On Thursday 20th April 2023, we held our AGM at The Imperial Hotel in Llandudno. We had a review of the year by presidents Pam Farr, Cynthia Poyser and Mary Longworth and what a busy year it was! We’ve raised monies and had talks from various charities including We Mind the Gap, Sands Gwynedd, Conwy Mind, Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline Charity and we were privileged to have some of those charities speakers back with us for presentation of the cheques and flowers. Next saw a video celebrating our 60th birthday followed by change of insignia. We also awarded our secretary, Rhian Hand with a certificate for 25 years contribution to Soroptimists. Thank you to Pam, Cynthia and Mary for a fantastic year, we welcome Sandra Snow to the helm this year as our president and look forward to what she has planned!

On Thursday 23rd March 2023, we welcomed fellow Soroptimist, Mary Stallard to be our speaker for the evening at Trinity Church Hall, Llandudno. It was an Open Meeting where members of the public were invited to attend. Mary Stallard, who is about to become Bishop of Llandaff spoke about working in a male dominated profession. She shared several photos with us, of her time being a minister in the local area and what she expects her new role to be like. We would like to congratulate Mary Stallard on her appointment to the position of Bishop of Llandaff, which is a Christian faith comprehensive school in the area of Llandaff in Cardiff. We wish her every success and good health in this move.

On a wet and windy day in March, a small group of us walked along the promenade in Llandudno to celebrate International Women’s Day. On Saturday 11th March 2023, we were joined by Llandudno Mayor, Carol Marubbi and Llandudno Mayoress, Linda Bailey plus councillor, Frank Bradfield to raise awareness of embracing equity. Here are some images from the day.  

Every year, the Children’s Hospital Pyjamas group collect donations of brand new pyjamas from new-born to age 18, which are gifted to children in hospital on Christmas Day morning. This year, the Llandudno and District Soroptimists decided to help and have been collecting new pyjamas from their members. Current president, Cynthia Poyser said “We don’t want any child to be in hospital, especially at Christmas time, so we wanted to make sure they have a nice new pair if they have to be away from home. It’s such a small thing to make the children feel more comfortable during their stay.” The appeal ends on 31st October 2022.

Several members of SI Llandudno attended the Regional Meeting on Saturday 21 May 2022, which was held at the Imperial Hotel in our home town. The theme was climate change and the first speaker was James Espley, waste manager of Conwy County Borough Council who explained what happens to our recycling. We also had an interesting presentation on how climate change is affecting the weather by Clare Nasir, a meteorologist at the BBC who has also been a weather presenter on GMTV. After a delicious lunch, cheques were presented to representatives of the three mental health charities who benefitted from the regional raffle earlier this year. Photos are  of Regional President Yvonne Johns with representatives from Adferiad (Recovery- previously CAIS), the North Wales charity and with Clare Nasir.

Last night, we were delighted to have a talk from Gerrie Bailey from Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline who spoke to us about how they are helping families still living in Ukraine during this awful time.

We were very happy to enrol a new member, Melynda Standring last night. Melynda was introduced to Soroptimists by her friend Denise Harris-Edwards of SI Anglesey and she also knows Regional President Yvonne. Melynda has had a career in education and continues to work part-time. We look forward to having her as a valuable member of our club.

At the AGM on Thursday 14 April 2022, Llandudno and District Soroptimists met at The Imperial Hotel in Llandudno. Three new Presidents were elected for the club this year. Pam Farr will undertake the first term, until 31 July 2022. Cynthia Poyser will undertake the second term, which will run from 1 August 2022 until 30 November 2022 and Mary Longworth will undertake the third term, which runs from 1 December 2022 until the AGM in 2023. Janet Murfin, was thanked for all of her hard work over the last two years as President. The Club also thanked Pat Kerfoot for her contribution. All five ladies were presented with flowers.