The regional meeting was held on Sat 21 June 2025 at Sarum College, in the Cathedral Close, hosted by SI Salisbury. Their President Michele welcomed everyone and explained that the theme for the day was: “Inspiring women, inspiring each other”; she hoped that members would find inspiration from the day’s activities.
It started with a short council meeting, ably chaired by Past Regional President Kay Linnell. This included a quick digest of PAC activity, received by email from Programme Director Lindsay Green, in lieu of a report from a region PAO.
The keynote speaker was Tracy Daszkiewicz who talked about the women throughout her life 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’, now lifetime friends, had been there for her at every step. Professionally she had led the public health response to Novichok in Salisbury and the Covid 19 Pandemic across Wiltshire.
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.
Before lunch, Past President Kay proposed a special toast to Tref Mitchell, member of SI Winchester and long-term member of the Region, who was celebrating 50 years of Soroptimism. She told us that her first Regional meeting was hosted by SI Salisbury so it was important to her to be able to attend today. On behalf of the Region, Kay presented her with a long service certificate to mark her 50 years of membership.
After lunch, 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. We then went on a guided walk, to visit the homes of some of the women featured in the project.
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.
The final session, on feedback from the workshops early, included a wide ranging discussion on the positive inspiration that we get from being Soroptimists. 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 meet-up 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.