Open Council Meeting 10 March 2012
Science Education for girls & women
10th March 2012 Meeting at Brunel University at Uxbridge
The day took the form of a mini conference day with a focus on Science & Education for Women & Girls.
Yinka welcomed the participants and and stressed her theme of “Together We are Stronger”.
My theme for this year is “Together We are Stronger” so I have tried to arrange all the activities around this theme and hope you will enjoy the day, enjoy working together, actively participate in the workshops as we have some super dynamic ladies that have come along to speak to us today to lead them. I hope you will come away from the day having had a great time and feel energised to participate in even more programme action and spread the word of Soroptimism.
The first keynote speaker, the distinguished novelist, playwright and screenwriter, Fay Weldon was ably interviewed by Jenny Vince and gave us a fascinating glimpse into her philosophy. She is currently the Creative Writing Director at Brunel University.
Fay Weldon preparing for the fray with a cup of tea! 
Our second keynote speaker of the day was Hilary Ratcliffe, the International Programme Director for Soroptimist International who then took the floor and outlined the direction of Soroptimism for the next few years with great clarity.
After an excellent lunch Soroptimists had the opportunity to take part in 2 of the 4 exciting workshops :
Ageing Well? - Lynda Shaw - Lecturer in Psychology and Neuroscience lynda.shaw@brunel.ac.uk
Dr Lynda Shaw gave us a fascinating glimpse into the science of ageing well and advice which may help us to avoid dementia. We now know that Nitric oxide should be our new best friend.
Dancing round the Handbags – Lynne Copp – Brit award winner lynne.copp@theworklifecompany.com
Dynamic inspirational speaker who has developed tools to aid work life balance. We know we need to stop & re-evaluate ourselves and our role in the dance of life. In Dancing round the handbag Lynne explained her theory on assessing your own life
and making appropriate changes so you can dance to your own tune.
Connect 2 Colour – Sally Thurlbeck sally@connect2colour.com
Create with paint and connect with your design self. Sally gave us the opportunity to experience for ourselves the way she
works with austitic children. It’s a fun thing to do as a group but gives each person the opportunity to create their own masterpiece. Its sparkly, its creative, its fun and you can take it home, and it gives us a sense of achievement.
Progeria –Joanna Bridger – Progeria Research Team Joanna.bridger@brunel.ac.uk
To round off a very thought provoking and interesting day Dr Joanna Bridger of the Progeria Research Team: Centre for Cell & Chromosome Biology, Brunel University undertook the final keynote speech and spoke about the research she and her team are doing on rapid aging in children. A topic which was both interesting and moving.
There was an extensive Raffle, the proceeds went to the SI project the 3Es – Educate/Empower/Enable.
After the main presentations there was a cash bar, followed by supper. President Yinka with Lynda Shaw and Jane Grover, legacy Director at Brunel Uiniversity. Sally Thurlbeck, Hilary Ratcliffe with Jenny Vince.
Comments from members from the day’s events.
…I particularly enjoyed the Dancing round the handbags workshop because it gave us so much food for thought. Lynne Copp was a great speaker and her method of engaging with her audience was beautifully honest and to the point. She made us all think about our work/life balance in a constructive way and gave us some tools to achieve that.
…Both “Ageing well” and “Progeria” were excellent. If anything , they could have been longer…….Must remember to re-learn to play the piano – to stop ageing!
…We ought to keep in touch with the University team about the Progeria research .
…I thoroughly enjoyed the day and was only sorry more members from region were not there. It was refreshing to have speakers from such diverse subjects, and I thought Brunel were to be congratulated on the facilities and food they provided.
…I wish to say thank you for a very interesting and worthwhile Regional Day at Brunel. It is one of the best events that I have attended in my time as a Soroptimist. The speakers were excellent and worth considering for a Federation gathering or even an International one. The food and service were also first class.
…I just wanted to thank you and the team for putting on such a splendid day on Saturday. I think that was one of the best events I have ever attended at Region and was really useful and enjoyable.
…I was incredibly impressed by Dr Lynda Shaw and her 7 steps to avoiding dementia and the chance to mess about with paints and sequins was certainly an experience! The team working on Progeria were also outstanding and it was uplifting to see the type of work going on in our universities when so often all the news is so demoralising.
Next meeting
Saturday 9th June, Open Council Meeting, Wodson Park, Ware
Education & leadership through Sports – Olympic theme