April is a month of change for our Club with lots happening all beginning with A and many deserving stars for their actions.
Who would have thought we would still be using Zoom for our meetings?! But we’re getting used to it and 33 of our Club welcomed new President Julie to her role at the AGM.
Amanda as one our newest members read the Soroptimist Vison and Mission statements
Gill has been an amazing President this past year. Despite all her wonderful plans for her year, nothing could have prepared for a pandemic. Yet Gill has led our Club through these strange and difficult times. She has educated, enabled and empowered many Club members to use Zoom. This has been shown by the high attendance we’ve had at our Zoom meetings.
As Julie said in her speech of thanks to Gill, as with the Pioneers of old gazing across the the Grand Canyon, Gill simply got on with bringing the whole Club safely through.
We’re a vibrant Club so the various Officers have changed. You can see who’s leading on what by checking our our Club menu under the section ‘About our Club‘.
Julie’s plans for her year are also outlined here too.
Civic Recognition
One of Julie’s first engagements as our new President was to represent our Club at our Town Mayor’s Civic service.
Julie’s report is as follows:-
The virtual congregation was made up of members representing the many voluntary groups who have given valuable service to our community, especially throughout the pandemic. I was proud to hear Polly Hayward talk about Molly’s Meals, knowing that several of our members were instrumental to the success of this amazing initiative. They provided hundreds of meals for those vulnerable and shielding members of Kenilworth unable to leave their homes – a hugely impressive undertaking.
As Soroptimists, we set ourselves high standards of service in support of the needs of others, especially women. But as women, we can often be self critical of our own ability to reach those high standards – sometimes to the extent of believing our efforts not good enough. That’s why I was both moved and motivated by the song so beautifully sung by Holly Hewitt, manager of the Kenilworth Centre. It was ‘Anthem’ by Leonard Cohen,
‘Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.’
It’s ok to be less than perfect when good is good enough.
Taking Care of Sisters locally 
Who knew that one of our older members, Betty, was actually part of the committee in our Mother Club SI Coventry who helped to get Kenilworth and District set up? Betty has decided to take life a little easier by moving into a local care home . However, she is still in our thoughts and Marion produced the most fabulous card for her. We will of course be visiting just as soon as Covid restrictions allow.
Supporting Sisters Internationally
St Vincent and the Grenadines has been hit recently by a catastrophic volcano eruption As part of our Federation, SIGBI has already donated £1000 from our Emergency Relief fund. SI Solihull has a friendship link , and our newest member Amina is also in contact with SI St Vincent and the Grenadines. The Soroptimists there are already doing brilliant work supporting the people affected by this humanitarian crisis. We’ll keep you updated about how our Club and the other 9 members of Midland Arden Region support our Sisters in future blogs
Change of Insignia
Our very own Club member Elaine is President of Midland Arden Region. One of the advantages of Zoom is that you can enable SIGBI President Johanna Raffern to attend! Each of the 10 Clubs sent a short presentation showing, that despite all the restrictions that Covid has placed on us, we are still Standing Up For Women. We also saw that latest map about our tree planting for the Centennial celebrations.
Midland Arden has produced a video in preparation of our Centennial Celebrations
A quizzical evening.
To get us in the mood for a little education about amazing women and have some fun, Julie’s first meeting was a quiz. A light hearted via Zoom. The first picture round was entitled Mothers and Daughter. One Club member took this as permission to ‘cheat’ as she had her own Mum to stay so had a team of two! We now have our first Soroptimum!
The most hilarious question was ‘what is the group noun for jellyfish?’. The winning answer was a ‘wobble’, much more appropriate than the correct answer ‘a bloom’!
Want to know more about Soroptimists?
You can watch this new video from SIGBI by clicking on this link
Or you can wait until May and watch our very own Membership Video!!!