Welcome to 2025 with a new year and a new programme for MWG – rebels with a cause and a cuppa. The cuppa? That can have whatever you wish in it. The cause? To combat loneliness and provide affordable (and sometimes even free) evening and days out for the women of Merstham to meet each other for entertainment, education and enjoyment. Whether you want a night away from partners and children or you’re on your own and want to meet like-minded friends you haven’t met yet, then do come along. We’d love to meet you.
If you’re a regular member, we hope you enjoy some of the events on this year’s programme. If you’ve not met us before and have been watching online or from the sidelines, we do understand in can be daunting to walk into a room full of strangers on your own. Feel free to send an email or respond to this blog in the comments. I am sure we can arrange for one or two of our group to meet or speak with you in advance to make your visit a welcoming one. A friendly face can make all the difference.
I hope you all had a good Christmas – it seems a long time ago now. We had a fabulous get together for our party on 10th December – Claire and the committee provided some lovely soup, wine and cakes to share – we had such a good chat we didn’t get time for the quiz! The soup and the mulled wine were amazing. Definitely a night to repeat.
Looking forward to 2025, we have a full programme of events for our Tuesday night meetings. Talks, walks, crafts and social events with food. There should be something for all – we’ve held our prices for 2025 - £24 for the year or £3 per meeting.
Our first meeting of 2025 is our AGM followed by a social. We will try and keep the formal meeting as short as we can for time to mingle and chat afterwards, but we would like to hear your thoughts and views. Would you like a say in how your group is run? We encourage you to consider joining the committee at this meeting, don’t worry, you won’t be expected to stand for chair. The meetings are very chilled and laid back - we’d love to see some newer members on the committee – of course we have the usual roles of Chair, Treasurer and Secretary – slightly terrifying and responsibility filled (honestly, they’re really not Liz! Stop scaring people!) but there are other posts too – deputies to all the above and without portfolio roles as well .
Meetings are monthly and give you the chance to suggest Tuesday meetings and perhaps offer to organise or help with weekend and evening events outside our usual meeting schedule. All roles are fully supported by the members who are remaining on the committee, so you won’t be thrown in at the deep end. In all honesty, the committee are a lovely group of ladies and we’d love extra support – nothing particularly onerous – just a helping hand and support in organising events to keep our programme fabulous. We would love to welcome you.
Looking forward February, for those of a crafting nature, Debbie will be a running a paper folding workshop on 11th. Make an old book into something beautiful. Don’t worry if you’re not too crafty minded, just come along and join us for a cup of tea. Have a go and you may discover a crafting talent you never realised you had.
In March we’re hosting Lizzie Maskie who will talk to us about foraging – learn how to pick tasty and safe treats from hedgerows. In this day and age of doctors and scientists telling us to avoid ultra processed food it will be fascinating to learn about reconnecting with nature for a wholesome and varied diet for free. You never know what’s growing in your garden that could add spice and flavour to your food. Later talks include speakers about the history of crosswords, practical gardening tips and 30 years in aluminium tubes. In June we’ll a change of venue and take a bus trip or drive for a walk around Priory Park with a trip to pilgrims’ brewery for a drink at the end. Full details nearer the time.
Our usual weekly craft and social meetings at the Merstham hub are still taking place on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Free tea and coffee are currently available there during the week until the end of March. Hopefully a contract will soon be awarded for hot food to be served there soon.
We have a very active book club – please contact the committee for further details or to be added to the WhatsApp group if you’re interested in joining. We also now have a ‘nights out’ WhatsApp group – mainly aimed for theatre and cinema visits locally and further afield. We can also run pub evenings, open garden events and other trips of interest.
When we have dates for local summer fairs we will publish those. These are always a lovely occasion to promote our group to Merstham and sell jam to raise money for the club, which will in turn pay for interesting speakers and our Christmas party. We’re also hoping to run a Ceilidh with the CoHorts band in conjunction with St Katherines at Merstham village Hall during the year. This will be a fun event for families and friends – more details to follow.
We look forward to seeing you at meetings throughout the year.
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