July newsletter

Q: What's grey and white and wet all over?
A: British summer.

The weather might be a joke, but we are carrying on regardless in the (perhaps deluded) belief that willing the sun to shine will make it so. And with that in mind, we are excited and delighted by July's meeting - our Magnificent Malago Summer party (Wednesday 27 July, 8pm). Wednesday's meeting will be a charming affair, complete with our village fete-style, 'Best of Malago' show, a gentle quiz, and strawberries & cream. What could be finer?

The categories for the show are:
1. Sweet - cakes, puddings, confectionary, jams and anything else you'd find on a dessert trolley
2. Savoury - quiche, tarts, pies, pickles, chutneys and all things mouth-watering
3. Craft - I don't think we need to tell you any more about this one, just bring along something you've made

Edibles should be labelled with ingredients (let's avoid any allergic reactions) and your name. Please bring along the recipe too, if you can.

Judging will take place during the first half of the quiz, and all entries will then be divided up and shared and eaten by all. General merriment to follow. What better way to spend a warm, summer's evening? (Stop laughing!)

You might remember back in the Spring, we used the WI resolution vote as the basis for our speech workshop. Well, the votes are in and the overwhelming majority of WI branches voted for the libraries campaign. Find out more on the  National WI website.


And if you haven't already been, we'd recommend a trip to M shed, where Malago WI have a little exhibit. Aren't we fancy??
MWI x

www.malagowi.co.uk
wearemalagowi@gmail.com

The history of Malago WI

Malago WI - the inaugural meeting

Malago Women's Institute began in October 2008. President Karen Bowers and Vice President Lottie Storey met while pregnant and became good friends during their maternity leave. Their antenatal group became a close-knit support group, just one of many similar groups of women in south Bristol and indeed across the land. When it came to return to work, Karen and Lottie wanted to preserve some of this camaraderie which proved so vital during the more testing child-rearing times - a striking parallel with the original aims of the very first WI 111 years previously.

Karen and Lottie decided to form Malago WI to provide a focus for all women in the community to come together each month, learn new skills, meet friends and generally have a jolly time. Joined by eight capable friends who together formed the first committee, Malago WI took off, buoyed by the renewed interest in the WI that was sweeping the country at the time. Since then, Malago WI has programmed exciting and diverse meetings and welcomed 15 speakers, over 200 women, and continues to provide a focal point for all women to meet up each month in south Bristol.

Malago WI hopes the original values we started with still lie at the heart of everything we do. That heart is filled with joy to see there are so many women out there who get as much pleasure from Malago WI as we do.

Marching on...

Hello ladies of Malago,

Now, wasn't self-portraiture fun? And not at all intimidating? It was great seeing so much creativity in the room, especially with the vastly different interpretations of the thumb-print ice-breaker.

If you took your work home to finish for the art trail exhibition, don't forget to bring it to the April meeting on Wednesday please. We can't wait to see what you've done. If you need re-invigorating, or just a wee bit of inspiration, the pictures from the March meeting are up on our Flickr site.

Now, onto April, which marks the first of the Brunel group meetings with which we've been involved. Brunel group consists of 6 local WI branches (of which Malago is one) and the idea is that we have the chance to meet representatives from our neighbouring Institutes and show them how we do it on our patch. 30 guests will attend our tea- and chocolate-tasting session, from the expert Master of Tea, Kate Gover of Lahloo tea.

We're pulling out all the stops for this very special occasion, so would invite you to bring along your most favourite cup and saucer to our tea ceremony. And cake-bakers extraordinaire (you know who you are...) will have beautiful crockery to display your wares upon. It will be a ritual of glorious proportions, with a raffle and everything, all topped off with an unusual teapot competition. Do you have one? Bring it along, you could win a prize.

Coming up in May, Malago WI is proud and very excited to present a talk from Jane Brocket. Jane is the creator of the Yarnstorm blog, set up in 2005 "to write about knitting but the subject matter soon expanded to include quilting, baking, gardening, colour, inspiration, books, paintings and films (in fact, all the good things in domestic life)."

Jane's first book, The Gentle Art of Domesticity, was published in 2007, with her second and third books in 2008 and 2009 (Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer is a recipe book inspired by foods from classic children's literature, and Ripping Things to Do features the best games and ideas from children's books). Jane's latest book, The Gentle Art of Quilt-making, was published last month, and it's this subject Jane will talk to us about (there will be copies of the book to buy at the meeting).

In a slight change to our usual format, we have 30 tickets to this talk for sale at a cost of £3.50 each, so if you know a non-member who would like to join us in May please buy a ticket for them at the next meeting (28 April) or email jointhewi@googlemail.com to reserve a seat. (As usual, Malago WI members will not be charged.) In the meantime, have a look at our inspiring selection of quilting links on the right (this month's picks).

