Newsletters

Hello friends

Welcome to the last newsletter of 2025. Where has the year gone? I swear the older I get the quicker the time goes. I may have written about this before but a friend once told me that you measure time in new experiences. When you are young, and everything is new, time stretches on forever. As you age though it becomes harder to find new things to do and time concertinas in on itself. This is one of the many reasons I love the WI and all the different activities it brings me.

Christmas meeting December 11th

This year I’m going to be cooking us all a three course meal! Really importantly you need to bring a knife, fork and spoon. If you forget I’ll have some bamboo forks on standby but they aren’t all that pleasant to use. We’ll also be doing a Secret Santa; gifts to the value of about a fiver. This is a good time to be donning your party attire -the sparklier the better.

Next year

January CPR and first aid training.

February A very entertaining actor is coming to amuse and educate us and last month we had a vote as to which persona we would like him to adopt. The votes were Churchill 5, Shakespeare 5, Henry Vlll 11 and Margaret Thatcher 14. Thatcher it is then. (My mind is aboggling as to how he’s going to do this!).

March The ceramacist Victoria Carlin will be talking about her exhibition featuring casts made of women’s bodies.

April Singing workshop and AGM.

May By popular request, meditation with Gavin (who did the Tai Chi session with us).

Carol Concert

Many thanks to Katherine, Sally, Sue and Chris for baking cakes and serving tea with me at the carol concert on Wednesday. Also thanks to Tessa for dropping off some delicious brownies. It was a lot of fun and we made £125 to swell our coffers.

Sub group updates

The next meeting of the Keen Cook’s Club is on January 15th at 7pm.

The walking group had a lovely trip to Glow at Hyde Hall last night and will be meeting again on January 24th at 11am.

Dates for other groups coming soon.

Do let us know if you would like to be added to a group or have an idea for a new one.

Volunteer Delegate needed

The NFWI annual meeting is June 4th 2026 and it’s our turn to provide a delegate on behalf of the four local WIs in our group. You won’t need to go anywhere as it’s being conducted virtually. Your duties will be to listen in, vote on the resolutions on behalf of our group, and provide a short written report. People have to pay to be part of the meeting (they usually have some very interesting speakers) but you will get a free ticket. If you’d like to be our delegate please reply to this email.

WI announcement

You may have already seen the news that the WI has made the decision to no longer accept trans gender members. Here is a link to the press release they sent out.

https://www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases#:~:text=We%20remain%20clear%20that%20our,remain%20part%20of%20that%20family.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday. If you won’t be joining us may I wish you a very happy Christmas and hope it’s everything you would like it to be.

Much love

Vanessa

Hello ladies,

Many thanks to Asha for planning and delivering a very engaging talk on Diwali last month. The snacks were delicious and I particularly enjoyed Asha’s fabulous dance moves. She clearly put a lot of effort into entertaining us and it paid off.

November 13th meeting
We have a Christmas themed crafting evening planned and will be making some very cute macrame Santa hanging decorations. There will also be the return of our popular shopping stalls, with a variety of local talented people selling their wares. Please remember to bring some cash for shopping as it’s possible not all sellers will take cards.

Essex Federation Carol Concert 3rd December
The Essex Federation annual carol concert is being held at the Kings Road United Reformed church in Westcliff this year and we’ve volunteered to help out with the tea and cakes. There’s a concert during the afternoon and one in the evening; we’ve been allocated the afternoon session along with the Broadway Belles WI. Thanks to everybody who has offered to bake cakes or help out on the day. More info will be forthcoming. All funds raised from the tea & cakes will be split between us and Broadway Belles. Further offers of help are very welcome!

Concert tickets can be purchased for £5 via this link.
http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/FEWI

December 11th meeting – MEMBERS ONLY

I’m going to be breaking out the slow cookers again and cooking a celebratory meal. We’re also proposing a secret Santa; spend no more than £5 on a gift but no obligation to take part. We’ll need to confirm numbers for the meal so we can cater accordingly and will need details of any special dietary needs – you can sign up at the next meeting or please reply to this email. Sorry, no guests at this meeting.

