Our Federation Annual Meeting

Our Federation Annual Meeting saw many happy WI members enjoying a fantastic day at the Winter Garden theatre in Eastbourne on the 29th March ...  Here are a selection of photos taken on the day intended to give you a flavour of the day, were you there? maybe you can spot yourself.... If you weren't there this year we hope this will whet your appetite for coming along next year.

Our New Federation Secretary

We were all sad to say goodbye to Vicky Booth, who had been our Federation Secretary for some 15 years. Vicky had worked alongside Judy and in previous years, with Vanessa, to build a strong team in our Hailsham HQ.

We were however, delighted to welcome Symone Krista, as our new Federation Secretary. We asked her to provide a few words for us to share with you, here's what she said:

"Hi, my name is Symone. I am the new Federation Secretary.  

I would like to say thank you for all your kind welcome messages.

I am very excited to work with you all.  I have more than 20 years of administration experience working with charities and the private sector.  I have organised several events, conferences, seminars, and workshops.  I particularly enjoy the process of setting up of the events, meeting everyone who will be involved and meeting the guests. I am looking forward to the annual meetings in Eastbourne and Cardiff.

I believe together we can work and get people excited about the events we organise and promote. I am looking forward to working with you all. 

I appreciate there is a lot to learn regarding the WI.  Besides work, I am a mother of two boys and enjoy gardening."

Report from Jacquie Frost – our roving reporter …

A bright and sunny afternoon in Eastbourne saw over 80 WI members from all over the county streaming into the Langham Hotel for a superb lunch, and a Christmas Wreath and flower arrangement demonstration.

Kevin Loveland, who has over 30 years experience in floristry and has his own shop in Pevensey Bay even managed to answer his phone and take an order whilst introducing his telephone customer to a room full of WI ladies.

Here's a photo of our fabulous demonstrator ...

He then went on to demonstrate a beautiful yew, rosehip and cheeky robin Christmas wreath and five stunning arrangements with a wealth of tips given on how to utilise some normal household items to enhance the arrangements. These included removing the stem from a wine glass, and then pushing the bowl of the glass into the leafy arrangement, and for safety setting a candle inside it, as well as using kebab sticks to allow nuts, orange slices etc to be inserted in among the flowers .

Ladies were each given a raffle ticket on arrival, and 6 lucky ladies  each won one of the arrangements.

Thank you Jacquie – looks like it was a great success!!

Willow Workshop - 25th June 2022

We were delighted to see the return of In Person workshops - Zoom has been wonderful - but to welcome real live people into a room and then watch them produce 3 wonderful pieces of willow work, was just magical!!!

Thank you to Danny Manning - our wonderful tutor and to our fantastic students.

SHOPS OFFERING A DISCOUNT TO ESFWI MEMBERS

Please note that a current WI Membership card will need to be presented in order to obtain any discount.

Closs and Hamblin (formerly C&H Fabrics)

A 10% discount is offered to any member who can show a current membership card at any of their branches (Eastbourne, Brighton, Winchester, Tunbridge Wells, Canterbury, Chichester, Guildford, Horsham and Windsor).  You can also qualify for the discount on their website www.candh.co.uk by quoting the code WI99. The discount is also available in the coffee shops.

BRIGHTON

Fiveways Arts & Crafts, 261 Ditchling Road, Brighton BN1 6JH 01273 551600 www.fivewaysartsandcrafts.co.uk.

10% discount

Cass Art, 21 Market Street, Brighton BN1 1HH 01273 733896

10% discount. Also offer a rewards card scheme which can be used in conjunction with the 10% discount.

EASTBOURNE

Little Miss Sew n Sew, On-line only 01323 483947 www.littlemisssewnsew.co.uk.

10% discount online using the code WI10. This excludes workshops.

LEWES

Lansdown Health Store, 44 Cliffe High Street, Lewes BN7 2AN 01273 474681

5% discount

Riverside Flowers, 2 Station Street, Lewes BN7 2DA 01273 488820

10% discount on anything purchased in the shop.

The-stitchery, 12-16 Riverside, Cliffe Bridge, High Street, Lewes BN7 2RE 01273 473577

10% discount on all products except books, patterns and sewing machine servicing

NEWHAVEN

The Patchwork Cat, 3 Newhaven Square, Newhaven BN9 9QS 01273 516067

10% discount in the fabric shop and also for the classes

SEAFORD

Foam and Fabrics, 21-23 Broad Street, Seaford BN25 1LS 01323 893716

10% discount when spending over £10

UCKFIELD

Lansdown Health Store, 35 High Street, Uckfield TN22 1AJ 01825 764436

5% discount

If any members know of any other shops who are prepared to offer WI members a discount, please let Judy know at ESFWI Headquarters 01323 442592 hq@esfwi.org.uk.

ESFWI Federation Annual Meeting - Eastbourne

March 23rd 2022 was a red letter day - as we returned to having our first face to face Annual Meeting in 3 long years, and what a meeting it was!!

A total of 375 members congregated at the meeting, and the Centenary Banner and Bunting were there too. The whole meeting was lively and there was just a lovely warm atmosphere - when old friends were reunited and new friends were made. The HQ team of Vicky and Judy had done us all proud with their organisation both before and during the day.

The venue was excellent and we were treated to some rather amusing stories of the trials and tribulations of being a WI Judge from the Super Duo of Sue Davies and Avril Parrini. They provided a super warm up act to our main speaker who was Eddie the Eagle. His energy and enthusiasm was infectious, and the feedback from members was that he was really entertaining.

Of course, this being WI - we had a raffle and we had an amazing response to our appeal for baskets and for those who love a jewellery bargain, the ACWW had come up trumps - so there were lots of opportunities to spend a bob or two. We also had representatitives of all of our sub committees who were there to talk to members about their plans for the future.

Plans are already afoot for our next years meeting which will be on Wednesday 29th March at The Winter Garden - we strongly advise you to buy your tickets early. There will be the return of all the old favourite stalls, but also we are looking to have some new additions too.

Here's just a small selectoin of the photos we took - they probably don't really do the event justice - but maybe it will give a flavour of the day.