THE President Margaret Coulson welcomed 28 members and one visitor to the meeting on April 9. It was pleasant coming out whilst still light heralding longer days.

Mary is again organising the competition and pennies for ACWW to be put in a pot this time.

The minutes of the last meeting were on the top table for anyone to read.

An unfortunate misunderstanding on how to apply has meant the outing to Highgrove will not take place this year, members will try again next year; most disappointing.

Jo advised that £215.30 profit for funds had been made from providing lunch for the Schools Mock Trials held recently in Hereford. Thanks given to Jo and her team.

HFWI - March 21 – Federation Quiz at Ledbury – one of our teams came second and went through to the final on April 3 where the questions were more difficult and tied eight with three teams scoring 45 points, a credible result as the winning team Bosbury scored 51.

There are no new outings in the Newsletter – please read for information.

NFWI – updates received on Campaigns and 2012/13 Annual Review.

Inspiring Women day held at Three Counties March 14 was excellent attended by Margaret and Jenny. The presentations were good and the overall message was that WI is about friendship.

The speaker for the evening was a return visit from Jan Long who talked on The Life of Gertrude Bell illustrated with slides. Gertrude was born into the rigours of Victorian society in 1868 to a wealthy family of ironmasters in New castle upon Tyne. She grew up clever, astute and keenly intelligent attaining a first-class degree in History at Lady Margaret Hall College, Oxford. Adventure beckoned and she travelled the world. An accomplished writer, mountaineer and linguist, she went onto explore Syria through archaeology and took many photos of local tribes and was accepted by them. In the turmoil after World War One she was, as an Arabic speaker, reader and writer, involved in the setting up of Iraq working with T E Lawrence and even advising Churchill and taking the minutes at the Cairo conference of 1921 where Prince Faisal was proclaimed King of Iraq. Gertrude stayed and helped set up the new museum in Iraq. She died only 58 on July 12, 926 very mysteriously and is buried in Baghdad; a most exceptional woman of her age.

Jan Long’s extensive and thorough research on Gertrude Bell, resulted in an exhibition in various locations, one being held in the Houses of Parliament.

Refreshments were then served and members again reminded and encouraged to enter items for our August Competition. Birthday posies were then given out to two members, the competition for a travel tip was one by Jenny Treasure and next month’s meeting will be on the resolution on Organ Donation as outlined in the WI Life magazine.

Writers Circle – April 10 at Brenda’s Craft Group – May 8 at Mary’s.

Luncheon Club – April 30 at Countrywide.

The meeting finished at 9.15pm