Wells WI members are getting the hang of Zoom now, with 22 members attending our third online meeting.

The first item on the agenda was the closure of Denman, the residential college that has provided courses for WI members for decades.

Sadly, it is no longer financially viable, a situation which has only been exacerbated by the current shutdown.

Wells WI members tended not to travel to its Oxfordshire location but have been enjoying the online one-hour talks and classes offered during lockdown - very good value at £5.

It is hoped that this new method of delivering education will continue even after the college building has been sold.

Our president recommended a Facebook group called WI Wanderers, offering online activities, and reminded people about our Zoom book club meetings, small group walks, and a forthcoming appropriately socially-distanced picnic.

Members were invited to submit ideas for what to call the two campaigns that will result from this year's resolutions - increasing the number of people registered on the UK stem cell registry and tackling modern slavery.

Our speaker was Steph Hiller, a local therapist with 25 years' experience. Most of her work is massage, but she is also a reflexologist who offers sensory sounds baths, with a sideline making raw chocolate.

Steph showed us how to give ourselves a gentle massage. We joined in at home, starting by sitting up straight to elongate our spines and focusing on our breathing to calm our minds and let go of thoughts about the outside world.

Then Steph demonstrated how to stroke and apply light pressure to our hands and forearms. We moved on to work on our brows, faces, jaws, temples and ears, slowly and gently, copying Steph's technique while she explained the points on our skulls that are responsive to touch, stimulating our circulation and improving our health as well as feeling very pleasant.

We all felt much more relaxed after our free self-massages, without even having had the bother of removing any clothing.

We finished with a quiz that involved us guessing how many of us were or had been NHS workers (five), how many had been born abroad (one) and, during lockdown, how many of us had learned a new skill (seven), had news of family additions (five babies), exercised every day (10, mainly dog-related) and how much decorating had been done (an impressive 19 projects).

Committee members are currently undertaking a telephone survey of members, gathering views to help with the planning of future meetings.

In the meantime we will continue to email a monthly newsletter, use our Whats App group which now reaches 43 members, and update our Facebook page with news and interesting items.