BembridgeWI – Page 4 – Bembridge WI

Topical Talk Group: Campaigns and 2018 resolution ideas

Thursday 11^th May 2017 – 3-5 p.m.

There were 3 members present.

Current NFWI Campaigns:

Food Waste:
1. On Sat 20^th May, to mark the NFWI’s weekend of action, JF and WC to give the WI Food Manifesto and Action Pack to the manager responsible for foods at Tesco in Ryde, with the following message:
  - Commend Tesco for not using Buy-one-Get-one-free offers, but asking for less “2 for £xx” type of offers as this encourages food waste.
  - Ask for information on examples of good practice initiatives that Tesco undertake to reduce food waste.
  - Ask for commitment to provide more loose and unpackaged food products and a greater ‘open life’ for Tesco products.

Midwives
1. NFWI had drafted a letter for individual members or our WI to send to the local MP. JC to ask the committee for permission to ask members if they are happy for letter to be sent to our MP on behalf of our WI as a whole.

Public Toilets

Our group had previously discussed the quality and provision of public toilets and we’d hoped to join with other WIs to tackle it island-wide. It was highlighted that Brading toilets are open and Shanklin have plans to refurbish theirs. Also, we now have a new Parish Council so there is an opportunity to ensure that public toilet provision and cleanliness in Bembridge are tackled by them. So for now, we will focus on Bembridge only. JC to ask the Parish Council to add this item to their agenda. JC to also research technology in terms of charging for toilets.

Ideas for resolutions that Bembridge Windmill WI can put forward for 2018

Three ideas were raised and we agreed to each research one idea further:
1. Campaign so hospitals (and GP surgeries?) shouldn’t pay Business Rates (JF)
2. Ban the use of specific “single-use plastics” – either plastic magazine wrapping or fresh food packaging (JC)
3. Ban the selling of property to those not residing in the country; non-British citizens must reside in the country for a minimum of 5 years before they can buy.
We will ask members for their ideas – deadline end of May.

The next meeting will on Tuesday 27^th June, 3-5pm. Venue tbc.

Proposed agenda:
1. Discussion of proposed resolutions following members’ input and our research and choose one to take forward

Lacey’s House by Joanne Graham

Fourteen members were able to attend April’s meeting held at The Cloisters on Thursday 20^th April with apologies received from members who were unable to be present.

Pam opened the discussion by asking members their views on this book. Several members admitted that due to various reasons they had been unable to read this book. A few members saying that they felt the content and style of writing did not encourage them to do so in this instance. On the other hand, the majority of members who had been able to read this book, although difficult to “get into” at the beginning, had found they got used to the actual text and style of writing, using very short chapters and swinging between the two main characters – Lacey and Rachel, fairly easy to follow flowing easily from one to another on the whole.

It was also said by some members that they thought that the relationship between the two women was well-described and detailed generally with it growing in confidence as the book went on – a love story of sorts (not romantic !!). Several members felt it was a sad, deep and quite “dark” book with several questions unanswered that they felt they needed to know about and there was a feeling from nearly everyone of shock with the twist at the end, that there had been no baby for Lacey which definitely took most by surprise.

One or two members thought although the subject matter was worthy, giving the book great possibilities to be incredibly powerful, it sadly disappointed, feeling it lacked atmosphere with its descriptive, cliché language not getting a connection emerging and would possibly have fared better in a more experienced writer’s hands perhaps. Others argued that they did feel it had a sense of relationship building with a feeling that the two women through helping and learning about each other became each other’s “missing link” (daughter/mother : mother/daughter ?). Several felt as they read on through the chapters that they were waiting for the relationship to get better and it just did not, whilst others said they thought it had achieved this!! It was also generally thought it had to a certain extent been quite difficult to pick through the truth and lies laid out for Lacey’s character in the storytelling.

Thoughts and discussion were then given on the author’s coverage of the “harshness and cruelty” aspect of this story mainly with regards to the character of Lacey’s doctor father, including the electric shock and lobotomy treatments endured by her, leading on to a few members admitting they had felt personally affected by them, leaving them with emotions of unhappy despair in humanity, a sadness, finding it quite hard for them to read the book to its end. Others said that they felt it was the human spirit surviving through a very hard life, much similar to the world we live in today. Most agreed that Lacey had to die to give the book its “happy” ending allowing Rachel to achieve her dreams.

