Our April meeting was another busy one! We had a good turn out and returning guests too.

We had a raffle run by Maureen.

Our “Competition of the Month’ was a photo competition with the theme  ‘What Makes You Happy’. People voted for their favourite photo with silver coins which are donated to ACWW. The competition was won by Jayne with the gorgeous photo of her granddaughters.

We were treated to a wonderful display of entries from the Group Show so all members could see the beautiful items and also the actual cups won.

Evelyn, Kim and Carole congratulated members for their Group Show entries and talked about the New Forest Show schedule. We will be running a variety of workshops and Kim asked members to consider entering the different categories which can be found here. The dates of the workshops and Craft Group Sessions can be found here.

We also had a talk by Claire Sherwood from The New Forest Park Authority about her work as a Ranger in The New Forest.  She is one of four rangers as the Park is divided into four areas.   The New Forest National Park was set up in 2005. The Park is 220 square miles.  Most of her work is education both in schools, youth groups and being hands on in The  Forest educating visitors for example about not feeding or touching the ponies and donkeys and to respect the speed limits on the roads.  The rangers work with “ operation Mountie” – working with the Police with speeding issues.  Last year there were 44 deaths of animals on the roads and 19 injured.  Reflective collars have been effective in the dark.

Her work depends on the seasons.  She will go out with the mobile units, visiting car parks, schools, campsite and establishments such as Foxlease in Lyndhurst,  educating the general public.  

There is a New Forest Code which includes not feeding or petting the New Forest animals and NO barbecues allowed in The Forest.  All the barbecue sites have been removed. Public Space Protection Orders are being implemented from July and fines of up to £1000 will be issued to those feeding or petting the New Forest animals and lighting barbecues or fires.

At the moment car parks are shut in areas where there are ground nesting birds.  The Curlew is on the red list of endangered birds so it is essential that they are left to breed. There are red signs to warn visitors of areas to avoid and orange signs to show where to stick to the paths as the survival rate of chicks is very low due to predation and disturbance. You can find out more about the Curlews here.

Elaine told us about a walk and refreshments being planned on Thursday 22nd June to raise money for ACWW. Members can do the walk and stay for refreshments and non-walkers will be welcome to join us after the walk for refreshments too. There will be a sign-up sheet at the May meeting and further details and location will be available.

Elaine also talked about our AGM which will take place on Monday 15th May. She told us that Evelyn has agreed to stand as President as no-one else had volunteered. This means that Brockenhurst WI can continue for the coming 12 months, so huge thanks go to Evelyn for volunteering to take on this role.

Elaine asked for volunteers to helps us organise the Brockenhurst Group Social which will take place on Wednesday 4th October at 7pm. This will be for WI members from Barton Bees, Sway, Mew Milton Sands and Brockenhurst WI. Please email Elaine if you can help with this.

There were lots of sign-up sheets for the various activities that we offer and our diary dates page has details of these.

We also voted on whether Brockenhurst WI wish to support Greener Brockenhurst to become plastic free. The majority of members agreed to this and this means that we pledge to

-WORK TO REMOVE AT LEAST THREE SINGLE-USE PLASTIC ITEMS FROM OUR DAY TO DAY ACTIVITIES
-COMMIT TO INCLUDE OUR STANCE ON SINGLE-USE PLASTIC IN COMMUNICATIONS.
-RAISE AWARENESS AND SUPPORT PLASTIC FREE INITIATIVES IN THE COMMUNITY

Read about what you can recycle in The Recycle Shed which is situated in the car park at Brockenhurst Village Hall here.

Rita asked for continued help with bandage making for Ukraine.

Definitely a busy meeting!

Please do contact us if you have any questions about any of the above.

Thanks go to Jayne for taking the photos.