
Wiltshire Federation of WIs – Annual Meeting 16th October 2021
Once again the Board of Trustees held the Annual Meeting on Zoom, due to City Hall being unavailable for hire. After introducing the team, the usual business followed; Chair’s and Treasurer’s reports, and a vote on Wiltshire becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. All issues subject to voting were passed unanimously.
We then had the pleasure of hearing how Tracy Daszkiewicz went from working for an HIV Charity to helping abused women, before going on to work as Director of Public Health with Wiltshire Council. In this last role she played a key part in the events in Salisbury following the Novichok poisonings. Tracy is currently Deputy Director of Population Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England in the South West and she has been very busy with a certain pandemic. She is an amazingly inspiring lady who we all felt told us a story that was so unusual it could have come out of Hollywood.

After a ten-minute break, during which photos from WIs across the county played on the screen, competition winners were announced. Amy Middleton won the craft competition and Kington Langley Scavengers won the scavenger hunt. The 50/50 draw then took place with a first prize of £150.

Our second speaker, Mary-Jess Leaverland, inspired us with her incredible determination and optimism. She explained how she went from being brought up by her mother in Gloucester to winning China’s version of the X Factor, all because a teacher told her she could not do Spanish because her French was not good enough. This young lady does not believe in taking notice of being told you cannot do something and her considerable achievements include fluency in Mandarin and a successful singing career. She has since become an Ambassador for Music representing Great Britain abroad. She kindly offered to all of us two free downloads of her recordings on her website https://www.mary-jess.com We were all moved by her incredible story.

The new Board of Trustees for 2021-2023 were introduced (they are on this website under Board of Trustees). Lesley Adam was extremely kind in thanking our Chair, then Lesley Holdway closed the meeting and played the recording of Jerusalem from the NFWI’s Centenary Meeting to end the meeting in the traditional style.
- Submitted by Lesley Holdway, Chair WFWI
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