President: Celia Clark

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 hold these evenings as “Open Meetings” so that friends may come along too.  See our 2011 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.

Pilton WI have been very successful in WI local quiz evenings. We have a keen quiz team who amaze many of us with their breadth of knowledge. Some Pilton WI members also sing with the South Mendip Choir. Most of our members also work hard in employment or full-time retirement!

We have a well established bi-monthly Lunch Group.  Piton WI (like many other WIs) are particularly keen on making delicious food to eat and eating out! We alternate our Lunch Group with Coffee and Chat mornings. These too are very popular and we regularly have more than half our members attending. We welcome non members to all our events. This is an ideal way of meeting us informally and getting a feel for the organisation.

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 making cakes and sandwiches for the Pilton Show teas. Some of our members ‘man’ stalls on Show day.

December 2010 saw the WI revive carol singing around the village. We encouraged and cajoled 28 singers, including some men and children (who clearly were not WI members!) to take part and covered most of the village in two groups. The village raised £200 for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance. The feedback from the villagers has been very positive so we are planning to repeat this again in 2011.

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.

We are starting 2011 with what promises to be an inspiring talk from Pilton’s own Annie Maw who has been Somerset’s High Sheriff. Our programme is compiled by Nicky who has taken into account members interests that they identified in their annual questionnaire. We have a varied programme with something for everyone.

Above all Pilton’s W.I. offers friendship and we look forward to the day when, once again,  we have 43 members as we did in 1947 when Pilton W.I. was founded.