To conclude ……. A book which evoked all sorts of emotions and split opinions and views and was felt generally one which allowed “damaged souls to move along at their own pace” (Thank you Joy) a simplistic but complicated deep and dark novel, one full of unhappiness and sadness. Some thought it was one with worthy subject matter that had hopes and the possibilities to be powerful. Half of those members present enjoyed the book to a certain extent, but no-one wanted to or had the desire to read it again or recommend it.

Newsletter Feb 2017

BEMBRIDGE WINDMILL W I
Newsletter
March 2017

Facebook: @BembridgeWI
Email: Secretary@bembridgeWI.co.uk

Hello Everyone. What a lovely Spring day we have had yesterday, not too long and we will all be in the garden.

This is going to be a very rushed newsletter this month so if I forget anything I apologise in advance for my tardiness.

Membership – The committee are thrilled to say that our membership has reached an all time high of 45! However, because of the size of The Cloisters we have had to make the decision that our membership lists will now close. We are holding a waiting list for prospective members but it is unlikely that we will be able to take new members until next year. Priority will always be given to existing members.

We warmly welcome all our new members.

Visitors – The committee have drawn up a policy which will allow visitors to join us for three consecutive meetings. During this time visitors will have access to all other groups we have, the book club, topical talk, craft and soon to be formed walking group. They will also be able to attend any outings. The cost for visitors will be £ 3 per month and if after 3 months they wish to go on our waiting list then we will be pleased to add their names. Again we have drawn up a Visitor policy which will be given to visitors on their first meeting.

Vicki – Seven of us attended Vicki’s funeral. The church was packed and I am sure she would have loved seeing so many people there. Please remember to bring items along for the Foodbank to the next meeting in memory of Vicki in line with the wishes of her family.

Bra’s and Colouring Books and crayons – We are collecting bras once again for Romania. Any bras that have some life in them can be given to Janet or Joy at meetings. (New bras also appreciated). The group are also collecting plain paper and colouring books together with pencils and crayons which can again be given to Janet and Joy.

Breakfast – Chris B is arranging a breakfast, I believe at The Bakery on the 30th March. A sign up sheet will be available at the meeting.

March Meeting – The Speaker is The Coastal Gardener, Gerry Price. Meeting date is Monday 20th April at 7.30pm in The Cloisters.

April Meeting – NOTE FOR YOUR DIARY – The meeting is a week earlier because of Easter and will be on the 10th April when we will be discussing the Resolutions for the year as well as a fun activity served with wine and nibbles.

Fund Raising – Street Fair and Coffee Morning both coming up. We are looking for volunteers to make cakes, biscuits, run our lucky dip, help with nautical crafts and grow plants. If you can help please let Chris B or myself know. Your efforts are always appreciated and help not only our charity but other local causes. They also ensure that we can give you little treats!

Book Club, Craft and Topical Talk – more news on these groups at the meeting. However, we will ensure we keep you up to date with all the latest news as it happens.

I am sorry I will not be at the next meeting I will miss you all but I leave you in the very good hands of Chris B and Sally.

Discussion of the WI Resolutions for 2017

Discussion of the WI Resolutions for 2017
– Tuesday 10^th January 2017 – 3-5 pm

Resolutions 2 There were 7 members present to discuss the 6 resolutions published in November / December issue of WI Life.

All agreed that the 6 resolutions were topical and very important issues that need addressing. However, we decided that 3 of them would not be effective campaigns for the WI:

(1) Alleviating Loneliness – Loneliness is hard to define – how do you identify and attract lonely people? This would be better tackled by Age Concern, hospices and the many other organisations already working in this area. Would it also be better to educate people approaching their 70s to prepare them for some of the changes they face?
(4) Provision of appropriate welfare and safe spaces for women and children in refugee camps – although we were all very concerned about refugee welfare, we weren’t sure what the resolution was specifically aiming to achieve and the supporting information from NFWI didn’t seem to be sure either! We were glad that this issue has been raised, and it would be good to help women and children in such difficult situations, but not convinced that this particular resolution will do that. There are many refugee situations caused by different factors. Other expert organisations are better placed to know what they need in their particular camps, rather than a dictate “from above” which prioritises ‘safe space’ over other basic needs.
(6) Plastic soup: Keep microplastic fibres out of our oceans – important issue, but current resolution wording is asking for more research, which government is already planning. Filters in washing machine will need to be cleaned out – still ends up in the environment. ‘Anti-shed’ treatment might also have an impact on environment or health. No specific action in resolution, so may be more relevant when more information is available.

