Belated - March Dates for the Diary 2011

Hello Ladies
We are off to the Cartoon Gallery on Tuesday March 15th

Someone from LWWI will be outside the gates to St George's directing you to the Cartoon Gallery which is literally down the road at 35 Little Russell Street http://cartoonmuseum.org/
We hope to see lots of you there, the talk should be very interesting, we will be the only ones in the Gallery.
Please can a few committee members bring along a few refreshments (food,wine,juice to share with those WI members present)

As always any queries, offers, news etc that you wish to share please contact us via londonwestendwi@gmail.com


Keep checking the blog regularly. Sometimes there are multiple posts for dates for the diary of last minute news/events/offers that have come in after the offical monthly dates for the diary email has gone out to all of you.



LWWI News

Congratulations to all who took their food hygiene/safety course, everyone passed and we will pass on certificates as soon as they come back to us at LWWI.


Lynne Smith who was a member of LWWI 2009 and 2010 and active at W@W has now moved to New Zealand which is why we have not seen her in a while. She wanted to let us all know that she is ok and if anyone wants to keep in touch then she would love to hear from them

LWWI Monthly meeting Dates.

Tuesday 15th March - Cartoon Gallery visit (someone from WI will be outside St Georges to direct you to the Gallery if you are unsure where it is)

Tuesday 19th April - Gardening Project in Courtyard

Tuesday 17 May - Quilt/Crafting eveing

Thursday 19th May - Extra WI meeting - Comedy speaker to be arranged at 7 Dials Club

Tuesday 7thJune - Committee Meeting / Sewing Group / Vote (Meeting at 7 Dials Club open to all WI members)

Tuesday 21st June - WI Meeting (Details to be confirmed
It would be lovely if members from April onwards made a conscious effort to bring some refreshments they are willing to share with their fellow members. You don't have to have made it yourself, Shop bought is absolutely fine. I am sure you will agree that it is always nice to have something to snack on during the meetings.
Please note from April 19th we are proposing to ask for a £1 donation for a glass of wine to cover the cost of wine as recently it has been the same people constantly bringing wine to the meetings and this has seemed unfair. We do not want to make a profit just not have people out of pocket month on month. Tea, coffee, Juice etc will be available as usual at no charge.


LWWI Subscription fees


Apologies to ask again but can all LWWI members from 2010 ensure they have paid for 2011.

You will only be exempt from this if you paid your membership fees in October/November/December 2010. Otherwise your fees are due.

Fees cover the period January 2011 to December 2011.

Fees are £30 of which LWWI keeps about £12, the rest of the money goes to our federation and NFWI

Please either pay at the March meeting or via paypal. (Link to this at the bottom of the blog)

If you have not paid by March 31st come April you will be removed from our members mailing list and will cease to receive mailings from NFWI including your WI Life Magazine.


LWWI Survey

It has been proposed that we consider moving our monthly meeting from Bloomsbury to Covent Garden

Nothing is set in stone yet so don't worry.

As such we have created an online survey that will take about 5 minutes to complete.

You just select your viewpoint from the options given. There are 10 questions in total. 4 of these are compulsory.

It would be most helpful if everyone could complete the survey ideally by the end of March 2011. The survey is located here at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/X95YR7C

Don't worry its all anonymous so we won't know who has completed the survey and who has not.

The proposed alternate location is 7 Dials Club, www.sevendialsclub.com


WI Raffle


There is a WI raffle occuring being run by NFWI, Tickets cost £1:00. Sixty percent of the money raised from the raffle goes to our local federation (Surrey).

First prize is £5000, with 4 runner up prizes and 10 additional prizes.

I have left the tickets with Jane our treasurer who will bring them to the meetings incase anyone wants to buy them.

Raffle is being drawn September 16th 2011.

All ticket stubs and monies must be back with NFWI by September 2nd 2011.



LWWI - Your WI needs You

It has been proposed that we set up a rota for certain jobs that happen every month at the WI meeting.
Kate is drawing up a list of the jobs that need doing each month that until recently only a few people have been doing and the strain of this has been proving to be too much. It would be fabulous if members might step forward and agree to help at a couple of meetings per year with certain jobs. (More news of this to come in the next month or so).




Other non WI related Dates for the Diary from March onwards

Soul Train - Tuesday, 8th March 2011 - 100th anniversary of International Women's Day

The day is promised to be full of fun, an event that not only raises awareness but also makes it fun for everyone participating! This event is organised by EQUALS, a colliation of many charities including Oxfam, Save the Children, The White Ribbon Alliance and is also supported and promoted by the NUS. This event is a host to celebrities such as, Annie Lennox, Paloma Faith, Gaby Roslin and many more!! This surely is an event that cannot be missed!

