IPSTONES WI
On OCTOBER 23 around 800 ladies of the WIS in Staffordshire met at the County Showground for our Annual Council Meeting.
I am a long time member of Ipstones WI – well over 50 years. But I never realised until this special Council Meeting in our 100th year, just how inspirational and influential Wi.ladies have been in all spheres of life over the past 100 years.
Don’t let anyone tell you that all members of the WI are old ladies who have never done anything. Many are maybe old now, but all have had interesting and influential lives.
We were reminded of our 100 years of annual resolutions which are voted on and then the chosen one turned into very worthwhile even ground-breaking action and campaigns.
In 1922 a resolution put forward by our own Staffordshire Federation resulted in the first female police officers.
We have campaigned for more information on venereal disease in l922 and in l986 the same for Aids. Our campaign in l954 led directly to the establishment of the Keep Britain Tidy movement.
We adopted the annual financial statement and our President Helen lead us through all the other business in a very competent manner. We heard of all the interesting activities that were planned for our 100 th year before Lynsey Busby showed us the commemorative mug that she had designed and which Duchess China in Longton had produced. The theme was based firmly on Staffordshire and those mugs available were soon bought up – we are assured that more will be available.
Eventually, we welcomed our first guest speaker Rosemary Conley CBE, who showed us the gorgeous dresses she had worn when she was in Dancing on Ice at the age of 65. Now in her 70s she looked amazing.
Rosemary spoke to us, naturally, about diet and fitness and her talk was very well received by the meeting. We were given a few easy exercises to maintain our “core fitness” and to help remove any facial lines we may have. When we meet at our Spring Meeting we shall all be svelte and wrinkleless.
Our afternoon speaker, following our packed lunch was Paul Martin, well-known for the programme that he has presented for almost 18 years; Flog It.
His talk was fun, fascinating and friendly. He is certainly as lovely as he appears on the television. We were all sorry when he confirmed that Flog It was being discontinued next year but he assured us that the new show that he was involved with would be really good.
The day ended with the presentation of many awards that members had won in the numerous competitions over the year, and the singing of the National Anthem. A wonderful day and really I have only scratched the surface of the many items we touched upon. Ladies if you have never been to one of our Annual Council Meetings do go along so long as you leave room for me, Joan Mitchell.