January Membership Blog – Resilience
Happy New Year!
This month, we want to echo the words of Dr Donnell Davis, Programme Convener from the Federations of the South West Pacific about resilience and tie this into our Soroptimist new year resolutions. She writes:
‘Resilience is the art of bouncing back after an adverse situation. This might mean resilience after COVID, earthquake, cyclones, typhoons, flood, drought, fires, violence, or economic recession. Furthermore, it’s time for renewal and reinventing ourselves.’
For resilience, we use lots of skills and knowledge to find a better stronger position. Those skills include awareness, preventing or avoiding harm, learning lessons from others and best practice, adapting to change, working with others to be better, getting mentally stronger yourself and using new technology like mobile apps to be efficient and accountable. Or maybe it’s just caring about others in need. Once we strengthen ourselves, we can help others, so benefits multiply with long-term relationships.’
We are at a time when we have to think about our future as an organisation. This has sharpened our minds to consider who we are, what we do, how we publicise it but most important, what difference have we made to women and girls?
It is the time to promote our Soroptimist Brand. Not our clubs, regions, networks, national associations but our Brand. Every one of us is a vital part of the organisation and we have some flexibility in how we meet and work as volunteers. So, when we speak with passion to non Soroptimists, the stories of what we’ve achieved as an organisation that is driven by our hearts as well as our minds are the ones that resonate.
- In the first blog from me, you thought about your own club and the differing needs of members in it.
- In the second blog, we reflected on why we are passionate about being Soroptimists, re-igniting our passion.
- Now in this third blog, we are being asked to come back stronger, be resilient when change seems to be on the horizon.
And be confident that the change is positive, we are building our resilience as we engage with the world for women today, a far cry from the world 100 years ago.
So measure your ‘resilience factor’, use all of it to make a difference in a very difficult world, let’s ‘bounce back’ together in partnership!
Dishi Attwood
Director of Membership