Message from The President:
Happy New Year to you all.
102 women attended our first meeting of the year on Monday, for our Bring and Buy Sale and Quiz. We welcomed some new members, and have said goodbye to others. Every member should have a programme, and a Membership Booklet for 2012. Your membership card is to be found on the first page of this. If you have just joined there will be a name badge for you to collect at the next meeting. If you did not manage to attend and pay your subscription, it can be posted to Val Barnes, or Lesley Challacombe.
Thanks to your generosity, both in bringing and buying we raised the grand total of £346.00 for our Charity, Faith in Action.
Sally Alger is proposing to set up an informal Carers’ Club for members who are, or have been, carers of a family member or friend. The idea would be to provide support for each other, and to have the opportunity, over a glass of wine or a cup of tea, to talk about their experiences and difficulties and share practical tips and information. Sally herself cared for her husband for a number of years. If you think you might be interested please contact her.
The Wine Tasting Trip to the Loire April 23 – 28 still has a few places left. If you are interested, please contact Katharine Blakemore.
After the success of our Wimbledon WI Christmas cards, Joanna will be talking to us next month with plans for this year.
Social Events
We had a very good response for our visit to Bletchley Park which we are hoping to book for Tuesday 24th July. We have a few places left on the coach so we are opening this event up to friends and partners. Please contact Annette by e mail to be added to the list.
Social Events 2012 (some events still need to be confirmed)
Sunday 19th February Spencer House
Wednesday 28th March Royal Opera House
Thursday 18th April Knights Templar and Courts of Justice
Tuesday 22nd May Southside House TBC
Thursday 14th June Tower Bridge Exhibition TBC
Tuesday 24th July Bletchley Park TBC
August Kew Gardens and Kew Palace TBC
Monday 10th September 18 Stafford Terrace TBC
Wednesday in October Leighton House TBC
Friday 16th November Hampton Ghost Tour TBC
A ticket has become available for the Nutcracker ballet at Wimbledon Theatre on 14th March. Please contact Angela Watkins if you would like to take up this ticket. For those not on email, we do have a phone number.
Notices
NFWI Campaign Newsletter – If you wish to receive this please email Yetunde Akintola.
Knitting for Peace Newsletter – If you wish to sign up for this newsletter please contact charities.advisory.trust@cmp.ctt-news.org
Walks – WI walk on Friday 3rd February meet Val at 10.45am at TKMaxx by Kingston Bridge. Walk to Hampton Court (1 hour) and then a choice of walking back to Kingston or train back from Hampton Court – depending on the weather.
Further walks are being considered but no details yet. If you have a specific walk you wish to do, or are only available on certain days, do let Val know and we can put members in touch with each other.
A list of local walks organised by LB Merton (Walk4Life) can be found on www.merton.gov.uk/walk4life
Choir – As organising a WI choir from scratch is more complicated than first thought, we have been in touch with Cherry Pie Music based in Wimbledon – here is the information I have received from Lindsay McFarlane of Cherry Pie Music: “The first option is to encourage your members to sign up to our adult singing class ‘Singing from Scratch’ – this is the class we advertise at Nuffield. These classes are specifically designed for adults who would like to learn to sing and perhaps join a choir. It’s open to anyone and students on the course will learn all the fundamentals of singing including harmony singing so that they will be fully prepared for singing in a choir. This course costs £90 per half term (6 weeks). The other option is that your members come along to the Cherry pie Choir for a couple of terms to learn how to sing in an existing choir. We rehearse on Wednesday evenings at the Mansel road Centre in Wimbledon. Choir fees are £60 per term (10 weeks). In addition to rehearsing we also perform regularly in public.” If you wish to explore this route first, we can take another look at a WI specific group in the future.
Kids Company Christmas Gifts – We received a lovely thank you letter from Camila Batmanghelidjh for all the lovely gifts donated by Wimbledon WI, it is on the notice board.
Wimbledon WI 20 Jan 2012
Please note personal emails will only be in your email version of this – if you did not receive yours please email contact@wimbledonwi.org.uk