And coming up in May, a foraging event in Ashton Court. April's meeting is your last chance to put your name down for this intriguing session on Saturday 8 May, 10-1pm, at a cost of just £10 per family. This event is open to non-members and looks set to be another in our increasingly successful series of extra-curricular activities.

Malago WI, consider yourselves well and truly updated. See you on Wednesday, and don't forget those name-badges so our friends from Brunel know who we are.

MWI x

January

Hello Malago WI

We hope you survived the snow and ice, and had lots of fun building snow men and women. We hear there might be more on the way...

Although it was fun, we were sad to have to cancel the Bollywood night on 6 January. However, do not despair - we will shake our things to 'Dhansak Queen', 'Korma Chameleon' and 'Paperback Raita' later on in the year when we reschedule. Perhaps we'll have an Indian Summer after all.

Membership

The big 'M'. Membership for 2010 is open, and all interested parties should have received an application form by email. If you haven't, please email jointhewi@gmail.com to request your copy. Numbers are limited, and the deadline for application is 31 January. Priority will be given to 2009 members.

Please bring completed forms and cheques for £29.50 (made payable to 'Malago WI') to next Wednesday's meeting (27 January) - if you cannot make the meeting, again email jointhewi@gmail.com ASAP to let us know.

January meeting - Badge-making, new year and WI campaign resolutions

On 27 January, we will be starting our WI year with the opportunity to get crafty and make yourself a name badge. Of course, this will be done in traditional Malago style - we will eat (cake), drink (tea) and be creative with glue guns and finery. And come along prepared to add your new year resolution to our tree for others to be inspired by and, possibly, help you to achieve.

Which brings me onto a request for:

Materials - anything you can think of can be part of your fabulous name badge, so bring along paper, pens, tape, card, ribbons, buttons and fabric

OHP - we desperately need an overhead projector. It seems they are a dying breed, so if you can help, please drop us a line.

Campaign resolutions

It's that time of the year when the National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI) selects our national campaign resolutions for the year ahead. 2009 members will remember that the resolution passed at the NFWI's AGM in May was SOS for honeybees.

This round of votes determines which resolution will be shortlisted, usually between 1 and 3. Then in May we will have a further opportunity to cast our votes in selecting one resolution, which will be run by NFWI. This year we have been asked to vote as individual members, whereas previously we have voted as a WI. The shortlist of resolutions is as follows:

1. The mandatory clear labelling of food with true country of origin; 2. Save our pub; 3. Reduction in impact of flooding; 4. Provision of lifelong health and welfare support for armed forces personnel and families*; 5. Dignity and respect for women in accordance with their human rights; 6. Access to the disability living allowance mobility component for children under three years of age.

*Please note that because resolution 4 does not fall entirely within WI objects, it could only be passed for debate and not a campaign i.e. it would not be possible to use WI funds or press the government or any other decision maker on the issue.

For further details on these, visit the NFWI website.

The pros and cons of each resolution will be covered in next week's meeting, and paid-up 2010 members can vote using the forms we'll provide at the meeting. Don't worry if you can't attend or would like further time to consider the resolutions - you have until 5 February to complete the form from the November/December 2009 issue of WI Life and return it to NFWI, 104 New Kings Road, London SW6 4LY, to be received no later than 5 February.

Further details about other campaigns on a national and local level will be available on the website and at future meetings, and if you are aware of other campaigns which may be of interest to the membership, or if you would be interested in a greater role in our campaign activity (whether in relation to a specific campaign close to your heart or more generally), we'd love to hear from you. Email us or come and have a chat at the meeting.

2010 programme

Our programme is set for the first part of 2010 - have a look to see what we'll be getting up to in the months to come.

And don't forget our extra-curricular activities such as socials and workshops. If you've put your name down for the bread-making workshop, we'll need the cold, hard cash (or cheques) by the end of this month - £12 for members, £15 for non-members.

Phew, that was a long one.

See you next Wednesday,

MWI x

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Malago WI!

We hope you've had a good rest so far. Wasn't the snow beautiful?

Just a couple of reminders:

• The next Malago WI social takes place on Wednesday 30 December, 8pm at the Tobacco Factory. Come along, get out of the house, tell everyone what you got for Christmas. It'd be lovely to see you.
• If you haven't already signed up at November's meeting, email jointhewi@gmail.com to register your interest in becoming a member for 2010. Please state clearly your name and whether you were a 2009 member or not.
• There will be 2 meetings in January - 6 January is Bollywood night, and 27 January is badge-making and New Year resolutions (where we'll share skills in helping each other to achieve our goals).

Have a good break, and we hope to see you soon.

After three! Should auld acquaintance be forgot...

Malago WI x