Sub-Groups

I’ve had a fabulous month with the sub groups, which are going great guns. The theatre group had a trip to London to see Minnie Driver in ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ which was indeed completely brilliant. A highlight was our Sally Ann being pulled up on stage to play an austere professor. She was amazingly good. On Wednesday the walking group had a wander down the pier to see the poppies, with a bit of lunch thrown in, of course. The inaugural meeting of the Keen Cooks club was last night, with a Scandinavian theme (so delicious!), and the next meeting of the Craft Club is on the 19th. The book club is up and running too. All groups are managed via Whatsapp. Please get in touch if you’d like to be added to any of the groups, or if you’d like to start a new one.

2026

Here’s a sneak peek of the plans  so far for next year

January – First aid and CPR training from an expert

February – The extremely entertaining and amusing Tony Harris will be performing a one man show in the role of a historical character. In December we’ll be voting on who we want him to be!

March – Acclaimed ceramicist, Victoria Carlin, will be talking about her exhibition ‘Our Bodies Are One’.

April – AGM and  singing workshop

May – By popular demand, Gavin is coming back to lead us in meditation

Guests & New Members

We’re accepting new members and guests (though December meeting is for members only) but just ask that you contact one of the committee in advance so we know who to expect at the meetings and can manage our numbers. Thanks.

Have a lovely weekend and looking forward to seeing you next Thursday.

Vanessa

Hello ladies,

October 9th meeting
We’re going to be celebrating Diwali with Asha who will be teaching us some Bollywood dancing, demonstrating the art of wearing a sari and sharing some Indian snacks. Asha has warned that the snacks might be a bit spicy!

November 13th meeting
We have a Christmas themed crafting evening planned and the return of our popular shopping stalls, with a variety of local talented people selling their wares. Please remember to bring some cash for shopping as not all sellers will take cards.

Essex Federation Carol Concert 3rd December
The Essex Federation annual carol concert is being held at the Kings Road United Reformed church in Westcliff this year and we’ve volunteered to help out with the tea and cakes. There’s a concert during the afternoon and one in the evening; we’ve been allocated the afternoon session along with the Broadway Belles WI. Please let us know if you’re happy to bake a cake for the event or volunteer to help out on the day. All funds raised from the tea & cakes will be split between us and Broadway Belles.

Concert tickets can be purchased for £5 via this link.
http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/FEWI

December 11th meeting – MEMBERS ONLY

Vanessa has offered to once again cook us all one of her fabulous meals so we can have a Christmas social. We’re also proposing a secret santa; spend no more than £5 on a gift but no obligation to take part. We’ll need to confirm numbers for the meal so we can cater accordingly and will need details of any special dietary needs – you can sign up at the next meeting or please reply to this email. Sorry, no guests at this meeting.

Sub-Groups

Our theatre, craft and walking sub-groups are thriving, the book group is currently reading their first book and Vanessa is looking to set up a keen cook’s club soon. All groups are managed via Whatsapp. Please get in touch if you’d like to be added to any of the groups.

Guests & New Members

We’re accepting new members and guests (though December meeting is for members only) but just ask that you contact one of the committee in advance so we know who to expect at the meetings and can manage our numbers. Thanks.

We know that not everyone reads the whole newsletter so well done if you’ve got this far!

See you soon,
Mandy

Hello ladies, 

Vanessa is cruising somewhere or other at the moment so I’m attempting to master Mailchimp again without making any stupid errors! 

September 11th meeting
Local author Danny Scott is going to be coming to talk about his book  ‘The Undisputed King of Selston’, which I’m told is a funny and poignant memoir about growing up in an East Midlands mining village. Danny is a freelance journalist and has interviewed a variety of big names so we’re hoping for some celeb gossip. Danny told Vanessa that it doesn’t matter at all if you haven’t read the book, which is handy as I haven’t! 

