharing with us. If you contact us privately we will explain further what we are doing. Thanks.

WI Birthday Library Action Day - 16 September 2011
The 16 September 2011 marks the 96th anniversary of the first WI meeting. Many members have already started to take action on the Love Your Libraries campaign and as a next step, in recognition of the continued importance of the WI ’s early vision to widen educational opportunities and the long-standing commitment of WI members to promote libraries, we are asking members to celebrate this year’s WI birthday by taking the simple step of checking a book out of your local library.
At the heart of our campaign is the belief that libraries continue to be an important resource. They are often at the centre of communities and as well as providing access to knowledge and information, they often deliver a broad range of local services and act as a wider community resource. Love Your Libraries is about celebrating libraries and the WI ’s anniversary provides an opportunity for members to demonstrate just how important libraries are, and how easy they are to use.
In true celebratory style, you might even want to talk to your library about holding a stall outside and give out WI birthday cakes to encourage members of the public to support their local libraries.
You could also invite people to sign the WI ’s Love Your Libraries petition and use the WI ‘library card’ postcard to tell the Minister responsible for public libraries just why the library service is so important.
Postcards will be available from the NF WI from the middle of August and samples will be sent out to WI s in the August mailing.
You can place additional orders with Emma Lindsay (telephone, 020 7371 9300 ext 213 or email, e.lindsay@nfwi.org.uk). Please continue to let us know about your activities on libraries.

Craft Club - London Evening Training events
I particularly want to bring to your attention the London event on Wednesday16th November as it has been designed for your London ladies, many of whom will be working during the day.
The event will be held at the V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London and starts at 6.30pm till 8.30pm with the offer of a glass of wine and some nibbles! Please remember that the training events are free and as WI members, your ladies can claim for their travel expenses to attend. One of the workshops will be given by Rachael Matthews and Louise Harries, self-styled ‘maverick urban knitters’, who own and run a yarn shop in Bethnal Green called ‘Prick your Finger’ so a whole new aspect of the world of knitting will be opening up to spark your imagination for your own Craft Clubs! In order to book, your ladies should visit http://craftclubtraininglondon.eventbrite.com .
We anticipate a huge demand for Craft Clubs across the London region schools and would be grateful if you could encourage as many members as possible to take part. Ladies will receive a training manual on the night and, when they register to hold a Club, will be supplied with free materials e.g. handbooks, bags, stickers and certificates for all the students. Another Craft event which might be of interest to your members is the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace on 6-9 October 2011.
The Learning Curve offers a fantastic opportunity for visitors to learn new skills and to top up the knowledge they already have with regular short talks by renowned crafters while The Upcycling Academy, features Barley Massey (Fabrications), The Street Style Surgery, Craft Guerilla, TRAID and War on Want among others who will offer visitors of all ages the opportunity to work with recycled materials and create fantastic new garments.
Pat Lumsdale and I hope to see your ladies there! I do have some promotional leaflets for volunteers so if you would like me to send you some, get back to me with your postal address.
RegardsLesley Lesley S Quirk
Special Projects Co-ordinator: Centenary Projects – Mondays : Craft Clubs – Tues & Wed : Lets Cook Local – Thurs & Fri

NFWI Unit, Denman College, Marcham, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 6NW

T: 01865 391788 ext. 239 : Fax: 01865 391908 : E:l.quirk@nfwi-unit.org.uk http://www.thewi.org.uk/

Vote for Phoenix Garden
The BA has always been supporting of the work done at Phoenix Garden in providing a unique 'haven of tranquility' in the centre of the hustle and bustle of St Giles.

Please follow the link and give them your support by voting for them for this award.

http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/GreenFlag/GreenFlagAwardSites/London/Default.aspx?parkID=1191

'Devi: The Goddess and the Modern Indian Woman' - October 2011 at SOAS.

We have been informed about a series of lectures at SOAS about Devi and the modern Indian woman, which should most interesting.


