Llanfechain Women’s Institute

Background 

About the W.I.
The Women’s Institute was formed in 1915 with two clear aims: to revitalise rural communities and to encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War. Since then the aims have   broadened and it is now the largest women’s organisation in the UK. The WI celebrated their 90th anniversary in 2005 and they currently have 211,000 members in 6,800 WIs. The WI play a unique role in providing women with educational opportunities and the chance to build new skills, to take part in a wide variety of activities and to campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities

The national structure
The national headquarters of the WI, the National Federation of Women's Institutes, is in London. There is also an office in Cardiff, NFWI-Wales, and a residential college in Oxfordshire, Denman College. WI produce a membership magazine WI Life. WI Enterprises is the trading arm of the organisation and exists to raise funds and provide benefits for members.

The regional structure
The 6,800 WIs are grouped together to form 70 county and island federations, each with a regional office. Details of federation offices can be found in the 'Find a WI' section of the website (www.womens-institute.co.uk) Together the WIs and federations make up the National Federation. Each level of the organisation is run by a committee of elected members. The NFWI Board of Trustees is democratically elected every two years by the members

Llanfechain W.I.
Llanfechain W.I. was formed in 1928 with Mrs Openshaw of Brongain as its first president.