At the annual meeting we thanked Linda Mapp who was stepping down as President , having served between November 2014 and November 2018 and welcomed two new members of the committee Carol Hill and Pam Tedder. Many thanks go to Ute Ahmed for organising the programme of speakers and who will be stepping down this year, her role will be filled by Linda.
We end the year with 57 members. Attendance at meetings has ranged from 36 to 45, plus visitors have regularly been welcomed, some of whom have gone on to become members. We have said farewell to several members who left for personal reasons or moved away to pastures new.
During the year members have attended events organised by West Sussex Federation. December was the carol service in St. Mary’s Horsham. attended by members and with Gill Parsonson singing with the federation choir along with Diana Hartley at this and other musical events throughout the year. Members went to the Christmas Taster Day learning new crafts. We were active at the Ten Pin Bowling and there were Walk and Talks from Balcombe Victory Hall and around Warnham Reserve Park. They attended the Scrabble Singles and Pairs and a Quiz and Supper at Roffey Greenfields along with the Federation Annual Quiz, which we won. Members attended Speaker’s interviewing days and an evening, in West Sussex and Surrey to source interesting speakers and attended a Programming Workshop. They also attended a concert “It Must be Spring.” We participated in the WI Competitions at the South of England Show winning in one class and Diana Hartley won the Calendar Cup for her fantastic photos included in the WSFWI Calendar. Congratulations go to all who participated or won in any of these events.
In celebration of the centenary of the West Sussex Federation of Women’s Institutes members enjoyed a celebratory lunch at Arundel, A Centenary Musical Evening and went racing at Fontwell. Hazel planted 5 trees in the 100 Years – 100 Oak Trees scheme.
Members participated in WI campaigns to protect the environment this year. This included attending the “The Time is Now” mass lobby of Parliament for action on climate change and yarn bombing the Bandstand in Horsham to highlight the “Plastic Soup” campaign.
Six members attended the Federation Annual Meeting in Worthing along with our delegate Ute Ahmed. This was a well attended event with good speakers, good displays and stalls to tempt us to part with our money. Plus as always an excellent opportunity to meet members from other WI’s.
Thanks go to Pat Rowe for all her work in applying for and distributing the tickets for all these events and activities and keeping us informed by way of the designated page on the website.
Throughout the year our Reading Group, the name has changed to reflect the changing use of technologies, (supported by Hazel Bockh) and Scrabble (hosted by different members) have continued to meet monthly and members continue to enjoy these activities. Members have also continued to support the Chanctonbury Science Group meetings, enjoying a diverse and interesting range of topics given by knowledgeable speakers. We have been able to re-instate the Craft group and now meet in the “Discovery Room” at John Lewis, where we have been made very welcome.
The Lunch Club continues to dine at local restaurants and further afield when combined with a visit.
Many thanks to our event’s co-ordinators Jill Brook and Lesley MacDougal who have organised many visits for us this year including a visit in January to the Mayflower theatre in Southampton to see Calendar Girls, Little Gems Pottery painting in April and August, a Summer celebration lunch at Random Hall Hotel in June and a visit to Chococo experience in October
Our August “Summer Lunch” was held at URC with a bring your own picnic. We were also among the first to hear the new WI Waltz when the composer accompanied one of our speakers.
Anne Runcorn deserves thanks for smoothing the way very successfully this year for our speakers, enabling our technology to be used effectively. Carol More has has the unenviable job of maintaining the refreshment rota, despite the change in membership throughout the year.
As a way of introducing new members to the ways of the WI and meeting longer serving members we had a very successful Coffee Morning in March and plan to have more of these in the coming year. Thanks to all who helped make these great opportunities to mix and socialise with new and longer standing members, worthwhile and very enjoyable events.
Members and friends have continued to donate knitted items for the Neonatal Unit, Emergency Wash Bags and Dementia Fidget mats and cuffs to the relevant departments at East Surrey Hospital along with dementia mats being presented to a local care home with a former Horsham Normandy member a grateful recipient Throughout the year we have been collecting donations of used stamps, old/foreign coins and old jewellery to support ACWW and raised £102 with a sponsored walk in Horsham Park.
Not forgetting the very loyal support for our own fund raising projects, mainly through Book Sales, Bring and Buy and Raffles. We now participate in the Horsham District Council Community Lottery and have raised £26.00 Thank you to all who have made generous contributions in many forms to enable us to make all these varied donations and raise funds. All this and more has been recorded on our website, administered by Hazel Bockh with contributions from members. We now also have a Facebook page and business cards to help advertise our activities. As well as the use of technology our “Scrap Books” have been kept up to date with mementos to record our year. For this we thank Barbara Knightly. We also thank Rosemary Streeter for organising Birthday and other occasion cards. Also for making Special cards for known significant birthdays.
Thank you to you all for supporting the work of the committee, the activities and each other. We look forward to another successful and rewarding year, making the most of opportunities to meet learn and socialise, making our WI what we want it to be.
Horsham Normandy W.I. 