To all my sister Soroptimists in Northern England
What beautiful blue skies we have been having for some days now. Spring is certainly here and I hope that the early morning frosts have not been causing too much damage in your gardens.
On Wednesday 21st April it is the U.N.World Day of Creativity and Innovation. I hope that this is reflected by members and clubs as they have their A.G.M.s and plan their programmes for the next club year – and the main months to celebrate our 100 years of being Soroptimists around the world.
Last Monday, I was invited to join S.I.Darlington & District for their club meeting when they had a fascinating guest speaker – Sue Fortescue. Sue is currently living near Bournemouth but has travelled the world with her work in IT and as a translator as she speaks fluent French and Italian. She was first introduced to the world of Soroptimism when she was living in the USA and joined SI of the San Tans in Arizona and then moved to SI Manassas in Virginia. She moved to back to Europe in 2000 and joined SI Van Brabant-Waterloo which is based just outside Brussels before returning to the UK to join SI Darlington to be near family members and then transferring to SI Poole from 2014. She gave us a lively talk about the way in which the clubs in the two Federations of the Americas and Europe organise themselves and differ from our own SIGBI Federation. The stories that she told and the pictures that she showed us all demonstrated how much more formal the clubs seemed to be and do not yet seem to have encompassed the recruitment of women from all walks of life. Her talk reminded me that ‘once a Soroptimist – always a Soroptimist ‘ and how membership can be an important introduction to members who have to move for work, or other, reasons. There is always a club near you who will welcome you and you truly are a member of a global women’s’ organisation. Thank you to Darlington Soroptimists for reminding us of this great international connection between us.
On Saturday 17 April (yesterday ) we had the virtual ( and free !) U.K. PAC Annual Study Day. There were some very interesting speakers, particularly Dame Sara Thornton DBE; QPM who is the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner . I am sure that you will hear more about this from your club members who attended. I did feel that here in SINE that we are very aware of the issues around Modern Day Slavery having made links to our local Police services and having had Dame Vera Baird in our midst for a few years.
There is always something to learn and the up to date facts and statistics were alarming. Some changes have been made to the programme so that this was only part 1 and finished at lunchtime with part 2 ( the planned afternoon session) being rearranged for the morning of Saturday 3rd July due to HRH the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral during the afternoon of the 17 April.
Talking about Programme Action, I do hope that many of you are signed up to join our Regional Chair of P.A. Karen Alexander who is organising the delivery of a webinar to reveal the mysteries of the Programme Focus Report Forms, how to access them, how to complete and submit them. This is such an important part of our work as without the reports as evidence we cannot continue our membership of the various U.N. agencies. Even if you do not ever think that you will be in a position to need to complete these forms, this session will help every member to understand why they are needed and how they can be done. Please do let Regional Secretary Joan Heckels ( tj.heckels@btinternet.com) know as soon as possible if you would like to join in on Saturday 24 April from 10.30am for a short morning only session.
In this edition of the weekly eNewsletter, I am launching our
🥂 🍾 CELEBRATORY REGIONAL RAFFLE 🎁 🎉
On Thursday 15 April, I posted a book of raffle tickets to each of our 12 club secretaries.
There are 12 bottles of spirits and champagnes to be won and tickets are only £1 each or £5 for a strip of five. The winners will be announced at the close of the Regional Celebratory Event on Saturday 19 June. I was very aware of the sad news that last year’s Regional President’s Event in June 2020 had to be cancelled . IPPJoyce Chesney had chosen to support the Butterwick Hospice where she had been a volunteer for many years and the loss of even our relatively small donation has added to their financial worries in this pandemic year. So Joyce and I are splitting the income from this Raffle so that 50% goes to the Butterwick Hospice and 50% will go to my choice of the Diamond Education Grant charity at SIGBI. I do hope that you will all support this fund raiser so that we can send funds to these two very worthy causes. Remember please that all funds and tickets stubs needs to be returned to Hilary Clavering by 12 June at latest. >>>>
Details of my Regional President’s Event on Saturday 19 June 2021 will be distributed in the next couple of weeks. It will be an afternoon and virtual Zoom event from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. – and will of course this year be free of charge ! It will take the form of a presentation “Our Soroptimist Heritage : 100 years of History and Memories” with a brief history of not only Soroptimist International but also our own heritage here in the region of Northern England. I thank all the individual members who have willingly agreed to represent some of the Past Presidents of S.I.and who will be reading the recollections of their time in office. Over the past few years, as we have approached the 100 years anniversary, and our local clubs have celebrated their increasing longevity, many members have asked about the history of our region and I hope that this will show how far we have travelled in becoming a very active and dynamic region. The event will close with a talk from Past International President Ann Garvie who will talk about her experiences while in office 2013-15 and then our Federation President Johanna Raffan MBE will talk about where we are now and where we are going. Then the Raffle winners will announced. I hope to see you all there!
The Regional Coffee Gatherings have been attracting a number of members from a variety of clubs. The next one is planned for Saturday 8th May at 10.30am. I know that some of us have the #Planttrees webinar pencilled in for that day but it has not yet been confirmed and they are working hard to get their IT systems working well. If this Trees webinar does clash with this Coffee morning , then we will change our social arrangements. Watch this space !
I hope that some of you have been inspired to take part in the preparations for the SIGBI Membership month of MAY. The information sheet from SIGBI Director of Membership Chevonne Anaga was circulated last week. All she is asking for is a selfie video ( of less than 1 minute) saying why you became a Soroptimist. Please consider this and send your video before the deadline of Wednesday 21st April.
Lastly, I have received some latest news from Federation President Johanna who reports that SIGBI’s charity Emergency Relief Fund has made a payment of £1,000 to the club in St.Vincent and the Gerenadines, in the wake of the devastating volcano eruption. I am sure that we are all thinking of Soroptimists sisters in those islands who are going through this traumatic experience. Your club ( or individual members ) may like to consider donating further amounts and you can do so by sending any monies for St Vincent and the Grenadines to Joanne Voller at HQ and made out to the Emergency Relief Fund.
Thank you for reading this weekly message. I am always looking for news about club meetings; speakers; individual members and any Soroptimist news that can be shared.
Tomorrow will be a transforming day for me – a hair cut at long last ! It is so good to feel that life is slowly and carefully opening up again. Keep well and safe –
in friendship
Christine Lumsdon – your Regional President
email: christinemlumdon@gmail.com