Monday 26 February 2018

Chairman's Message

Spring Council Meeting – Don’t miss Martine Wright MBE!  (April 18)
As promised a little more information about the ‘
dibble dabble’ sessions.

These are not intended to be major craft works but something that can be completed in 15-20 minutes. We hope to offer a variety of different crafts, using tutors within and from outside the federation.

If members wish to participate you will be asked to sign up to a session, one session only per person from one of the crafts with a maximum of 10 people per session. There will be a small fee to cover costs of materials, which we anticipate will be approximately £3-£5 per person and will be paid direct to the tutor. Other members will be free to stand and watch the workshop.

There will be a 10 minute break between each session to enable changeover of members and a total of 4 sessions per craft activity over the lunch break starting at 12.25pm and the final one finishing at 2.15pm.

The tutors will be set up by 9am on the morning of the Council meeting so that members can view the different crafts available and you will be asked to sign up before the lunch break. However if there are spare slots still available at lunch time these can be signed up then.

 In addition we will be including a chance to shoot some goals in our netball hoop as part of the Walking Netball Project and an opportunity to talk to the Netball England representative Jenny Kelly.

Remember your hats Ladies and you might also want to commemorate the 100 years of women’s suffrage by including a sash, ribbon or rosette in the suffragette colours of green, purple and white!

Royal Bunting –Radio Devon is launching a project to collect bunting from every city, town and village across Devon to mark the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. They are asking listeners to design a triangle of bunting making sure the name of the place where they live is included in the design. The assembled bunting will be displayed at the BBC marquee at the Devon County Show on the wedding day. Many of you took part, with great success, in the Poppy display last year so here is another chance for members to get involved in a community project. More details available from Emma Clements at Emma.clements@bbc.co.uk

Visit by West Sussex Federation. Members of West Sussex Federation will be in Devon between 29 April and 4 May and visiting Exeter, Honiton, Powderham, Paignton, Dartmouth and Totnes. They have some free time in a fairly busy schedule and would love to meet WI members from our Federation. Please make them feel welcome if you see their group. I have their complete itinerary if any WI would like to try to meet up with them. Please contact me directly for the itinerary. 

Suffrage Grants – Public Affairs NFWI have recently notified us of this grant scheme. The Government is offering community groups in England the chance to bid for small grants of between £300 and £2,000 for activities to celebrate the centenary of women gaining the vote. Activities should increase people’s awareness of the women’s suffrage movement, improve understanding of democracy in the UK particularly young people and encourage and inspire participation in civic life. There are two more funding rounds one in April and one in August, for full information and application forms go to www.womensvotecentenaryfund.co.uk

Silent soldier campaign –This is the Royal British Legion’s new project to commemorate the end of the First World War. These Silent Soldier silhouettes will appear across the country as a tribute to those who did not return home and to those whose lives would never be the same again. Organisations, community groups and individuals are invited to donate to receive a Silent soldier to display and can chose to display their company/group name on the base of the silhouette. If you or your WI is interested in participating please contact Claudia Kelly at ckelly@britishlegion.org.uk. I have pictures of the silhouettes, so you can see what they look like, contact me if you would like a copy.

 Research Projects which may be of interest.

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1. Pioneering Women. Eleanor Copp is doing a research project at Falmouth University looking into local women who have played a key role in history but have not had their names celebrated. One such lady was Kathleen (Kitty) Dickinson (Blackmoore) who was known for her activities during the Second World War in preserving foods and jam and her workshops in glove making, lampshades and dressmaking. If anyone has any specific information on this lady or any other pioneering women who carried out similar projects Eleanor would love to hear from you. Contact her directly on efmcopp@gmail.com

2. Emotion and memory As part of her studies in Psychology, Jessica Leighton-Price from the University of Exeter is conducting a research project to try to understand the factors that influence whether people experience worry or distress when they have memory lapses. The study is open to people over the age of 60. If you are interested please contact Jessica directly on jl599@exeter.ac.uk for more information. I also have some information that I can forward, if you prefer to contact me in the first instance.

3. Year of the Woman. Heart Research UK are running a survey to gain insights into women’s knowledge and understanding of risk of heart disease, particularly after the menopause. This survey consists of 21 questions and would take around 10 minutes to complete online. If you are interested in participating please contact Rachel Brooke directly on community@heartresearch.org.uk. More information on their website www.heartresearch.org.uk

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