Saturday February 15th, a windy and stormy day in Llandudno, almost 100 Soroptimists gathered together at the Imperial Hotel for the Cheshire North Wales and Wirral Region Meeting. It was an interesting and inspirational day which we all enjoyed and are still talking about. The meeting began with sales tables and raffles and plenty of time to network over coffee. Almost £200 was raised for the Empowering Girls in Nepal Federation Project, a wonderful project that has engaged with all clubs in our Region. An efficiently run and informative Region council meeting took us nicely up to the lunch break. In the afternoon we were privileged to be given a presentation on Specialist Domestic Violence Courts by Dame Vera Baird. Members will find her presentation in Region communications Dropbox and is available for all clubs to use. As part of her presentation Dame Vera described

Over seventy members from across the Region met today to welcome our new joint Region Presidents, say thank you to the Region Officers who are stepping down and welcome the members who are replacing them. Plenty of time was allowed for networking, browsing stalls and catching up with friends from across the Region,  we also enjoyed an early festive lunch. Presidents Pam and Louise introduced their theme for the year ‘ Stop Exploitation Crimes Against Women and Girls. They  described their programme for Region meetings which will each have a theme and they challenged clubs to participate with them on each theme.  In February Domestic Violence,  in June Modern Day Slavery and in September Prison Reform. Members then listened to a very interesting and at times moving report from SI South Caernarfonshire about their Amethyst Project -  this is the name of a Sexual Abuse

The Meeting opened with President Pam inviting Pearl Roberts (SI Rhyl) to light the Peace candle. The theme for this year’s Peace Day – Climate Action for Peace was then linked in a short presentation to the Region project to re-cycle plastic’ This was followed by the Region AGM The following members were elected to Region roles for the coming year: Region President (shared role) – Pam CH and Louise Parry Region Secretary – Pat Kerfoot Region Treasurer – Diane Bennett Region Membership Officer – Penny Clarke Region Benevolent Officer – Iris Bateman Region Ambassador for the Federation Project – Susan Heywood Co-opted to the Region Finance Committee – Wendy Thompson. Region Communications Team - Sue Challoner, Helen Owen, Doreen Jones Caroline Marsh   After the AGM Region Federation Councillor Hilary went through the Resolutions to be debated at Conference and encouraged members to look

Each year Soroptimists from Clubs throughout the Region enjoy running the Friendship and Information Centre at the prestigious Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Soroptimists Cheshire North Wales & Wirral welcomed visitors from around the world. We had a very successful week this year, the sun shone brightly and we had lots of visitors to our tent.       There was an excellent stand showcasing "Our Work" as Soroptimists and a super display to promote SI Rhyl & SI Llandudno. Campaign - "The Bee Project" Region President Pam Cheesley-Hollinshead and members from clubs in the Region attended each day and welcomed visitors to the tent. Each year we sponsor a girls choir - this year "Alla Pollaca" from Warsaw, Poland, who came 3rd in their Folk Singing Competition. The girls visited the Soroptimist Tent and sang for all our embers and visitors.