Regional Meeting Blog – 13th February 2021
Many thanks to President Louise for hosting another exciting and innovative regional meeting. Four guests joined the meeting Federation President Elect Cathy Cottridge, Dishi Attwood our speaker and visitors Tara Ramanayake from SI Columbo, Sri Lanka and Chris Knight from SI Moreton, Australia.
I want to focus on just a couple of parts of the meeting. The fantastic official trailer for “100 years of Soroptimist Heroines” started the morning. The trailer consisted of photos of individual members and clubs around the world and photos of members in costume assuming the persona of the “Heroines” they were representing in the play that followed.
Looking Back
Sue Challoner has written a play detailing important Soroptimists and events from the inception of Soroptimist International to the present day. Our “heroines” played their parts well and were very convincing with their different accents! Well done to Sue Challoner, for an informative and entertaining play, to the Soroptimist “Heroines” who played their roles well and to Penni Nicholas who put together the trailer. Which you can watch again on Region Facebook. The play is to be recorded for clubs to use if they wish
A minute’s silence was held in memory of three members who had passed away Noreen Yule, Lucille M Hughes and Jan Walker. I have lovely memories of Noreen who befriended me at my first Soroptimist lunch and made me feel “at home”. Then Louise read the Soroptimist Pledge in honour of Barbara Dixon who would have been the International President. I found the Soroptimist Pledge, which I had never heard before, to be very moving.
Movng Forward
Dishi Attwood spoke about the SIGBI Growth Plan – she said she’d had a good look through all our project action forms and was very positive about our activities and gave lots of helpful tips for those reporting. Dishi said that we needed to quantify our achievements – try to say how many women or children may have been helped. This key information of numbers is what is used. Louise thanked her for clear and inspiring presentation.
Our next meeting is Saturday 5th June on Zoom and should be another innovative meeting as President Louise tells us she has some exciting ideas. So watch this space!
Debbie Moulding
Region Team Communications