October 9th meeting
We’re going to be celebrating Diwali with Asha who will be teaching us some Bollywood dancing, demonstrating the art of wearing a sari and perhaps sharing some Indian snacks if we’re lucky. 

November 13th meeting
We have a Christmas themed crafting evening planned and the return of our popular shopping stalls, with a variety of local talented people selling their wares. 

Essex Federation Carol Concert 3rd December
The Essex Federation annual carol concert is being held at the Kings Road United Reformed church in Westcliff this year and as it’s just up the road we’ve volunteered to help out with the tea and cakes. There’s a concert during the afternoon and the evening; we’ve been allocated the afternoon session along with the Broadway Belles WI of Leigh and we’ll be looking for volunteer cake makers nearer the time. Concert tickets can be purchased for £5 via this link. 
http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/FEWI

Guests & New Members
We’re accepting new members and guests but just ask that you contact one of the committee in advance so we know who to expect at the meetings and can manage our numbers. Thanks. 

See you soon, 
Mandy

Hi everybody

July 10th meeting
This month is very much bird themed with a speaker from the RSPB coming to talk about the birds in our gardens and somebody from ‘Bird Aware’ bringing info about Essex coastal birds. I love encouraging the birds into my garden and I am also the proud owner of a pair of (never been used) binoculars, so I think this will inspire me to get them out and start spotting birds at the seafront. Probably from the comfort of a cafe.

August party
We never have an August meeting as your membership gives you 11 meetings a year, but we always have some sort of get together anyway. This year is the 110th anniversary of the founding of the WI and we thought this needed celebrating, so I would like to invite you all to a garden party at my house on Sunday 17th August 3pm – 6pm. It will cost a mere £3 for drinks and fancy(ish) canapes and desserts, all made by me, and you have until July 20th to book your ticket. You can pay by cash or card at the meeting next week or by bank transfer.
Further details are in the monthly email.

September 11th meeting
Oooh, this should be good! Local author Danny Scott is going to be coming to talk about his book  ‘The Undisputed King of Selston’, which is a funny and poignant memoir about growing up in an East Midlands mining village. Here are some of the rave reviews:
‘Captivating and deeply moving.’ Richard Coles
‘Evocative, beautifully written . . . conjures locations and feelings almost magically.’ Jeremy Vine
‘My brain has made the decision . . . I am going to love this book.’ Richard Hawley.
‘A tender, tough and surprisingly lyrical memoir of a working class boyhood in a disappeared world. Imagine D. H. Lawrence growing up in the era of Ronco and K-Tel. Rich and evocative.’ Stuart Maconie

Danny is also a freelance journalist and has interviewed just about everybody from Sir Paul McCartney and Usain Bolt to Mikhail Gorbachev and Dave Hill from Slade.

The book has only just been published and is still only available in hardback but you can hear the recorded version on Audible or get it on Kindle for £9.99. Danny says it doesn’t matter at all if you haven’t read it though!

If you would like a sneak preview and you’re at a loose end tomorrow (Friday 4th) Danny’s doing a reading at 6pm in Read on Sea, 28, Leigh Broadway.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend

Much love,
Vanessa

Hi everybody

June 12th meeting
This is going to be a bit of an active one so wear clothes you can move in  – definitely not a meeting for pencil skirts and stilettos! Jenny is coming back to do another Medau session with us, after she was so well received a few years ago. Medau is a sort of graceful and balletic keep fit system. Last time we did a lot of swaying from side to side with  clubs in our hands – it wasn’t all that taxing but you could feel it was giving you a workout. It was great fun too. Don’t worry if you don’t feel up to joining in  – you can sit and admire our moves, whilst eating all the cake.

July 10th meeting
When planning our programme the committee  always try and get a good mix of ‘doing’ meetings and ‘sitting listening’ meetings. Next month is the latter as we have a speaker from the RSPB coming to talk about the birds in our gardens. We also have somebody from ‘Bird Aware’ bringing info about Essex coastal birds. I’m a bit of a secret twitcher at heart so this is right up my alley. Now that I’m semi retired I quite fancy disguising myself as a bush and hanging about with binoculars, trying to catch a  glimpse of a lesser crested mud wobbler. 

