We are an unusual soroptimist club, in that we do not have a President or an Executive Committee. As a small group, we very much work as a team and share roles between us. SIGBI (Soroptimist International Great Britain & Ireland) protocol requires us to have some named club positions: Team Leader - Jennie Walker, Secretary - Zillah Zaufal, Treasurer - Alison Palmer. However, we actually work as a team and share the roles. We rotate the chairing of meetings to give all members (if they want it) an opportunity to have this experience and develop their meeting management skills. Everyone helps out with minutes and administrative tasks. Alison, Helen and Jill are generally the three who sort out the financial affairs of the club. We find that this collaborative way of working suits us very well.
Our club, although digitally based, offers in-person and on-line opportunities to fully engage in soroptimist causes. Many women choose Cornwall as their home because of the rurality of the county and it is, indeed, a beautiful place to live. However, rural living can be challenging for women of any age due to factors such as sparsity or limited access to resources, transport issues, lack of employment options or opportunities for socialising. Whilst loneliness or social isolation are not the same thing, both are closely related and can severely impact on one’s quality of life. We offer a way of coming together and making friends across the county.
We are looking for women to join us. Our members are both young and ‘more mature’, digital natives and digital beginners, women in work and retired, mums, sisters, aunties and grandmothers. Whoever you are and most importantly, wherever you are in Cornwall, we will welcome you and we will help you to access our meetings and projects.
We had our charter ceremony on 19th June 2024. SIGBI President Ruth welcomed our club to the soroptimist movement. At this point we had 14 founding members, of which, 12 are still members in 2026. Three of these founding members were also founding members of other clubs, inside and outside of Cornwall. In 2026 we have 18 members.
In spirit with the United Nation’s campaign to eliminate violence against women and girls, (Orange the World Campaign). We travel to somewhere in Cornwall and hold an Orange Cafe on the 25th of each month. Of course, we’re online too!
Each year our national body SIGBI (Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland) organises a conference and many of our members attend. The last three have been in London (2024), Edinburgh (2025) and Cardiff (2026).