This left us with three resolutions to discuss in greater detail…

(2) FGM: More awareness for more action – We all felt strongly about this: it is illegal and it should be enforced. We recognised that there are cultural and social aspects to this, but felt that it was not OK for girls and women to be subjected to FGM – it is not humane. We wondered how the data is collected and could this campaign send FGM underground? Who do you contact if you suspect someone has been or is about to be subjected to FGM? [The charity, Daughters of Eve, recommend contacting Crime Stoppers.] We recognised that this can be challenging for those involved in blowing the whistle as they would be splitting up a family and people are worried about upsetting people. However, we came back to the fact that the practice is inhumane. It would be good to also educate kids in school as part of sex education. We also felt that, although this is a global problem, the UK could lead and provide a good-practice example for the rest of the world.
(3) Equal access for all who need specialised maternal mental health services – important issue but very complicated as it is entangled with other issues such as NHS funding and shortage of midwives. To what extent are some of these self-inflicted (e.g. drug and alcohol abuse)? We had mixed views about whether it would it be better for the resolution to include all mental health issues. On the positive side, if perinatal mental health is tackled, women can recover fully and we can see it happening as long as the women affected are identified – there is concern that the current lack of midwives means that mothers are discharged quickly with very little follow-up so those affected could easily fall through the gap.

(5) Supporting women’s refuges – We felt that WIs should be more actively involved in women’s refuges. The government has put in extra money but people are being turned away – “in one day in 2015, 75 children and 92 women were turned away” – there is clearly a need for more spaces and this is something that the WI is well-placed to campaign on. We also discussed whether this was ‘sexist’ as men are also subject to violence but it was noted that a) the WI can’t campaign for men’s refuges and b) campaigning for women’s refuges didn’t mean that we were saying there shouldn’t be any refuges for men.

The next step is for individual members to submit their vote before 24^th January 2017. It was agreed that an email would be sent to members to remind them and to include this report. To make things easier for our fellow members, we will also have an envelope ready at the next meeting (16^th January) for members to put their slips into and we’d ensure that the envelope goes to Federation in time.

The next meeting will on Tuesday 21^st March at 3pm. Venue is J Co’s house.

Proposed agenda:

Update on previous actions agreed on microbeads and public toilets.
Discussion on Dementia-friendly villages

Longbourn by Jo Baker – Mar 17

Fifteen members together with 2 visitors were present at this month’s Book Club meeting, with apologies received from six other members along with their views and thoughts on the book. We began this meeting where we took a few moments to relate our own special memories and stories of how we would best remember and miss one of our lovely members, Vicki, who sadly is no longer with us.

Brenda then asked members for their thoughts on the book and it became fairly apparent that everyone really enjoyed reading this book, even with a few saying they did not expect to, as it was definitely a book they would not have chosen themselves as it was out of their comfort zones.

Everyone agreed it was a simple, easy read, engrossing, and due to its clever, beautiful and descriptive writing, making it easy to imagine the reality of the harshness of life below stairs with the pampered shallow one upstairs. Most thought the book showed that real life was really downstairs – unlike upstairs which was a facade (what did those upstairs girls really do all day!!??). One member even mentioned that she began to feel a resentment carrying forward to “upstairs” because of the harshness “downstairs”. Sarah was by far the best liked character and her hard life was so vividly well described we all felt her chilblains!!! We discussed at length the harshness of the chores and lives of these two young orphaned housemaids tempered with our own life experiences and wondered how today’s teenagers would fair and perhaps they should read this book to fully understand how life has really evolved from their perspective from then to now!!

It was also said by a few members that they did not enjoy the “war chapters” and maybe felt they lingered on too long and were not sure that this was necessary but others argued that they felt they were important for painting the picture and character of James. We chatted about the other characters and their individual standing in the book in general, with Jeanie’s lovely word of Cad being so aptly applied to the odd character but it was agreed we all loved the level of detail and poetic and flowing descriptions.

Everyone was pleased with James and Sarah finding and re-uniting with each other at the end of the story although one member mooted that she felt the improbability of Sarah being able to travel across the terrain in unsuitable clothing and shoes to the Lake District and actually finding him (the Lake District being an extremely huge area!). But others argued “Sarah’s case” and said that in “those” days they walked everywhere and that was how usual and normal life was then and she had followed him for love and her future life and found him through the road-making gang (perhaps a little extra poetic licence there, who knows!?) but a happy ending. A few members re-read Pride and Prejudice having read this book and found they could link a few references between both.

