Our president, Pearl Prior, opened the meeting on April 13 at 2.15pm, when she gave a warm welcome to visitors and members alike, and thanked Beattie Denning for the lovely flower arrangement.

Then four birthdays and three diamond wedding anniversaries were announced. So an iced cake was presented to the three ladies who were celebrating their very special wedding anniversaries.

Next, Dorothy Radford, our secretary, gave a report about the recent council meeting at Malvern, attended by 12 members from our institute.

She said that the speakers were excellent and very entertaining, particularly, Nick Owen from BBC Midlands Today.

Pearl informed the members that, while at the council meeting, Suzanne Owen, our retiring Federation Chairman, presented her with two certificates, one from national and the other from county, to celebrate our institute's 75th birthday, which was a pleasant surprise.

Our members were also told about forthcoming events, including Nightingales fashion show, to be held at our institute from 7.30pm tonight (Wednesday).

After that, Pearl introduced our speaker, Marion Canning, one of our only 20 lady toastmasters, who gave an excellent talk about her job, when she officiated at dinners, as well as lots of weddings, regaling the members of when matters went slightly awry..! And she was even described by one lady as being the 'doorman'!

Finally, Pearl closed the meeting after thanking Mrs Canning for a most interesting talk.

The next meeting will be held on May 11 at 2.15pm.