When we started thinking about our summer meeting this year, there were two ingredients that we knew would make the perfect Swallowtail social recipe – delicious food and inspiring women. That’s why we decided to treat our members to a double whammy of catered food by M&S and a screening of the incredible NASA story, Hidden Figures.
There are so many talented, interesting women in our mix, so the conversation flowed as we enjoyed sumptuous sandwiches, savoury bites and too many sweet things to mention. Add popcorn and fizzy drinks to the mix, and we were ready to settle down for the evening’s entertainment. Hidden Figures is the true story of NASA women Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe). These three pioneering women overcame racism and prejudice to excel in their work at the International Space Station. Gifted with incredible talents in maths, engineering and science, this trio of friends helped America to keep up with Russia in the space race and became famous for their game-changing work. It was wonderful to enjoy this inspirational and hugely-entertaining film together, and there were plenty of our members brought to tears by the moving story. After an emotional and fun-filled evening, there was a parting gift for our members as they got to take some of the buffet home to enjoy too. Great food, amazing company and inspiring cinema, that’s winning combination in our book!
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It’s been a busy year for the Swallowtail WI, but it’s still hard to believe we’re halfway through 2018. Our fun summer social is ahead, so July was a more serious affair as we welcomed Stephen Maunder from Norfolk County Council’s Trading Standards to tell us about scams and how to spot them.
The statistics around scams in the UK are jaw-dropping - with almost all of us targeted by criminals trying to make us part with our money. Worse still, many victims of these scammers feel too ashamed and embarrassed to share their stories. But Stephen told us that as the scams get ever more sophisticated, the problem will get worse. It’s down to all of us to get educated about scams and share our knowledge with those around us, particularly the vulnerable. Scammers use a range of techniques and approaches to con their way into our lives. Whether they turn up on our doorsteps, in our inboxes or over the phone, you have to be vigilant. Sadly, it’s the elderly, the lonely and other vulnerable people who are often trapped into their web, and the scammers will work overtime to develop a false rapport or relationship with those people to get their hands on their money. Stephen’s talk was fascinating and quite terrifying. But we learned a lot about how to spot a scam and what to check for if we are suspicious about a call, email or person. It was an incredibly insightful evening and we’re hoping that scammers won’t stand a chance against the Swallowtails from now on. We are looking forward to next month and getting together for a social evening to remember. Good pals, delicious cakes and lots of fun, what else can you ask from your WI? In June, we kicked off our shoes and let down our hair, to relax with a talk on reflexology by Billie Melville.
Billie told us about the history of reflexology, how its roots date back to Egypt 2330 BC and it has links to both China and India. The International Institute of Reflexology was set up in the 1950’s and Doreen Bailey was the pioneer in the UK in the 1960’s. Reflexology can be used for all sorts of illnesses and ailments and Billie explained how pressure points in your feet correspond to different parts of the body. There's a similar correlation with your hands and because some of us weren't keen on touching each other's feet, or were too ticklish to have our own feet touched, we decided to practise with hand reflexology. Billie asked us to get into pairs and talked us through a hand relaxation technique that we tried on each other, this caused a few giggles and we got to know each other a lot better by the end of the evening. The meeting was really interactive, with lots of questions, particularly about specific health conditions, how long sessions last and how Billie carries out the treatments in peoples homes. We laughed lots and got relaxing hand massages, what could be better?! May’s meeting was a nerve-wracking one for me because it was the first time, as the Vice President of the Swallowtail WI, that I’d been asked to lead the meeting. Our President Claire was away so I took her place on the night we voted on whether to support this year’s proposed National Federation resolution, which is focused on Mental Health and what the WI can do to improve things for people suffering from conditions that fall under that umbrella.