So in conclusion, all felt this book with a hint of awareness of Pride and Prejudice stands on its own well with several threads running through it of equal importance dovetailing together neatly without the need of an excess of extra characters. Several members felt there was enough unfinished ties and material to form a sequel!!

A film of Longbourn is due to be made which we all felt would work well and would definitely see. So as is our usual practice what would we do with this book?

We would definitely keep it and possibly re-read it and all of us would recommend it to a friend. A definite thumbs-up for this book.

Instructions For A Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell – Jan 17

Thirteen members were present at this month’s Book Club meeting held at The Cloisters on Thursday evening 19^th January at 7.30pm, with apologies received from those unable to attend, with some of their thoughts on the book too. We began by giving our views on the book with a fair few members agreeing that it was on the whole a light-hearted, easy, predictable read, using a basic well used story although perhaps a little strangely written but noticeably one that had left everyone disappointed with the ending!!!!

Some of us also admitted it had taken a while to get into the book but the characters were well-liked generally, being interesting and well described. The mother, Gretta, although not liked by all members, was felt had shaped the characters of the children – Monica, Michael Francis and Aoife – probably it was thought more so because she had been harbouring her own “dreadful” secret. It was agreed they were all very complex characters! A few members had also found it a little difficult to relate to Aoife’s problems as it had appeared quite obvious to us in 2017, that she was suffering from a profound dyslexia problem, which had caused most of her traumatic experiences in life. But of course, it was pointed out that we had to remind ourselves that this was a proud Irish family in 1976!! This instigated a further thought provoking discussion of members experiences and memories on how true to life some of these matters really were back then, and of course as far as this book portrayed with the marriage issue (Gretta’s case), abortion (Monica) and many other things including Aoife’s educational problems just got swept under the carpet!!

The one character we did not really get to know was the father Robert!! Nothing was really explained about WHY? he suddenly disappeared then and in search of his brother at the Monastery and what triggered him to go at that particular time (possibly THE HEATWAVE??) and again WHY? didn’t he contact anyone to tell them he would be back? WHY? WHY? It was also mentioned that even when you saw the eventual end, the author still kept you waiting for the end and then suddenly she stopped writing!!! BIZARRE !!

OH YES THAT HEATWAVE ??? A discussion emerged about why the book was titled “Instructions for a heatwave” Most members could not really “fit” the title totally to the book as although the heatwave lightly threaded its way through the story (we all related our own memories of it in 1976!) where did it really make sense to have this as its title? – confusing! An alternative title it was agreed would probably have worked better for the storyline as the mainstay was really the family. The family did unite, the mother had tried her best to look after the family and Aoife was able to talk to her boyfriend in New York! But on the down side no questions were really answered maybe annoyingly a bit of a deliberate conundrum perhaps??

So in conclusion only a few members did, apart from the very disappointing ending, enjoy this book with the majority not enjoying it – although not really disliking it either! No-one really felt they could recommend it to a friend this time.

Newsletter Jan 2017

BEMBRIDGE WINDMILL WI

Newsletter

January 2017

The Committee hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year and look forward to seeing you again next week. Our meeting is on Monday 16th January at 7.30pm in THE CLOISTERS.

The speaker at our first meeting is Nigel Hartley, Chief Executive of the Isle of Wight Hospice who will be telling us about the fantastic work that goes on under the umbrella of the Hospice.

Some of us recently met with Nigel and we were amazed at the services they provide particularly in the community.

We will be presenting Nigel with a cheque which we hope will help in some small way with the fantastic work they do.

Our New Website

We now have a new website BembridgeWI.co.uk. Thanks go to Juliette who has worked so hard on setting this up. We do hope you will like it. Comments, suggestions and photos are always welcomed – please email website@bembridgewi.co.uk.

We also have a new Facebook page, Bembridge WI with up to date news of what is going on within our group and details of other events at WI’s across the Island.

As our old website is closing down all future general e-mails for our WI should now go to secretary@BembridgeWI.co.uk.

Subscriptions for 2017

The 2017 subscription fees are due in January and this year are £39.00. Dual membership is £19.00. Please put your money/cheque in an envelope with your name clearly written on the front and hand in to Juliette at the January meeting.

