Photo: New President Mrs Gwen Greenwood receives the chain of office from her mother, Immediate Past President, Mrs Kathleen Howarth. 

I feel honoured and privileged to be President of S.I. Burnley for the next twelve months.

When I joined the Soroptimists, I was impressed by the warm welcome and the dedication of the members. On a local level Soroptimists can make a difference to our own area, but as an international organisation, Soroptimism can and does make a difference at all levels of society.

I have only been a Soroptimist for two years and to be president does feel a little daunting. However I am sure most presidents feel the same at the start of their year of office and after all we are a team, we work together to achieve the goals of Soroptimism and in the last two years I have certainly learnt to appreciate all the hard work the members of this club put in to everything they do.

I promise I won’t let S.I Burnley down and I know that I will have the support of all the members throughout the year.

I have thought long and hard about my charity for the year.  For me, the most important aspect is to be able to make a difference to the lives we touch.  I have also had it in mind that service to the community is just as important as fundraising, and so I have decided the Contact Centre will be my charity for my year of office.  The Contact Centre needs our help both through fundraising and for the service our members willingly give.

The Club will also continue to support the important projects we have supported in the past, the Women’s Refuge, Emmaus, Pendleside Hospice and Osogbo in Nigeria.

One of the advantages of being President is that I can choose the speakers who will be attending our social evenings.  I hope I have arranged an enlightening, entertaining and varied programme for the year.  I know I am looking forward to hearing the various speakers, because most of all I want my year to be remembered for hard work, good fun and friendship.  We welcome guests on speaker evenings so by all means come and see we what S.I. Burnley has to offer.  Our club diary will be posted as soon as SIGBI’s new web site is up and running.