Wycombe Wenches

January 2020 Monthly Meeting

Wednesday 8th January 7.45 -10pm

1. Helen welcomed members and our visitors, Lyn Wilson, Irene Bridgefoot,
Georgie Baker, Glenis Smith, Jane Rutland, Rachel Parry, Jeanette McLaren and
Laura Cable.

2. Apologies for absence –Donna, Jane S., Rosemary J., Eileen, Adele H., Maddy,
Judith, Wendy, Jayne, Sue R. and Gill A

3. We had a very informative and engaging talk by John Shaw from Chiltern
Rangers. Chiltern Rangers is a not for Profit Social Enterprise working within a 10
mile radius of Wycombe to manage woodland , our chalk rivers and the associated
habitat as well as running Forest Schools for young people. His enthusiasm was
infectious and lots of questions were asked. At our request John will offer
Wycombe Wenches a volunteering session for anyone interested.

Helen, on behalf of all members present, thanked John for coming to talk to us.

We then had a break for tea and cakes. Members were asked to pay their annual
subs and sign the new Consent Form and also to sign up for any of the forthcoming
activities organised by Bucks Fed. WI or by our Additional Activities Committee.
Liz Sheppard collected the votes for the NFWI Resolutions shortlist for 2021
during this break. Please can any member not present who wishes to vote let Liz
Sheppard know as soon as possible which Resolution they would like to vote for.

4. After the break, Helen thanked Dawn and Diane for organising decoration of our
Christmas tree at The All Saints Church Christmas Tree Festival and all those
members who made decorations. Excluding the schools, we came in second place .
The tree looked beautiful.

5. In the run up to Christmas Wycombe Wenches donated 60, £5 supermarket

vouchers to Wycombe Womens Aid. We have received a thank you letter from
them and Helen thanked all members for their generosity.

6. Helen asked members to let Liz Sheppard know if they wish to have a copy of
The BFWI Newsletter for which there will be no additional charge this year.

7.The Resilience Team : Helen outlined how this team will operate and asked any
members interested in joining it to let Jean Robinson-Gamby know via the
Wycombe Wenches email address..wycombewenches@hotmail.co.uk. Jean handed
out bum bags to carry essentials to members of this group who wanted one.
8. Gill Blair is on the fundraising committee of Ian Rennie and they are organising
a quiz on the 22nd May. Anyone interested in going can contact Jan Lancaster on
the Wycombe Wenches email address and she will co-ordinate our team.

9. Helen thanked all members of The Marketing Group for their hard work in
preparing our new WW Information Leaflet. Copies of this were available at The
Christmas Tree Festival and two of our visitors had come to this meeting as a result
of reading this… a great result! We are going to place copies in Wycombe Library,
Hills Café and All Saints Church.

10. Helen presented the budget for the coming year. Most items are unchanged
from the previous year apart from the decision to pay for members BFWI
Newsletters this year and an amount allowed for us to purchase a new banner.
Helen discussed this and after a show of hands this expenditure was agreed by
members.

11. Gill Alexander has agreed to be our delegate at the forthcoming National
Federation Annual Meeting in June when, amongst other things, the Resolutions
will be discussed and voted on. Any member interested in going to this as an
observor please contact Liz Sheppard. The cost is £22 per ticket .

12. Chris Balsdon has volunteered to be our delegate at The Bucks Federation
Annual Council Meeting on May 12th. Ester Rantzen and Jay Blades will be the
keynote speakers.

12.Forthcoming Activities:

a. Woolly Wenches..January 16th, February 6th and 20th and March 5th and 19th at
12.30pm in Hills Café Micklefield.

b. Supper Club at Totteridge Community Centre on Wednesday 5th February at 7.

30pm. The theme is “Food from your favourite Chef “. If you are interested in
attending this, please can you email additionalactivities@hotmail.com Thank you.

c. Cinema Club ..Wednesday 29th January at 7pm in The Front Room in High
Wycombe. Cost £5 to include tea/coffee and cake. Film in January is Colette
starring Keira Knightly.

d. Book Group...Monday 20th January to discuss Heartburn by Nora Ephram at

Liz’s home.

e. Ten Pin Bowling at Hollywood Bowl , High Wycombe on Thursday 23 rd

January at 7.30pm. Cost about £12.50 for two games.

f. Craft Group-Friday 17th January. Paper crafting with Simone.

g. Walking Group…this group has had several successful walks thus far. Walks are
around 5 miles long and take place twice a month. The next is on Saturday 25th
January in Hughenden Park. The aim is for members to walk 100 miles to celebrate
the BFWI Centenary this year as well as to have fun.There is a Whatsapp group to
keep

h.Walking tour of an Oxford College March 23rd. Cost £15 plus transport.

There is a proposed visit to Highclere Castle at some point between July and
September 2020. Cost about £22-24. Please email if interested so that Additional
Activities can estimate numbers.

If you are interested in any of these activities please email

additionalactivities@hotmail.com to add your name to the l

AOB :Diane is appearing in a comedy, “The Farndale Ave Housing Estate

Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth” at Lancaster
Arts Theatre on February 20-22nd at 8pm. If you are interested in seeing Diane in
action in this entertaining play tickets are available at fourways.org.uk or by
phoning 01494 522722. Cost £13/15.

Ann Davison is President of Lane End Flower Group—they meet on the 4th
Thursday of each month and have a professional demonstrator at meetings plus
outings. If you are interested in going along to see what they do please contact Ann
via the Wycombe Wenches email address.

Liz Flower raised the plight of the animals in Australia orphaned or affected by the
loss of habitat/food due to the fires. She has joined a group making
pouches/nests for these animals and there is a British group . Details are on this
Facebook page : the UK Crafters for Australia Animal Rescue Effort. All the patterns are
in the files of this page. The group was only started on Saturday and now has over 18k
members; all the admins are volunteers so being accepted in the group could take a
little time.

Please ignore the fabric/yarn listed in each pattern and to go by the separate fabric and
yarn to be used files.

As the patterns are all pdfs, Liz could potentially download and email them to us in case
we can’t access them or don’t have FB. Liz has printed out the sewing ones for a couple
of people at work and there are so many patterns and they run to so many pages
because of templates, she can't print them to give to anyone else.

The meeting closed at 9.45pm and members all helped tidy the room back to order.