Our April meeting was the AGM, as we move into the new year, 2022-23. The meeting began with readings by members from our ‘Women of Influence’ project (posted separately). What inspiring and remarkable women we heard about! As usual, the AGM was a fairly ritual process, reviewing the previous year and previewing the new. We were able to donate over £3000 last year, plus donations in kind, which was quite an achievement, given the limitations of the Covid pandemic. We were also very pleased to welcome two new members to the club.
Chair Jan Beeton thanked all members of the club who participated in this successful year, in particular the members of Executive, who have kept the ball rolling. The new Executive was confirmed, and will continue to meet via Zoom, which has worked well this year. The new Executive follows the structure of a “light touch” club. We will not have a President defining the programme and events for the year. Instead, each month a different member of the club will take responsibility for chairing the Executive meeting and the Club meeting, and organising the Club meeting speaker. All our fund-raising events will have a designated leader with a sub-group/team for each individual event. This model was “brainstormed” at a special meeting in January, at which the shared out programme was agreed – though no doubt further activities/events will be added through the year. Lists for volunteers for sub-groups were circulated at the meeting, including the upcoming Coffee Morning scheduled for May 5th.
This first Coffee Morning is in aid of our sister club SI Harare‘s charity projects, which we have supported for many years. As conditions in Zimbabwe sadly continue to deteriorate, we know that any assistance we can give will be well used. Two more Coffee Mornings are scheduled for later in the year.
Past Presidents Sue Young and Judith Clarke announced the division of the more than £1200 raised at our recent Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson event. This will be shared between our two new club charities this year, Friends of Garget-Walker House Dementia Day Care Centre, Colburn Community Trust, Riding for the Disabled at Catterick and Marrick Priory Outdoor Centre. We are also about to complete our project to make Richmond a “Toilet Twinned Town”, in conjunction with Toilet Twinning, as we now have 19 twins in place and the final 20th is promised for next month.
It is good to be able to look forward to a “normal” programme with face-to-face Club meetings at the Scotch Corner Hotel instead of virtual sessions on Zoom, and the opportunity to include some social events as well as our fundraisers in this year’s calendar.