The 2024 NFWI Annual Meeting was held on 5th June at the Royal Abert Hall. Elaine (WINK Rayleigh President), Debra and Kerry attended in person. Elaine was also the link delegate and took part in the voting of the resolution. More than 5,000 delegates attended the meeting, both in person and virtually.
Ann Jones, NFWI Chair, gave her third and final address as she stepped down from her role after the meeting. Highlights from Ann’s address include:
- We have seen over 24,200 new members in the 2023-2024 year, our strongest year of recruitment, and a total of 82,000 new members in the last three years.
- We now have 17 virtual WIs with approximately 500 members.
- We have 7 WIs in women’s prisons and the NFWI continues to work to overcome the many challenges faced, restarting their vital work to help these WIS.
- The NFWI have developed and improved many resources which are available to all WIs, including:
- The launch of the NFWI Podcast in April 2024 which to date has had over 1,500 downloads
- A review of the WI Handbook
- New member recruitment videos on the NFWI website
- Many new and updated training resources which are available to all federations
- We have an increased presence at Pride events across the country.
- Attended many national events to raise the WI’s profile, including attending Stylist Live and the Happy Place Festival.
- The NFWI has updated its policies, including the introduction of new health and safety and safeguarding policies.
- The introduction of a menopause policy for NFWI staff.
- February 2024 saw a formal review of the NFWI Constitutions, which is only carried out every 10 years.
- A new inclusion and advisory boards to help continue the NFWI’s work towards “we are for all women”.
- A thank you to Denman College and all that it provided the WI and its members for so many years.
- The WI Learning Hub, launched in January 2024 and offers unlimited free education to all members, a continuation of the Denman legacy and the WI’s objective to offer education opportunities to all its members.
- To date, over 3,800 members attend WI Learning Hub courses each month
- Over 6,000 course bookings are made each month
- 54 different courses are available monthly
- Due to launch in October 2024, due to the sale of Denman, a new grant funding scheme has been set up to offer £150,000 in grants of up to £10,000 will be available to federations for training purposes. More details about the grants will be available soon.
- A new WI Lottery will launch on WI Day, 16th September. This lottery will raise fund and support many charities. Details of the lottery will follow in late summer.
The Treasurer’s address included details on the NFWI’s state of accounts, the full report has been made available to all federations. Also:
- A new ‘donate’ button has been added to the NFWI website to make informal donations easier.
- A request for members to consider leaving a legacy donation in their wills.
- The appointment of a new fundraising manager for NFWI to support at all levels across the organisation.
- Fund from the new WI Lottery will be distributed across all three tiers of the organisation, with the majority being allocated to WIs and Federations.
- Full year end accounts and financial reports for NFWI can be requested from your local federation.
The Resolution
The 2024 resolutions is: Dental Health Matters – There is a chronic shortage of NHS dentists and people are suffering health issues as a result. The NFWI calls on the Government to increase investment in the training and retention of dentists and to review the current inadequate NHS contracts in order to ensure everyone can access an NHS dentist wherever they live.
The resolution was proposed, seconded and discussed, then voted on by the delegates and was passed by a 95.53% majority.
We had several guest speakers:
Nazir Afzal OBE, Former Chief Prosecutor, Chancellor of the University of Manchester, Chair of Hopwood Hall, Chair of CSSA spoke on the Annual Meeting’s theme of No More Violence Against Women from an expert prosecution and law perspective. Nazir gave his personal account of many of the high profile cases he prosecuted and the action he and his colleagues continue to take against all forms of violence against women and girls. It was a highly emotional and deeply touching address which at times left us all speechless. Nazir was thanked with a spontaneous standing ovation, a rarity from the WI.
Melanie Brown, former Spice Girl and current patron of Women’s Aid, was interviewed in a fireside chat by journalist, newsreader and broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire on the theme of violence against women and domestic abuse. Melanie spoke passionately and eloquently about her personal experience of an abusive and coercive marriage, how she left that relationship and how she has and continues to rebuild her life. Melanie urged us all to recognise the signs of coercive abuse and to offer support to anyone who may need help. Melanie also emphasised the work of Women’s Aid in supporting abuse survivors and referred us to her petition on the Women’s Aid website for the Judicial College to commit to compulsory ongoing training, and the government to implement the recommendations of the Harm Panel Report. View and sign the petition here.
NFWI’s Melissa Green interviewed Timothy Watson, former actor on BBC’s The Archers, and Teresa Parker from Women’s Aid spoke about the work they did in bringing domestic abuse to the public’s awareness through The Archers’ Rob Titchener character. Teresa worked with Timothy and the script writers to develop the story and the accurate portrayal of domestic abuse over the 4 year long storyline. They both spoke about the impact the storyline had on the awareness of domestic abuse and how since then other popular soaps have also worked with Women’s Aid to develop their own storylines to continue bringing domestic abuse awareness to their audiences, and how this subject is much more widely spoken about than it was before.
The meeting closed with the singing of Jerusalem (also sung at the start of the meeting), Land of My Fathers, and the National Anthem, all accompanied by the Royal Albert Hall’s magnificent organ, the sound of all three was simply amazing to hear.
