We were pleased to welcome Regional President Alison Driscoll as our guest speaker at the AGM Dinner on 11 April.
Members took part in President Alison’s Silent Auction at the March Regional Meeting.
Byron Primary School in Gillingham have been selling raffle tickets to raise money to buy some taps for schools.
To mark International Women’s Day Medway and Maidstone Soroptimists got together in Rochester for a lunch. Everyone brought along food contributions and we heard from our members about inspirational women they admire.
SI Medway and Maidstone are holding a Charity Fashion Show with Travelling Trends on 30 May at the Franklin Rooms in Gillingham.
In the mailing of 24 January, we were told of SIGBI’s plans for International Women’s Day 2024. As a Federation we were adopting the theme from the IWD website of “Inspire Inclusion”. ‘When we inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there is a sense of belonging, relevance and empowerment.’ SIGBI will be writing letters to the leaders of each political party of the UK asking them what they are doing regarding Inspiring and Including Women. An open letter is to be sent to various newspapers asking them to publish it on their letters page. Each club has been sent a link to the Trello board to access draft letters we can use to send to our own party leaders. When members from SI Medway and Maidstone got together in
Badge and Certificate Presented to New Member Mandy Samrai We were really pleased to formally welcome and induct our latest new member Mandy Samrai to Medway and Maidstone club. At a meeting on 16 February. Carol Infanti, Membership Officer presented Mandy with her name badge and membership certificate. Mandy is already getting actively involved in our club development plan focusing on recruitment, PR and marketing and promoting our work with partners.
SI Medway and Maidstone have a partnership agreement with Byron Primary School in Gillingham. Jane Barnes sits on the School’s UNICEF Steering group which meets every 3-4 weeks. Some wonderful links have been made such as with Mary’s Meals and Toilet Twinning. These links will be developed in the future. We often wear our Kente sashes to promote who we are. These have been admired by the teachers and pupils who have wanted to know about them and where they come from. We were asked if a banner could be made to show the School motto ‘Excellence Together’ to display in the School. In December, Jane Barnes presented the UNICEF Steering group with 3 Kente banners with their school motto. Two of the banners had kindly been donated by Nellie Adjaye and the third by SI Accra to the school. They are now looking forward
At the SIGBI London Conference November, President Ruth set us all a membership challenge for 2024 ‘To be one up’. SI Medway and Maidstone are pleased to have accepted this challenge and to welcome a new member, Mandy Samrai.
