Janice Langley
Chair's address
Good morning once again – is it still morning?
While the board members including Anne Harrison and Pat Tulip our intrepid cake bakers accompany our Royal guest into the foyer to sample the centenary fruit cake, where they will meet members from Sandringham WI, Bagshot WI and Gloucester Federation also Julie Clarke from North Yorkshire West Federation, who provided the winning recipe in the centenary cake competition Julia, Maggie, Jana and I are here to keep the show on the road and continue the business part of the meeting.
What a fantastic start to our Centennial Annual Meeting.
As it was in the beginning Wales leading the way, Ann Jones Chair of the Federations of Wales appointing the Returning Offices and Tellers and the adoption of the Standing Orders.
Followed by the amazing link to Anglesey where we visited the Toll House and talked to members with connections to the founder members of the organization.
Two more links to come this afternoon.
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Being 100, what does it mean to our organisation and what does it mean to us and our communities.
Women working together and women making a difference not only for themselves also their families and communities.
In the beginning the women of the first WIs in Wales and England set the pattern of achievement which has grown over the past 100 years.
The WI has been a witness to two world wars and as we all know the women took on any challenge that was thrust upon them - have you been watching "Home Fires"? It is interesting to see the characters develop and see the roles women took on during that time.
The position of women in society has changed dramatically, we know a number of the first WI members were suffragettes but the majority were rural women with poor education and little money.
The WI was their link to learning and friendship.
Over the years the press and media have viewed the WI in many ways.
I'm sure if there had been Facebook and Twitter the men in “The Fox Runs Free” at Singleton where the first WI in England met, would have been commenting on women taking over a room in the pub which they felt was their territory!
Adelaide Hoodless didn’t have an easy journey, her son said “Today one can hardly conceive that the attacks made upon her could have occurred. She was derided in the press and from the platform as one of those despised “new women”. “Let her stay at home and take care of her family” a lot of people said.”
Madge Watt fought the fight although I doubt is she lost many PR battles as I have already said a very persuasive lady.
Lady Denman, the first National Chair of the WI was no shrinking violet, she was a remarkable leader not only in the WI also the first Chair of the Family Planning Association and Director of the Women’s Land Army.
Between the wars members were held in high regard for their home economic skills, canning, preserving and bottling all manner of produce. They were encouraged to play a prominent role in public life, the first English born female MP was elected, a WI member from Lincolnshire. The WI held its first Choir competition and Drama Festival and Jerusalem was sung at the AGM for the first time.
2015 celebrates 100 years of women in the police force, I couldn’t suppress a smile when I read that their uniforms came from Harrods - I expect our first VCOs/WI Advisers would have been very envious had they known that!
Policewomen weren't allowed to carry truncheons or batons but they were allowed to carry umbrellas - this conjures up a picture of some villain obviously dresses in stripped pajama type outfit, mask and swag bag being beaten over the head with an umbrella by a lady in her Harrods uniform!
A better description of one of the first policewomen and no doubt an inspiring woman is that of former midwife Edith Smith, a middle aged prim looking woman with a bun and round spectacles. She was the first policewoman in Britain to be given the power to arrest.
A lot of these women were also suffragettes.
This was probably another decision born out of necessity not choice.
Some of you may recall in 1922 when the Metropolitan Police’s Women’s Patrols were disbanded WI members passed a resolution for the reinstatement.
The results paid off during World War II when women were given full policing powers. Now women make up over 25% of the overall police force.
As an organisation we have had our ups and downs the membership reaching an all time high of 500,000 in the 1960s.
We have been ridiculed, laughed at and scorned, ALSO applauded and praised for our work in making a difference.
Our work setting out the importance of bees has been heard loud and clear, and we were thrilled that members’ efforts were acknowledged, when we scooped the Third Sector Excellence Award for our partnership with Friends of the Earth last September.
Society is changing but what the WI offers remains the same - women reaching women enjoying each other's company, wanting to learn new skills and improve the world and communities they live in.
