OUR March meeting featured an interesting illustrated talk about the work of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance by Jim Luff, who was welcomed by the president, Sara Gillott.

He explained that the current method of operation, with a base in Devizes and support from the police, covered daily provision of 19 hours flying availability from shifts worked by two crews.

In the near future the arrangement to share the helicopter with police will change and the air ambulance is currently awaiting a new Bell 429 helicopter.

The helicopter is funded by corporate finance, a charity shop in Westbury and many fundraising activities.

A question and answer session followed and Mr Luff was thanked by Sara and given a donation to the service from members.

We had our annual meeting in April when officers for the coming year were elected and accounts adopted.

Sara stood down as president and as there were no nominations for a successor, Doreen Gordon, the existing vice-president agreed to take on the role.

Irene Clayton and Jenny May were re-elected as secretary and treasurer respectively, and gave their reports.

Maggie Woolford and Jane Kelly were elected to join the committee and Nicky Bailey stood down.

Sara and Nicky were thanked for all their hard work and presented with flowers.

Sara will continue to maintain the website and Ann, Kathy and Gill will continue with their meet and greet, raffle and publicity work.

After the official business, members enjoyed playing old fashioned games such as dominoes and tiddlywinks and tried, less successfully, to demonstrate their skills with hula hoops.

On May 7 we will be having our birthday party with guests from other WI groups together with a talk on Traditional Canal Boat Painting.

New Members are very welcome.

Details of our activities can be found at newsarumwi.co.uk.