News and Events

Ropsley go to the NFWI Annual Meeting 2024

Getting There…..

Ropsley and District WI were lucky enough this year to have 2 members going to the NFWI Annual Meeting (AM) on Wednesday 5^th June. As Federation Treasurer I am allocated both a ticket and a vote of my own and Amy Money was lucky enough to be a delegate on behalf of Ropsley, Allington and Harlaxton WIs – and boy was she excited about it!

The coach party left Grantham about 9:30 on Tuesday 4^th but I chose to go by train on Tuesday afternoon and meet up with the coach party in the hotel for a very convivial evening.

Amy went by train on the Wednesday morning but that meant a really early start - she got up at 05:30 and was at Grantham station getting on the 06:30 train having already posted pictures of “my day so far” on the Ropsley WI WhatsApp group – as you can see here – everything from her dress to the station and breakfast on the go.

Meanwhile, I was still in my hotel bed  - as far as I was concerned it was still the middle of the night so I responded by posting a photo of my pitch black hotel room (being  ‘my day so far’ )

and following it up later with pictures of the hotel breakfast offering so she could compare! (No, I didn’t have both plates of food!!)

Amy was now at the RAH and on a virtual work meeting on her laptop – work stops for no woman! –  but still posting, this time that she was very pleased to have remembered her WI lapel pin .......

......though sad to have forgotten her bobby socks which, it appears, are the correct thing to wear with your trainers and dress. As I was unaware of this fashion faux pas and I had just enough time for a quick run to M&S (3 minutes), I bought some for both of us so we could avoid the fashion police then I joined the Federation party waiting for the coach party for the short trip to the RAH.

By the time the doors opened and the queues started moving there was palpable excitement in the air as women - in frothy daisy hats, with puffins on their heads, or with other accoutrements - wound their way into the hall.

Amy’s seat was at the far end of our row of seats and it was incredibly difficult to get a row of ladies to pass along a pair of bobby socks from one end to the other – can’t imagine why?? Everyone wanted to ask where they had come from and where they were going to!!

The Day Begins….

Once the hall filled up (and we had our socks on!), the meeting started dead on time with a rousing chorus of Jerusalem. This was followed by the business element and Anne Jones, the current (outgoing) chair giving a resume of the last 12 months and highlighting facts such as the 24,272 new members in the last year, more than any previous year.  She also spoke about some of the new relationships that the WI is entering into such as the link with England Rugby and some of the work going on in the background such as the Inclusion Advisory Group who have been getting together working groups of non-members to try and understand what women’s perception of the WI is and what would encourage them to join. We are waiting for the results of that work.  One exciting piece of news is that there will soon be an NFWI Lottery, details of which we hope to have in a couple of months.

The First Speaker - Nazir Afzal OBE, Chancellor of the University of Manchester

Nazir was breathtaking from the outset. He told us of his upbringing in Birmingham where he came home from school having been spat on because of his colour. His role models at that time were Atticus Finch, Mahatma Ghandhi, and Nelson Mandela – he noted that one was fictional, one was dead, and one was in prison so possibly not the best role models. He spoke about his decision to go into law, and how being required to watch a video of a father raping his 18-month-old daughter in order to confirm that the mother had taken the video and been complicit in the offence led to him championing those with no voice. He has since prosecuted some really high-profile abuse cases such as the Rochdale grooming gang, Stuart Hall, and Rolf Harris.

When telling us about the Rochdale case he explained that he had gained convictions for 22 women and girls but failed to get a conviction on the 23^rd count and spoke to that victim to apologise that he had not got closure for her. Her response was that she felt that she got closure the minute he believed her. This theme came up time and time again through the day, that simply being believed is a huge thing for victims. His determination led to him asking women what they needed him to do and he has set up conferences on areas of abuse such as forced marriage (of which there are 5000 per year in the UK!!), stalking, and honour killings in order to help get the law changed. He is now focussing on prevention and trying to reduce the number of women (and it is predominantly women) subject to domestic abuse (currently 1 woman in 4) and sexual assault (currently 1 in 5). He is currently Chair of the Catholic Church Safeguarding Investigation – in his words, “Me, a brown Muslim from Birmingham!”

His talk was the most impactful presentation that I have ever heard. Amy said that she stopped breathing at one point when she was listening to him. He was given an unheard-of standing ovation from those present with the whole of the RAH on its feet. An astounding man.

The Resolution Discussion…….

We then moved on to Dentistry resolution where the proposer spoke about the proposal, followed by a seconder. Eddie Crouch, Chair of the British Dental Association, was the expert arguing for the resolution and he highlighted key points such as 1 in 10 people have tried home dentistry as they were unable to see an NHS dentist, that the lack of NHS dentists disproportionately affects women, children and the less wealthy, and that the move of dentists away from NHS Dentistry has been caused by the contract and definition of units of dental activity. He concluded with the statement “Problems made in Westminster can be resolved by Westminster”

NFWI were unable to find anyone to speak against the resolution so we were given some points to think about by a member of the NFWI team and then the vote took place prior to the lunch break – at which point thousands of women poured out of the RAH for lunch or picnics around the Albert Memorial

Lunch…….

The Resolution Result…..

When we returned in the afternoon, Amy managed to get to sit next to me (kept the bobby socks happy!) and we started with the results which were ready thanks to the NFWI staff who spent their lunchtime counting all those voting cards and online votes had done their job and we were told that the resolution had been passed by 4578 votes to 214.

The Second Session – Mel B being interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire

The afternoon also brought Victoria Derbyshire interviewing Mel B about the domestic abuse that she suffered at the hands of her husband, the form it took – physical, sexual, emotional, and financial - and how she finally walked away from the abuse.  It was shocking to hear this first-hand account. Mel is now an ambassador for Women’s Aid.

The Third Session….  Timothy Watson (aka Rob Tichener of The Archers) and Women’s Aid

In the final part of the afternoon the NFWI CEO Melissa Green led a discussion with Timothy Watson who played Rob Tichener in The Archers, and the Chair of Women’s Aid. For those of you who are unaware, following research commissioned by the WI in 2009 on violence towards women, in 2013 The Archers decided that they wanted to run a storyline on coercive control and, getting direction from Women’s Aid on how that would manifest, they ran the story in real time over the next couple of years showing Rob’s increasing dominance and violence towards Helen.  The on-stage discussion covered the realism of the plot and as well as how it raised public consciousness of coercive control which was key to passing the laws on coercion in 2015.

When asked what we could do to help, the Chair of Women’s Aid reminded us of Kirsty, Helen’s friend, who spotted the signs, listened to and supported Helen as much as she could and was key to getting her acquitted of stabbing him and finally released from prison. What she asked of us all is basically “Be More Like Kirsty” – keep our eyes open for the signs and believe the victims.

Going Home….

The meeting then wrapped up with a final goodbye from Anne Jones, the outgoing chair, another rousing rendition of Jerusalem followed by the National Anthem and everyone departing for all corners of the country.

Amy and I left together buzzing. We only stopped talking about the day briefly when I was introduced to Wasabi, a hot food franchise, at Kings Cross Station (and thank heaven that Amy still has little children so always carries baby wipes and could clean the table before we ate) but the conversation went on until we parted ways at Grantham station.

A brilliant day and we would both encourage you all to go to the next face to face Annual Meeting
– and remember, bobby socks are in!