Warwick WI - Annual Report for 2020/2021
Well, who’d have thought we would have another very odd 12 months! After 6 months with no opportunity for all our members to meet together in one place September 2020 saw us have our first main meeting. So it was on Zoom, we weren’t together in the same place but at least we could see and hear each other, and we could sing Jerusalem and we had a speaker. Liza Jones entertained us with a talk about the History of Underwear. Our Annual meeting in October was a hybrid affair, mainly on Zoom. We just managed to arrange and hold it before a second Lockdown so groups of 2 members could socially distance around one computer. Before the business part of the evening we had a talk from Chris Duffin about the ups and downs of being a Prison Governor. In all 26 members “tuned in”. Voting was tricky but we were helped out by my son in Glasgow who logged in for a short period and did the counting. The committee was re elected with Steph carrying on as President for a further 12 months. As we now had the hang of Zoom meetings we booked speakers for the following months. In November Alison Utting spoke about Eglantyne Jebb , one of the founders of Save the Children Fund who had a very interesting upbringing. In December we were entertained by Paulus, the Cabaret Geek. Rosemary booked us some very good speakers for the new year – Jane Barnes with her Tales from a Farmer’s Wife in January, Capturing your Life Story by Sarah Lott in February and thrills and spills in March when Sam Durrani spoke about his life as a Stuntman. And who would have thought that a Scavenger Hunt on Zoom would be such fun! By April 2021 the Government had published a Roadmap out of Lockdown. The first stage was to allow outdoor meetings of up to 6 people. We started having Committee meetings in gardens and approached St Paul’s about returning to the Church Hall. We didn’t think it would take until August for us to meet up properly again. And all this time we carried on with phone calls to members and Meetings in a Bag, the last of which was delivered in May 2021. We’ve saved a sample of everything from each of the 13 bags and have put them into a folder as a reminder of the times. We walked round the park in small groups & chatted on doorsteps or clutching coffee cups outside cafes. We did lots of knitting. Hats and scarves for the homeless were, donated to Helping Hands in Leamington to be distributed to those in need. Hundreds of squares were sewn up to make blankets for Guide Dog puppies. The photographs of the puppies were so cute. But it felt like a very long winter. In anticipation of Spring the March bag contained Sunflower seeds, pots and compost. Members were encouraged to grow the seeds and then photograph the resulting plant. In September we determined which sunflower was tallest. We included a craft activity in the monthly bags and even had a craft demo and make as part of one of our Zoom meetings. Finally in June we could have a meeting outside with up to 30 members. We organised a Cream Tea in Anne’s garden. It was lovely to get together over a cup of tea. Nicki had collected together all the embroidered squares that had been a craft activity early in the first lockdown. They were magically turned into bunting which decorated the garden. In July we had our main meeting in Steph’s carpark with Bingo and quizzes. Again, such a pleasure to be together in one place, sing out loud and have a cup of tea and cake. Fortunately the weather was fine was both these events and we even raised some money for our charity. Finally we were back in our Church Hall in August for our Summer Social but we weren’t allowed to use the kitchen so it was “Bring your own picnic”. What joy to see our members and have a proper chat. We welcomed 4 visitors to that meeting. We hope they will become new members. In September we had our first “live” speaker and what a wonderful speaker she was too. Jennifer Rigby, actor, told us about “Shakespeare and Me”. What joy, what energy, what enthusiasm, what a treat! And we were her first “live” W.I. audience since goodness knows when! Federation have put on a number of Zoom events which our members have been able to join along with Denman at Home. Federation along with Johnsons put on an outing to Windsor in August –the one that should have happened in 2020. What a novelty to sit on a coach, chat with friends and explore somewhere new. What does the rest of 2021 hold in store for us and all our W.I. friends? And what will 2022 be like? Wait and See!