In brief, this is what the NFWI are proposing: Mental health matters Mental health matters as much as physical health. The NFWI urges all WI members to recognise the importance of parity between mental health and physical health and take action to make it as acceptable to talk about mental health issues as much as physical health issues, and to lobby government for better support for mental illness. The Swallowtails are a very enthusiastic and thoughtful bunch of ladies so there was a good debate about the resolution and ways we believe we could make a difference. Many of our members spoke about how mental illness has affected loved ones and there were questions about how we could support the resolution and provide tangible help to those in need. After this discussion, we took time to think things over while doing some crafting. The Swallowtails will be submitting an entry into this year’s Norfolk Federation of WI’s crafting competition, and we wanted to make sure as many Swallowtails as possible have a hand in creating our mini masterpiece. It was great to hear the girls swapping serious thoughts on the resolution but also laughing and bonding over our crafting work. Many of us expressed our thoughts about how WI is good for our mental health as it allows us to get together in a safe, kind environment and make new friendships. We wondered about providing a space for people to talk about their concerns and feelings at each meeting, wondering if we can ensure no Swallowtail ever feels alone when we are there to listen. The resolution has got us all thinking, so it was no surprise that we voted unanimously in favour of it. Now we’re looking forward to finding out what the NFWI thinks and discovering how our formidable membership can make a real difference in the mental health arena. By Kate White, Vice President There are some WI stereotypes that we're very happy to live up to - particularly those about crafting. Our girls love making things, and we even set up a Swallowtail Craft Club mini meeting to cater for our enthusiasm. So, it was wonderful to welcome talented seamstress and crafter Judith Quinton to our April meeting, where she gave us a guide to covering buttons and making beautiful purses.
Judith arrived ladened with lovely fabrics and patterns for us to get crafty with. She told us early on that this would be a very hands-on affair, and she spent the evening busily answering questions and giving us help as we enjoyed making our buttons and purses. Judith's love of crafting is infectious and, like us, she's very committed to the noble art of 'Make Do & Mend'. Better still, the Swallowtails were able to chat happily and share stories as we worked together and we'd even got a few newcomers in our midst, all of whom got a warm welcome and a good idea of what being a Swallowtail involves. We also found time to get the Swallowtail book club together to discuss dystopian novel The Power by Naomi Alderman. This book has enjoyed huge publicity and the concept women seizing power in the world as they harness the power of electricity was fascinating. However, many of the readers in our book club felt that the concept was stronger than the story and that they wanted more from the plot itself. After such a good discussion, we decided to choose two books for the next book club session - Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. From literature to crafting, you get it all at the Swallowtail WI. Want to join us? Get in touch! Being part of a committee is never an easy thing. Even the mention of joining a committee has people studying their shoes, frantically searching for an excuse, sorry reason, why they can’t join. Committees often mean conflict, because a good committee has lots of people who are passionate about what they’re doing, have their own ideas and want to get involved. Great when you all agree, not so good when there’s a difference of opinion.
I don’t do well with conflict, so I was delighted that we had Milee Brambleby from Commonsense Services speak at our last Swallowtail WI meeting. Milee is an expert in conflict resolution and she helped us to identify our own style of conflict resolution with the use of animal cartoon characters, based on the work of Thomas and Kilman. It turns out I’m an Accommodating Teddy Bear, I like to help everyone and I’m happy to put other people first. If you want something done, ask an Accommodating Teddy Bear, they’re likely to say yes. The problems come when we start to feel resentful and put upon, we have a tendency to snap and turn into Competing Sharks, determined to get what we want, no matter what. Milee helped us see that conflict isn’t a bad thing, it’s a necessary part of life. Instead of shying away from conflict we should embrace the different techniques: become a Compromising Fox to negotiate deals, accepting you have to give and take, this is perfect when dealing with children. You can hide in your shell as an Avoiding Turtle when the argument isn’t worth the battle and a Collaborative Owl works to find a solution where everyone wins. There’s even a place for Accommodating Teddy Bears, we side step conflict and enjoy helping people, but at times it’s necessary for a Competing Shark to cut straight to the point, like when you’re making a complaint in a shop or restaurant. There’s an appropriate time and place for each conflict style and I’ll be bringing out my Collaborative Owl and Compromising Fox at my next committee meeting. Written by Claire Wade, Swallowtail WI President One of the wonderful things about the WI is being able to invite people with different stories and lifestyles to educate us on their lives. This February, we were delighted to welcome Penny Franiel to talk to us about veganism and how to cook delicious vegan food.
Penny's talk was very insightful, particularly as she shared her own journey of becoming a vegan, running the Norwich Vegans group and how important veganism is to her life. It was fascinating to hear more about the wider discussion around veganism and how it's become a more mainstream dietary choice in current times, about Penny's love for animals and her experience will making and selling vegan cakes and bakes. Of course, the Swallowtails had plenty of baking questions for Penny - who'd bought in some absolutely delicious treats for us to try. She gave us plenty of tips and advice about making vegan cakes, and some serious food for thought about the positive impact of veganism on the environment. It was another fun, interesting evening full of lively discussion and great advice. We can't thank Penny enough for giving up her Tuesday evening to come and enlighten us! There’s nothing like a bit of good old-fashioned democracy to kick off the year, and our January meeting heralded the first vote on the National Federation resolutions.