Knit for peace
We are a voluntary organisation called Knit for Peace who works with a range of communities, bringing them together through setting up knitting and crochet groups. So far we have worked with local faith communities, women’s prisons and universities. We have discovered that by coming together around something as apparently neutral as knitting for other people we can create an environment where people start to discover what they have in common, even if at first it is just the knitting.
After the recent disturbances we have been thinking about what small contribution we might make to helping communities rebuild themselves. Last week we set up tables and chairs in the street outside our offices and invited people to come and sit down and Knit for Peace. We were really encouraged by the response we got – people smiled, sat down for a chat and knitted with us – we taught three people to knit, even getting one of the local police officers involved.
We thought it might be good to organise similar events in other places and thought of you in the WI as the perfect people to approach about maybe holding a joint event in your area to put the smiles back on people’s faces and make a small contribution to bringing back a sense of community.
What do you think?
If you think this is something that you would be interested in doing please get in touch. Alternatively if you would like to know more about our work generally I would be delighted to come to one of your meetings and tell you all about it. I attended Wood Green WI about six months ago and had a lovely evening talking about Knit for Peace and the current knitting scene and having a bit of a knitting teach in.
Here is a link to our website and blog to give you a bit of a flavour of what we do.
http://www.charitiesadvisorytrust.co.uk/knitForPeace

http://knitforpeacecat.blogspot.com/
Best wishes

Jane Lithgow, Knit for Peace Project Manager, Charities Advisory Trust, Radius Works, Back Lane, London, NW3 1HL, Telephone: 0207 794 9835

Mary Wollstonecraft memorial appeal.
Newington Green Action Group has now launched its campaign to raise funds for a memorial to Mary Wollstonecraft on Newington Green, London N16

Since the launch the campaign has gained the support of over 70 MP’s and peers & the TUC and has featured on BBC Women’s Hour.

I was wondering if you could help us to spread the word as far as possible and include our campaign news in any newsletter you may be sending out to your membership . If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Many thanks,

Alex Allardyce, Newington Green Action Group
Find out more or to donate visit website: http://www.maryonthegreen.org/

First Free Concert invitation
Dr. Linda Thomas LThomas@yakult.co.uk wrote to us to invite us to a series of concerts. Full details below.

Dear Madam

My name is Dr Linda Thomas and I Science Director for the probiotic company Yakult in the UK.
I am contacting you because we have been involved with the WI before - nutritionists in the science team have given educational talks to groups around the UK.
I thought your members may be interested to know that we are hosting a celebration concert on Monday 3rd October in the Royal Festival Hall, featuring Lesley Garrett and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to which we are inviting a range of guests: e.g. customers, medical and scientific researchers we are involved with, other supporters, etc. As part of our company philosophy, we have allocated some tickets to charities and organisations of our choice.

This was why I am contacting you – if any of your members would like to come to this concert, please contact me as soon as possible, letting me know how many free tickets you would like (and of course, where to send them).
It is first come, first served – I need to know soon as we are currently allocating the remaining tickets.
Looking forward to hearing from you, Best wishes Linda Linda Thomas PhD
FIFSTScience Director, Yakult UK Ltd. Yakult UK Ltd., Artemis, Odyssey Business Park, West End Road, South Ruislip, Mddx HA4 6QE. LThomas@yakult.co.uk www.yakult.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 8842 7617 Fax: +44 (0)20 8839 3250 Mobile: +44(0) 7968 175903


Second Free Concert invitation at Purcell Room in October.
Allison Battye has sent us thefollowing invitation to attend a free harp recital.

I would also like to offer tickets to a harp recital that I am organising at the Purcell Room on 13th October 2011 at 7.15pm. The harpist is Maria Krushevskaya, currently principal harpist with the Bolshoi Ballet, and a sought after soloist, who won the Gold medal at the USA International Harp Competition. The tickets are free, and if anyone is interested, they can contact me on 0207 928 8451, allison@holywell.co.uk, or allison_battye@hotmail.com.

