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.

All clubs of the region took part in the Orange the World 16 Days of Activism from 25 Nov to 10 Dec 2023.  SI Bournemouth held an Art Exhibition, with more than 300 members of the public visiting and voting for their top three choices.  All entries were worthy of hearty congratulations for their creativity, thoughtfulness, and insight, but the final top 3 were announced.  SI Weybridge met up for a ‘Walk & Talk’ Café Crawl along the Thames towpath between Walton & Weybridge, with sisters from SI Woking and SI Surrey Hills. Since Christmas their have been festive greetings from SI Winchester to their Friendship Links, and SI Solent East celebrated with a, now traditional, Epiphany Dinner. Speakers visiting clubs have included Helen Stevens, who is the CEO of STARS Dorset (Sexual Trauma and Recovery Services) to SI Poole & Purbeck, and two lovely

Come along to the Business School of the University of Winchester, and Hear from Ellie Hill, of SI Winchester, who is attending the Commission on the Status of Women event at the UN in New York (CSW68) in March this year, and is “pleased to be coming to the Regional Meeting to tell you about my experience and what I have learned!” Get an update on the Volunteering in Pretoria (VIP) Regional Project. Network with other members of the region and share ideas. Participate in workshop sessions on: The future of the VIP Project; The future of Programme Action in our Region; Storyboarding our Regional poster for Federation Conference 2024. Cost for the day is £15 which includes lunch and tea/coffee.  Closing date for bookings, via Liz as detailed in the flyer sent to clubs, is Friday 8 March.

SI Salisbury 18 November Quiz night £15 includes meal, teams of six contact Quiznov23@gmail.com for information           SI Surrey Hills 18 November 2pm curling and afternoon tea event in conjunction with the local Townswomen’s Guild. Venue St Marks Community Centre, Franklyn Road Godalming GU7 2LD  £10 per person. Funds raised will be donated to The Guildford Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre. Contact Alison at sisurreyhills@gmail.com