From February onwards members will be able to save monthly towards their fees for 2018. If you are interested in this please can you let us know at the January meeting. One member of another WI on the Island told us she saves £5 a month and this covered her membership and birthday/Christmas lunch at the end of the year.

Craft Group

The first meeting of the craft group will take place on Tuesday 31st January at 2pm at Gill’s. Further details of what we will be making will be given at the main meeting.

We have discussed what craft items are needed for the Street Fair and 2 other fund raising events in June and December. We thought that for the Street Fair and June event it might be nice to concentrate on items with a sea/nautical theme and would welcome input and ideas. However, any craft items will be appreciated as will help making them.

In December we will obviously concentrate on Christmas themed items.

Book Club

Pam and Brenda will be giving details of the next Book Club meeting at the January meeting. They will also update you on the donation they made to The Book Bus.

Topical Talk

Meeting tomorrow 10th January at Juliette’s, to discuss the resolutions which will go forward to the WI National AGM.

Please remember to bring along your bottle tops and stamps for Pam which help local charities.

What a happy, jolly lot we were at our Christmas lunch. Can’t wait for next year!

xmas lunch 2016

Topical Talk Group: WI campaigns for this year’s resolutions

Topical Talk – National WI Campaigns for this Years Resolutions

Tuesday 18^th October 2016

Present : J Ch, J Su, S Pi, L Ba, J Co and W Ca.

Matters Arising from last meeting.

J Ch had emailed Wight Bid with no response. After more research she now feels that this is not going to be a useful contact as it is mostly dealing with businesses and paying for marketing.
J Ch has had no luck making contact with anyone from Public Affairs at WI House. She will keep trying.
W Ca had emailed Fight for the Wight with no response. She will try to contact by phone.
J Ch has been researching Parks Link and S Pi has been researching Changing Places , both may be useful links with regards to promoting better toilet provision on the IOW.
This evening’s Parish Council meeting has an agenda item concerning the selling of the building that houses the village public toilets.

Campaign Against Food Waste

This basically involves 2 surveys, one for individual members to complete and another to be conducted within a local supermarket. The individual one takes about 15 minutes and can be completed online or as a paper copy. J Ch to circulate all information to our membership.

The supermarket questionnaire covered promotions and packaging of fruit, veg, meat, fish, eggs and diary as well as the ‘once opened’ information on tins, jars etc. J Ch and W Ca were considered suitable to be let loose in Tesco and agreed to go on Wednesday 19^th.

Hospital Care for People With Dementia

This is information is in a glossy booklet format called Carers Welcome, containing a great deal of information and statistics, a Carers Welcome sign for display on hospital wards and a knitting pattern for sensory bands.

The booklet promoted a discussion similar to the original resolution. We still had reservations about this resolution and felt that some of the survey data is being used inappropriately.

One suggested action was join the John’s Campaign Letter lobby. W Ca had emailed for the template but had not had a reply.
W Ca will pass the sensory band pattern to J C-H for the consideration of craft club with the recommendation that the hospital be asked if they were wanted before any work was undertaken. We had concerns about the issue of hygiene.

The next meeting will be at S Pi’s at 3pm on 6^th Dec.

Newsletter Dec 2016

BEMBRIDGE WINDMILL WI

Newsletter

December 2016

It was good to see so many of you at our Annual Meeting when the weather was so awful. Wasn’t the WI Advisor Sylvia lovely? She had come from East Cowes to join us for the meeting.

Yesterday we held our first committee meeting of the new WI year. We discussed who would be doing what and below is a table with our roles and responsibilities. This year we have appointed 2 Vice-Presidents, (I need keeping in order), Chris B and Carol , our secretary is Sally and treasurer is Juliette.

We couldn’t let Di off her raffle duties and Linda O will be our membership secretary.

Two groups will continue to operate the same with Brenda and Pam doing Book Club, Juliette and Wanda Topical Talk but Craft will now come under Joy and Chris B.

There may be some slight changes in January and we will keep all members up to date with these changes.

Book Club – Will meet tomorrow evening Thursday 1st December at The Cloisters at 7.30pm all are welcome.

Topical Talk and Craft – No meetings until the New Year. Dates will be sent out as soon as confirmed.

Invitation to all members for Friday 9th December – Joy has kindly invited us to attend the opening of the new accessible kitchen at the Riverside Centre between 11am and 1pm. I will be going along and if any of you would like a lift please contact me and I will gladly take you.

