Merry Christmas!

Women of south Bristol, hello!

Our second meeting took place on 10 December and saw a good mix of return customers (phew) and new faces – welcome one and all. The activity of the night was the construction of elegant and fabulous Christmas decorations from humble scraps, on a budget of just £10. From the simple retro decorations demonstrated by Carrie, to the intricate snowflakes from Alice, via big, blousey snowballs by Lottie, Ebenezer church hall was alive with activity and the sound of chattering voices and chinking cups. What better way to spend a frosty Winter evening? For those of you who missed it, you can find instructions to Carrie and Lottie’s decorations here and here; Alice’s creation will remain as elusive and mysterious as the abominable snowman… UPDATE: Here's a video tutorial for making the paper snowflakes, from our friends at BUST across the pond.

MEMBERSHIP
We now have 22 paid up members which is a marvellous start to our enterprise. Don’t forget – we need as many members as possible to run the exciting and varied events programme we envisage for Malago WI, so if you would like to join then come along to the next meeting armed with your chequebook or £29 in cash for a year's membership.

Malago WI is open to new members, so you’re welcome to bring your friends. And spread the word – if you have an opportunity to promote our branch at events, fairs or even a poster in your window, let us know and we can let you have a batch of flyers.

JANUARY MEETING
The next meeting will be Wednesday 28 January at 8pm, and we will be welcoming Dr Steve Humphries of Testimony Films. Steve will be sharing stories of wartime women, gleaned from his work in oral history documentation. This is a talk not to be missed – illuminating and fascinating tales of our foremothers from someone who interviewed them first hand. We should probably say that the content may be rather ‘adult’ in places – not for the faint-hearted. But you all seem to be made of stern stuff!

As with all meetings, we’re on the lookout for cakes, biscuits, treats and healthy snacks (post-Christmas waistline anyone?), so if you’d like to bring something along just email jointhewi@gmail.com to let us know. Sue, Rebecca and Lucy have already volunteered their services - thanks to you three in advance.

FUNDRAISING
Malago WI ran a stall at the Christmas Market at the Star and Dove in Totterdown on 20 December. Although it was a little quieter than we’d hoped, we managed to raise over £60 profit and, as always, our stall was beautiful and the Malago WI wares went down a treat. Have a look at the pictures on our Flickr site. Thanks to all those who contributed goods or took the time to work behind the stall, and especially to Kirstie for organising the whole thing.

To supplement membership subs we’d be interested to hear of any opportunities for us to raise money, as well as our profile. If you have an idea for a fundraising event, drop us an email – jointhewi@gmail.com

PUBLICITY
Original 106.5FM had hoped to attend our December meeting, but will now be coming in January. The reporter would like to talk to some of us about what the WI is and why we’re doing it, arriving early and leaving before the meeting starts. If you are happy to take part, please arrive at 7.45pm and let us know on the door.

MEETING DATES 2009
From January, meetings will take place the last Wednesday of the month, so the next few dates for your diary are 28 January, 25 February and 25 March – details to be confirmed.

From us and ours to you and yours, have a very Merry Christmas, and we’ll see you in 2009.
Malago WI

Malago WI newsletter - 1 December 2008

FIRST MEETING – 12 NOVEMBER 2008


The November meeting of Malago WI was a roaring success, thanks to all those women who were able to come. As well as introducing the committee and learning about the formation of Malago WI, we were treated to a rundown of the WI’s history from Daphne of the regional federation, we broke the ice by pretending to be famous women, ate delicious cake and drank copious amounts of tea, generally getting to know each other and having a good time in the process. Alice took some very evocative photos of this momentous occasion. As Daphne rightly said, it was history in the making!

We want to look back on the first year of Malago WI having seen women from all backgrounds and of all ages having grown in confidence and skills; making lots of friends and having lots of fun along the way. We hope that all members will feel very proud of the new WI they have formed and excited about everything we will share in the future.

