The last meeting of Grafton CWA was held on Friday, November 18.
The meeting was originally to be held on November 11 but was postponed so Grafton CWA members could attend past President Judy Richardson AM’s funeral. Grafton CWA, together with other North Coast CWA Group members and State President Joy Beames, formed a Guard of Honour. We held a minute’s silence at the meeting, to specially remember Judy.
Our President Janice welcomed Lana to the Grafton Branch, she has transferred from Sydney City CWA Branch.
The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted, and a Jacaranda morning tea report was given by Sharron. It was a very successful event, and we received a lot of great comments. Sharron also reported on the North Coast Group AGM held on October 19 and updated us on Branch correspondence. We discussed our Christmas lunch – this is to be held after the next meeting and the Cookery Committee is to organise the catering. Instead of having a Secret Santa, we will be giving donations to a flood appeal. Annette then presented the Treasurer’s report and updated us on the results of our Jacaranda morning tea and stalls.
Our Agriculture and Environment officer, Lesley, gave an interesting and informative talk about frogs and their importance in the ecosystem. Frogs are the most threatened animals on Earth. There are 240 species of frogs in Australia with many on the endangered list and frogs are looked upon as the glue that holds ecosystems together. The Cookery report was sent in by Narelle and read by Sharron in her absence. She thanked everyone for their demanding work with morning tea on Jacaranda Thursday. At the next meeting we are to discuss holding cookery mornings to learn new skills.
Lyn, our Cultural officer, gave out birthday presents to Cheryl and Jan, and members read out thoughts. The cultural items this month were our favourite books, and members showed their books and the reasons why they were special. Lyn also spoke about JADA (Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award), which is on at the Grafton Art Gallery until December 11. She read to the meeting a brief narrative about herself and hopes to encourage other members to do the same, so we can all learn about each other.
In Ruth’s Handicraft report, she thanked everyone for items made for the stall and thanked Trish for her donation of handmade items for us to sell. We are to think about our entries for 2023 competitions, the Branch item for next year is a needle case. Anne was thanked for her handicraft on the Jacaranda Float.
This was followed by Wendy our International officer, who talked about the national costume of Latvia, our country of study this year. She demonstrated the costume using a doll that she had dressed beautifully in Latvian costume and explained when this is worn and the significance of different items.
Anne, Publicity officer, told the meeting that there had been a lot of publicity since the last meeting. This included a Channel7 TV report about Jacaranda Thursday which featured our morning tea and stalls, and which also included a brief interview with Janice our President, about 100 years of CWA.
We discussed our Christmas stall, which is to be held on Thursday, December 1 at the Twilight Farmers Market in Market Square. We will be selling handicraft items, Christmas cooking and Christmas bush, so a good opportunity to prepare for Christmas. Thank you to members who have donated items to the kitchen and thank you to John McMahon who has replaced the tattered vinyl on one of the tables with a lovely wooden top.
The next meeting of Grafton Branch CWA will be on Friday, December 9 starting with morning tea at 9.30am, followed by the meeting at 10am. There will be no meeting in January, so the first meeting of 2023 will be on Friday, February 10.
Anne McLellan