Celebrations for our 75th year as a Club got underway at the Bournemouth International Centre on Saturday 18th May. A Reception attended by The Mayor of Bournemouth, Cllr Phil Stanley-Watts started an interesting event which included a talk by Roma Agrawal, Young Structural Engineers of 2011. Roma also presented  Prizes to teams from Arnewood School and Bournemouth School For Girls.These were for our “Celebrating Science Competition” designed to encourage girls to take science subjects in their exams. Over 100 friends and supporters enjoyed the day which ended with a lunch  

Treff's Cake made specially for our 75th Celebrations. Over 100 people joined us at Bournemouth  International Centre for a lunch to mark out 75 years as a Soroptimist Club.

Kirsteen Harding is our new President for 2013/14 .Here she is with her chain of office receiving congratulations from Bobbie White.We celebrated after out AGM with a meal at the Belvedere, enjoying a sociable evening. Looking forwards to a wonderful year.

Eve Bonham, well known author, traveller and woman of many hobbies will be our speaker in May. She is also the organiser of Bournemouth’s Festival of Words, has lived in many different countries and sailed the world’s oceans. We are delighted to be able to welcome her on 20th May.

We have just heard from Rita Allen- our Club has won the competition for renaming the 3E Project: Healthcare. At a meeting we had a collective thinking session and as a result put forward “The BIG Project” (Birthing In Gambia) We are delighted that 60 other Clubs entered the competition, it makes us feel really good!

These names were the titles of the winning entries of our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Project for teams of girls. We had challenged them to design,build and cost a project to help people in the poorest parts of the world. The Winners (Year 9 Key Stage 3) were The Arnewood School, New Milton  with their “Waterphant”, a device for producing clean water using evaporation and condensation. And for Year 10,Key Stage 4 Bournemouth School for Girls invented a snake farm to allow venom to be extracted and used for medical research. This was called a “Snaid”   Here are the winning teams.The awards will be presented at our Club’s 75th Anniversary Lunch on 18th May by Roma Agrewal, herself Young Structural Engineer of the Year 2011 and a Senior Architect on the Shard. The judges for the competition were provided by several different local

  Despite the cold weather several members from our two clubs helped with some early Spring gardening at the Dorset ARC (Assault Referral Centre) in Bournemouth. Luckily staff at the Centre provided warm drinks which helped prevent frostbite!

We are currently seeking sponsors for our exciting STEM project-Science Technology Engineering and Maths.This is a challenge for girls attending local schools in Key Stages 3 and 4.The challenge aims to raise awareness of a National Problem-a shortage of girls and young women choosing to study STEM subjects at School,University and following  through to a career. The Challenge runs from October 2012 to the end of February 2013 with judging in March.The prize giving for the winners will be presented by Roma Agrawal, the award winning Young Structural Engineer who was involved with The Shard Construction in London. The presentations will be held at The B.I.C, Bournemouth on 18th May. We have eleven teams taking part in the challenge and strong support from local companies who have provided not only funding but also judges for the competition. The nature of the challenge involves creating a solution to help

We are starting The New Year off with a Fun Quiz Night in aid of Celebrating Science- our competition for local secondary schools to encourage girls to consider science as a career. Tickets are £10 a head and include a Fish & Chip Supper (with alternatives). It is to be held at Talbot House, Bournemouth University Campus on Friday 18th January, and starts 6.30 for 7pm. to get in touch for tickets please contact us on sigbibournemouth@hotmail.co.uk. We look forwards to a great evening.

The Annual Friendship Lunch Several Club Members attended the 78th Federation Conference in Belfast.We met up with many friends and were inspired by the speakers.We even found time to visit the famous National Trust property in central Belfast.Yes,its a pub! and one of my favourites. So hello to everyone we partied with from -Penrith, Lurgan, Dhaka, Dunfermline,Grenada  and hope to see you next year.