Ceri Edwards, who was the first President to wear the “new” chain of office, presented the chain to Marianne and wished her well for her presidential year. Marianne then took the chair and set out her thoughts for the coming year.
She thanked Ceri and said she felt the responsibility and honour of becoming President. She said it was now twenty years since she had received a telephone call from member Joan Thomas, asking her to join Soroptimists. She hoped that she would be able to make future meetings more inclusive.
She gave a big ‘thank you’ to Lin and a bigger one to Vikki for agreeing to take on the role of secretary. She said that Gudrun and Olga were now stepping down from the Executive and she welcomed Andy and Susan. She also thanked Eirwen for co-ordinating the evening’s refreshments and said how honoured she felt in having Enid attend the AGM.
Her charity for the year will be the North Wales Recovery Community as she had been very affected when Richard from Penrhyn House had spoken to the club last year. She will also continue to support women and children refugees from Ukraine.
The Charter Lunch will be on Sunday 25 June at Bwyd Dda in Bangor. She is hoping to visit Llangollen in July and is also looking to open the Time Capsule at an autumn meeting. She would also like to find a possible project to enter for the Barbara Dixon Award next year.
She felt her key theme would be how to support members and she said the membership and wellbeing committee will be central to this. She would like everyone attending each meeting to leave feeling they had had a big hug.