Each year the entire membership of the WI votes for one or two campaigns that we’ll be throwing our weight behind, and the Swallowtails have a dedicated expert from our group to keep us informed. Swallowtail Jenny liaises with the Norfolk Federation to get all the information we need to know before we vote, and then the first round sees us got to the polls to select our favourite out of five suggested resolutions. It’s always fascinating to see what issues and causes are put to our vote. This year’s choices were no exception. Here’s a rundown of the five resolutions we could choose from: 1. Positive body image in a digital age This meeting urges every WI and the NFWI to campaign to ensure that government and the media industry promote healthy body images and ensure diversity is represented in the media. 2. Stop female genital mutilation Almost 200,000 women and girls in England and Wales are affected by or threatened with the risk of female genital mutilation (FGM). This figure rises to 200 million worldwide. FGM is illegal in the UK, but it is still happening. We urge the NFWI to use its collective voice and influence to raise wider awareness of the traumatic health consequences of FGM and support and partner with agencies that are working to end this practice in the UK and worldwide. 3. Raising awareness of modern slavery in the UK Modern slavery affects thousands of people in the UK every year, and leaves them facing servitude, forced or compulsory labour, sexual exploitation and human trafficking. This meeting calls on every WI and the NFWI to raise awareness of this important issue and to lobby for more effective support for the physical and psychological health of victims of this crime. 4. Mental health matters Mental health matters as much as physical health. The NFWI urges all WI members to recognise the importance of parity between mental health and physical health and take action to make it as acceptable to talk about mental health issues as much as physical health issues, and to lobby government for better support for mental illness. 5. Healthier Mouth, Healthier Body Health research suggests that there is a link between gum health and serious illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and even dementia. The NFWI calls upon the government to raise awareness about the importance of oral health and the impact that it can have in preventing life-changing acute and chronic health conditions. From here, the votes are counted, and we’ll discover which resolutions will be taken forward. With such a diverse selection to choose from we look forward to finding out where the WI will be focusing our energies. Following our resolutions talk, it was down to some cake and crafting as we made green hearts to form part of the Norfolk Federation display to raise awareness for climate change. We’re proud to be part of a group of women nationwide who care passionately about causes and try to do good. These aspect of the WI, combined with all the fun and friendship we experience is what makes our Swallowtail group so special. Christmas was a marvellous affair for the Swallowtails, as we combined our festive social with some fun-filled activities.
It’s become a tradition in our WI to make festive wreaths at the December meeting, with our members bringing gorgeous greenery, flowers and trinkets to adorn their Christmassy creations. Led by president Claire, who is the undisputed queen of wreaths, our girls got busy, and soon the air was filled with ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ of approval as the decorations took shape. Another tradition we’ve kept each year is that of laying on a magnificent spread at the December social. As usual, our incredible members arrived laden with culinary treats and the tasty dishes went down a storm with the hungry crowd. What’s lovely about our December social is that there’s always such a great range of food provided. From the traditional mince pies and Christmas cakes to delicious cheese scones, scrummy biscuits, vol-au-vents and more besides, no-one goes home hungry. For those Swallowtails who didn’t want to make wreaths, we laid on a games evening which proved to be a great laugh. We began with a madcap version of pass the parcel devised by games extraordinaire, Szara which saw us asked to don ridiculous gloves and a silly hat when it was our turn to unwrap. It was hard to follow that, but we dug out the Family Fortunes, and Sophie channelled her inner Les Dennis to be the quiz master. The teams were ultra-competitive, and some of the answers had us in stitches. Mind you, it hardly seemed to matter who won in the end, as we'd all thoroughly enjoyed the game. Spending an evening creating, socialising and laughing with our Swallowtail friends was the perfect way to celebrate the festive season WI-style. Now, we just have to plan all the fun we’ll be having in 2018. Each November meeting is our AGM, where we look back on the year and start making the big decisions about 2018. To capture the spirit of the night, here are the speeches delivered by our President Claire and our Secretary Szara.
