In December we had our annual Christmas lunch, this year at the Wisteria Hotel in Oakham. A nice time was had by all.
In August some members of Oakham Afternoon W.I. joined with members of our sister Oakham W.I. group on a visit to Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire. We travelled by coach and arrived to a warm welcome from the Lamport Hall staff. We enjoyed an excellent tour of the house which had been developed from a Tudor manor house by the Isham family to the present classical house. We admired the impressive plaster ceilings and the library and heard about Lampie the garden gnome. After a salad lunch where we had the chance to talk to other members about what we had seen, we enjoyed a walk around the garden including visiting the rockery made for Lampie and his 149 friends in the 19th century. We were lucky with the weather and enjoyed a lovely day.
Nineteen members attended the summer afternoon tea at the Wisteria Hotel in Oakham. We enjoyed lovely sandwiches, scones and cakes and enjoyed the opportunity to socialise.
IThe 2019 NFWI Annual Meeting took place at Bournemouth International Centre on Wednesday 5 June 2019.
The first guest speaker of the day was The Rt Hon. Lord Bradley of Withington, Chair of Care Not Custody. Lord Bradley gave an update on the Care Not Custody campaign, which was launched following a WI resolution ten years ago.
The second guest speaker was Maggie Philbin OBE, broadcaster and CEO of the award winning organisation TeenTech. Maggie discussed some of her early TV work, her work with young people as part of TeenTech and women in science and technology.
Resolutions
The first resolution up for debate on ‘the decline in local bus services’ was proposed by Jackie Housham, Burniston and Cloughton WI and seconded by Valerie Stevens, Maiden Castle WI. Expert speaker Darren Shirley, CEO of the Campaign for Better Transport set out points for consideration in favour of the resolution. Expert speaker Paul Buchanan, Partner at Volterra set out points for consideration against the resolution.
The resolution passed with a 96% majority.
The second resolution up for debate, ‘don’t fear the smear’ to raise awareness of the importance of cervical screening, was proposed by Sheila Knotts, Disley WI and seconded by Anna Kidd, N1 WI. Expert speaker Rob Music, CEO of Jo’s Trust set out points in favour of the resolution.
Due to the sensitivity of the topic there was no expert speaker to speak against the cervical screening resolution. NFWI Trustee Hilary Haworth spoke on behalf of the board to outline some points against the resolution.
The resolution passed with a 97% majority.
In April three members of Oakham Afternoon WI attended the Horseshoe meeting organised by Cottesmore WI. The theme of the evening was Spring hats and members were encouraged to make and wear their own. In addition the members were entertained by Rebecca from rebeccacouturemillinery.co.uk who is based in Oakham enterprise park where she creates beautiful unique headwear. She bought along some of her creations which were much admired by the members. A lovely evening was enjoyed by all.
