The first Regional Meeting hosted by SI Salisbury was held at Sarum College in the beautiful surroundings of Salisbury’s Cathedral Close, appropriately on the longest (and hottest) day of the year, just after the summer Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, a few miles away.
Members from across the Southern England Region were welcomed by SI Salisbury President Michele who explained that the theme for the day was: “Inspiring women, inspiring each other” and she hoped that members would find inspiration from the day’s activities.
There was a very short amount of Regional Business led by Past Regional President Kay Linnell, which included information on the forthcoming SIGBI Day of Action on 12 July – which will be themed as the Day of Hope, a reminder to complete the railway station surveys by the end of June and the new SIGBI Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) campaign which will seek to ensure GIAs are included in all central government and local government policy decisions.
Guest speaker Tracy Daszkiewicz talked about her inspirational career, explaining how throughout it all, it had been women who had supported her, encouraged her and led her forward to achieve all she had in her professional and personal life. Her life had been full of challenges, both personal and professional and she explained how each of ‘her women’ as she called them, had been there for her at every step, and were still part of her lifetime friendship group. She now had three strong and empowered daughters of her own and professionally had led the public health response to Novichok in Salisbury and the Covid 19 Pandemic across Wiltshire. She was now working in South Wales, but was still in touch with her network of strong women mentors.
Members of the Region then broke into workshop groups to discuss what was important to them as Soroptimists – what made them proud, brought a smile to their face, made them think and what made them giggle. It was a great opportunity to share experiences and to get to know members from other Clubs in the Region. All of the comments and ideas were captured by group leaders.
Led by Past President Kay, Members of the Region raised a glass of prosecco to toast Tref Mitchell, member of SI Winchester and long-term member of the Region. The meeting marked Tref’s 50-year anniversary as a Soroptimist and we celebrated her long and dedicated career to programme action, past Secretary of the Region and committed member. Responding to the toast, Tref told us that the first Regional meeting she had attended was hosted by SI Salisbury so it was important to her to be able to attend today’s meeting. On behalf of the Region, Kay presented her with a long service certificate to mark her 50 years of membership.
Members enjoyed a delicious lunch with lots of chance to catch up with friends across the Region.
Jenny Hair from SI Salisbury gave a presentation about the Club’s Her Salisbury Story project, explaining how it started in 2018 with the aim of writing women into the story of Salisbury and was funded in 2019, launching just before the first lockdown. She outlined how members of the project went forward, despite the challenges of the pandemic, preparing materials, researching the historical women featured, interviewing the contemporary women and writing all their stories for the website. Her Salisbury Footprint is a map that was developed showing the locations where the women lived and worked in the city.
Following this presentation, members of the Region were then able to join two guided Her Salisbury Story walks around the centre of the city to view the homes of some of the women featured in the project.
There was a wide ranging discussion on feedback from the workshop session where comments were shared across all the members present. This led into a discussion about the future of the Region, how members wanted to meet and what they felt the Region should provide and how Clubs wanted to be supported. Kay told members that it was vital to have at least four more members from Clubs in the Region to join the Regional Management Team, to ensure that the work of the Region could deliver what members wanted to see going forward.
The next Regional Meeting will be the Regional AGM: ‘Shaping the Future of our Region’ to be hosted by SI Woking at Pine Ridge Golf Club, Frimley on Sunday 14 September.
