Hello, my name is Joan Martin and I had the privilege of being elected President of Soroptimists International Rossendale for 2018/19.
I have been a Soroptimist for 6 years but, like a lot of people, I knew very little about the organisation before I thought about joining it.
I was invited to join by a Soroptimist friend who was volunteering for a local charity as was I and I soon started to learn what the Soroptimists are all about.
Wanting to support and empower women and girls, be it locally, nationally or internationally, seems an obvious thing to want to do, but taking the time to do something practical about that takes a little more thought and effort and this is where the Soroptimists come in.
Belonging to a group of women who serve their community and raise awareness and money to support women’s projects is very satisfying, as are the friendships you form along the way but none of this happens without a strong membership and we are always looking for more members.
During my presidential year my aim is to raise more awareness of who we are and what we do, in the hope that like minded women will want to join us in our endeavours. These days social media seems to be the way to advertise everything and some of our members are striving to get to grips with this technology indeed a couple of our members are patiently sharing their expertise with us as I write this! However we should not forget the old fashioned tried and tested methods of communication – local newspapers, events and word of mouth.
So – if you are reading this and want to know more about us – please follow our facebook page,look at our website, look out for details of local events where you may find us or just ring us and one of our members will have a chat. Maybe we could arrange for you to come along to one of our meetings and see what we do.
We would love to see you
In friendship
Joan Martin