PRESIDENT Eileen Mills welcomed members and our guest, Alison Lynas from Deepcut and Frimley WI, to the meeting. We were asked to remember Mrs Sweet and Mr Perrin, who had both passed recently whilst singing Jerusalem. 

After concluding the Institute’s general business we were able to relax and learn about our event for the evening. We did not have a speaker this month, but our ever inventive programme designers, Joan and Sue Allen had come up with a cunning plan. Several members had mentioned that although they recognised people and had brief chats, they did not really “know” other members. So, to put this right we were going to have a Speed Dating evening.

The chairs were set in a semi-circle and we were instructed that those on the outside would remain seated, whilst those on the inside would move anti-clockwise round the room. After five minutes a bell would ring and we moved on to the next table. There was some trepidation to start with. What questions should we ask? How personal would this get? What secrets would we uncover?

Thankfully, Sue was well prepared and had provided a list of questions to get us started Such as “What is your favourite colour, and why”; “What is your earliest memory?” and many others. We soon got into the swing of it and the decibel level mounted steadily, as did the laughter.

We discovered so much about each other. For instance, one member who had reluctantly come to Thornbury from Manchester about 30 years ago had scandalised her neighbours by inviting them – then complete strangers – to a house warming party. Another member who had lived in the area all her life had happy memories of family picnics down on the bank; yet another member who had also moved to the area with her husband’s work and had never intended to stay but was still here 30 years later; whilst two more members discovered they had attended the same infant school.

Thanks to Sue’s great idea we discovered what a diverse lot our members are with fascinating backgrounds and lots of stories to tell.  Hopefully we can repeat the Speed Dating experiment in future, and who knows what else we shall discover about each other.