Warwick WI, Annual Report, 2019/2020It has certainly been a funny 12 months since I last wrote an Annual Report.The year started off in the usual way with meetings in the church hall. In September we had a fascinating talk from Mark Lavery about Warwickshire and Solihull Blood bikes. Mark brought a very large motorbike which he let members “have a go on” but not with the engine running and it stayed inside the hall! We were so impressed with their work we adopted Bloodbikes as the charity we would support in 2020.Our Annual meeting in October went without a hitch, the committee and joint Presidents were re-elected and we celebrated with a supper of homemade soup with bread and cheese.November saw us travelling on a musical trip along the canals of the Black Country with Steve Allen and in December we had our usual Christmas party, decorating the fairy for the top of the tree, playing games and enjoying a shared supper.In January we learnt about the work of another Warwick Charity, Springfield Mind, with a very interesting talk by Paul Thompson and his personal experiences of Mental Health. February was a very “hands on” meeting with a presentation and display by Stratford Upon Avon Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. We could handle a selection of different yarns and even have a go at spinning.Throughout the winter we maintained various group activities including Knit & Natter, Craft Group, 2 Book clubs, 2 Wine Clubs, Lunch club anda walking group.We took part in Avon Group events which included a marvellous Flower Arranging demonstration by Sarah Horne, and we supported events put on by Warwickshire Federation.Several of us went to the Gloucester Quays Christmas Market – gosh, it was cold! But a good trip.We made a big contribution to Federation’s knitwear for the homeless – our ladies enjoy a project with purpose.And then it started to get a bit peculiar............We had our committee meeting at the beginning of March to discuss our main March meeting which should have been on 18th March. We cancelled that meeting and then Lockdown came. So, what to do? We had the copies of Corunna News ready for the meeting so we divided up our members and each Committee member delivered Corunna News and an up to date telephone list to 5 or 6 ladies so every member knew how to keep in touch with committee and other members. Committee telephoned each of their ladies every week at the beginning to make sure they had support, weren’t lonely and knew that they could telephone if they needed anything. We carried on like this for a several weeks. Then the Committee discovered the delights of Zoom! So we got together virtually and started to plot and plan. What more could we do for our members? Suggestion – a Meeting in a Bag! The first one was delivered in May and since then havereplaced meetings in June, July and August. Each bag includes a welcome letter, which has the names of those with a Birthday that month, a recipe or two, quizzes and word puzzles, a craft activity and a teabag and biscuit!All our groups stopped but in June we started to organise a weekly Zoom coffee afternoon and a weekly, socially distanced, walk in one of the local parks. Committee still ring round members and get to have a few words when delivering the Meeting in a Bag. Members seem very appreciative of the contact. Several of the items in the bag will be collected when we finally get back together to form an archive of life during the Coronavirus Pandemic.But our members are ever resourceful and we know that many of them were making scrubs and scrub bags as well as headbands and masks for the local hospital without being asked by the W.I. They’ve also developed their own support networks and swapped books and knitting patterns, gossip and encouragement. In August we decided to challenge ourselves a bit further. We organised a Zoom talk by Murray Jacobs about some of the historic buildings in Cambridge. This was so successful and well received we have decided to book Zoom speakers for our meetings in September, October and November. We will let you know how successful that has been in next year’s Annual Report. At the moment there is no prospect of us meeting all together in the church hall so this seems like the next best thing.And of course, we have to do a bit of Fundraising for Blood bikes! Normally we would have a cream Tea in a member’s garden in August but this year we had 4 cream teas in 4 gardens with 5 members invited to each! All happening at the same time and available on Zoom so those who didn’t want to or couldn’t get to a garden could take part too. The sun shone, the gardens bloomed and the tea and chat flowed. We raised £125 for Blood Bikes.There have been no Avon Group events this year so no opportunity to present this report to other W.I.s. However it is being read at our Annual Meeting in October over Zoom and available on our website and sent out to all members.We’ve started planning for 2021 and hope that those speakers that couldn’t come to us this year will be able to in the next. We can’t wait!Warwick WI - Annual Report 2019/20