A year in the life of a President!

What does a President do?

Every President I suppose is different but what do you do? This is a question that my teenage son and daughter both asked me when I said I was going to be President – they understood secretary which I was prior to this, and treasurer, they could even understand web-mistress a role I undertake for Wales-South (although they did laugh at the title – thank goodness we are now called web officers!) but what exactly does a President do – this will be a summary of what do over the year!

3 weeks before our AGM – I take on a new job – school improvement officer within Rhondda Cynon Taff – a new job in a changing educational world, a new role as president – a son off to Fiji for 10 weeks and then New Zealand for a month before going  to University, a daughter in Yr10/11 – this is going to be a busy year!

April 21st

Our AGM – in the afternoon I went along to Dewis to discuss with Sue P the two-year project that we are going to undertake in conjunction with the charity – watch this space during the year.

At the AGM it was all change – at the top table we now have Sue P – our new secretary, Chris – our new secretary and me – it’ll be fine – won’t it!  With everyone working together I am sure it will be a fabulous year.

April 27th

President Elect Louise and myself represent the club at the 10th Anniversary of the opening of he fabulous SNAC building in Taibach. SI Port Talbot have regularly supported SNAC (Special Needs Activity Centre ) and last year the proceeds of our Ladies Day went to this worth-while Charity. It was a wonderful evening, I had been to the centre a number of years ago through friends but it was Louise’s first visit -it is humbling to see what has been achieved by a small number of dedicated volunteers.

May 3rd

Not really a President’s job – but tonight was regional executive meeting at the Grove in Porthcawl – I agreed to send out social events across the region mainly to make sure the regional web-site was up-to-date – more on that later.

May 7th

Regional meeting in Nangaredig – Immediate Past President Cath is still our representative but she was away so I stood in. This was the first time a meeting had been held in Nantgaredig but Meg, Julie, Sue, Gaynor and myself represented the club. Regional meetings may not be everyone’s cup of tea but they do give a fuller picture of what Soroptimists are doing around the region, nationally and the federation and it is a chance to meet up with friends from across South Wales.

May 8th

3 hours+ trying to get the regional email address list sorted – addresses unknown, typo errors – the air was blue – but we got there – my daughter was a big help – mainly because she wanted the computer after me!

May 10th

Membership Committee – a great opportunity to have a smaller meeting to talk about ways of attracting new members and also for us to talk in a smaller group.

 May 12th

My first official business meeting – ooh-er – why were my knees knocking – give me 200 children in assembly anyday! It went well – the new top table were great and we got through the ‘official’ business in time for everyone to have a good chat with one another – Whew! I can start crossing the dates of the calendar now!

May 10th

All systems go for our Ladies Day – Thank goodness for Immediate Past President Cath is all I can say – this event would not have been possible without her – today she met with the chef at the Orangery to sort the menu out and finalise details – I offered to go at 8am but Cath could go at a more reasonable hour so off she went. Cath has organised everything – from liaising with Barbara in Glad Rags to chasing up payment for tickets and the dreaded table plans – many many thanks. Lots of phone calls have taklen place and emails back and for – Cath is usually the night owl and being a lark my replies tend to be first thing in the morning!

My dining room is full of raffle prizes which I must remember on Monday!

May 21st

I have now put together a pamphlet for the tables which tells everyone about SI Port Talbot. Fingers crossed my printer works – I have a new computer waiting to be put together but I think I will wait until after I have printed the pamphlets – do not want to tempt fate!

May 22nd

Well, raffle prizes are laid out in my lounge, pamphlets are printed and folded and I have written down a few thoughts for my welcome speech (but it WILL NOT be 10 mins long as stated on the order of events!). I am sure I will forget something but as long as everyone has a good day and we raise lots of money for our Dewis programme I know it will be fine.

May 23rd

Well – a lovely day and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Wonderful models – many thanks to Barbara from Glad Rags in Margam for arranging the fashion show; a delicious buffet and some beautiful singing from Lucy Gravelle.Being on the top table is a new experience although I know Regional President Carys well and ex-headteachers always have conversation in common. Mrs Paula Bebell, the mayoress was in her first function in her own right as her husband Mr Harry Bebell has only just been inaugurated as mayor of Neath Port Talbot CBC and I think she enjoyed the occasion.  Everyone dug deep for the raffle – the total is not known yet although as I write this I am sure Margaret is busily counting! It has been a long day but at the same time it has gone very quickly. All the club members have been great and that’s what makes these events so much fun – everyone working together and enjoying themselves. A big thank you to everyone involved for making the day such a success.

May 24th

A great photo in the Evening Post from yesterday together with a good write-up - many thanks to Gwyneth for organising the photographer.

May 25th

This week is certainly tuning into a busy one – the first speaker evening of my year is tomorrow evening so I make sure the laptop is ready to go – my daughter has a study day tomorrow (I am sure we didn’t have such things when I was taking exams) so grandma is coming to the resucs and treating her to tea so i don’t feel guilty at being out all day and then dashing off to a meeing!

May 26th

Decided I had better borrow the projector from work just in case – and a good job I did as although the screen had been pulled down there was not sign of the projector! After a lot of trial and error I got the laptop and projector ‘talking’ to each other – I only hope I can remember how to do it next time! Alan Taylor from Vision Aid Overseas was our speaker (see our speaker evening posts for more details) – despite a few palpitations when he was late – more from my fellow soroptimist Rayner (SI Bridgend), Alan’s sister we certainly had a fun evening. The total for the raffle ffrom Monday stands at £502 – a very good start.

