It’s exactly 30 years since I first held the position of President and it’s not a role I had
envisaged taking on again. Unfortunately, the time was not right for any other member to
take on the role this year so I am happy to stand in and I will do the best I can to run the
Club and represent the members, when I can. We are all busy with Programme Action in
our own Club that sometimes we forget that we are part of an International organisation with
about 66,000 women in 121 countries who are working at a local, national and international
level to educate, empower and enable opportunities for women and girls.
There are many service Clubs we could join but Soroptimists are unique. Soroptimist
International (SI) has General Consultative Status and SIGBI has Special Consultative
Status at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at the United Nations (UN). This
gives us a voice on important discussion papers and allows us to attend the Commission on
the Status of Women in New York each March, contributing to the “Agreed Conclusions”.
This status would not be possible without the fantastic work being done by the Members
around the world.
Last year our President asked us to develop and encourage better communication between
club members and a more cohesive approach within the Committees. Although we work as
three Committees… we are one Club! Each Committee has specific projects or fundraising
that they organise and lead but when we have events, we need all Club members to
volunteer to help with them, when they are able to do so.
I couldn’t decide on an individual charity to support this year so have decided to have two
charities that I am already involved with as a volunteer and they will have an equal share of
any money we raise. These charities are Paws for Support and Grow.
I am looking forward to my year second time around, I would encourage anyone to put
yourself forward to help with the running of your club, there is lots of support on offer and it
really is a great experience.
Thank you all for the support you give to this Club. We achieved a lot during the last 12
months, as we have seen in the quarterley Newsletters and we have a lot already planned
for the next 12 months. We are going to start the year by spending a bit of time reflecting on
what we have been doing and whether we can do anything to improve this. Initially, you will
discuss this in your committees and then we can compare thoughts in the May Business
Meeting. If you have any ideas, please don’t be afraid to share them!