If you’d like to recreate one of the culinary delights from the November meeting, here's the recipe for Damp Apple and Almond Cake

MEMBERSHIP


If you paid your subs on the night, thank you and well done – you have 14 months membership for the price of 12. Very frugal. If you have yet to pay, don’t forget to bring your cheque book to the next meeting. Or get a family member to buy your annual membership as a Christmas present – the national website has a gift voucher for this very purpose.

Malago WI is open to new members, so you’re welcome to bring your friends. And spread the word – if you have an opportunity to promote our branch at events, fairs or even a poster in your window, let us know and we can let you have a batch of flyers.

DECEMBER MEETING


The next meeting will be Wednesday 10 December at 8pm, and will be a festive extravaganza. Designed to bring you beauty on a budget, our activities will be home-made paper Christmas decorations. But no sugar paper-chains here! You can choose to learn one, some or all of a carefully chosen selection of stylish decorations which are easy and cheap to make, but also very elegant. Also taking place is Malago WI’s Christmas exchange. No presents or cards required, instead come prepared with your best Christmas tips or recipes to share with your fellow WI ladies. Whether it’s your favourite yule log recipe or advice on how to survive the festive season, all tips, tricks and even funny anecdotes will be gladly received. (But don’t worry, we’ll be doing this activity in small groups – no public speaking, we promise.)

And to get the party going, we’re calling for donations of Christmas bakes for us to enjoy with a nice cuppa during the evening. If you’d like to bring a winter treat or healthy titbit, please RSVP with an idea of what you might bring.

PROGRAMME - YOUR W.I NEEDS YOU!


Thanks for all your great ideas for our forward programme. We would like to hear more about your talents so that we can set up a bank of speakers and demonstrators for future meetings. Perhaps you would like to share a skill with us or maybe you know someone who would be willing to talk to our institute. Please get in touch with us at jointhewi@gmail.com or speak to a member of the committee at a future meeting.

FUNDRAISING

Malago WI will have a stall at the Christmas Market at the Star and Dove in Totterdown on 20 December. The market features local producers, businesses and crafts people selling their wares, including Bristol regulars such as Chandos Deli and Reg the Veg. As well as food and crafts, christmas trees will be on sale, and special Star and Dove musical entertainment. The market is the perfect opportunity for Malago WI to raise some all-important funds (all money raised goes back into making our activities bigger and better) and we are looking for volunteers. Can you make cakes, biscuits, mince pies and even chutneys or home-made mincemeat? Or could you spare a couple of hours to man the stall (in pairs)? Please send us an email to let us know how you can help.

CAMPAIGNING

The University of Bristol has been commissioned by the Women’s Institute (on a national level) to further the current campaign by conducting research into violence against women. If you would like to take part in the research please complete this short survey

COMMITTEE

Your committee is listed to the right, now including some very welcome new recruits. We will also be looking for members to volunteer to help out on specific areas or events – watch this space!

PUBLICITY

Do take a look at the national site and if you’re on Facebook, you can join the virtual WI group.

WI in the news

In addition to our very own Jen already being featured on local radio, it has been hard to avoid the WI in the news recently – from a spread in Grazia to the Government calling for the WI to help tackle sex trade.

Coming up

Original 106.5FM would like their listeners to know more about Malago WI, and will send a reporter to our January meeting. He would like to talk to some of us about what the WI is and why we’re doing it, arriving early and leaving before the meeting starts. If you are happy to take part, please arrive at 7.45pm and let us know on the door.

MEETING DATES 2009


From January, meetings will take place the last Wednesday of the month, so the next few dates for your diary are 28 January, 25 February and 25 March – details to be confirmed.

That’s quite enough for now. We’ll see you on Wednesday 10 December at 8pm, Bedminster Methodist (Ebenezer) Church Hall, British Road, BS3 2DA – don’t forget to RSVP to jointhewi@gmail.com!

Malago WI