Report on AGM and March meeting

At our March meeting we held our AGM, long postponed due to Covid. Thanks to the lovely Carol and Gerry of Middlesex Federation who joined us to keep us all in line and made sure we did everything properly! We'll have minutes soon, but to summarise we all agreed the Annual Report and the Financial Statement, and then Claude was re-elected to the role of President for 2022/23.

The formal committee of LWEWI for the next year is:

• President: Claude Asgill
• Secretary: Natalie Miller
• Treasurer : Pam Young
• Membership Secretary: Christine Canter
• Committee member without portfolio: Helena Roden 

We then had an online talk exploring the life of Adelaide Hoodless and the events that led to the formation of the WI as well as how the WI made its way to the UK. Huge thanks to our speaker Lisa Greenly who joined us all the way from Victoria, British Columbia (and valiantly battled through all our technical issues!)

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 20th April at the Upper Vestry Hall of St George's Bloomsbury, when we'll be having an illustrated talk about "Eating your greens, the ecology of vegetables" with Jane McLauchlin. Jane is an experienced speaker on a number of topics around ecology and the natural world, so this should be a fascinating talk. More details to come nearer the time.

March meeting, Wed 16th : AGM and a talk on the history of the WI

Our March meeting is going to be our first attempt at a fully hybrid meeting! The first half will be led in-person, and the second half will come from Canada if the technology works! 

For the first part of the meeting we will be joined in person by representatives of Middlesex Federation to oversee our first AGM since Covid. We'll be reviewing the previous two years in the life of LWEWI, then electing a new committee and President. All members can vote in the AGM, and can also put themselves forward to join the committee.

We'll then have a guest speaker, Lisa Greenly:

Adelaide Hoodless and her pathway to the WI

We will explore the life of Adelaide Hoodless and the events that led to the formation of the WI as well as how the WI made its way to the UK.

Lisa Greenly is the president of the Arbutus WI in Victoria, British Columbia, a member of the Hampshire Cloud Virtual WI, and an amateur storyteller.

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Join us at 6.30pm on Wed 16th March in person in the Upper Vestry Hall of St George's Bloomsbury, or email us on londonwestendwi@gmail.com for the Zoom log-in details. The entire meeting will be accessible online or in person and both members and visitors are welcome to attend.

The Year so Far - Jan & Feb 2022

In the first two months of this year we've managed to fit in some online crafting (in February, which I forgot to take a screenshot of...), two in person monthly meetings and a visit to the British Museum.

At our January meeting we welcomed Dr Kat Jungnickel to talk about her fascinating Bikes and Bloomers project, learning about Victorian women, and how they adapted their clothing for cycling. Her book on the subject goes into much more detail, and is well worth getting a copy of.

In early February we were privileged to be invited to the community preview of the World of Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum, a week before it opened to the public. It's an extraordinary exhibition which is well worth seeing. Members of LWEWI are invited to these previews at the BM for most paying exhibitions, a membership benefit we are delighted to be able to offer due to our proximity to the museum.

We finished February with an in-person craft session as our monthly meeting, with Helena leading us in a Peruvian-inspired embroidery session. We have some crafty members, and the designs were inspired by our visit to the Peru exhibition at the British Museum last year.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 16th March, which will be our AGM followed by a talk or activity (still to be finalised). The events we have arranged for the rest of the year so far are on our Events page at the top of this blog, and we have lots more exciting things to come! New members are always welcome, get in touch via londonwestendwi@gmail.com for more information.