To all my sister Soroptimists in our Region of Northern England
This week I am going to focus on yesterday’s Regional Celebrations. It was wonderful to see so many of you on the screens and hope that you felt as inspired by the words of our founders as I was.
We were very saddened by the news of the passing of our Federation President Johanna Raffan last Tuesday and we started the Event on Saturday by the reading of a Tribute to her and we held a minute of silent reflection and remembrance . I have attached the Tribute to this Newsletter for those of you who were not present to hear it. Johanna will be a great miss to our Federation and the world beyond as she was due to be the Convenor of the Soroptimist International Convention in Dublin on 27 to 29 July 2023. She had many, sometimes controversial proposals, to modernise our Federation structure and improve it’s fitness for purpose. We will wait until the next General Meeting to see if any of her proposals are adopted but they have certainly caused members to think about how we elect our leaders and how we run our organisation with a need for increasing membership. Link to Tribute
Our main presentation took the form of an illustrated history from 1921 through to the early 1980’s. The early growth in members and clubs showed enormous speed and support for the ideals that we were promoting. Women wished to gain new status in our communities following the Great War where their roles had changed and self-independence had been offered. The aim to have an international organisation of women that offered service to their communities was an idea that appealed throughout America and Europe. We started with the story of the founding of the first club in Oakwood in California and moved on and into the UK and then Europe.
The early pioneering members had some memorable ideals that were read as ‘quotes’ by 16 of our members from around the region. I do hope that they inspired you to think again about why we are Soroptimists and our core beliefs. We were reminded by International President Ethel Lord in 1971 that “ the value of the individual member is important and the world of the future requires us to adapt to new conditions. We should always remember that service is our most important product the impact of Soroptimism is a real force for world understanding – but – remember that now, as in the past, YOU make the difference. Our strength lies in the active support of each one of you. This international organisation is only as strong as each club makes it and each club is only as strong as its members make it “. I think that these words emphasise the great importance of our Programme Action work -it is the reason why we exist and should be the reason why new members join.
After an intermission we heard from Past International President Ann Garvie with some of the high lights of her two years in office from 2013 to 2015. Ann was our last SIGBI nominated International President and it was apt to hear from her as our new International President Maureen McGuire takes up her role this summer. With the new African Federation making up five Federations, the rotating of the Federations to offer an International President means that SIGBI will only have this opportunity every ten years.
We wish Maureen every success in her term of office and look forward to hearing and seeing her at future Conferences – and of course the International Convention in Dublin in July 2023.
Ann gave us some challenging things to think about but she feels strongly that we need open debate about the need for change if Soroptimism is to survive the next 100 years. She particularly described one of her personal disappointments while in office as International President. She did not achieve the radical realignment of the International Board and of the global membership of countries. The various Federations are often seen as a miss match of countries with very loose links to hold them together in these modern times. “A bit here and a bit there and another bit around the corner” is not seen as a systematic way of creating Federations – or indeed – do we need Federations at all but have countries linked direct to Soroptimist International ? A challenge that it might be worth discussing at Regional level before the end of this reflective Centennial year.
SIGBI President Elect Cathy Cottridge joined us to talk about the current situation in SIGBI and plans for the future. This must be an incredibly difficult time for her as she takes over the reins with the loss of President Johanna as well as coping with her existing responsibilities. She too commented on some of the quotes from our presentations with a look at the subjects discussed by delegates at the 1960’s Convention – and we are still discussing these same topics today! She listed some of the recent achievements of SIGBI including the gain of 228 new members during the Lockdown periods. The new recruitment video on the SIGBI web site has gained much attention including a request from Poland to use it and add sub titles in Polish.
There is clearly a need to embrace the virtual world and younger members are looking for this together with flexibility. A new e- club is being piloted in Greater London which will be reported on. Some progress is being made on the application for SIGBI to have an information stand in the Green Area (civic society) in Glasgow at COP26 in early November and a further meeting is to be held with the Cabinet Office to progress this. An effort is to be made to form firmer partnerships with other women’s organisations and to ensure that there is more, and better, support and exchange of information.
Following these two speakers, we asked for questions for either, or both, of them to be sent to me as soon as you can so that they can be forwarded for considered replies and more information. It was unfortunate that we ran short of time in the second half and interactive discussion and questions lost out to the need to finish about 4.30pm. Some members put questions in the Chat Box which will be forwarded and I will report back.
At the end of the afternoon, we announced the RAFFLE winners – all twelve of them.
They are:
1st Prize: Glenfiddich Whisky : Sue Scott of SI Stockton-on-Tees
2nd Prize: Chivas Regal Whisky : Rosie Jenkinson of SI Sunderland
3rd Prize : London Dry Gin : Helen of SI Tynedale
4th Prize : Moet & Chandon : Sue McSharry of SI Tynemouth/W.Bay
5th Prize : Tattinger : Julie of SI Stockton-on-Tees
6th Prize : Croft Sherry : Sue of SI Stckton-on-Tees
7th Prize : Vodka : Marge Wilkinson of SI Sunderland
8th Prize : Lanson Black Label : Helen Tinnion of SI Cockermouth
9th Prize: Bacardi Rum : Kath Shearer of SI Newcastle upon Tyne
10th Prize: PIMS No. 1 : Elspeth of SI Darlington
11th Prize: London Dry Floral Gin : Liz Bergs of SI Tynemouth/WBay
12th Prize : Pink Grapefruit Gin : Ruth Richardson of SI South Shields
The delivery of these prizes will be arranged over the next few days and Joyce Chesney and I will be contacting the winners soon.
I am extremely grateful to all of you who supported the Raffle by purchasing tickets or giving donations. The final amount raised was £ 1,200.00 which will be equally divided between Butterwick Hospice Care and the SIGBI Diamond Education Grant charities – so £ 600.00 to each charity. Hilary Clavering was our most efficient Treasurer for this Raffle and I thank her for her diligence in making sure that all was conducted in a fair and proper manner. She arranged the draw of the winning tickets on Saturday 12 June and she enrolled her husband Alan Clavering ( Retired Accountant ) and Vivienne MacFarquhar ( Retired Vice Principal of Hartlepool College ) as her independent ticket drawers and scrutineers. Hilary has submitted to me a full financial account of the receipts.
I am going to end this Celebration Event report with the words of Ann Garvie – “We have to step up and accept responsibility if we are to survive “. I do hope that the content of the Event will be discussed at club level and some new ideas emerge.
The Event was recorded and I am waiting until next week before discussing the ability to forward it to interested members for a more local viewing. I have to wait until I am sure that consent has been obtained and that there are no dissenters.
Please do contact me if you are interested in receiving a recording.
Last reminder in this Newsletter is to let you know that the next Regional Coffee Gathering is on Saturday 10 July from 10.30am for about an hour.Any member wishing to join us should request a Zoom Link by contacting Margaret Ayton on margaretayton40@gmail.com
Numbers have been falling lately – is it the better weather ? or the lessening of social
restrictions ? We would like to see and greet members if they would like to join us for this social meet-up.
There will NOT be a WEEKLY NEWSLETTER next Sunday, but I am starting to collect items from clubs for an edition on Sunday 4th July. I will review the frequency of this system of inter-club communications and see how often I might distribute this newsletter.
Please do send me your club and members news to include.
In friendship
Christine Lumsdon – your Regional President