Great to meet everyone last Monday! We had a successful virtual meeting as well as face to face.

We successfully held our first cafe event on Saturday, 11 Jan at Pasha's cafe in Chobham. A few customers, friends and family came and signed W4R cards and also official letters! Jen also shared our event on social media. Not bad for the first event of the year.  The owners of Pasha's were also fabulous in letting us use their cafe and put up posters.

We discussed our future events, here are the dates of our 2025 meetings/events.

- 3 Feb - letter writing, discussion on network group updates, discuss Nataly's case becoming a AGM motion

- 3 March - letter writing, updates, etc.

- 7 April - possible Pakistan event (led by Pakistan experts, supported by an Amnesty UK country coordinator representative) - Keith leading this event.

- 12 May - letter writing, updates, etc.

- 31 May - possible China/Hong Kong event (led by Hong Kong activists - possibly in Woking town centre, TBC) - Steph to discuss with Indy/Benson.

- 2 June - Amnesty AGM motions/voting

- 5-6 July - Amnesty AGM (Birmingham University)

- 7 July - Amnesty AGM updates/Actions

- August - NO meeting

- 1 Sep - TBC/confirm Street Collection actions

- 20 Sep - Woking Street Collection (Steph to submit form for Borough Council)

- 6 Oct - letters/updates

- 3 Nov - Gender violence week (Lynda?)

- 1 Dec - Group W4R event

- 6 Dec - possible W4R stall at Woking LightBox - Keith to follow up

- 13 Dec - possible W4R stall at Asda in Sheetwater - Jen to follow up

Keith also mentioned a separate remembrance event happening in Guildford relating to 750 years since the expulsion of jews from Guildford being held on 19 January at Castle Gardens in Guildford, starting at 13:30 for a sermon + walk, a signing at 14:30, followed by some kosher refreshments. For further details, please contact Keith Scott (keithsc_2000@yahoo.com).

We discussed the possibility of organising a few other events such as a funding raising event, organising an Amnesty boat for the Goldsworth Park Dragon Boat Racing event in aid of Woking Hospice, etc. 

Keith raised the topic of a letter from Richard Crosfield regarding an Amnesty UK Section and BPM issue.  Keith agreed to discuss this with Arianna as no one in the group has any knowledge of the issue.  Keith has since organised a meeting with Arianna on Tuesday, so we shall learn more at our next meeting.

Thanks as always for your support.  Looking forward to continuing to fight the good fight for individuals at risk, writing more letters and learning more about the situations in countries around the world and bringing justice to individuals.  

Monica won't be able to attend our next meeting in Feb as she will be in Brazil. Wishing her a safe trip.