National resolutions
THE May meeting of Loughborough Ladies WI considered the National WI Resolutions for 2017.
Every year WI members have the opportunity to put forward issues as ‘resolutions’ that they want to see the national body campaign on.
From the initial proposals, a shortlist is made at a national level for debate at Federation and local level, before final selections are taken forward to the annual meeting in the summer. If passed, these then become mandates and form the basis of campaigning and awareness raising activities in the years ahead.
The two issues discussed at the May meeting were ‘Alleviating Loneliness’ and ‘Plastic Soup - Keeping Microplastic Fibres Out of Our Oceans’.
Two committee members gave a briefing about the two issues prior to an open discussion.
The ‘Alleviating Loneliness’ resolution called on every WI and the National Federation of WIs to work alongside health and social care providers and their local community to raise awareness of the causes and impacts of loneliness, thus ensuring better identification of lonely people in order to be able to offer them the appropriate assistance and support.
During discussion of this issue, the members pointed out that loneliness did not focus solely on the elderly, but made reference to young people and the various personal circumstances that could result in loneliness of people at any age as well as the budget cuts of many providers that were an ongoing problem.
The ‘Plastic Soup - Keeping Microplastic Fibres Out of Our Oceans’ resolution stated that microplastic fibres are shed from synthetic clothing with every wash and are the main contributors to Microplastic contamination of the oceans.
The National Federation of WIs calls on Government and Industry to research and develop innovative solutions to this problem in order to stop the accumulation of microplastic fibres in our oceans.
The Group agreed they know little about the subject and suggested finding out more, to be able to take action as individuals and in the local community.
Following discussion of both resolutions, both were passed, with twenty eight votes for each resolution.
These would now be taken forward to the annual meeting, with the support of the local group.
The discussions were followed by a Try and Taste session, with members bringing samples of their own favourite recipes, both sweet and savoury, for everyone to sample, what a wide and wonderful selection of delicious food we had.
At a previous meeting, the group had agreed to recognise the national campaign in support of Jo Cox, the murdered MP, ‘ The Great Get Together’, being held on the weekend of 17th/18th June 2017.
The group will do this by making small bouquets of flowers and leaving for local people who we are aware may be feeling lonely, with a card saying where they are from.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, 1st June 2017, when there will be a Sewing Bee.
The meetings are held at 7.30pm at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Park Road, Loughborough.
As well as the main monthly meetings, there are a number of clubs, including a Book Club, Coffee Club, Craft Club, Cinema Club, Supper Club and Theatre Club.
The Book Club continues to meet on a regular basis, reading a wide range of books. The next meeting will be held at 7.30pm on Thursday, 25th May 2017, at the Beacon Pub, when we will discuss “The Trouble with Goats and Sheep’ by Joanna Cannon and ‘ Time and Time Again’ by Ben Elton.
The Coffee Club meets once a month on a Monday morning.
The June Club will be held at 10.30am at the Priory, Nanpantan.
The Craft Club meets once a month at the Tesco Community room. Members are encouraged to look out their UFOs (unfinished objects) and take them along to work on while having a chat or getting help .
The Supper Club will be meeting on Tuesday, 6th June 2017 at the Badgers Sett.
The Theatre Club is planning to see ‘As Seen on Stage’, performed by the Good Shepherd Stage Group on 25th May 2017.
Two other outings are planned. The Group’s summer trip to Barnsdale, to visit the gardens and another to Kwik Fit, for ladies to learn a little about basic car maintenance.
For further details about this successful local WI group, please contact ladieswi11@gmail.com. Guest are always welcome.