President’s Address It feels like no time since my last President’s Address and I’m so proud of how far the Swallowtail WI has come. Our members are amazing, the committee is fantastic and the meetings are always so much fun. The committee work incredibly hard to put everything together and I’m so grateful for all that they do. At our committee meetings we get a huge amount done accompanied by lots of laughter. Roisin isn’t here but she’s been a great Vice President and I’m going to miss her. She’s kept the membership database up to date and welcomed new visitors to our meetings with a smile and a warm greeting. Vicki has done a brilliant job with our accounts, she’s got our bank account sorted and put in place processes that made this year’s account submission so much easier. She’s the gracious host for our committee meetings and has learnt our tea order off by heart! Szara is really hardworking and efficient, she’s kept on top of the mountain of paperwork that we get and makes sure we all know what’s going on, whether that’s jigsaw races or federation meetings. She may be stepping back with some of the secretary work but she’ll be in charge of all the events, including our next quiz. If it’s like the last one she ran it will be fabulous. Jody is in charge of the rotas, she makes sure there’s delicious treats at every meeting, and that there’s always somebody adding to our tablecloth. Kate runs our blog and keeps you updated on all the fun you might have missed out on at our meetings. We’ve had some great nights with film club, no matter what we go to see. Kim looks after out tablecloth, so that it tells the story of our WI and this year she put together our beautiful bunting. Thank you for persevering to sew it all together. She also looks after all the birthday cards, a tradition that I really love. Fran stepped down from the committee but we appreciate all she did while she was with us, including baking an amazing rainbow birthday cake. Sophie and Rachel have just joined us and I already know they’re going to be brilliant additions. Their enthusiasm and new ideas are exciting and I look forward to seeing how the Swallowtails will grow with their input. This year we have had some members take on extra roles and I’m really grateful. Jenny B is our resolutions guru, she attends all the federation meetings and keeps us updated with everything we need to know. Kate B is our federation website editor, keeping our page up to date on the official site and she’ll be joining the committee from January. Rosemary attended the autumn federation annual meeting and reported back on all the goings on and she’s also our official teller tonight. Kerry runs our book club. We’ve read some fantastic books this year and I look forward to next year’s. Rachel is in charge of our craft club, we may only have had one meeting but it was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for next week’s. She’s also joined the committee and agreed to be secretary at her first meeting. I love that she’s keen. Jenny K has taken on Instagram and is doing a fabulous job. Make sure you follow us to see all her beautiful photos. Sarah is running our Twitter account and I think she sent more tweets on her first night than we’ve sent from the account in the entire two years before. I love the engagement you’re encouraging and you’re building our profile in a really positive way. And Anita makes sure the kitchen and bathroom are clean and fully stocked. I’d also like to thank all the people who support us to run the WI, whether that’s our family or friends who show up at events, drive us around or offer to be speakers, especially at the last minute, we’re very grateful and lucky to have you. Finally I would like to say thank you to you the members, I love our WI. When you walk through the door, we’re no longer seeing familiar faces we’re actually becoming friends. WI evenings are some of the highlights of my month. Over the last year I’ve learnt a lot, grown as a person and as a president, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity. Thank you for your part in that. Secretary's Report Welcome to this year’s Secretary report. Since renewals in January we had had 40 join or re-join our WI. The average attendance each month is 25 and we find football has an influence on the numbers. This year Claire and Kate represented us at the Norfolk Federation AGM where we won the award for Best New WI and we celebrated our 2nd birthday in style with Cake of course, made by Fran. We have had many trips out this year, Roisin won an award at the Clay Pigeon Shooting day and at Disco Bingo. We entered a puzzle competition, a quiz and tried our hand at solving Norwich Murders. Members have come forward to help with attending Norfolk Federation Events, attending other WI’s and representing Swallowtail WI, we have always received positive feedback of how our members are so lovely and how we make people giggle. We have supported many charities this year by donating food, bras and pennies in a bucket. Fundraising has come in the form of the Ceilidh, the quiz, book sales and the raffle. Speakers this year have been a good mix from our members, the local community and a husband put on the spot. The evenings are also made a success by the donations for the raffle and charities, refreshments and our beautifully made table cloth squares. It is always good to hear the laughter and I hope to hear much more in the year to come. |
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