F

Wycombe Wenches Monthly Meeting Wednesday 8th September

2021, 8.00 -9.30pm by Zoom
1. Judith warmly welcomed 17 members to this meeting including our latest
member Margaret Wellington .

Apologies were received from Sue R., Gill A., Helen, Kathleen, Irene, Chris C.,
Hilary, Laura, Simone, Gill B., and Alison W.

2. Judith welcomed our speaker Meriot Duncan who gave a very informative,
fun and enthusiastic talk about the honey bee. Meriet has recently moved to
Herefordshire from Chalfont St Peter. She is a professional photographer who
took up beekeeping several years ago when she retired . She is passionate about
it and described beekeeping as life changing for her.

Honey bees are not wild and live mostly in hives managed by beekeepers. They
are responsible for 80% of all pollination and are vital for our environment.
Honey bees live for 6 weeks and in that time each bee makes 1/12th of a
teaspoon of honey . Bees fly around 55,000 miles to produce enough honey to
fill a jam jar. Meriet explained how the hive functions , the different roles the
bees have and the sophistication of their navigational systems as well as the
health benefits of eating responsibly produced local honey.

Meriet has a website : www.mdthequeenbee.co.uk which contains her blog

about beekeeping as well as information about her childrens book “ Betsy
Valentine and The Honourable Honeybees “.

Judith thanked Meriet for her fascinating talk.

3. Heather then ran through some future events :

a) Thursday 16th September in Aylesbury ,Parade of Banners from WI groups

all over the county. Our banner is completed and looks good. Marion H has
volunteered to carry it but needs a couple of others to join her. Marion B and
Margaret W both volunteered to help and Heather thanked them both for this.
All WI members and their friends are welcome to attend this event

b) The monthly meeting will be face to face from October and will be held at
High Wycombe Cricket Club. Members were asked if they would like meeting
to start at 7.30 or 8pm and members present voted unanimously for the earlier
time. Heather will report back on this to Helen.

c) Heather thanked everyone who raised money for the Afghan refugees.
Wycombe Wenches raised £800 in 24 hours and the clothing and toiletry items
requested were purchased and delivered on Bank Holiday Monday .

d) Heather thanked Claire A for making such a great scarecrow of Queen

Victoria for the scarecrow trail at Waddesdon Manor.

e) Heather drew members attention to the photograph in the NFWI Magazine of

Wycombe Wenches at our WI Pride picnic on The Rye .

f) There will be a Christmas Tree Festival again this year at All Saints Church
in High Wycombe from 17-24th December. A team to co ordinate decorating
our tree is needed and any one interested in joining this is asked to contact
Helen. Diane volunteered to be on the team and was thanked for this.

4. Judith ran through some of the events organised for Wycombe Wenches over
the coming months. She requested that members interested in joining in any of
these activities should contact her if they are not part of the relevant Whats App
Group as all communication about the activities will be through Whats App.

The Supper Club will meet monthly and members are asked to contact Judith
with ideas of possible venues especially for the Christmas meal.

The Cinema Club restarts on Monday 27th September at The Front Room in HW
at 7.30pm. The cost is £6 including a drink and a slice of cake. The film for this
month is Suffragette.

The Additional Activities Committee is being resurrected and any members

interested in joining are asked to email Judith.

The meeting ended at 9.30pm

AOB :

a) As mentioned in the last Newsletter, a new venue for Wycombe Wenches

Monthly Meeting has been found , the Cricket Club on London Road in High
Wycombe. We have been offered a large upstairs room which seats 100 people
and has a balcony and good ventilation . The Committee have visited and
approved it and feedback from members has been very positive. The first
meeting there will be our Annual Meeting in October.

At the meeting three committee members are standing down, Helen Speakman,
Gill Alexander and Liz Sheppard. Two members have volunteered to join the
committee but there is room for another two members and Helen asked anyone
interested to contact her. It will be a large committee with jobs divided up to be
manageable and with lots of support and friendship !

b). Simone is a keen cyclist and a member of Chiltern Cycling Club. They have
been given a grant to encourage women of any standard who wish to get back
into cycling to form a group. This group will have spare bikes and can give
support with bicycle maintenance and they will arrange short,supported social
bike rides with a coffee break. Simone will give Helen details of this for the
next newsletter.

The meeting ended at 9.30pm

b