REPORT OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 25TH MAY 2023 (from Devon Federation of WI)
15 Delegates from Devon travelled to the Annual Meeting whilst 5 attended virtually. St Davids Hall was nearly full with some 2500 members and guests attending. The Chairman , Ann Jones, welcomed us all to Cardiff and gave her address. Ann said she had been very pleased to visit so many Wis and Federations during the last year but had found travelling very challenging around the country and islands. Ann was very pleased to advise us that there were just under 21,000 new members in the last year. National had been pleased to see the launching of virtual Wis, conversation cafes to support refugees. National are working on a new model of the way we offer education to our members, however there will be a learning hub from Denman on line which in due course offering free on line education. They have released 2.75 million from the Denman Trust to support Federations in their training and education courses.
Next was the Treasurers statement in which she told us we were experiencing external factors influencing our figures. However thanks to the support we received from WI enterprises, Denman Trust and legacies our figures remain in a good position. The treasurer then thanked the Board for their help and support.
We proceeded with the appointment of Auditors and Standing Orders none of which were opposed.
Our first guest speaker Ebony Rainford was excellent and inspiring as to how she persevered to reach her goal of playing for England Ladies Cricket Team. This was achieved along a long and difficult road. A full transcript of her talk will be in the next WI Life, I do recommend a read of it, a fascinating story.
We then proceeded to debate the resolution. The resolution was proposed by a member from Herefordshire Federation because she was becoming increasingly concerned about the state of the River Wye. The river and wildlife within it are dying mainly because of pollution. As Wis we need to promote awareness re polluted rivers. There was a very good and enthusiastic seconder from Yorkshire Federation. The first speaker in the following debate was James Wallace from River Action a small charity working to improve water quality. There was a sewage spillage into our waterways of 1.7 million hours in the last year and a lot of phosphate spillage from our farms.. River Action take the Environment Agency to task over this disgraceful happening. James believes the Government are being very lethargic over this matter. James feels WI Members are key to, working locally to try and highlight the plight of our rivers and push for more designated clean river swimming places with meaningful monitoring. No other organisation has our powers to ask Politicians to commit to clean rivers in their manifestos next year.
It was not easy to speak against this resolution however he feltwe had to be very careful we did not use all the resources to instigate more bathing areas as this could impact on cleaning other areas for wildlife to exist in our rivers. There are many toxic chemicals from water running off roads which need to be addressed. These were mor harmful to aquatic vertebrates.There were then several comments from the floor and once again it was queried if we had the wording right for the resolution as it was felt the emphasis should not have been on clean waters for swimming areas but should have encompassed both people and wildlife. The votes were then collected and counted and the overwhelming result was FOR the Resolution so it was passed.
Our lunch break followed out into a very hot and sunny Cardiff.
Following lunch break the Chair of NFWI Public Affairs spoke about the work they do and how the power they have to change things. There is a well tested process to get projects into the public domain. This was followed by The Cup presentations and Devon once again was very proud to have the winners of the Huxley Cup amongst us. It was a team of members from Primley WI East Devon who had won the challenge to design a community garden, which we understand has grown a little since the competition and is about to come to fruition.
Our afternoon guest speaker was Laura McAllister whose career had been in football and she is now an executive member of UEFA. It was very interesting how she achieved this and again the transcript from her talk will be in WI Life.#
The Chairman then summed up the meeting with a few ‘Don’ts’:
Don’t be a ‘dick’, treat others as we like to be treated.
Don’t forget to help others
Don’t stop learning – create a healthy appetite
Don’t forget your roots – know what you need to do to keep your aim
Balance yourself
Ann then set us a new challenge – we need to review our constitution, especially featuring on the younger women joining the WI.
The meeting then concluded with a little community singing and the Anthems. We were in Wales of course, with a Welsh Chairman, the land of Song.
May 2023.
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