President: Sylvia Borthwick

Secretary: Maureen Tofts

all enquiries to 890332

Pilton is a small Institute with a membership between twenty and thirty. This does have disadvantages in that we are not a rich Institute but, on the other hand, we all know each other well and it is easy for new members to meet and make new friends! We meet in the Village Hall on the third Monday of each month at 7.30 pm.

We aim for our monthly meetings to be varied and to be informal and friendly.  When we have a speaker booked we often hold these evenings as “Open Meetings” so that friends may come along too.  See our 2010 Diary for “What’s On” this year.

Each month, members celebrating a personal birthday, receive a birthday posy beautifully made by Sue.  Even in the depths of winter when fewer flowers are available, she always produces pretty posies from her garden flowers and shrubs.

As an Institute, we are thoroughly committed to the village community as a whole, and are not entirely self-interested. Our members have a very wide range of interests and are involved in at least nine other village organizations including the Parish Council, the Parochial Church Council and the Pilton History Group to name but a few. Each year we enjoy being involved in making the cakes and sandwiches for the Pilton Show teas and in the past members have joined in the village litter-pick.

We are also committed to wider WI activities particularly at Group and County level. We have our own Institute bursary, which is used by members to attend Denman College. This is the WI’s Adult Education College near Oxford. The college runs approximately 350 courses, both day courses and short residential courses, where members can learn anything from Belly Dancing for Beginners to Tchaikovsky – An Introduction (and almost anything else you can think of).

We play skittles with more enthusiasm than skill and participate in Scrabble matches, and WI Quiz evenings and, in the past, have been successfully dramatic in more senses than one!  Many of Pilton WI members are also members of the South Mendip Choir.

This year we have introduced bi-monthly Coffee and Chat mornings, held in a member’s house. The first of these in January this year was a great success. Despite the snow eight brave members trudged and slid their way to Top Street to have a choice of hot chocolate (with cream), coffee or tea. We caught up on each others Christmas and New Year news, as this was the first time some of us had ventured out due the snow. These Coffee and Chat mornings alternate with our established Lunch Group outings, where we go to a variety of local hostelries to sample the standard of their food (although we have decided that the chat is more important than the food).

This year we shall celebrate the Institute birthday by going out for a meal together at a local pub in June.  For our Christmas meeting members gather at the Pavilion bringing with them a dish of seasonal party food and a present.  Mulled wine is provided, presents are opened and the evening is finished with Christmas carols.

February 2010

February saw Pilton W.I. welcome Mrs Talbot for our "Winter Warm Up". She led us through exercises that got all our joints moving, so helping ward off the inevitable stiffness that starts to creep into your joints when you are not looking.

The photo shows us 'elegantly' exercising our shoulders and wrists although some may have been more elegant than others! The Secretary speaks for herself. The highlight was when we all had a small soft object to "pass under your right leg, swap hands, under your left leg, swap hands and pass it behind you back and on to the person sitting next to you". It sounds fairly simple but despite the excellent team work (as one would expect from Pilton W.I.) we had a few problems with this. The main one being endless howls of laughter and calls of "slow down". Apparently we weren't doing it to the fastest music. Somehow Jean ended up with three objects and, twice, Nicky ended up with none. There was some outstandingly accurate throwing of spare objects across the room when yet another member ended without anything in their hand. Our ball bouncing too was of a high standard, no doubt due to many drawing on previous experience of being with or having children and grandchildren.

JANUARY 2010

Some of the ladies of Pilton W.I. who braved the snow to go to the January coffee morning 2010