Many thanks for keeping me informed of your activities, and I hope that the concert will be of interest to some of the members.
Kind regards
Allison


Volunteering opportunity with a small central London charity
Dear London West End WI,
I am sending this to the contact email I find on your website. I am the Administrator for a small charity in central London, we use music as a tool to help homeless people move forward in their lives – we build confidence, self-esteem, social networks, skills, creativity and enjoyment.
We run two programmes: a music Workshop Programme in 11 homeless centres nationally and Professional Productions which involve our performers working alongside top professionals.
In just ten years, Streetwise has grown into a nationally recognised charity with bases across the country and winner of a number of major awards in the arts and homelessness sectors.
We are presently looking for volunteers to help out in a variety of ways including Theatre Trips, Public Performances, Fundraising Events and Workshops and our volunteers have the opportunity to gain skills and experience in the following areas:Working alongside vulnerable adults

Relevant training, Managing large groups, Health and safety awareness, Further knowledge of opera.
We are a dynamic, friendly organisation and our activities present interesting challenges for all involved, whilst also being great fun. I think we can offer some great opportunities for WI members to help a really deserving arts charity.
Would you be able to forward this email on to WI members or inform them about the possibilities of volunteering with us? You can find out more about us at our website: http://www.streetwiseopera.org/ Anybody who is interested can contact me on this email. Best regards,Nicholas Nicholas BartlettAdministratorPhone 020 7495 3133www.streetwiseopera.org

Oxfam interested in working with London based WI's
SCorbett@oxfam.org.uk wrote:
Dear London West End WI
I hope you are all well and happy.
My name is Sarah and I work for Oxfam supporting groups and individuals to campaign with Oxfam to eradicate poverty and suffering in the world (just a small job!) whilst feeling part of a regional movement of changemakers in London and the South East. I was wondering if you would like to work together to campaign and raise awareness of global poverty issues through Oxfam and WI campaigns we work on together nationally such as Mums Matter and Women Reaching Women or other campaigns.
You seem very organised with planning and booking your workshops, I hope I haven't contacted you too late
I have good links with the Shoreditch Sisters. Outside of work I run the Craftivist Collective so have worked with them on their Embroideries project and will be working with them in future on both craftivism and Oxfam campaigning projects. I am passionate about campaigning, crafting and would love to support you with presentations, creative campaign workshops or even a book club night- there are so many possibilities! :) It would be great to work with you and if our sessions together work well we could invite other WIs to join in or I could deliver similar workshops/talks/activities to other WIs (I am currently working with Norwich WI as well as Shoreditch Sisters).
Oxfam are currently campaigning on two themes:

A campaign called GROW - looking at how to fix the broken food system. There are four pillars to this campaign: climate change, the scandal of land grab activities, encouraging and supporting small-scale farming and campaigning on food price volatility. We launched this campaign on 1st June with Picnics across the country.

Health and Education: this year we are focusing on defending the 0.7 aid budget and teaching the public about what 'aid' is.
But the above does not limit you on what we can help with.
I would love to work with you on engaging your groups and wider community about injustices happening to our global brothers and sisters. I would love to have a chat with you about what you think we could do together. Some ideas I have:

All of the WI's I know love making jam so why don't we make Tomato Jam and talk about the issues of women effected by climate change (see the attached).
We could give jam to our politicans, do a stunt at Westminster where we hand out jam sandwiches to politicians before they go into work. Have jam parties.

We could make petition bunting to deliver to your local politican (see here for an example I led on)

We could make a patchwork petition (see here for an example I led on)

I could deliver talks on particular issues you care about

I could deliver workshops on particular issues you care about

Book club session- we could all read a book that talks about an injustice issue and discuss it

We could link in with the local Oxjam team and do something at their gigs if you are interested in that film nights on development issues (not boring films I promise! Food Inc is a very good film)

'Letters for Lives' letter writing night where we write personalised letters to our MPs, particular companies or leave them for people to find on an issue we care about.

Anything else you think fits with your audience
I would rather meet up to discuss the above and hear if and how you think we could work together than bore you with a list of ideas. Are you free at all from 31st August to meet and discuss? I can meet you wherever and whenever works for you.
Best wishes and keep up the amazing work!

Sarah

Website of the month
I came across this website the other day and was so impressed by it that I thought it might inspire some us in the kitchen.
http://foodmadewithlove.wordpress.com

See you all soon

If you wish to get in touch with us about anything please feel free to do so,
Claude & Kate (LWWI Secretaries)