IW Federation Christmas Fair – Friday 9th December 10am – 2pm at the Methodist Church, Quay Street, Newport. Further details from Federation Office on 524716

Spithead Carol Service – This is taking place at St John’s Church, Appley on Sunday 11th December at 2pm. Carol will be doing a reading and there will be tea and mince pies afterwards.

Christmas Lunch – Wednesday 14th December at the Village Inn 12 for 12.30. If you haven’t get signed up it is not too late but you haven’t got long. Contact Sally. Jay and his team always make us very welcome.

OUR CHRISTMAS PARTY – REMEMBER THIS IS THE 2ND MONDAY THIS MONTH – 12TH DECEMBER. As is usual we are asking members to bring along a plate of either savoury or sweet FINGER food as part of the celebration. If there is any food left at the end of the evening we would be grateful if you would take it home with you. Alongside this if you have any prizes suitable for our BIG CHRISTMAS RAFFLE we would be grateful for them. This year we would like raffle prizes wrapped when handing them in but if you would tell Di what is in the parcel, it would help make the raffle a bit more exciting.

We hope that you will enjoy the entertainment we are planning for you, we are aiming for a fun but relaxed evening.

Christmas Cards – For those members who would prefer to make a donation to charity rather than send cards to members this year we will have a large card available for you to sign at the Christmas Party and a box for a donation. Donations will then be passed to the Hospice.

Breakfast at the Bakery – Monday 9th January 9.30am. Sign up sheet at the next meeting. I will also contact you all again nearer the time.

Resolutions for 2017 – These can be found in November’s WI Life. The voting slip is also there and must be returned to WI House by 24th January 2017. Late submissions will not be included.

The Cloisters – In line with the vote taken at the Annual Meeting all future meetings will be taking place at The Cloisters.

Foodbank – Thank you to all of those that supported the Foodbank with Christmas goodies and food and thank you to Juliette and Joy for their help with this project.

Cause for 2017 – For those of you that were not at the meeting our fundraising next year will support Admiral Nurses for the Isle of Wight.

We look forward to seeing you all at our Christmas Meeting but if you are unable to attend the Committee send you Good Wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Topical Talk: Follow-Up Discussion of Toilets on Isle Of Wight

Topical Talk – Follow-Up Discussion of Toilets on Isle Of Wight

Tuesday 6^th September 2016 – 3 – 5 pm

We began the meeting with an update on microbeads.

Waitrose has announced that they are going to stop sales of any products containing microbeads.
The Government is going to ban the use of microbeads in beauty products but not in cleaning products etc.
JCh reminded us that even biodegradable plastics will still reduce down to microbeads. We need to continue to discuss ways to avoid using any plastics especially single use items.

Toilets

We considered the possibility of submitting a resolution to NFWI. Sally had produced an excellent draft. This needed to be decided quickly as the deadline was 14^th September. After debating whether we wanted to focus on local or national issues we realised that it need not be an either or situation. However we decided not to submit a resolution at this late stage but were quite buoyed up by the prospect of doing so in the future.

On the IOW 80% of the public toilets are now the responsibility of the Parish Councils and local precepts have risen, however, we are still concerned about the lack of facilities in local tourist areas especially at St Helen’s Beach and also at the RNLI station, where only one is in use and were not compliant with planning regulations when built. This is in contrast to our recent experiences in tourist spots on the mainland especially the exemplary examples photographed by JCo at Woolacombe Bay.

We believe that there has got to be an Island-wide strategic plan to promote the tourism and that this must include the provision of good quality public toilets.

Our strategic plan is …

To contact all Island WIs asking for information about the toilets in their area. Where are they? When are they open? Is information about opening given? Is there advice about where to go if closed? Should more be provided? Are they up to standard – Would you be happy to use them?
To propose to the committee that Alan Marriot from Fight for the Wight be invited to speak at one of our meetings. ( action – GR)
Continue fact finding by contacting Destination Island to see if they are including toilet provision in their campaigns and also contact WI Island Federation Public Affairs Committee (who knew there was one?) for advice. (action – JCh)
Research the work of the British Toilet Association. (action – whole group).

Date of the next meeting – Tuesday 18^th October 3-5 pm at JCh’s

Topics for Discussion: Involvement in the current WI resolutions (1) Food Waste and (2) Dementia Care in Hospitals. Packs are to be sent to each WI with information on how to support the campaigns.

Issues that may also be of interest are …the possible changes to the funding of Attendance Allowance and information on Doctors’ Funding.