THE Bude WI held its annual meeting on Tuesday, March 13, at the Methodist Church Hall.

This was attended by 82 members and one visitor. After the singing of Jerusalem the meeting continued with the announcement of forthcoming events. This included a trip to Eden and an opportunity to ‘Hang Loose’ on the zip wire. Some 15 members of the institute have signed up to conquer their fears and take the zip wire, one of the longest in the country, as their challenge to celebrate Bude WI’s 95th anniversary. This event is due to take place on April 16.

The treasurer, Ruth Pearce, then addressed the floor giving full details of income and expenditure, followed by the secretary, Carole Edwards, detailing many of the various speakers and events that had taken place during the year. The president, Cynthia May, then gave her address when she spoke of her pride and delight and Bude WI’s success at the Royal Cornwall Show and Holsworthy Show. She also thanked her hard working committee.

A vote of thanks was given to the retiring committee by Joan Lashbrook, and floral presentations were given to Margaret Reeve, Mary Hallett, Edna Steell and b, each of whom had stepped down from the committee.

Cynthia then announced the overall winners of the regular competitions; first the ‘Flower of the Month’ competition, and there were two joint winners, Jenny Dabbs and Joan, who were presented with the Mary Buse Trophy by Cynthia. Brenda Dunstan came 3rd.

The Silver Trophy for the monthly craft competition was presented to Carole, 2nd was Joan and 3rd Ruth.

The ‘Bude Bake Off’ is a quarterly baking competition with the winner receiving the Ruth Petherick Trophy. She donated this trophy to the Bude WI to encourage baking skills and presented it on the night. This year there were two joint winners, Eileen Harris and Janet Hillier.

Nominations for the 2018/19 committee had been taken at the February meeting. There were fourteen nominations; Lynn Geldart, Carol Sparham, Ruth Pearce, Jen Bond, Carole Edwards, Mamie Wildman, Eileen Harris, Cynthia May, Margaret Burch, Julie Grice, Teresa Tibbetts, Anna Whitsed, Irene Wildman and Joan Trewin. As this number of committee members is allowed under the constitution, all nominees were received into the committee without need for a vote. Kathy Reed, WI adviser, then took the chair and she supervised the nominations for president. There were five nominations but only one nominee agreed to stand. This being so Cynthia was named president of Bude WI for 2018/19 without a need for a vote.

Nominations were also taken for the Bude WI charity of the year. This has to be a local charity and as there were six nominated charities, a paper vote was taken. The winning charity was Bude Memory Café.

After a tea break with plenty of home made sausage rolls and cake, made for the members by their committee, the new committee had a brief meeting and Ruth was elected treasurer and Carole was elected secretary for the forthcoming year.

A brief address was then given by advisor Kathy, which included a video highlighting some of the 650 courses available at the WI’s own college, Denman.