We all had a bit of a shock at Folkestone when at least 6 of our long serving members decided they would not be renewing their membership of the club at the end of the club year. Would we have to close? We are really sorry that we will be losing so many valued members –who leave us for a variety of reasons but we know they will not only continue to support our club whenever they can, but we will all continue with the friendships we have formed over so many years. On behalf of the club, we would like to thank all of those members for their service.
The members continuing : Susannah, Ann, Jacalyn, Belinda, Pat, Jean and Jan will be joined by Yvonne from Canterbury club and we will work together as a team to ensure that the club continues to serve not only the women in Folkestone but carries on the traditions of Soroptimism in improving the lives of women and girls across the world. We have decided to move to a more flexible management approach so our club so will not have a president as we feel this will help us develop as a team. Of course, we will have a Secretary: Susannah de Sanvil; a Programme Officer: Ann Reeves; a Treasurer: Jan Doyle. Jacalyn Wood will be our Communication/ Membership Officer as we feel that these two roles go hand in hand.
We are being supported by the Region, Jane Barnes has been to a couple of our meetings recently and this has certainly helped us to realise that with only a few we are able to continue. Wealso have Federation support as President Elect Ruth came to one of our meetings recently as her club, Surrey Hills successfully increased their membership during lockdown,
and they have offered to help us. If you are interested in joining us please make contact
At our March meeting we were able to celebrate and reflect on our memories of the club, and we agreed donations to President Glynis’ charity for the year Baby Basics, the foodbank, our local women’s refuge. We also gave a donation to the Chernobyl Children’s Life Line (Ashford and Romney Marsh Link). Susannah is currently in Poland having met up with two girls from Chernobyl who have managed to safely leave Ukraine. She is trying to get their visas so that she can bring them to England – hopefully it won’t be too long before they can all come to the UK. You can support the girls here Help Anastasiia and Lisa get to the UK and thrive – a Personal Causes crowdfunding project in Ashford by Susannah De Sanvil (crowdfunder.co.uk)