The Women's Institute and soggy bottoms - cakes, of course!

Facing the might of the Women's Institute can be a tormenting experience - they're certainly not all Damson jam and Jerusalem.

Remember the then Prime Minister Tony Blair being heckled, jeered and slow hand-clapped by these formidable guardians of Middle England when he addressed the WI conference back in 2000 to speak about Labour's traditional values?

The only time I've been on the three underpant trail with the WI was a few years ago when I had to audition for the good ladies in order to speak at their meetings. I auditioned with my friend Sally Hillyear, who was then the fund-raising manager for the Hampshire Autistic Society.

On the back of my fund-raising running adventure around the British Isles in 2007, we thought it would be a great idea to roll out a series of talks to WI's, Rotary clubs, business groups, schools and other organisations to boost the profile of the charity, autism and to promote the book which I had published.

I'll cut to the quick, and here's an extract from my book, "Around the British Isles in 80 Races":

A few days after the Harlow run and the day before my trip to South Wales, I had a tough gig to attend in aid of the running project. I had to audition before the Women’s Institute, the same trusted organisation of fearsome ladies who once gave Tony Blair a torrid time at their national conference a few years back.

This was the Hampshire WI who, a few times each year, hold auditions for speakers wanting to talk to their members around the county. You could describe it as the WI does X-Factor. I even paid a fee for the privilege of attending the audition and then £10 for an entry in the WI handbook if successful. Fellow WI members were invited to attend the auditions, and for this outing 43 ladies had turned up to the headquarters in Winchester to hear four speakers talk on a variety of subjects from press photography and the world of gastronomic delights, to adventures in Borneo and my subject…autism and running.

I was there with Sally from the Hampshire Autistic Society. As we were greeted by a lovely lady called Cherry, offered tea and small talk, I was bricking it. So too was Sally who admitted later that if we could have made a dignified exit then she would have – and I would have joined her. We could hear the laughter from upstairs where the Fleet Street photographer was in full swing. We didn't have too many laughs in our half-hour ditty.

At the appointed hour, a petite, silver-haired lady called Fearne met us and led us into the room where the fearsome-looking 43 ladies greeted us. It was intimidating. We had five minutes to set up, so Sally and I busied ourselves putting up a display, plugging in a computer and a projector for a five-minute film which we wanted to show at the end.

I am never normally edgy with public speaking, but it was the sight of those ladies clutching their pads of paper and pens and the fact they were judging us which was unnerving. They were no Simon Cowell, but this was so bizarre.  When the lady in front row started scribbling some notes within seconds of Sally talking I thought “uh oh, we’re dead in the water!”

In truth the talk went well as the ladies warmed to us. We got a few laughs; we also got some tears at the end from the video which I had put together with a friend from the BBC telling the story of autism through the eyes of Ross. It was an exhausting half hour, I was sweating badly by the time we left the room to make way for the talk from the flame-haired speaker about life in Borneo.

How did we do? Well, amazingly we got accepted, and during 2008 Sally and I have been doing a few WI talks in Hampshire.

So since then, I've given a fair few talks with Sally, who has now moved on to a similar job with the Fire Fighter's Charity, and it was a blast. People were always very generous with their donations and the WI are a lovely organisation with endearing values of fellowship, along with care and compassion, essential values which are too easily forgotten in today's sometimes selfish and greedy society.

In recent years, I've tended to give talks on journalism, and the other week I caught up with the Polegate WI, just outside of Eastbourne for their Thursday monthly meeting. The talk went well. It was chatty and conversational with a group of 30 ladies, and afterwards I made a beeline straight for the cake stall for a cup of tea and a piece of cake!

The point of writing this particular blog was partly to mention about the relevance of the WI today - it is very much an anachronism of a bygone age, but listening to the ladies talk about issues in their community (in this case they were thinking about protesting over the closure of Polegate's public toilets) and that fellowship for one another, this warms the heart. 

One wonders whether organisations like the WI and Rotary, for example, will still be around in 50 years' time. As its stalwart members pass away, will these community organisations wither too? I hope not. I hope there will be future generations to carry the torch, otherwise where will all the great cake-making go?!!

These aren't sleepy, docile organisations. There is an edge to them. I was caught aback when the WI chairman at Polegate talked about using Facebook and silver surfing to promote what the organisation is doing and to engage with the local community. The WI and Facebook, what next, Twitter?!! But why not?

Both of my parents who are in their 70s use social media and the website - my mother to research her family tree and my father to pursue his love of stamps, as well as keeping in touch with the family. 

For my next blog, I will write about the social media conference I attended last week at MSN headquarters in London which, to me, painted a very frightening and worrying future for unchecked journalism through the rise in citizen journalism with social media and the web.

But for now, here is the WI embracing social media and the web in the way it should; an exciting doorway which opens up whole new vistas.

I believe if we ever lose the likes of the WI or Rotary, then we will have lost our sense of community. We’ll also have lost some of the best cake-makers too with not a soggy bottom in sight!