May 27th

Community Festival Day tomorrow and we have a stall – selling books and cuddly toys and raffling a WRU rucksack and jacket, so this evening is spent getting books together and making posters – the laminator had a good outing as all the posters we ‘weather-proofed.’ Packed up the car; made a last minute call to Sue our treasurer to check on a float – she luckily is far more efficient than me and already had it organised!

May 28th

I think I have gone back 12 months – the weather is as bad as it was last year – wet and miserable. Never mind – an early start as I get down to the civic square by 8.30am, unpack the car and start putting the posters up. Gwyneth arrives not long after and the SI banner is put up. Cath and Sue arrive next, together with Patt and Chris – where on earth did we get all these books – there are hundreds! Anyway with the expertise of the others who have done this many times before, the stall is soon up and running. Despite the weather, trade is slow but steady. Margaret and Teg come along later and after dropping prices further we manage to sell a good number of the books and cuddly toys. We donate two boxes of our left over books to the  Friends of the Hospital who were next to us and Teg takes the rest to one of the local charity shops – I still managed to come home with a full boot though as Cath had brought along items that can be used at the Beach festival and Michna Street later in the year! We made £130 as a result of the day – once again a great team effort.

June 2nd

A mini-programme action meeting – as Region are currently starting a new project Alcohol and Young women we felt that it was important that we looked at how we as a club could get involved. The PA officer for region has sent around a questionnaire and as a club we are keen for everyone to get involved as far as they are able. It was a very useful meeting and we came up with lots of ideas for how we could answer the questionnaire. Sue E is leading on this project and is going to contact various members before next Thursday’s business meeting to start the ball rolling. One of my ‘jobs’ is to talk to my daughter and her friends about their experiences – I wonder if I will hear things I would have preferred not to know! Watch this space. 

June 5th

How on earth have computers managed to generate so much paperwork! There are a number of ballots to be discussed at this weeks meeting and Chris (our secretary) and myself have been going thoruhg checking we have all the information. It seems in the change-over of officers cyber-space has been unkind to us but after much searching everything is found.

June 9th

Business Meeting – or should I say ballot meeting! I did take the projector with me to share with everyone the material on the members part of the SIGBI website and our web-site but…..technology being what it is I could not access the site when I wanted - during our coffee break it behaved perfectly! Sue E has done a fab job of allocating tasks to members in relation to oru regional project – and our new AM David Rees is due to ask questions in the Senedd after we asked Mair (the wife of our MP and a member of the club) for support. I did forget to arrange an executive meeting but after chasing around afterwards holiday season seems to have kicked in – must try again at speaker evening.

June16th

It was my turn to help at Friendly club – Teg, Patt and Cath are our trio, one of whom will always be at this monthly event – the rest of the members take it in turns to support. Pam, myself, Teg and Cath were there tonight and strawberries and cream were on the menu together with Pam’s fruit cake, lemon drizzle cake and scones – no wonder my offering of crisps and hoola hoops did not go down well!

June 18th

The day of our Regional AGM which was attended by 7 of our members – I myself was at the Hospital Fete as I had been invited to open the event as President of SI Port Talbot. The club has a long tradition of supporting the Hospital fete from it’s inception in Aberavon as Port Talbot Hospital to the present day. Dr Joan Richards our longest serving member was intrumental in our becoming involved – we are named as far back as programmes can be found and we believe we have been there from the beginning. We had our usual bottle stall and despite there being not so many people there (or so it seemed to those who had been there in previous years) we rasied £307.70 for the Friends of the Hospital. Many thanks to Lillian, Margaret, Patt, Beryl, Pam and Chris who all helped this year.

June 23rd

Speaker Evening – I had invited members from other clubs to join us this evening as we were lucky enough to have Platform 51 coming along to speak about their Alcohol Project. We we pleased to welcom members from our mother club SI Swansea and our sister club SI Neath and we hope you enjoyed the evening. At the end of the speaker evening when everyone else had gone we had another discussion about our involvement in the Regional project – Kath Britton has devised a questionnaire which some of us are going to use with young women – we also asked the girls from Platform 51 to complete it. I also took home bags of tombola prizes ready for the Beach Festival!

June 27th

My dining room looks like Santa’s grotto – Mum brought up the boxes of prizes she has wrapped – together with the bags from last week – the room is over-flowing!

July 1st

Last minute printing of posters for tomorrow – we have decided to go for a prize each time – so fingers crossed it goes well!

July 2nd

NSA Beach festival – What a fabulous day – the weather was gorgeous, we were in a perfect position – right at the front of the marquee so no-one could miss us! I must admit when I saw all the prizes in the morning I gulped – 3 big boxes, and about 10 carrier bags full of prizes and then Teg came down with more cuddly toys! But I need not have worried – with Margaret’s call of ‘ a pound a go – a prize every time – we sold out by 1.30pm! As Sue P said it was the mixture of brightly wrapped prizes, soft toys which they could see and a mixtue of large, medium and small parcels which attracted all ages to the stall. Many thanks to Margaret, Chris, Sue P, Gaynor and Teg for helping (Teg was wrapping extra prizes at one time!) – next time though I will put the cards in a proper order – it would have made it easier to find the prizes. Many thanks go to Julie for donating the bear and the Chris for printing out the names and packing the bear. Chris and Gaynor also walked around ‘selling’ names for the bear who was won by a young lady taking part in a competition at the Festival. A lovely day finished off by a walk along the front coffee in Remo’s with my daughter Sian and Diane and even time for a leisurely shop in Morrison’s where we saw Chris and Gaynor who had at least got home to change!