Theme: Sharing our passion and supporting our clubs
Following the Edinburgh Conference in November 2024 and the changes made to the Region Constitution, SI Midland East have chosen to operate with a team of ‘Region Leaders’. We had already moved towards this model in November 2023 and, although the team has been reduced in size by the changes, we are all committed to ensuring that clubs in the region are able to have a forum where they can come together in friendship and learning. We feel strongly that we want the Region to be a mechanism which enables contact and support within and between our clubs.
Currently, the team is jointly led by Ruth Dodd (SI Amber Valley) and Elaine McDonald (SI Buxton). We have volunteered to organise and plan for the coming year; however, we do need more members to join the team and eventually take over from us. Under the new arrangements we additionally contribute to developing Programme Action (Ruth) and Secretarial support (Elaine) and are supported by Stephanie McHugh (SI Lincoln) as Treasurer and Kam Britland (SI Mansfield) who looks after our social media aspects and co-ordinates bookings for our meetings. Carol Evans (SI Amber Valley) ably minutes all our meetings. Denise Pears (SI Dukeries) has now taken over as our Benevolent Fund representative and Steph McHugh continues to represent us for Number 63.
We are always keen to hear from members who would like to join the team- all levels of skills are welcome and, if you are fairly new along your soroptimist journey, then it’s a great way to learn more about the breadth and depth of this amazing organisation.
At Federation level we are currently represented by our Federation Liaison Councillor, Jacqui Purnell (SI Leicester) who has done a sterling job of representing us in some, at times difficult, periods of change. Her four-year term of office comes to an end at the Birmingham conference and Elizabeth Hoult (SI Chesterfield) will then take over the role.
We are very sorry to have lost clubs in Derby and Kettering, where membership had fallen in recent years, but very pleased that some members were able to transfer to other clubs in the region and continue their love of Soroptimism.
The SIGBI conference will take place in Birmingham in November 2025 and, along with our friends from Midland Arden and Midland Chase regions, we are delighted to be involved in the planning of sessions and to be asked to provide stewards. The Conference will be an exciting few days with a programme of keynote speakers and with a full day of interesting workshops (information sessions) to choose from, so do come along and join us.
Please also get in touch with the team if you are attending the conference and can offer one or two sessions to be a steward, working alongside our friends from the other two Midlands regions.
