A warm welcome to Shuntaz, who joined us in January. Shuntaz is a retail manager by profession. She has many skills to bring us and develop, not least creative writing!

Two of our members, Margaret Clark and Wendy Shepherd, represented Soroptimist International at the UN Commission on the Status of Women convention in New York in March. What an honour for them and the club!

SI Middlesbrough now has three established Friendship Links, SI Harrogate and District, SI Pune Metro East, and SI Magdeburg. Our warm wishes go to all members of these clubs.

We are pleased to welcome our 21st member, Val Lambert. Val has her own Health Improvement Company in Middlesbrough, www.healthimprovementcompany.co.uk and offers a wide range of public health / health improvement courses.

Seven Middlesbrough Soroptimists have recently received awards or been shortlisted  for service and achievement In the Tees Valley BME Achievement Awards 2012 ceremony held recently, several Middlesbrough Soroptimists did the club proud. Ibtihal Albasry, who hails from Iraq, was nominated as Woman of the Year,

Our creative writing workshop held in November, run by member Hema Ayupala, was a great success, with all of the members and friends attending discovering hidden talent!