'Handbags, scarves and jewellery'

Our February meeting started off with the usual business but we were all eager to look at the items members had been asked to bring in. To help fund our special birthday meeting this year  we  were holding a sale of unwanted handbags, scarves and jewellery. As the meeting got underway several tables at the back of the hall were groaning with a fantastic selection of items for sale.

It is our A.G.M. next month and we have a few vacancies for committee members. Our President Penny made a plea for help. As most readers will know; organisations need a committee to run successfully. The more people that are prepared to help; less work is required of each member. Duties need not be time-consuming and new faces breathe new life, ideas and enthusiasm.

We have announced the date of the May Market which is Saturday 16th May from 2.00pm -4.00pm. Please keep the date free, you will be able to buy bric a brac, books, plants, homemade produce and much more.

In June it will be our 95th birthday and we are hoping to make it a special event. Several of the members have offered to hold events that will raise money for this evening. We have several groups within our WI and details of these were announced. The 'Book group' meets every 2-3 months and a 'Craft group' meet once a month at members' homes. We also have Walking, Cinema and Scrabble groups that are arranged informally from month to month.

As we had no speaker this month it was an ideal opportunity for us to discuss ideas for the WI Centenary Challenge. Several ideas were suggested, including, providing a tea and cake session once a month to planting bulbs in the village verges. All were good ideas, but we decided that some were difficult to implement and sustain over a length of time. We have decided to put together a book of photographs showing  Yoxall  'at work'. Further details about this will be discussed later.

After tea and coffee we then had some 'retail therapy'. Members had donated a super selection of items and the sale made a start to the birthday fund. Any unsold items will be put into the May Market.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 11th March at 7.30pm in Yoxall Parish Hall. It will be our AGM followed by Pauline Hardwich with ' One Accord '. If you would like any more information, please contact Penny Bailey through the link at the bottom of tise pag.e