to consider joining the W.I.?

[DoraBelvedon]

Delightful lady I know vaguely asked if I'd like to join. Should I? Do they frown on swearing?

no idea but you could exercise a bit of restraint...

what is involved?

I would like a shot if we had one. Jam etc right up my country lane. Go and subtly introduce swearing, it may change them forever.

they have monthly meetings with speakers and everything. And I can make chute. Just worried that I may say fuck without thinking about it.

My Mum has been to Argentina, India and just booked a holiday to Jordan and Israel with the WI, so the only thing I'd say, is if you're after the jam making and Victoria Sponges you'd be better off elsewhere.

Wish I was in Britain to join!

I'm secretary of one of our local WI's and i'm only 27.

We swear....alot.

I would try a few different branches to see what they are like as we are all different.

For our last meeting we had the head of the resus unit from the local hospital do a CPR talk, and we have salsa dancing planned for the new year.

I'm about to join a mothers club. Figure I can go for 6 months and only wasted 12 hours of my life if I don't like it.

I swear too much too

That's a question I always wanted the answer to.....now I know that swearing is allowed, I just need to check whether I have to a)own a twinset b) wear it or c) neither of the above

oh, and see if there is a WI in my area.

Oh don't get me wrong, there are still some WI's that sing Jerusalem at the beginning of the meeting, ring a bell when people start talking out of order etc etc. But then there are a lot of WI's being started by younger women like our group.

I definetly don't own a twinset either!

DoraBelvedon But what is chute? You have really got me curious now.

Our local WI go on day trips to seemingly respectable and educational places... but rush round them so that they can get to the restaurant for the piss up meal.

On their summer trip the driver stopped the bus and asked them to stop being so rowdy as he couldn't concentrate on driving

Would definitely join if we had the militant wing in our area! Waiting to move so that I can!

We started a WI about a year ago where I live and it's now one of the biggest in the country. I think lots of them have moved on from the old fashioned "jam and Jerusalem" image - we are quite a young WI and have quite a lot of fun with wine as well as tea on offer. I think that your WI is very much what you make it and want it to be. Anyway, I can recommend it :)

PMSL at the idea of a bus load of WIs being so rowdy a driver couldn't concentrate [hgrin]

I thought about it at one point, as there are a few branches around here. But I'm convinced I'll be the youngest member by about 500 years...

I would...it's "younger" these days...I can't get a bloody babysitter to go to or meetings...I considered joining the Mothers Union as I liked their charitable affairs...but then found out you had to be baptized and I'm not! Boo!

Is it really younger. My mum's WI is still full of retired ladies.

5foot5 I think she means Chutney!

Our one is young choufleur...it's one of the Cheshire ones...there was an article in our local paper and the oldest looked about 45...the average age seemed about 34 or so...

Oh I'd love to join but not sure where to find one...I'm in Durham. Do they even have them Up North?

How can I find out the average age for my local group. It seems a bit rude to phone up and ask? Also do you all still sing Jerusalem?

This is the site for our WI - it's kind of a work in progress so needs some updating but it will give you an idea of some of the things we do. Westcliff WI

Just go choufleur! If they're all crumbly you can not go back! Turn up....smile....be pleased to meet them all and then never return...unlesss you get one of the young piss-uppy type groups...then you can return!

choufleur, i would suggest ringing your county's federation headquarters. They should be able to direct you to an appropriate WI without you having to phone up all the ones in your area.

We don't sing Jerusalem, i don't think any of us know the words to it!

Average age for our group is 30-40, we have some uni students joining soon so i won't be the youngest anymore.

Chutney [hgin] crap spelling and keyboard.

age range of local one is 24 to 87. i'm somewhere in the middle. quite fancy pissed trips to argentina.

ForMashGetSmash Oh damn! Do you think so? I made chutney once out of some green tomatoes that completely refused to ripen and it was so awful we ended up throwing it away.

I was imagining something more closely related to a parachute, bearing in mind the games my DD used to play at TumbleTots.

Given the post, I have been trying to imagine a scenario where you are so intent on "making chute" that you accidentally say "fuck". Perhaps if the floors were really slippy.

One of my long lost friends from school (you know the ones you have on facebook to be nosey) put on her status that she was just back from WI I was but maybe I'll check out our local one reckon they may be the jam and jerusalum type - I live very much in middle england..