President’s Log Star Date 2115
Hello and welcome to our AGM.
Thank you for your rousing singing of Jerusalem accompanied by Fabia on her electric bass guitar. For those of you watching on Skype, I hope you joined in too.
It has been a privilege for me to be your President in this bicentenary year 2115. I would like to thank the committee for their dedication and hard work in keeping us alive and also for organising so many outings and events.
We, as a committee, tried to arrange some exciting and somewhat different events for you this year. Thank you to Arabella Grylls for suggesting that we try white water rafting but some members felt that was just a step to far after the canoe incident last October, where fifteen members capsized.
Due to the exceptionally high snow fall in January, we organised a snowboarding competition as we couldn’t get into the church hall. You were all very enthusiastic and threw yourselves into the morning, some more than others. Mrs Babbage was seen shooting down Beachy Head at ninety miles an hour and was soon out of sight. Her broken legs took a while to heal and with both arms in plaster, it wasn’t easy for her to get to WI but we are glad you are here today, fit and well.
In April, Ruby, Pearl and Diamond, known as The Stones entertained us with their unique voices and array of instruments. They gave us a selection of old forgotten songs of yesteryear. I am sure those of you that are heavy metal fans really enjoyed it! I apologise for the fact that the amplifier’s volume button had got stuck in the loud position. I am not sure if they actually passed the Speaker’s List selection committee, but a good time was had by all.
In June, some members went by overhead monorail, to the Buckingham Palace Queen’s Silver Jubilee Garden Party. Queen Georgiana, looked wonderful. We all looked resplendent in our beautiful hats and Delphine Passbury tells me that she wore the very hat that her grandmother had worn to Queen Elizabeth‘s Sapphire Jubilee in 2022.
To round off our bicentenary we arranged a trip to France in September which was well supported. Some of you hadn’t been on the new Hover Rail spanning the English Channel from Eastbourne to Calais. It was not for the faint hearted! Mrs Spendworthy wore a parachute all the way over didn’t you dear?
I am happy to say that membership has increased this year to one hundred and ninety eight. The annual fee is to be increased to £340. I am sure we are all happy with that.
Finally, if you are interested, we are arranging a trip to Denman College in December who are running a “What’s new in the world of technology” course. It will cover mobile phones, I phones, foot phones, finger phones, sun phones, moon phones, star phones and xylophones. Tea will be provided.
Well here’s to the next one hundred years.
Thankyou
Margaret Savill – Hampden Park WI East Sussex Federation – 500 words