The Facebook link to the event is this:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130852933652191
"What’s the EQUALS soul train?

To celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day through the international language of dance, EQUALS will be creating an EQUALS soul train. We’re inviting you to get down and groove with your EQUAL of the opposite sex - a friend, a relative, or a stranger. Whether you’re fresh to the scene or have been dancing for years, we can all disco!

Why soul train-ing?

Soul trains are all about men and women as equals. Equals as dance partners, equals in life. Both can shine equally in the soul train, with no one person leading or stealing the spotlight. The soul train also allows everyone to express themselves as they wish – whether you have two left feet or twinkletoes, or whether your preferred groove is salsa or hiphop. With our global soul train for International Women’s Day we want to show the world that if equality can be reality on the dancefloor, why not in all spheres of life? We’re using the soul train as a blueprint for how we want society to be…"
As you can see, this event really is important in terms of raising awareness of the fact that we ARE equal. We would all really appriciate it if you could help promote this event? There isn't much time left and we would really like to have as many people as possible!

This event is at:
Southbank Centre’s Jubilee Gardens

London,

United Kingdom
from 3:00pm - 6:00pm
You can also take a look at the promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRHrP-L7VHY

Bees

Capital Growth is running a second round of competitions for 10 London communities to win a beehive, protective clothing, basic tools training, mentoring, support to enable their community to set up with beekeeping by spring 2012. Info and application instructions at www.capitalbee.org



Breaking The Silence

International Women's Day 2011 - Tuesday, March 15th 7.00 pm £5/3 conc.
Naomi Alderman, Sarah Blake, Elif Shafak

Panel Discussion Chaired by Homa Khaleeli

To celebrate International Women's Day, Woolfson & Tay are pleased to host a Penguin Books' event with renowned authors Naomi Alderman, Sarah Blake and Elif Shafak. Guardian journalist Homa Khaleeli will chair a panel discussion on the topics of 'Breaking The Silence' concerning women and self-censorship.
Naomi Alderman was born in London and brought up in the Orthodox Jewish community in Hendon where she still lives. Her first novel, Disobedience, was published in ten languages; it was read on BBC radio's Book at Bedtime and won the Orange Award for New Writers. Penguin published her second novel, The Lessons in April 2010. In 2007, she was named Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, and one of Waterstones' 25 Writers for the Future. She broadcasts regularly, and writes a weekly games column for the Guardian.
Sarah Blake lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, the poet Josh Weiner, and their two sons. Born in New York City, Sarah Blake is the author of a chapbook of poems, Full Turn (Pennywhistle Press, 1989), an artist book, Runaway Girls (Hand Made Press, 1997) in collaboration with the artist, Robin Kahn, and two novels. Her first novel, Grange House, (Picador, 2000) was named a “New and Noteworthy” paperback in August, 2001 by The New York Times. Her second novel, The Postmistress, was published by Penguin in January 2011.
Elif Shafak is a Turkish writer and the best-selling female novelist in Turkey. She has published novels written in Turkish as well as English. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages around the world. Shafak’s work blends Western and Eastern traditions of storytelling to generate a fiction that is both local and universal. Her work draws on diverse cultures and literary traditions, as well as deep interest in history, philosophy and oral culture. Shafak’s writing has been defiant of bigotry and xenophobia, deeply involved in feminism, Sufism, individualism and Ottoman culture, with ‘a particular genius for depicting backstreet Istanbul’.

To book for this event, please see: http://www.woolfsonandtay.com/intl-womens-day.html


INNER SPACE CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY - March 5th 2011

Title: Life in a Handbag

Date: Saturday 5 March

Time: 1.30pm – 4pm

Venue: Wallace Space, Duke’s Road, London WC1H 9PN (nearest tube stations, Kings Cross & Euston)

Free

A handbag is a woman’s best friend, a woman’s own private little sanctuary; a mystery to everyone but herself! As bits and pieces of a woman’s personality and life come together in her handbag. Explore self-development using the ‘handbag’ metaphor. An event for women by women.
LIFE IN A HANDBAG
Attend 4 SESSIONS (20 min each) from the following:

short talks . . .

1. Fit Everything, Mary Poppins Style! - creating a diverse life portfolio

2. The Mobile Phone - talking is good, too much talking may not be

3. What your Handbag says about You? - organised or a disorganised free spirit?


meditations . . .