Party!!!
This year is the 110th anniversary of the founding of the WI and we thought this needed celebrating. Seeing as I absolutely love entertaining people I would like to invite you all to a garden party at my house in the afternoon of Sunday 17th August. It’s still in the planning stages at the moment but make sure you save the date in your diary so you don’t miss out.

Have a lovely weekend

Much love,
Vanessa

Hi everybody

May 8th meeting
Having realised that our meeting falls on VE day we’ve tweaked our planned activities to mark and celebrate this auspicious event, so instead of a beetle drive, we’re going to be having a spitfire drive! Clever, eh? I’m reliably informed that beetle drives are great fun – and a good way for new members to get to know people – so I would imagine a spitfire drive will be much the same. We have a couple of other activities planned as well so it should be a good evening.

Could I ask our keen bakers to bring in a cake? Even better if it has some kind of VE day theme.

Also, it would be lovely if everybody could dress in red, white and blue. I realise you don’t have much time to put an outfit together so just do the best you can with what you’ve got in your wardrobe.

June 12th meeting
Some of you may remember that a couple of years ago we had Jenny teaching us Medau, which is a kind of balletic keep fit with clubs and hoops and things. It went down very well and we had lots of positive comments so we’ve invited her back again to do another session.

I’ll see some of you members of the theatre sub group at  ‘&Juliet’ on Tuesday and the rest of you on Thursday.

Enjoy the rest of the long weekend

Much love
Vanessa

Greetings all

April 10th meeting
This month is our annual meeting, where we’ll be choosing our charity of the year, looking at our finances and voting for our president. If it’s anything like the last ten years though I’ll be the only one standing so you’ll be stuck with me again! I’m delighted to announce that being on the committee is so much fun that nobody is standing down. They are a fantastic bunch of hard working, creative and all round lovely individuals and I’m sure you’ll all agree with me that we are very  lucky to have them. Many thanks to Mandy, Sally Ann, Anne, Mary, Lynne, Jo, Caroline, Phoebe, Christine and Sarah for everything you do.

The AGM stuff is usually done and dusted pretty quickly so we’re also going to be learning how to make quilled Easter cards (or any other design if Easter isn’t your thing). Quilling is close to my heart as 33 years ago my Mum learned how to do it at her WI and then hand quilled 80 wedding invitations for me! All materials will be provided but you might find it helpful to bring some tweezers. And if you have any crafting embellishments like beads etc that you’d like to use, feel free to bring them too.

Renewals
Subs for the coming year are now due and need to be paid either now by bank transfer or by card at the next meeting; bank transfer is preferable to save Mary spending all night using the card machine. The fee this year is £51 for single membership and £25.10 for dual membership. See email for bank details.

If you’re not renewing this year, we’d be grateful if you could let us know, so we can then offer your place to somebody else. 

May 8th meeting
As we often have new members joining us in May we try and have a social  meeting where we can mingle and get to know each other. Next month we’re going to have an old fashioned beetle drive, which, according to the good ladies of the Unofficial WI Facebook page, is enormously good fun. No actual beetles will be involved. For those long standing members who remember the fiasco of my attempts at bingo calling, you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve researched the rules!

Hope you’re all out frolicking about in the sunshine, and long may it last.


Much love
Vanessa

Greetings all

March 13th meeting
This month we have scoured all corners of the country and spared no expense to bring you one of the world’s leading experts on the history of tea. Ok, I may have exaggerated just a tad for artistic effect. It’s actually me. I have done masses of research though and discovered all sorts of fascinating stories so I’m hoping you’ll be enthralled.  We’ll also be tasting different tea varieties so you could discover a new favourite.

