LOTS of lists, this is what confronted members of Chipping Sodbury WI at their February meeting, taken by Joint President Ann Hinton.

There are so many activities in the pipeline, ranging from our annual skittles social evening on March 16, to places available for a day’s shopping in Oxford on May 15.

The only effort at this meeting was to find the appropriate list and add one’s name to it.

The book club has vacancies at the moment and names were taken from people who would like to form a monthly evening craft group.

Volunteers were sought to act as models for the fashion show at our April meeting.

We’re having mixed fortunes in the Avon Federation competitions – the darts team had failed to get into the next round, but our skittles team are still in with a chance. Our speaker for the evening was Mark Austin, who told us the story of how he discovered blind sailing. As a result of a road traffic accident twenty-three years ago he had joined the two million blind and partially sighted people in this country. He had raced yachts before the accident but assumed that he wouldn’t be able to take up the sport again.

Then he heard of Blind Sailing Week when yacht owners give up their own yachts to accommodate blind and partially sighted people. He hasn’t looked back since and was invited to train and race with the Great Britain Blind Sailing Team, around Cowes and Lake Windermere.

Over the years he has won a number of medals and, as well as taking part in the Blind UK Nationals in October, he has been included in the team to race in both Greece and the USA later this year. The participants are governed by normal race rules but they use acoustic buoys (which emit a pitch for port and a tone for starboard) and have a strict, timed, warning of where and when the boom will swing when tacking or jibbing. Although he can’t read music Mark raises money for the organisation, which is a charity, by busking with his saxophone.

Our March meeting will be at 7.30 pm on Thursday, March 2 at Chipping Sodbury Town Hall, when the title of the talk will be Benefits, Brass and the Girtest, Grandest day. Sounds interesting. Visitors will be warmly welcomed.