Region Development Officer Report – April 2022
I do not have much to report this month. However, I attended the online SIGBI Membership webinar along with a number of our regional members. What I took away from that afternoon was that we have been looking in the right direction in terms of club management and what is feasible and also on retaining members.
So in terms of succession planning we can advise clubs appropriately and try to keep them operating without too much pressure of having a full set of officers in place.
I also noted that in some areas, where the club has ‘closed’, another has been set up working in a different format and attracting younger members, who do not feel constrained by old rules – very interesting! Most new clubs in the Federation, especially Africa and India have a range of age groups with more younger ladies.
The main lightbulb moment for me started at our regional conference and then became more of a possible option are the ‘virtual’ or online clubs. After speaking to members of one of our regional clubs who may be looking at folding, they were keen to still be involved and would join a virtual club.
Perhaps we look to forming a regional online club with some suggestions on how that might work and for membership and development to work together on this.
Please let me know if there is anything you would like development to help you with or can work with you on.
Kathryn Lewis