Our, now not so, new logo, The WI inspiring Women, and 3 key messages gave us a new identity and with it added confidence.
The confidence to take ownership of what the WI does.
The WI is here to inspire you -
You were inspired to save the honey bee with Marylyn personally delivering over 5,000 messages to our Bees Minister, Lord de Mauley.
To support the Care not Custody Campaign by securing government backing, and a total of £75 million for schemes to ensure that people with mental health problems that come into contact with the criminal justice system get the treatment and support they need.
The WI is not all about campaigns: be inspired to learn a new craft, come to grips with technology, make your first loaf of bread.
You may be inspired to take the next step – enroll on a public speaking course, learn how to do a power-point presentation.
Why not stand for a WI committee or Federation Sub-committee or Board of Trustees.
Make a difference, tell everyone how much you enjoy your WI.
The WI is everything you want it to be -
Getting involved –
Teach someone to knit in return learn how to send an email or vice versa.
Be part of the decision making in your WI, offer help with an event, bring new ideas, get involved in a cookery, science or gardening project.
Get involved in the running of your WI - stand for committee.
Get together to make your voice heard support a campaign.
Help with PR and recruiting new members – great news that the Duchess of Cambridge is planning to join Anmer WI, if every one of us brought one new member – wow!!
The WI is what you make of it -
At the end of the day no one is forcing you to do anything.
WI members do things because they want to -
Prison visiting as part of our Care not Custody Campaign
Supporting the campaign for better midwifery services.
Talking to relatives and friends supporting "A Time to Talk"
Putting on workshops and “dabble days”
Working together and supporting community events.
The Baton certainly proved you can do that and how your imagination and initiative surprised even yourselves!
The WI has several hundred new members a week, membership numbers are increasing and as we enter the second hundred years the organization is confident and growing.
Confident that we have a lot to offer women BUT there is no place for complacency.
As I have said many times when visiting federations, women join the WI with an expectation they want “what it says on the tin” what they have heard about on Facebook and Twitter, what they read in the press and see through the media.
Every new member has an idea of what she wants to find in the WI and what she wants to learn.
The conferences in the spring of last year enabled us to share thoughts and ideas and talk to current members we need to continue this dialogue working with federations to ensure members are not disappointed or leave because they haven't found the stimulation or are able to access what they expected from the media coverage of the WI.
The centenary Grant scheme gave federations extra funding to promote the WI and recruit new members.
We need to be sure that every member’s WI experience is everything they want it to be.
As Julia said, financially we are in a good position but we need to spend our money wisely and well for the benefit of all our members.
There will be challenges and that is why we have to up our game.
Education has always been at the core of the WI, have we moved with the times maybe we should compare our progress with another educational centenarian.
Ladybird books first went into print one hundred years ago this year.
How many of you taught your children to read with Peter and Jane books?
Have their lessons stood the test of time? They presented a warmth and positive view of the world to children. It was always Jane in the kitchen with Mummy and Peter washing the car with Daddy.
It wasn't until around 1970 that Mummy went out to work, Jane wears jeans and Daddy does the washing up.
Ladybird books have moved on to touchy feely baby books, sticker books and facts for learners.
Could we compare this with our own educational facility, Denman was, I grant not quite one hundred years ago, an innovative way to allow women to access learning and education in a safe and comfortable environment.
We have moved on, we have some fantastic courses, a modern cookery school and some excellent tutors and yet we are still struggling to make ends meet so please keep coming to Denman and bring a friend or your husband if he would like to come.
Yes the WI has moved on, technology has been embraced we have a website, the WI Moodle, the MCS and online forums and there is so much more to come.
I know we are prepared to change, not change for changes sake but out of necessity.
Time is at a premium, as women we can multitask but we also need some “me time”
And as an organization we need to accept new ways of working to engage women who now have limited time.
Speaking of time we have a very full and interesting agenda to be getting on with.
Thank you for listening.
Janice Langley 21/05/2015
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