Introduce yourself
My name is Louise Pitman and I am president and founding member of the Tilly WIdgets in Farnborough, Hampshire. We formed in April 2014 so still very new but have had a great first year so far and what a fabulous time to join the WI, in time for the centenary. I wanted to join the WI to feel more connected to my community, so set about finding a WI with like minded women. In the course of my job as a Senior Probation Officer I give talks about the Criminal Justice System to various community groups, mostly WIs so thought that would give me a good chance of finding the one for me. There appears to have been an insurgence in recent years of women wanting to join the WI and therefore, I was met with long waiting lists. I could wait to join the right one or, start a WI myself. Within 6 weeks I had found a hall, cajoled 6 friends and acquaintances to give talks and recruited two friends as the requisite 3 people to start a WI! The Tilly WIdgets were born.
Why did you become a member of the WI?
Our name comes from a famous and inspiring Farnborough aviator, Beatrice Shilling, known as Tilly. During the second world war she developed a "widget" to prevent aircraft stalling in a dive bomb manouver. Dawn one of our original three came up with the name and had the abriged story of it published in WI Life in 2014, the full version of the story can be found on our website www.tillywidgetswi.co.uk
How would you sum up your WI?
Our WI is perhaps what you would call a modern WI, we have had some really thought provoking speakers so far. We have a wide age range of members our youngest is 26 and what is really magical is the way young and old engage and inspire each other. We try to appeal to all ages and interests but predominantly we have talks about current affairs and as we move forward want to make an impact on each other and our community. We have an exciting new craft group starting for 2015.
Why would you encourage other women to get involved in the WI?
Never, it would seem, has there been a better time to join the WI and i'd encourage all women of any age to get involved. Certainly for the Tilly WIdgets fun is the order of the day and whilst we are still a very new WI some very strong bonds have been formed.
What are you most looking forward to as part of the WI centenary in 2015?
We have been working with our group members to plan for the centenary with a screening of the AGM at a local cinema. We have not had the opportunity to be too involved in the baton locally as Hampshire is a big area and it is quickly passing through. We are planning a special centenary celebration of our own by organising a barn dance in September with husbands and children invited along for a good old knees up!