The regional meeting was held on Sat 15 March 2025 at Milford Village Hall, hosted by SI Surrey Hills.  The theme of the day was Awareness. It started with a short council meeting, during which Lizzie Rodgers from SI Poole, Purbeck & District was voted onto the Regional Management Team (RMT) as regional Secretary.  There was also a session on how we want to run the region, with agreement that 3 in-person meetings a year and possibly 1 extra online was right for us.  After coffee we heard from each of the 9 clubs, about their Programme Action activities and their plans for the coming year. We were served Ukrainian borscht for lunch, along with the usual sandwiches, fruit and desserts. In the afternoon we heard from Natalia Maievska, of the local group of Ukrainian women, about the situation in her country and the harrowing

The report from the Regional Management Team, for the meeting on 15 March, has been added to the Members’ Area of this website.  Please access the Members’ Area to download it before the meeting.

SI Surrey Hills will be hosting the March regional meeting at Milford Village Hall, GU8 5DG https://www.milfordvillagehall.org.uk/ Milford Village Hall is less than a mile from the Elstead/Milford junction of the A3, just south of Guildford.  Coming from the south it is the first major junction after the tunnel, from the north if you have gone through the tunnel you missed it!  The entrance is on the right coming from the A3, opposite Secretts Farm Shop.  At the back of the building there is a large car park able to accommodate over 50 cars.  Access to the hall is by steps and a ramp and the hall is equipped with a hearing loop. Outline agenda for the day: 0930-1000 Arrival and tea/coffee made by members of SI Surrey Hills 1000-1100 Regional Council meeting (‘Ask the RMT’) and session on ‘What do you want from region?’

We have had a question about the Best Practice Awards booklet that was mentioned in Lindsay Green’s latest blog – these are being held at region and will be distributed at the regional meeting on Saturday 15 March.  These were produced after conference in Edinburgh last November and there is one per club.  

The Regional Management Team (RMT) met recently for an update on planning for the regional meetings this year.  A reminder that these are: Sat 15 March 2025, hosted by SI Surrey Hills, Theme: Awareness Sat 21 June 2025, SI Salisbury, Theme: Advocacy Sat/Sun 13/14 Sept 2025, SI Woking, Theme: Action, and the AGM We are a small team trying to keep the region going, but still with some significant vacancies – please consider volunteering for any of these posts. The Chinese Year of the Snake is supposed to be transformational, and we hope that the region can embrace change and build a better future.  We will be running a session on this at the March meeting.  There will also be a Programme Action slot, for each club to report on what they did for International Women’s Day on 8 March and their other projects (5

Soroptimist International Winchester is delighted to celebrate the news that one of our members, forensic accountant Dr Kay Linnell has been honoured in the New Year’s Honours List. Dr Kay Linnell has been awarded an OBE in 2025. Kay has been a Soroptimist for over 40 years in several clubs before joining SI Winchester. She has held a number of roles in that time including Regional President of Southern England Region. Today we are delighted that she has been recognised for services to justice for her work in the Subpostmasters Alliance in the recent PO Horizon scandal. She was represented in the TV documentary Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Recently Kay and her business partner Barbara Jeremiah presented their experiences in the case at the recent Cardio Rehab lecture at The Maltings in Alton, where they told how over many years they had investigated

The Regional Management Team (RMT) has been working to understand its position, and the proposals for meetings and communications in 2025.  As you are aware there are several vacancies on the RMT, and we are not able to cover all the services and arrangements normally run through Region.  The current key vacancies are: Secretary; Programme Action Officer; Membership Secretary; Treasurer (Sue Dyer’s term ends at the 2025 AGM). The RMT is relying on Clubs to host the three face-to-face meetings in 2025, so please note the following dates in your diary: Sat 15 March 2025    hosted by SI Surrey Hills   Theme: Awareness Sat/Sun 21/22 June 2025    SI Salisbury              Theme: Advocacy Sat/Sun 13/14 Sept 2025    SI Woking                 Theme: Action, and the AGM We hope to hear from you if any Club is able to put forward candidates to cover the RMT vacancies during 2025 or at

Soroptimist International Winchester supports two solar charities, Solar Aid and Little Sun. Both of whom use solar light products to light up those countries in Africa as the sun disappears in the early evening. It gives the opportunity for students to continue study at home by naturally powered light rather than kerosene lamps which can be dangerous and costly. As lamps improve this can be taken to a wider community such as lighting up a village, clinics etc. Funds are important to keep the facility going and the club organised a Solar Tea in a member’s garden to commit to our annual donations. 30 guests sat down to a sumptuous tea with help from the solar project group, diverse sandwiches, many home-baked cakes, a selection of teas and with the sun shining, it was an enjoyable afternoon. Further funds were raised through a raffle and

Summer regional meeting Come along to the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, and –   Hear from Jane Walker MBE Founder and CEO of the Purple Community Fund, which works with women and girls living in extreme poverty in the Philippines, which suffered a devasting fire in December and another in the early hours of Friday 22nd March. –   Continue the debate about a regional PAC project, and the poster we should take to Edinburgh. –   Network with other members of the region and share ideas. –   Participate in The Big Help Out is to raise awareness of volunteering throughout the UK, with opportunities for woodland walk/bird spotting or pond dipping. Cost for the day is £15 which includes tea/coffee and lunch.  Closing date for bookings, via Liz as detailed in the flyer sent to clubs, is Thursday 30 May. More information is available on this page:

To share the videos of the Bluebell Awards entries from the clubs taking part, a YouTube channel has been set up.  It can be accessed at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2OZLwwLwJC01wU2a4y28SQ Further videos will be added to this channel from across the region, and we hope that it will become a valuable resource. You will recognise the sunflowers used as the profile picture for the channel from the Facebook Group for the region.