Region Membership Officer Report

Regional Membership Officers Annual Report for AGM September 2022

Clubs continue to have difficulty in recruiting and retaining members with nine clubs experiencing an overall fall in the number of members since our last report in April 2022.

Following the closure of SI Wallasey, three members have transferred to SI Heswall and one is intending to join an E-club.

The new members lunch was held in on April 3^rd at Bromborough Golf Club. Invitations were extended to those who had become members in the last three years and 16 were able to attend together with some Regional Officers. Discussions will be taking place regarding the usefulness of repeating the event in the future and at what frequency.

The Regional Membership Officers Handbook is undergoing a second draft. In addition to guidelines for RMOs it also includes information to share with club membership officers. Many clubs will have their own way of recruiting and supporting new and longstanding members but there is always room for additional ideas and strategies.

The average age of UK members of SIGBI is 72.  The traditional Soroptimist club structure can lack flexibility making it difficult for younger working women to fit membership around their lives. In May, Penny Clarke and Jenny Wilson (Membership Officers), Kathryn Lewis (Development Officer), Gillie O’Rourke (Vice President) Sue Challoner and Helen Owen (Communications Team) and Yvonne Johns (Regional President) held a Zoom meeting to consider setting up a virtual club in the region. Subsequently, Rachel Weinhold who is setting up an E-club, SI Libertas, held a Webinar to explain the process so far. Jenny and I have been liaising with Kathy Lewis ( Regional Development Officer) regarding setting up an e-club in our region. We are hoping to be able to ‘Zoom in’ to an SI Libertas meeting to see how it operates in practice.

Penny Clarke and Jenny Wilson

Joint Regional Membership Officers

SI Cheshire North Wales and Wirral