Pop Up Shop
Following last month’s decluttering meeting we’re offering you the chance to clear out your wardrobe and make a bit of cash (which, if you’re anything like me, you will spend on things to go straight back in the wardrobe!). If you have anything in very good saleable condition that you never wear, bring it along, labelled with your name and price and on a hanger, and it will be added to the rail in the lobby for general rummaging. If it doesn’t sell you can either take it home again or donate it to the charity shop. If this is a success we might well do it again next month. And maybe have other pop up shops where you can sell things. If you are planning on bringing anything can you please let us know by replying to this email? It will be handy to know how much to expect. If you have masses, please bring a rail!

April 10th meeting
Our AGM where we choose our charity and elect the president. (I’ve been doing this for ten years now! Surely somebody else would like a go? No? Oh well, looks like it’s me again then!) We’ll also be learning the art of quilling and making quilled cards.

Quiz Night
Last chance to book your spot for our RNLI fundraising quiz on Saturday March 22nd. £5 each, eight to a table. Some tables have spaces so you don’t necessarily have to put together a whole team (although it would be great if you did). 

Renewals
Subs for the next year are due in April and can be paid any time now, either by bank transfer or by card at the next meeting; bank transfer is preferable to save Mary spending all night using the card machine. The fee this year is £51 for single membership and £25.10 for dual membership. See email for bank details.

If you’re not renewing this year, we’d be grateful if you could let us know  so we can then offer your place to one of the ladies on the waiting list. 

Charity nominations
Please can we have your nominations for our charity of the year? This past year we have been supporting Southend RNLI and the profits from our raffles go to them. The new charity will start in April so if you have one that’s close to your heart, let Mandy know by replying to this email. It needs to be a registered charity and not animal related.

Much love
Vanessa

Greetings all

I hope you enjoyed last month’s speaker as much as I did. I’ve been practising my BSL alphabet ever since and I’m now confident that if ever I should meet a BSL user I’d be able to communicate, albeit ridiculously slowly. There have been requests for us to invite Lindsey back to wow us with her burlesque, so that might well be on the cards for a future meeting. 

February 13th
The focus of this month’s meeting is decluttering your home, and Suz from ‘Declutter and Breathe’ is coming to talk us through the process. To help us get a head start we’re inviting you to have a look around your home and select up to three household/ bric a brac items that don’t do it for you any more (‘spark joy’ if you’re  a Marie Kondo fan). Bring them in to swap, and then leftovers will be donated to the Trinity charity shop. Good condition things only please! 

March 13th meeting
I do like a new venture so, on top of my celebrancy work,  I’ve decided to rebrand myself as a WI speaker. The topic of my first talk is the surprisingly exciting story of how Britain became the number three tea drinking nation in the world (after Turkey and Ireland) –  a thrilling tale of spies, adventure, derring-do and steamy opium dens. You lucky lot will be the first recipients of my talk (and I’m completely free, which makes our treasurer Mary very happy! )

Resolution vote results from last month
Let’s talk about incontinence        9
Bystanders can be life savers      11
Join the repair revolution              3
Eliminate landfill of medication packaging  13

Our vote will get carried forward to National and the overall winner  will be the campaign resolution for next year.

Charity nominations
Please can we have your nominations for our charity of the year? This past year we have been supporting Southend RNLI and the profits from our raffles go to them. The new charity will start in April so if you have one that’s close to your heart, let Mandy know by replying to this email. It needs to be a registered charity and not animal related.

Quiz Night
Many thanks to those of you who have booked your places for our RNLI fundraising quiz on Saturday March 22nd. If you haven’t yet done so, Anne will be taking bookings next week, as well as collecting payments from those who’ve already secured their spot. It’s 8 to a table at a cost of a mere fiver each. It would be great if you could rustle up a whole table of your nearest and dearest, but otherwise we can allot you a space.

I won’t see you next week as I’ll be sunning myself on a beach in Gran Canaria. I’ll be missing you all and raising a cocktail glass in your honour. 

Much love
Vanessa