On Friday 25th April 13 East Grinstead Soroptimists met for a coffee and chat at Chequer Mead for our monthly Orange Cafe meeting. It is always good to get together and catch up socially, but is also an opportunity to let others know about the organisation.       At the annual AGM we said a big thank you to President Alison for having run the club so successfully over the past year and she was presented with a plant for her garden. Alison passed over the leadership of the club to Bridget. We are looking forward to what President Bridget intends to do in the next 12 months, concentrating on local needs, and wish her good luck for the coming year. At our club meeting on Wednesday 16th April we were delighted to welcome Rosalind Crowther, from Sackville College, and presented her with a

At our club meeting on Wednesday 19th March we welcomed Ian Wilkins, Head of Fundraising and Relationships at Crawley Open House. He has spoken before as we have supported Open House for several years. It was an extremely informative evening. For further information please refer to the article on the Open House on our home page.   On Saturday 8th March a group of us set up a stall to celebrate International Women’s Day. We enjoyed chatting over several cups of coffee and were delighted to be able to talk about Soroptimists to several interested women and are hoping we may have gained some new members. A big thank you to Chequer Mead Theatre for allowing us to display information about Soroptimists in The Apron, their very popular cafe.

      On Saturday 8th February EGSI enjoyed a fund raising quiz at East Grinstead Sports Club. We were pleased to welcome friends and family as well as members and were delighted that the Mayor and his wife joined us. It was great fun and raised over £440. Our thanks go to Alan, President Alison’s husband, for writing such a fiendish quiz!   At our meeting on Wednesday 5th February we were delighted to welcome Charlotte Holmes who spoke to us about her career. After a year at university she decided that wasn’t the way she wanted her future to go so she took a risk and left and obtained an office role at Chelsea football club. She stayed there for a a few years before moving into fund raising roles, initially helped fund raise for IVF charities, until moving to work for Leukaemia

  On Tuesday 22nd January members spent a morning working on the Programme Action forms.   On January 15th, at the first meeting of the new year we welcomed Sarah Baker who delivered a fascinating talk entitled Living with Allergies – A Personal Perspective, telling us about Anaphylaxis.  Sarah has worked with an Anaphylactic Organisation, but also suffers from allergies connected to root vegetables, quite an unusual allergy. We were told how to recognise if someone was going into an anaphylactic shock and how to issue an auto-injector which should be carried at all times by someone who is aware they suffer from an allergy. The most important thing we learnt was that if in doubt administer the adrenaline injection as, even if not needed, it has no long term effect and call 999. Even though it was quite scary we left the meeting with far more

  On 18th December we enjoyed a Christmas Celebration at President Alison’s house. It was a good start to the Christmas period. On Wednesday 4th December we were delighted to welcome Katy Bourne OBE, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner to our club. She is seen here in the centre of the photo with President Alison to her left and Maria Ody, Mayoress on her right. Katy delivered an amusing and informative talk about her role, why it was deemed necessary when it was introduced in 2012 and some of her achievements. Katy has been the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner since 2012, and is now serving her fourth term in this role. Under her leadership Sussex Police has become one of the top performing police forces in England and Wales for answering emergency calls, she has funded 8 Victim Co-ordinator posts in a ground-breaking unit

                  On Saturday 16th November we had a stall at  Stildon Caew Home’s Christmas Fair. Helen’s incredible crafting and Jane’s cakes helped to raise £80 for our funds. Bridget, President Alison and Gill helped Helen set up, run the stall and pack away.           In November at the Lingfield Nature Reserve several members replanted the tree that had been previously planted in memory  of Anita, and scattered bluebell bulbs under the tree of president Alison’s mother. It is always sad to say farewell to a member of the club but it is good to know that we have a place where we can go to remember them. Several past members now have a memorial to them at the reserve and we hope to soon produce a map to show where each Soroptimist is remembered.At the start of November 14 members

Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Beyond At our late October meeting, East Grinstead Club were delighted to welcome Kay Linnell and Barbara Jeremiah who told about their involvement in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, The Post Office Scandal. The case had been rumbling on for around 19 years and it took a television drama to bring it to the attention of the general public and cause universal outrage. Well over 500 sub-postmasters and postmistresses had been wrongly accused of embezzling huge sums of money, the loss of all of which was due to errors within the Post Office computer system. Some of the accused had lost their homes, their life’s savings, their livelihoods, their health and in some cases their lives. Kay, a forensic accountant together with her business partner Barbara, both of whom are members of

At our September speaker meeting we were delighted to welcome Esther Klijn who came to speak to us about campanology. In an interesting, informative and entertaining presentation Esther told us about the history of bellringing in churches, the skills required of the ringers and some of the possible dangers of the activity! If you are not careful you could find yourself flying up in the air!! It was thoroughly enjoyable evening       On Saturday 14th September several members and friends of the club met at President Alison’s house hoping to celebrate the Last Night of the Proms in the garden. Sadly the British weather proved to be too chilly and everyone moved indoors, where along with joining in with the singing, people enjoyed picnics, Pimms and hot gooseberry crumble and meringues. Everyone had a very enjoyable time.   SIEG collected 90 items for

On Wednesday August 23rd we were invited to Sue’s house to enjoy summer cocktails. Although it wasn’t the sunniest evening we managed to avoid the rain and enjoy a relaxing evening talking to colleagues who we hadn’t seen for a while due to the summer break and welcoming some friends to join us. We were particularly pleased that our local MP Mims Davies and local councillor Adam Peacock found time to join us. As can be seen below Adam seemed to enjoy himself. The evening finished with a raffle which caused some amusement when Jane won the prize that she had donated!! She decided to re-raffle it! Thank you Sue for a lovely evening.    

On Thursday 18th July 3 of our members spent the day at a local secondary school interviewing year 10 students as part of a Futures Day. Students had “applied” for a job, completed a letter of application and CV and were then interviewed for the posts by ourselves and about 25 other people. It was a very enjoyable, and in some cases, eye opening day for us and the students.     On Wednesday 3rd July we were delighted to welcome Helen Gray (BEng, MBA, CEng FIMMM) to our meeting. She delivered an inspirational talk about here life as a metallurgist. She left school with few qualifications and returned to education around the age of 26. Having completed sufficient qualifications to allow her to apply to university she eventually graduated with a first class honours degree in Materials Engineering. She has had a varied and