After our break for Christmas and New Year, the club gathered on Saturday, 20th January for our Annual Planning Meeting.\u00a0 This is an extended meeting which we hold each January to plan everything for the next club year – i.e. April 2024 – March 2025.\u00a0 With a mix of discussions and brainstorming sessions, we manage to cover a lot of ground.<\/p>\n
We started with an overview of what we have done in the current year’s Programme Action, and what we already have in the calendar for the rest of 2023-24 and beyond.\u00a0 It is always surprising when we get to this point in the year and reflect on all we have done.\u00a0 This year it was:<\/p>\n
Funding activities<\/strong> Breast Cancer Support Group, Northallerton & district We also agreed at the meeting to donate to Kids Cancer<\/a> charity. This will go towards a respite trip to Disneyland Paris for a local family who have a child with cancer<\/p>\n Other activities<\/strong><\/p>\n Sharing our Skills project \u2013 ongoing involvement with Richmond School<\/a> students One of our new members has also revived a project called Reminiscences, done a few years ago.\u00a0 This involves her and another member visiting a local care home with a box of items loaned by the Richmondshire Museum.\u00a0 These encourage conversations with and between the residents.\u00a0 Lorna hopes to write these sessions up!\u00a0 A first one was held in December in Bedale, and was very successful.<\/p>\n Looking forward\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n We have an event planned for March for International Women’s Day<\/a> – two sessions of\u00a0 an exhibition (with refreshments) at the Town Hall on “Women of Richmond”.\u00a0 We will be in the Town Hall again in May, for an event in association with Grumpy Mule<\/a> coffee company, about their work with Cafe Feminino<\/a> charitable foundation, and for 3 more Coffee Morning fundraisers through the year.<\/p>\n During the day, we decided upon the programme for 2024-5:<\/p>\n Several proposed charities were discussed, and we decided to support three next year in addition to our ongoing commitments.\u00a0 We will be raising funds with Richmondshire Swimming Club<\/a> in support of\u00a0their campaign to fund special clothing for female swimmers to use during their periods.\u00a0 Many of their less wealthy swimmers have to lose 25% of their training time for lack of\u00a0 these expensive pieces of equipment, making it impossible to reach their potential.\u00a0 We will also be supporting Smart Works<\/a>, which provides used clothing and accessories for young unemployed women, plus advice and support, so that they can make a good impression in job interviews.\u00a0 Finally, as the Richmondshire Museum<\/a> was founded by Richmond & Dales Soroptimists, we will be working with them to mark their 50th Anniversary this year.<\/p>\n For our meetings, we chose speakers we wish to hear, including contributions from members: a wide variety of topics, some to do with our work, and others for interest<\/p>\n We agreed some further fund-raising events in addition to those already booked.\u00a0 The students from Richmond School who attended the meeting were also enthusiastic about organising a fundraiser themselves at the school.<\/p>\n And finally, we agreed some activities to bring the Club members together in a lighter vein: a visit with afternoon tea to Thornton Hall Gardens, and a Christmas Meal.<\/p>\n Overall, a very successful day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After our break for Christmas and New Year, the club gathered on Saturday, 20th January…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-club-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWe held a Bingo Night at Richmond Rugby Club<\/a>, 2 Town Hall coffee mornings, and generated income for the Club via members use of EasyFundRaising<\/a> when making purchases online. These have funded:<\/p>\n
\nEVA Women\u2019s Aid \u2013 equipment and supplies for flats: our thanks go to Sue Eastham’s husband Barry, who is continuing to fund EVA via his garage business
\nLend with Care<\/a> \u2013 micro-financing: seeded with \u00a3250, further small loans made each month from repayments
\nColburn Foodshare<\/a> \u2013 food donations from meetings plus funding for Christmas Hampers and donations for warm rail
\nSI President\u2019s appeal donation \u2013 Opening the Door to a Brighter future<\/a>
\nRichmondshire Museum<\/a> \u2013 annual donation of \u00a350
\nSI Harare<\/a> \u2013 annual donation to support their work with supporting traditional birthing attendants, aid and equipment for Chikupo school & Dalston school, funding Society Of Destitute Aged (SODA)
\nPaying for SOS student’s meals at meetings<\/p>\n
\nSpouse Force<\/a> \u2013 adaptation of SOS to provide similar support to Catterick Garrison project
\nOrange the World \u2013 awareness raising: UN 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence<\/a>, Orange Cafe sessions, Methodist Church Christmas Tree Exhibition
\nCoffee, cake and chat sessions at Richmond and Colburn libraries<\/a> – support for local residents
\nSoroptimist Cups for Making a Difference \u2013 annual presentations continue in Wavell, Risedale & Richmond schools (plus Zimbabwe and India).\u00a0 Cups are presented to the student who has “Made A Difference” to the school or community.\u00a0 This is aimed at encouraging volunteering and community awareness
\nRecycling \u2013 spectacles, mobile phones, used stamps, sewing machines, tablet, printer cartridges
\nReading and recording news items for Richmond Talking Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\nNext Year’s Programme<\/h3>\n