Chat from the Chair
Dear fellow members
A very Happy 105th Birthday to the Federation. The Hertfordshire Federation of Women’s Institutes was founded on December 9th 1919. Following the Annual Meeting the Board re-elected me Chair of the Federation. This is my 3rd year in office. I am very much enjoying being your Chair. We must, be mindful, however, that we need others to be ready to take on this role. I am pleased to report that we have new members who have joined the Board, which is very encouraging. New blood brings new ideas and challenges to anything they actively pursue.
I hope you enjoyed the Annual Council Meeting in October. Esme Young was certainly an attraction. Her fee was £1500.00 plus travel expenses. Apologies for the poor quality of the visual slide presentations, lighting and sound. I was really struggling to read my Chair’s Welcome and Address. We raised these points in our feedback to the venue and understand a new projector has already been purchased. Next year, we will employ the services of an additional technician to help with the lighting and sound. We had a good variety of stalls which we hoped you enjoyed browsing and purchasing from. We noted some members arrived by their Community Buses. It is worthwhile enquiring if your community has this facility.
I am pleased to report that Melissa Green, CEO of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes visited County House on Friday 22nd November to speak with the Board. We requested a face to face meeting with Melissa as there are National decisions made where we would like a better understanding.
On Friday 1 November from 3pm until 7pm and on Saturday 2 November from 9.30 am to 4.00 pm Rahat, our Treasurer, and I logged onto the National Council meeting. When I was Chair from 2015 to 2018, we used to attend the conference at a hotel over 3 days, but due to cost restraints and, of course, how Covid changed the way we all work, we now have this annual event by Zoom. It was a very informative and enlightening meeting and really makes you appreciate how we are part of a movement that has the largest women’s voice in the country. United, we can, and do, achieve so much. The Chair said the theme was “Growing for the Future” - Positivity, Ambitious and Fearless. We should hold onto our strengths but not wish we were back there. Since last year there have been 24,749 new members, although our movement has lost about the same number too, so membership remains static. There are 58 new WIs. 54,412 members have logged onto the Learning Hub since January this year. The Denman Grant was issued to Federations. Up to £10k will be available to Federations to organise educational events for our members. It was said they don’t want us to replicate the Denman experience, but to do something different. Ideas ladies?
If your family are looking for ideas for you for Christmas/Birthday/Mother’s Day, perhaps they would like to consider gifting your subscription for next year, or logging onto one of the event links to purchase the ticket for you.
The WI Lottery is live and the Hertfordshire Federation has a link. Sign up, you may be lucky. Checking with National not too many Hertfordshire WIs have signed up, please do, you can earn income for your WI. 32 Federations have signed up and 110 WIs.
Wishing you a very Happy Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year. May 2025 be everything you want it to be. We are hoping it will be a very fulfilling year for your Institutes, and you will continue to support our Federation and Team events. We already have an interesting programme lined up for you. This wonderful organisation has so much to offer us all, not least friendship and support to each other.
Kind regards