VICE chairman Sheila Kempster welcomed 43 members and a visitor to the January meeting of the Guild and was pleased to welcome Jean Thorogood back with the Guild after illness. Jean thanked members for their good wishes, cards and flowers.

Minutes of the previous meeting were approved and correspondence dealt with. A vote was taken on the Federation Jubilee Lunch, the majority of members preferring a two course meal. The tombola raised 48.50.

Sheila Kempster welcomed Maggie Whitbread as our speaker, who spoke to us of her Australian Adventures. As an international athletics coach she had been asked by Olympic athlete Kathy Freeman if she would go to Australia to train other Aboriginal athletes to become coaches. This proved to be not an easy task and Maggie described it with much humour and many colourful photographs. She also showed us photographs of other places she had visited including Bangkok and the Great Barrier Reef. She also answered questions from the audience, including a question about daughter Fatima’s appearance on I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here.

A vote of thanks was given by Yvonne Lauder and the competition, on an Australian theme, was won by Dorothy Boral.

Our next meeting is on February 22 at 1.30pm. which will be our AGM – come along and help to form your committee for the coming year.

The subject of our speaker will be recycling and the competition Your Photograph as a Teenager.