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Two of us from Sanderstead WI attended the Annual General Meeting. There was a wonderful sense of fellowship and singing Jerusalem with everyone at the Albert Hall gave me a feeling of being part of an enormous family of women. All the ladies we spoke to were very friendly, whether they were from Surrey, Derbyshire or Yorkshire.  Everyone looked pleased to be there with a number of WI’s sending coach loads to the AGM.

We heard from Ann Jones, DL, that the overall membership has increased with 24,272 new members in a year, an average of 66 new members a day.

We learnt that a WI Lottery is going to be launched on 16 October on WI Day. This will be in addition to the WI Raffle. The online courses that have replaced Denmans, were mentioned and we are all encouraged to try these. 

A formal review of the WI Constitution will take place to make it easier for WIs to run their WI charities. Partnerships with other organisations were also mentioned including those concerned with wildlife, cognitive gardening and rugby.

THE RESOLUTION- DENTAL HEALTH MATTERS – There is a chronic shortage of NHS Dentists and people suffering helath issues as a result. The NFWI calls on the Government to increase investment in the training and retention of dentists and to review the current NHS contracts in order to ensure everyone can access an NHS dentist wherever they live.

The debate on the Resolution was well conducted with an excellent speaker, Eddie Couch of the Dental Association providing a reasoned and impassioned assessment of the current situation and the subsequent impacts on our health if the access to dentists is not improved. A WI member, a dentist and orthodontist, stood up when the opportunity rose to comment and reinforced Eddie’s message with her own anecdote about a nine year old coming to her as part of a standard check that all school age children received in the 1980’s, with lesions in his mouth. It turned out he had been self-harming , his way to cope as the chief carer of his mother once his father had died. Social Services were then made aware and his mother and he were able to get the support they needed.

There were some WI members who thought the Resolution should be reworded to refer to preventative measures such as education on healthy eating and care of teeth, however the Resolution was carried by 95% of the Delegate’s votes. 

The theme of the guest speakers was domestic violence and abuse. Nazir Afzal,OBE,  Melanie Brown MBE and actor Tim Watson who played Rob Tichener in the Archers all spoke movingly on this theme.

I came away with a lot more knowledge and felt I understood much more how our WI fits in with the NFWI- i.e. the bigger picture.

Lee