SI Cannock & District held its AGM at The Barns on 3rd April. The meeting marked the end of a busy year with President Val Jones at the helm. Val and the Club’s Officers reported on the successes and achievements of the year, thanking club members for their support.
The year had seen some special events: a visit from King Henry VIII, a Cocktail evening at the President’s home, a summer celebration lunch at a member’s home and Christmas celebrations at The Barns as well as many very interesting speakers.
During the year club members have continued to support Pathway and Staffordshire Women’s Aid, the services for women victims of Domestic Violence, by providing toiletries throughout the year and Christmas gifts; the Soup Kitchen in Mill Street when Cannock Soroptimists helped to provide and prepare a Christmas meal and have supported Cannock Food Bank. In addition they have held events to raise funds for international projects such as Women, Water & Leadership; for the Meru Garden Project and for the organisation’s Emergency Fund, enabling Soroptimists to send funds to any disaster area in the world as soon as they are needed as well as for Cannock’s Special Needs Adventure Playground. They also learned about, and raised funds for, President Val’s chosen charity Puerperal Psychosis.
The club has also continued its work raising awareness on the issues of trafficking, child sexual exploitation and domestic violence, launching a project “Loves me, Loves Me Not” providing bookmarks which detail behaviours which are appropriate/inappropriate within a healthy relationship.
President Val said:- There are three key areas by which Club performance can be judged, its Membership, its Programme Action [PA] work and its Image. I put Membership first because it’s the commitment and talents of the members that makes the other two, PA and Image, possible. Our PA Work, our reason for being: we can be proud of our contribution to SIGBI projects and of our recent, exciting home grown projects which have harnessed the energy and vision of members and promise to make a lasting impact. Our work ensures that there is positive Image of the Club held by the public. Val went on to thank all members for their support over the year. At the end of the meeting Carole Holdcroft passed on the Immediate Past President’s chain to Val.
Photo: l to r: Carole Holdcroft, Val Jones, Immediate Past President, SI Cannock & District