| It was a beautiful sunny morning as we entered the Cardiff CIA where displayed in the entrance area were some stunning exhibits of members’ needlework and quilting.
The sight of some 5,000 ladies gathered together in a huge arena is pretty impressive and with the new WI logo on either side of the wide screen above the platform proclaiming our new slogan “Inspiring Women” we waited expectantly. Promptly at 10.30 Chair Ruth Bond opened the meeting and introduced her team and we rose to sing a rafter-raising “Jerusalem”.
Our Chair Ruth Bond then rose to greet “a great and growing organisation of 207,000 which empowered women with strength, courage and confidence to be a positive influence in our society and beyond” and described the WI in campaigning mode as “the itch that won’t be scratched away when something needs to be changed”. That was greeted with an appreciative laugh. We were glad to hear that the WI was growing fast – 118 new WIs were formed in the last year, in colleges, workplaces, and even one in prison, thanks to the WIs “Care in Custody” campaign. The official target was 250,000 members in 2015 – our Centenary year and a grant scheme would be available from January 2011 to December 2013 to help recruitment. The new logo reflected today’s WI: modern and popular. The country needed to know that we are not only its largest but its best women’s organisation. A real boost had been the return of £1.8m by the VAT office. This would be a great help both in increasing numbers and in supporting action such as Women Reaching Women, both at home and in the Third World, Fair Trade, dealing with Violence Against Women, “Care Not Custody” and of course “SOS for Honeybees”. Our campaign for the British dairy farmer would be taken up again and Climate Change would be pursued.
The WI promoted the inclusion of women in decision-taking everywhere and media coverage had raised our profile. Schemes such as the FSA-funded “Let’s Cook” carried out by WI Volunteers caught public imagination, and later in the day those who had taken part in the scheme were asked to come on to the platform so we could give them some well-deserved applause. “Women Making a Difference” sponsored by the Welsh Assembly, the WI and Oxfam involved women at many levels and was a tribute to the WI in Wales. There was renewed interest in crafts and in WI members teaching knitting in schools. Many had been to Denman College - it was a warm and – that word again – inspiring resumé of everything our WI stands for and hopes to achieve. Ruth was rewarded by tumultuous applause.
As someone in the coach said afterwards, financial statements tend to be dull; but when the NFWI Treasurer introduced her 2008/2009 accounts by saying she always thought of accounting as a jig-saw puzzle we found our attention caught and followed her speech with interest. Membership Fees would be £30 but the aim was to split them three ways; 50% to individual WIs, 25% to the Federation and 25% to NFWI over the next five years. To achieve this membership needed to reach 250,000 – so everyone please bring in a new member! Royalty-producing branded WI goods made to WI standards from a WI recipe would be on sale in supermarkets, earning useful royalties. After the anxiety of the economic recession Denman was now in a sound financial position as well as having been fully modernised. A plea for members to keep attending to keep up this good financial position was made here.
Ruth Bond introduced our first Speaker, Gwen Parry Jones, Chartered Physicist and the first female Director of a Nuclear Power Station in the UK. Gwen told us she saw the WI as a “powerful voice in the country”. She gave us a reassuring insight into the inner workings of a nuclear power plant, emphasising its in-built safety precautions. She was an entertaining speaker (we loved her story of being mistaken for a tea-lady by one of her own engineers) who nevertheless gave us cause for serious thought on the current energy debate and we clapped her warmly feeling rather pleased to think that there was at least one ‘powerful gal’ in the nuclear industry!
There had been a good deal of discussion about the food-labelling Resolution and we were grateful to Glyn Jones, former NFU President, who gave us some useful insights with slides showing how subtly misleading labelling could be. We could rely on “the little red tractor” however and we now know what to look out for. He promised to look into various concerns raised by different WIs and promised to get back to them in due course. We voted for the Resolution by 6,273 For and 55 Against – a majority of 99.13%. With regard to last year’s Resolution we were very pleased to hear that bee-friendly plants were now flourishing at No.10 Downing St. and that Denman had acquired its own beehives and hoped to be selling honey soon.
John Bercow, 157th Speaker of the Houses of Parliament, came by video-link thanks to the delay in the date of the Opening of Parliament. He said we were to be admired for retaining traditional values but not being afraid to address difficult issues. He was determined to make the House of Commons much more accessible to public participation and explained how this could come about within the next 5 years. 2015 would be the 750th anniversary of the House of Commons and the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. It will also be our Centenary year and all three should be celebrated with a big party. We applauded enthusiastically.
We had two more outstanding speakers: Tim Smit, founder of The Lost Garden of Heligan and of course The Eden Project, kept us fascinated, titillated and thoroughly amused with his story of ‘living by instinct’ and ‘accepting every third invitation’. We loved his description of winning the approval of the Millennium Commission by means of a champagne party ‘celebrating the award’ before it had even happened. We also loved hearing how he and his team took turns at the end of each long day of very hard work to cook their own meal and eat and drink together. The WI approve of eating together!
Lee Durrell, American wife of Gerald Durrell, told us about her life with Gerry, his love of islands and of endangered species and how he believed that if you engaged the concern of people who lived with endangered species on their behalf you could work miracles. She showed slides of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Jersey and of some of the endangered animals. It was an inspiring story of the acorn that grew into a wonderful tree and of the seeds of that tree growing in many parts of the world.
The Lady Denman Cup – a story called “Not the WI” was won by Helen Dalder of Northumberland Federation and certificates for the Programme competition were presented – Winners Witchampton WI Dorset Federation, Second place Lickey WI Worcestershire Federation and third place Creekside WI Isle of Wight Federation.
The Chair wound things up with a plug for the Moodle – our on-line learning device exclusive to members, told us that the Co-op and Tesco would be selling WI branded cakes, wondered if our “Jerusalem “ recording might end up with our having a CD (No. 1?) in the Christmas charts, thanked WI staff at all levels, and stressed the value of teamwork at which the WI of course excels. We then had our Big Treat when “Only Men Aloud”, the competition-winning Welsh Male Voice Choir, came on-stage to sing for us, but first we had to get to our feet, sway meaningfully and sing a round in ‘non-language’ which was great fun.
The ‘boys’ gave us a wonderful concert, bringing the house down with their Tom Jones renditions and we gave them a standing ovation.
It was a truly outstanding AGM. Next time Liverpool but 250,000 members and O2 Arena here we come!
Barbara Harris (Kings Sutton WI)
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