THE first meeting of 2015 was held on January 5, and president, Kath Dunn, welcomed everyone back after the festive season.

Members were asked to vote on which of seven resolutions put forward from all over the country should be debated and adopted at the national WI AGM in June.

In addition, a resolution put forward by the Cheshire Federation on raising awareness of the safety and insurance issues surrounding mobility scooters was discussed and members voted unanimously to take this forward.

The speaker was Neil Smith who captivated the members with his recollections of visits to the USSR in the 1980s before the Iron Curtain fell.

His talk was interspersed with snippets of the history of Russia, along with renditions of beautiful Russian folk music.

His descriptions of his scrapes with the KGB gave real insight into how different and alien to us society in the USSR was in those days.

Kath closed the meeting by reminding members that the festive season is not quite over for us as they have their Christmas dinner celebration to look forward to later in the month.

The next meeting will be on Monday, February 2, at 7.30pm at Comberbach Village Hall when John Miller will regale with tales of Life at the Beeb.