The President and members were absolutely delighted to hear this week that we had won the entries of the larger Institutes gaining 89½ marks out of 100. As a result Gt. Barton W.I. will represent Suffolk West in the National judging. A letter had been sent to the President from Pat Collinson, Suffolk West Federation Chairman which read as follows:

An excellent portfolio of a very full year in the life of Gt.Barton W.I. It scored highly in all areas but I was especially impressed with the additional activities and wider involvement shown by your members. Your entry is full of details and illustrated by good photographs, which make it a very professional record of your year. It is a worthy entry to represent Suffolk West.

In August 2006 the Board of Trustees of the National Federation of Women’s Institute launched an initiative to run throughout 2007. Institutes were invited to put together a portfolio to show the range of meetings, activities and involvement of members during 2007. It was pointed out that the overall impression given to the judges of the W.I. was important and various categories were to be included. The programme, learning activities, fun and friendship, looking after members, publicity, involvement in the local community, wider involvement with other W.I.s, our Suffolk West Federation, National Federation and International and funding and finance were the main categories. The following are some of the inclusions:

The 2007 programme was very varied from ‘Trade Justice & Fair Trade’ to ‘Work of the MacMillan Cancer Relief and from ‘Eat Your Heart out Delia’ to ‘Vestments’ 

Shirley Mills went to the W.I. Denman College to do a course on ‘Quilting’ whilst others went to the local Suffolk West H.Q. to do ‘card making’ to learn some French at Cafe Francais and ‘water colour painting’

The next two categories were particularly relevant to Gt. Barton, as no W.I. has members more committed to ‘fun and friendship and ‘looking after members’. Doris Sawyer is our ‘sunshine lady’ and many members were involved in helping to look after our dear friend and member, Margaret Horbury. The fun and friendship is found at every meeting and others participate in playing darts, mahjong, scrabble, table tennis, cribbage and going on walks.

We have two members on the West Suffolk Board of Trustees, Nancy Andrews and Jill Cooper and the W.I. has been involved in many of the West Suffolk activities. 3 years ago the National Needlework Archives compiled and recorded more than 9,000 pieces of textiles from nearly 4,500 W.I.s and we were delighted that our W.I. banner showing Bertuna was chosen in 2007 to be part of the ‘Textiles Exhibitions’ to be staged at Denman College and part of the ‘International Craft & Hobby Fairs’. This banner was made by members and presented in 1940 by the Hon. Mrs. Fleming to the Institute.

Nationally, we have also supported the Gt. Milk Debate for a fairer deal for our farmers, Fair Trade and a ‘water project’ in Africa

Gt. Barton members are always supporters of the local community in so many ways, but particularly supported the Village Hall Thanksgiving Fund in 2007 for refurbishments. The annual Plant Sale is always a fantastic ‘village morning’ and 2007 surpassed expectations. Like all W.I.s we have funding from part of the Annual subscription, but to be financially viable in 2007 we had the weekly ‘trading stall’, which included continued sales of our membership made notelets (paintings of flowers and photographs of the village) and coffee mornings.

Gt. Barton members felt at the beginning of the year that we should participate in this competition and after much hard work, gathering material, and photographs; the portfolio was collated and presented to the Suffolk West Federation to be judged in the larger W.I.s section. Beth Harris, Janet Hewson, Kate Trevitt were involved in the production and Jill Cooper did the collation and presentation. However, EVERY ONE of the 53 members contributed in one way or another and there was a final message from our President, Janice Campbell - and we are all looking forward to celebrating our 75th Anniversary in 2008.

Jill Cooper 7-5-08