05^th December 2007 at The Magdala pub

The Christmas Party!

The trading stall, where members could sell not needed goods, or their own handcrafted wares proved to be a success. A wide range was on offer and especially popular and flying of the shelves were the scarves and handbags knitted by Frances and the jewellery made by Brenda. Maybe these ladies would like to show us how it all works at a monthly event!

Members enjoyed chatting to each other and getting to know each other. A real buzz was about. The meeting carried on until around 9pm. Everyone wished each other a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It was time for an AGM as stipulated by the rules of the W.I. At the same time we all designed our own Christmas card, what lovely snowmen we created!

Jayne McStea of Puffin Crafts, had supplied each lady with a Christmas card kid and everyone got going to make their Christmas card – a snowman with snow!

This caused lots of fun and banter and made several vowing to make their own cards this year. Jayne supplied hints and tips and suggestions and administered hands on assistance where required.

At the same time we held our first AGM with the help of Liz McDermott, Elizabeth Patterson and Val Grahame of the West Kent Federation.

Of the current committee all apart from two stood for re-election. Katie Price stood in addition.

Re-elected to the committee were: Katie Arnold, Angela Burgess, Kate Evans, Emma Hebb, Kirsten Ing, Belinda Luton, Jennifer McIntyre, Claire Perrott, Elizabeth Varley and Tracy Whewell.

Katie Arnold was re-elected President of the ED W.I.

Katie then seconded to the committee: Kristin Watt-Bonar, Lucy Ives, Sugra Marshall and Katie Price.

Jennifer McIntyre, the treasurer presented the annual account. The accounts were seconded from a member of the group.

Emma Hebb, the secretary read out the annual secretary report, listing past events, meeting places and start times.

Liz McDermott congratulated all of the members to having hold their AGM. The W.I. is proud to have us. The NFWI chair has seen our feature in Living South.

03^rd October 2007 at The Magdala pub

To this event we welcomes the following speakers:

Marilyn Donahue (The Sustainable Education project), Monica McSherry (Healthmatters Proprietor, Lordship Lane), Jim Paxton (Friends of the Earth, Southwark Branch), Katelyn Fryer (Southwark Recycling Officer) and Jonathan Mitchell (Liberal Democrat Councillor, East Dulwich)

Marilyn made us aware of the Sustainable Education project which addresses the Environmental issues through School Education, workshops, points out businesses that address the issues in regards to Holidays, recycling, Purchase & Waste Management etc.

Jim gave an update on friends of the Earth campaigns and showed through current Global climate change bill that it is actually possible to get Politicians on side and legislation in place through constant persistency.

Monica updated us on the campaign she started to make east Dulwich a plastic bag free area. They have spoken to local retailers (incl. Supermarkets) and some retailers are already offering a re-usable bag. A grant has been applied for to design and create the ‘East Dulwich Bag’, which will be distributed to every household. (Since the application for the grant has been successful and 2008 will bring us the re-usable East Dulwich bag. She also made us aware the Green Fair, which is on the 01.12.07 on Goose Green.

Katelyn from Southwark Council updated us on the various projects the council has in place (Door step recycling, Waste minimisation, composting, Junk Mail stopping, Exchange of goods, nappy campaign etc). Recycling in ED has increased from 3% to 21%!

Jonathan had facts on hand what the councillors of Southwark have done and achieved in regards to Environmental issues and what is planned. He gave us examples from other countries and put events in a global perspective. He gave details of grants that are available and future plans. An Evironmental Auditing is something worthwhile, where the recyclers get rewarded for their actions, for example a reduce in council tax.

There was a lively exchange between the speakers and the EDWI members on the subject and a lot of points where raised. To sum it up, mistakes have been made in the past and all involved have to admit their accountability. It also became clear that a reward, like a council tax reduction, for households that take up recycling should be implemented. Where there are fines, there should also be incentive, just a better environment for all is understood by everyone but maybe not always have an immediate impact on the individual at the time.

Several members came up with their own experiences (avoiding plastic food wrappers, the problem to recycle tetra pack, Gummtree & Swapexchange for goods, Onya bags, buy locally & regional.

We all took our chance to talk to speakers on a more one to one basis, review all the examples, leaflets about recycling etc that had been brought along and which where laid out for review. There was also chance to buy Christmas cards and related items from Phonix cards, whose owner had set up a stall (10% of all sold goods go to our WI). This opportunity will be again available to members at the December event.

05th September 2007 at the All Fired Up ceramics café

We all love a glass of wine and so we welcomed Julie Lawrence from Partners in Wine http://www.partnerinwine.co.uk/, for a wine tasting event. Julie founded the company together with Bronwen Harper. They are both accredited tutors for the Wine & Spirits Educational Trust (WSET). They run wine course to open the world of wine to everyone who is interested.

Julie prepared the event of this month meeting and explained in general what wine & wine tasting was all about, what to look out for and how to find out what each of us like. Tulip shaped glasses are best for wine tasting as these allow for the full aroma to develop. Tasting follows the route of smelling the wine, analysing its colour and finally tasting it. Wine needs to smell fresh; (a rusty or vinegary smell is a sign of a corked wine). The darker the colour the older the wine. She also touched on cork versus screw top and that there is no indication that screw tops wine isn’t worth its money.

Julie had chosen four wines for tasting. One sparkling white from France, one dry white from New Zealand and another dry white wine from France. We finished off with a rose from France. All wines are available locally and where not more then £7.99

All present members tasted the wines as outlined above and gave their verdicts. We truly had lots of fun and everyone enjoyed the event. A wish was expressed to repeat the event in the New Year with red wines (& cheese!). Everyone who was interested in more information about future events had the chance to leave their details with Julie.

 01^st August 2007 at the The Magdala pub

We welcomed Katie Sowrey and Michelle Williams from pinkgreen http://www.pinkgreen.co.uk/, who are both stylists and designers. They set up pinkgreen, a personal shopper/life stylist consultancy. They prepared the event of this month meeting to tell & show us all: What is in Fashion in the Autum/Winter 2007.

Both speakers introduced themselves and how they had to come about setting up their business.

They informed us on the key trends and colours for the Autumn/Winter 2007 season and gave us tips on accessories. Then they moved on to the subjects of dressing for work, dressing according to one’s body shape and gave us tips for common problem areas. They also mentioned which High Street stores are most likely to copy Designer items and where best to buy at reasonable cost.

Katie & Michelle answered questions we had, supplied useful tips and handed out details to anyone who was interested to find out more.