March Club Meeting ‘Visitors’
SI Richmond & Dales met for it’s March meeting via Zoom on Thursday 16th. Presidents Faye and Jane started the meeting by sending welcoming our ‘visitors’ – Linda Davis, Yorkshire Regional President and Janette Black & Stella Reynolds from our Friendship Link Club Easter Ross. It was lovely to see them, even if it was virtual. Linda Davis spoke about her experience of her Presidency during lockdown. She is keeping in touch with Zoom, which – though not ideal – is better than no contact. She hopes that we will be able to have come kind of face-to-face activity during the summer. A ‘proper’ Regional Council Meeting in July is a possibility, and Linda told us to wait and see for details of an event, as soon as confirmation is available. September RCM has been booked at the Holiday Inn. Sadly, infection rates in West Yorkshire remain high, so many fingers are crossed.
Janette & Stella reported that Easter Ross have been unable to have their own meetings via Zoom, but they have kept in touch with each other, and joined meetings with other clubs. Members have been active collecting bottle tops and knitting, phoning friends and collecting for the foodbank. As a sparsely populated rural area, they have been fortunate to have had a long period of relative freedom between the first and current lockdowns, when they were in the bottom tier of Scottish Covid regulations. They don’t yet know if there will be more tier regulations when the current lockdown ends shortly.
Talk about Cyber Crime
Our Speaker this month was one of our members, Babs Hunt, who is an IT Manager, and volunteers with the North Yorkshire Police Cyber Crime Unit. Babs presented an excellent talk explaining the different types of cybercrime from email scams to unsolicited phone calls and fake online romances. She explained how to spot the scammers, and what to do to protect ourselves. An interesting and very useful presentation. We all need to keep alert.
Baby Bundles and Books
Faye & Jane recently delivered our donation to the local Food Bank, Storehouse, of ‘baby bundles’
– special packs of goods for mothers and babies – as a contribution to
International Women’s Day.
As the schools have now re-opened, member Jan has delivered to the local primary schools 3 signed copies of the children’s book about our Patron, Lady Hale, former President of the Supreme Court. As soon as regulations allow it, Jan will go into the schools to read this to the pupils.
Tree Planting for the SIGBI Centenary
£400 has been passed to the Jonas Centre to pay for our bench with plaque and fruit tree. The bench is due to be delivered in 2-3 weeks, and ordering of the apple tree is in progress. We look forward to being able to go and see these when permitted.
Disbursing President’s Charity Funds
As Faye & Jane’s joint Presidency nears its end, we are now sending the President’s charity funds out: this totals £400 to Just the Job and £145 to Education in the Gambia. Although much less than we would have liked, due to the Covid crisis, Faye thanked members for their efforts, particularly Sandy, for her significant contribution to the Gambia fund from her assiduous mask-making and selling.
Coffee Mornings
Our planned fund-raiser Coffee Morning booked at The Town Hall for May has sadly been moved to 2021, though it is hoped that the 17th July one will be possible, as well as the slot booked for 14th October.
Annual General Meeting
Our meeting next month will be our AGM – still via Zoom, unfortunately. Nominations for officers taking over those departing were approved, and incoming President Sharon promised that she would have a programme ready for next month combining both remote and face to face activities. Let’s hope we are able to meet as normal sooner rather then later!