Lincolnshire Humber Federation AGM 2017 Ruby Anniversary

This years meeting was held at the Oasis Academy Wintringham, in Grimsby.

The Welcome was given by Hilary Mullineux, ex-Chairman 1992-1996, who gave
anecdotes on her time, including a hair raising time gliding!

The Minutes of the 2016 AFD and the Adoption of the 2016 Annual Report were
swiftly passed and for those interested the accounts will eventually be available
on the charity commission website. The Federation ended the year in credit, and
managed to complete secondary double glazing and painting of WI house in
Brigg. Fund raising continues via the strips for a new boiler.

Our Federation has 1524 members in 46 WIs, with Haverstoe the newest WI and
4 WIs celebrating their centenaries next year.

A special mention was made of Isabel Heward from Alkborough WI who won
Mastermind this year (Alkborough frequently win the Federation quiz).

Brigg Angels were also commended for their award from Brigg Town Council for
their outreach work to reach the lonely and isolated. If any other WI achieves
something special we must let the Federation know.

For this Ruby year a recipe book is being created please send any entries to the
Federation office. A Ruby competition for craft work and photographs from WI
members was on display in the library with us all able to vote for the best item in
each category and also for an overall winner. The top prize went to an item from
the recycling section some beautiful red fabrics made into a laptop
fiddle/twiddle mat for people with dementia it was really beautiful and well
made. Pictures are available on the Federation Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/HumbersideFederationOfWomensInstitutes

Details of many of the events the Federation had organised over the last year
were given, and details of events to come. The anniversary tea in September
will include a performance by Mike Smith.

Maureen Moody the Denman Ambassador for the Federation outlined concerns
still for the fundraising needed by Denman, 284,862 had been raised to date.
The Federation was planning a visit next year with three courses on offer,
however, by the end of the day with the level of interest expressed in the visit
Maureen decided to see if a fourth course could be added ( and it has been). Two
ladies outlined their impressions of Denman and the courses they had done last
year both enthused about the quality of the accommodation, food, courses and
the welcoming atmosphere.

Jane Smith from Bottesford WI gave a frank account of some of the issues faced
by new WIs with clashes of personality, little or no money in the first year etc.
They outgrew their venue twice, and had a view that they wanted to change the
image of the WI so no Jerusalem and no committee table for them. It has been

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difficult to keep all the new members, not everyone has renewed. Not everyone
is a doer or a committee member but she emphasised that everyone needs to
make a contribution even if that is just a view. She had a top 10 not all of
which I managed to capture but critically the WI is what you make of it; a good
committee is essential; be imaginative with fundraising; Inspiring Women isnt
just about those who inspire you but those you inspire and can be life changing.
You need a mixed programme it is not all about craft; admit when you dont
know what you are doing.Be prepared to challenge you wont please
everyone all of the time, and as a Chair know when to move on to give
opportunities for new people on the committee. The WI is not just about
numbers in a branch..

We then moved on to our first speaker, Dr Nicola Crew a Senior Lecturer at the
School of Life Sciences at Lincoln University she gave a fascinating talk on
Forensic Science. Edmund Locard once said every contact leaves a trace and
Nicola then went on to examine different types of microscope and how through
examining fibres etc. you can tell the quality and country of origin of materials,
for instance Egyptian cotton has more twistspolyesters are not as telling, but
wool again leaves traces which can be analysed. Diatoms found in lungs and
bone marrow can enable you to tell if a person died before or after entering
water. Pollen differences are enormous plant material found in a torso thought
to be a ritual killing, was able to reveal that the person had come from Africa.
Forensic ornithology can be important for instance determining that a bird
strike has brought down a plane. You can identify spiders by the silk they
produce, and a spiders web that catches materials can tell you where a body
has been. Human hair can tell you a lot through DNA and a hair with root
shows it has been pulled out rather than falling.all these tiny pieces of
information can give you enough of a picture to determine what has happened
and potentially to convict.

After lunch we were treated to three songs by the Singstitute, which a number of
Kirton in Lindsey members are part of, these were, Busy doing nothing,
Strawberry Fayre and Scarlet Ribbons, Julia Pullen once again proved a master
choir leader and wordsmith with words to one of the songs and a rhyme.

Julie Summers was our afternoon speaker; she is an author and Historian her
book Jambusters inspired the ITV programme Home Fires. Julies own maternal
grandmother had been a WI member in 1931 and she travelled by bike to WI
meetings and never missed one it kept her sane during the war. She knitted,
sold pies and the WI with the WRVS ran canteens. She was on her own for six
and a half years while her husband was away at war and then a prisoner in
Singapore working on the Death railway as it came to be called. He was in
charge at the camp and was in captivity for three and a half years; on return it
took him some time to recover. This all made Julies grandmother a feisty
woman who could be bitter, and frightening. She attended her last WI meeting
just 6 weeks before she died.

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The title Jambusters was not necessarily all about Jam of the sticky fruit variety
but also related to busting bureaucratic jams. WIs are known for their good
organisation and for keeping records. Julie had access to the diaries for one
farmers wife who kept diaries between 1924 and 1987 with glorious detail. Julie
really knew her WI history with wonderful insights gleaned from the archives.

Lady Denman campaigned for milk for children at school one letter can be
ignored, but 58 cant!

During the war WIs knitted more than 22m garments which were needed or
requested for merchant marines or troops. Her grandmother knitted over 900
pairs of socks.

In Oxford the WI collected foxgloves for the digitalis. Onions became in short
supply after the fall of France so onion sets were delivered all over the country
for WIs to grow and sell at Country Markets the ambition was to produce 200
weight. Clapham common was even dug up in the dig for victory.

Jam was a major way to preserve fruit for future months and to use the garden
and hedgerow produce that would otherwise go to waste WIs were eventually
able to apply for sugar for this. 200 preservation centres expanded to 2000 and
then to 2566 Mrs Roosevelt sent 5 canning vans to England to help preserve
foods and these could be driven directly into orchards, the American association
of business women sent this.

1944 47 Rural Pies were produced these were baked and sold. Cheshire
produced 4.4m pies in one year and the WRVS assisted in the distribution as they
could get petrol. The average age of the women involved at the time was 27.

The value of Education was highlighted during the war and influenced the Butler
Education Act of 1944.

Julie got involved with the idea of a programme when she went on a script
writing course. Home Fires was set in Cheshire, deliberately away from the
South East. Did you know they even have acting chickensattention to detail
was critical de-horning of cows did not start until 1964. Did you know there
were 1940s eyebrows? One of the programme issues tackled was Domestic
Violence, and this was a 1930s WI campaign.

Julie informed us that at least 4 scripts and preparations for another series were
well underway when the new management at ITV suddenly decided to axe the
programme apparently without the new man ever having seen it. Over 37,000
signatures were received to get it back, particularly as the last episode had had a
particularly dramatic ending. The director of Home Fires is apparently bringing
out a book to cover what happened next but Julie has not been involved with
this.

Following the speaker presentations of Anniversary certificates followed with

Kirton in Lindsey WI receiving a certificate to mark our 80 th Birthday year which
was presented to Olive by Jennifer.

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Jennifer as Federation Chair has asked each WI to produce a scrapbook of what it
does during this Ruby Anniversary year and to bring it to next years Federation
day to be displayed.

The 2019 Calendar theme is Lincolnshire from a new angle that could be a
new building, or something familiar but from a strange angle. The format needs
to be landscape and needs to be submitted by September 2017.

The recipes for our recipe book can be sweet, savoury or preserves.

The day finished with the singing of the National Anthem.

Claire Startin