On 21 July NFWI issued a statement to announce to WIs and Federations that it was proposed for Denman to close permanently. 

Any members with existing bookings will be contacted separately and will be refunded in full within 30 days of this announcement. You do not need to contact them to arrange this as you will be contacted directly by the team.

​Further information is available on MyWI. FAQs can be accessed here:

https://mywi.thewi.org.uk/nfwi-news/articles/denman-update

THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY AT 7.30 PM ON ZOOM

Dorothy Meekins (Federation Chair) invites all WI Secretaries to join her and the rest of the WI Adviser Team.

​

You may have burning questions, just need a bit of support or simply want to hear what other WIs are doing to survive.

Many of you may have cancelled or postponed your Annual Meetings during 2020 – and who would have thought we would still be in the same situation 12 months later.  The current lockdown means that even the Hybrid Virtual Annual Meetings have not been practical and the myriad of guidance coming from NFWI can appear confusing.

We would like as many Secretaries as possible to join us.  To register your interest email Kirsty at southyorksfed@gmail.com – you will be sent the Zoom entry codes nearer the date. ​

You will be aware that on 2nd July 2020, NFWI confirmed that there is a 3-month extension to this year’s membership subscription.   The next renewal date for membership subscriptions will be 1st April 2021.   And, from this point onwards, membership renewals will always be in April.  If you missed it, the NFWI notification can be found in the News Section of SYFWI Website (http://www.southyorksfedwi.org.uk/news.html)  This is how the pro-rata membership will work with the proposed new payment date:-   The pro-rata fees will remain the same,  members who join from January to March 2021 will pay the same rate as those who joined in the quarter 1 October to 31 December 2020. 

Members who join anytime between 1 October 2020 – March 2021 will pay the pro-rata subscription rate of £10.75 and their full membership will be next due for renewal in April 2021.  The distribution also remains the same.

But remember, as usual, the pro-rata subscription only applies to someone who is new to the WI or has not been a member in the last 10 years.

Hopefully this will help us to recruit new members.https://mywi.thewi.org.uk/essential-information/subscription-rates/faqs-membership-subscription-extension

wi SECRETARIES GET TOGETHER

EXTENSION of pro rata subscription into 2021

wi meetings

resolutions 2020

As the NFWI Annual Meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two resolutions due to be discussed were not able to be debated or voted on by delegates.

The NFWI Board of Trustees has decided that in these exceptional circumstances, the results of the shortlist selection process will be used as a proxy for the Annual Meeting vote.

​In the shortlisting selection stage, the two resolutions (stem cells and modern slavery) attracted a clear majority of selections from members (over 70%).

The NFWI Board felt that this was the most democratic means available to determine the outcome of this year’s resolution process taking into account time and resource constraints and the challenges of the current lockdown period. The Board also wanted to recognise the huge amounts of time and effort that members, WIs and Federations put into the resolutions process this year.

This means that the two resolutions have now been adopted by the WI, and members are free to campaign on these issues.

​​The resolutions are as follows:

A call to increase potential stem cell donor registration

There is an urgent need to increase the number of people registered on the aligned UK stem cell registry in order to provide potentially life-saving treatment to people of all ages with certain blood cancers. We call on all WI members to promote registration to the database to avoid people dying whilst waiting for a match.

​End Modern Slavery

There are tens of thousands of victims of modern slavery hiding in plain sight in the UK. Modern slavery has severe consequences for the health and mental wellbeing of survivors. The NFWI calls on the Government to protect victims of modern slavery in the first instance and deliver longer term support to help them rebuild their lives. We call on our members to raise awareness of the prevalence of modern slavery throughout society and to campaign to defeat it.

WIs will not need to consider how they wish to vote or to hold discussion events, but they are nevertheless encouraged to engage with and learn about the topics.
​

DENMAN

NEWS

MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS EXTENSION

SOUTH YORKSHIRE FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S INSTITUTES

The NFWI has been very concerned about the disruption this lockdown period has had on WI meetings and activities and your membership experience this year. We recently held consultations with all federations to discuss ways in which we can acknowledge this in our membership subscription this year.

We are delighted to share with you that as a result we are offering a three month extension to this year’s membership subscription. The next renewal date for membership subscriptions will therefore be 1st April 2021. In addition, from this point onwards, membership renewals will always be in April. This is to acknowledge the feedback many of you shared with us during the recent Strategic Vision consultation about the challenges of the January payment date and how you wished to see this changed in the future.

We have added full FAQs to My WI to help you understand a bit more about the process and how this will impact WIs. 

We know that many WIs have responded creatively to the practical challenges posed by lockdown and we continue to be inspired by the activities being delivered to ensure members remain connected during this difficult time. However, we do appreciate that this period has meant that many members have experienced disruption to their WI experience and therefore we hope the additional three months will provide some compensation to acknowledge the disruption.

We are aiming to ensure that this message reaches all members as soon as possible. As well as the formal notification to federations and this announcement on social media, there is a memo in the July WI Life magazine and a letter in the July WI mailing. We hope that by ensuring the message is consistent across all our channels of communications, it will reach all members; but please do ensure you share the news with all the members in your WI too.

All WI and Federation meetings with more than six people in attendance must be cancelled with immediate effect. The WI resuming meetings guidance is therefore suspended until further notice. We will re-issue it very soon with the new rules taken into account and with ideas on ways some face-to-face activity might be considered within the new guidance, so please keep an eye on social media and My WI for any updates. Some WI activities in groups of more than six may still be able to take place if they fall into the ‘organised team sports’ category, but we are exploring this further and will include it in our updated guidance. We are also carefully considering if any other WI activities, such as campaign actions and active charity work organised by the WI, falls into the exemptions. A decision on this point will be updated at a later date.

This also applies to AGMs/Annual Meetings, which we know many WIs have been planning for the upcoming month, in order to adhere to constitutional requirements. The new emergency temporary legislation and guidance from the Charity Commission has made provision to the end of this month for virtual and hybrid AGMs, but we know many of you were hoping to use the previous guidance and 30 people limit to deliver face-to-face events. Any face-to-face events planned will sadly have to be postponed to ensure adherence to the new guidance. Like us, the Charity Commission must also now review its guidance based on the Government update this week and we will update you as soon as this revised guidance is published. This guidance will include information on whether the emergency legislation will be extended to December to provide an opportunity for charities to continue to deliver virtual or hybrid AGMs while face-to-face gatherings are still prohibited.

if you are planning to organise breakout group meetings or multiple events for groups of six or less, please apply the usual health and safety guidance. Always remember to wash your hands, cover your face, and keep socially distanced. Further guidance and safety measures will follow from NFWI, but please do consider the safety of members first and foremost if organising any WI meet-up. Whilst these meetings do not constitute full WI meetings and therefore a risk assessment is not mandatory, we would encourage you to undertake a risk assessment for any activity you are planning even with smaller numbers.​