4. De-clutter your Bag - get rid of things that don’t work for you

5. The Make-Up - sparkle with confidence

6. Put your Handbag Down - give your back a break

7. Refill your Purse - recharge for abundance


reflective exercises . . .


8. Pack Smart - essentials you just can’t live without

9. Handbag Wars - stop being a drama queen

10. The Umbrella - ready for a rainy day, for every eventuality

11. Forward Planner - what’s next


Registration essential. email: event@innerspace.org.uk
Once you have registered, you will receive an e-form to choose your 4 sessions.
Organised by: Inner Space l 020 7836 6688 l http://www.innerspace.org.uk/

The International Day for Street Children - 12th April 2011

The International Day for Street Children: Louder Together is launched on 12th April, a new campaign to give a louder voice to the millions of street children all around the world. Governments need to listen. We want to help make this happen. We must give street children a voice. Together we are louder and have more impact so we are asking everyone to Raise your Voices for Street Children.

The International Day is being celebrated across the globe: by street children in Morocco, Guatemala and India; school children in the UK; students in Ireland; the Consortium for Street Children and its 60 members in over 130 countries; Aviva in the 28 countries in which it operates; and politicians in Tanzania and the UK.

All countries have signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (other than the USA and Somalia) and have a legal obligation to work towards ensuring that all children’s rights are integrated into national law. The Convention sets out every child’s right to protection, participation, provision, and prevention from harm. It is universally recognised that all children should have these rights realised; however many government policies and practices still do not include street children.
The International Day is supported by Aviva, the world’s sixth largest insurance group, as part of their global Street to School programme which aims to help 500,000 street children get back into education or training over the next five years.



Future Dates for the diary


Open Garden Squares 11th - 12th June 2011

http://www.opensquares.org

Selina one of our members is keen to do this

If anyone else is interested in going around to see some of London's secret gardens then perhaps they might get in touch

I did it one year and it was fabulous. Who knew there was so much hidden green peaceful space.



The Big Lunch - June 5th 2011


http://www.thebiglunch.com/

Denman Taster Day - 26th May 2011

Cost is £40 at Denman College in Oxford. Pls see either WI Life or book via NFWI website.

If you need more details please contact londonwestendwi@gmail.com and we will try and get you more information.



Ceilidh - Kate has asked that her apologies be made but at the present time she has had to postpone the planned Ceilidh which she had hoped to organise for the end of April 2011. 
As soon as Kate has a new date those details will be posted here
.




Making a difference in the community

Jam Jars

Ladies pls can everyone make a conscious effort to save their jam jars.

Sometimes we need them if we are doing a jam sessions as in one of our regular Monthly meetings so that people can potentially take away a jar. We also need them for the jam makers who will produce jam for us to sell them on the stalls at various fundraising opportunities we usually take part in.

Used stamps

Please can I also personally ask you to save any used stamps you receive on letters as another charity I am involved with can make use of these and turn them into cash to help school aged children in the Gambia. Please bring along any you have to WI meetings.

Sponsored 10K run - Charity needs runners to run on their behalf.

Is anyone interested in taking part in a 10k run?

A charity helping various elements within the community (older residents, children in need, refuge/hostel occupants) has asked us if we might have ladies willing to run on their behalf.

It is the British London 10K run on Sunday, 10th July starting at 9.35am. Starts at Piccadily and finishes at Whitehall.

This is the link to their webpage: http://www.thebritish10klondon.co.uk/
Anyone interested can email Julia whose email address is juliafcoggins@gmail.com by the end of March 2011.
The Charity will book the places. The charity's website is www.voluntarycarecentre.co.uk


W@W

As always we are still very actively involved with Women at the Well.

We might have sister Linda come back in again to speak to us at one of our monthly meetings.

If anyone wants to find out what we are doing or get more involved at THE WELL, please speak to either Jane White or Kate Matheson.


Useful/Interesting website

I am proposing to add to the very bottom of certain dates for the diary emails/ blog entries any useful sites that we come across that we think could be of benefit to all members. Perhaps other members can suggest sites they think members might find useful. These can cover recipes, craft, current affaris etc.

In the current economic climate I am currently pointing out the useful nature of these 2 sites.
A new associate of mine has set up a website called www.homesavingexpert.co.uk which literally does what is says on the jar.
And ofcourse Martin Lewis' http://www.moneysavingexpert.com which is always good for offers/advice etc/freebies etc.
See you all soon

Claude & Kate

LWWI Secretaries

londonwestendwi@gmail.com

http://www.londonwestendwi.co.uk/

www.londonwestendwi.blogspot.com