January 12th meeting:
We have two speakers at the January meeting. First is a short talk by Dr Briony Latter of Bath University about Climate Change and Social Transformation. This will be followed by our main speaker, Michelle Michaelis, who will be talking about Spies. Suffragettes and Stewardesses.
Also at this meeting will be voting on the National WI Resolutions for this year (see at end of this post). Committee members will introduce each resolution, and voting taken by then members a show of hands. Please note that a) only members can vote, and b) you can only vote once.
Our charity:
We were due to present a cheque to Emma from Velindre, but unforeseen circumstances have postponed this until our next meeting on March 9th.
We will also vote on our new charity next meeting. The short list is: RNLI, Salvation Army, Parkinson’s UK Cymru, Crisis and Banardo’s.
Many thanks to all members for your contributions to our charity fundraising.
Information
Link to the Glamorgan Newsletters.
MyWI site (registration and log in required)
Groups:
Book Group: Wednesday 11th February / 11.00 am / La Cucina da Mara
Family History: Monday 23rd February / 2.00 pm / 113 Pantbach Road
Poetry and Prose Group: Monday 23rd February / 10.45 am
The Ark coffee bar, Ararat / Topic: love
Craft Group: Monday 16th February / 2 pm / 18 Heol Stradling
St Mary's Gardens: Tuesday 3rd March / 10 – 12
Following meeting:
Next meeting: Monday 9th March in Ararat Church Hall, Whitchurch Common, 2 pm.
Speaker singer : Christine Purkiss – Gilbert and Sullivan
WI Resolutions 2026
1. Accessible public toilet facilities to promote dignity, health, and social inclusion.
This resolution is a call for accessible, clean, free public toilets which are fundamental to inclusion and wellbeing, especially for women, older people, disabled individuals, parents and carers. It invites WI branches to take meaningful action—through advocacy, partnership, and community engagement—to support local authorities and civil society in reversing the closure trend and ensuring dignity for all.
2. Action on women’s homelessness.
The NFWI echoes the calls of homelessness charities and urges all levels of government to take action to reduce women’s homelessness, reduce the number of women at risk of homelessness, and improve the quality of temporary accommodation. We call on WI members to support homelessness organisations in their communities and campaign to ensure that all women have a place they can safely call home.
3. Every child needs a friend.
We call on all WI members, the care system, and government to raise awareness of the independent visitor system for children in care in order to increase the number of volunteer Independent Visitors and the children in the care system who are befriended by them. We want every child in care to be offered the opportunity to have an adult figure in their life who chooses to spend a few hours a month with them.
4. Nearer to Nature.
There is a growing body of evidence that getting closer to nature is of great benefit to physical and mental health as well as to the environment. This is called ‘green health’. We call on WI members to work locally to improve access to local green spaces and support others to access it too. We call on health promotion services to increase public awareness of the use and benefits of ‘green health’, and health and care commissioners to support ‘green social prescribing’ in every GP practice.
5. Love Your Vulva.
Self-checking is your best defence against vulval cancer. Self-checking your vulva is important in ensuring the earlier detection of vulval cancer and to enhance survival chances. We call upon WI members to work together to raise awareness of the importance of self-checking and seeking medical advice as early as possible, to help highlight this rare cancer to GPs to promote prompt referrals to medical specialists when needed.
