The meeting started with President Christine informing the club of the sad news of the passing of Pres. Johanna M. Raffan, M.B.E., President of Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland last week. She reflected on the life and career of President Johanna and led the club in a one minute’s silence as a mark of respect.
We were delighted to induct a new member, Mandy, whose experience in youth and community work will be a huge asset to the work of our club. Mandy has already led on the club’s work in responding to the Police and Crime Commissioner’s questionnaire on City Safety.
We had a very interesting and informative talk about how the probation services work with perpetrators of Domestic Abuse. Our speaker was Paul Weatherstone, a Senior Probation Officer, who spoke about the history of how domestic abuse had been regarded and how training had been devised over the last fifty years. Given the club’s previous history of observing in Specialist Domestic Violence courts, his talk generated many questions.
Many of us had attended Saturday’s regional event about ‘Soroptimist Heritage – 100 Years of History and Memories’ to support Regional President Christine (A Newcastle club member). The club had hosted the event on Zoom and members had assisted Christine with the production of the presentation. Christine stated that she had had excellent feedback about the presentation/play that was performed and about the inspirational nature of the talks from Ann Garvie, former International President of Soroptimist International and Cathy Cottridge, President Elect of Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland. (Watch this space for further information about the Regional Event.) All those who had attended commented on how enjoyable and inspirational it had been and how it had renewed their enthusiasm for Soroptimism.
