We had a busy and inspiring Club Meeting on the 14th June – with guest speaker Roma Mills from Carers in Herts andHelen Byrne‘s presentation about “Plastic Free July”.
Club President Barbara Saunders OBE was delighted to start the meeting by welcoming Roma Mills from Carers in Herts Roma is an old friend of the Club who works tirelessly 
to help those in need in of support in our community. Roma was invited to update us on the work of the charity – particularly how it has supported carers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please click here to view Roma’s presentation Carers in Herts Pres Soroptimist St Albans 14 Jun
it is packed full of information and she also added a lot of personal insight on the night.
Carers UK surveyed over 5,000 carers in April 2020 showing:
- 70% carers were providing an average of 10 hours more care per week due to COVID
- Over a third (35%) because local services had reduced or closed
- 4.5million people had taken on a caring role since the COVID pandemic started
- 4 in 5 carers were providing more care than before lockdown.
- 78% of carers reported that the needs of the person they care for have increased recently.
- 64% of carers have not been able to take any breaks at all in the last six months.
There was so much information in Roma’s presentation everyone was left without a question to ask – it is very unusual for Soroptimists not to have anything to say!
Helen Byrne, Facilitator of the Club’s Planet Team then delivered an excellent presentation about “Plastic Free July” to coincide with World Oceans Day 8 June. Please click here to view the Power Point slides Plastic Free July 2021
Our Environment is being challenged on many fronts and there is an urgent need to solve these challenges. So the Club’s Planet Team are working to make Members aware of these challenges and how to be part of the solution.
Helen started by explaining about “COP 26” which is in the news at the moment – it means “26th Conference of the Parties” because it is the 26th Global UN Summit to find and implement solutions to Climate Change. This year it is crucial because the Climate Crisis is getting out of control and it is being chaired by the UK Government in partnership with Italy. The Club’s Planet Team will keep us informed as we can and we will be having a speaker in September and we can view the UKCOP26 website to find out more ukcop26.org Helen reminded us that COP26 is only focused on Climate Change not Reduction in Biodiversity or Plastic Pollution (although there is some overlap) and we also need the post pandemic world and these climate change solution to involve and support everyone so we can BUILD BACK BETTER & EQUAL
Helen then went on to define the “Plastic Crisis” and encourage Members to take on the Plastic Free July Challenge. She showed us the first 4.38 minutes of this hard-hitting video Plastic Oceans https://youtu.be/ju_2NuK5O-E
Plastic Free July® is a global movement based in Australia that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic – we watched the 1 minute Video Plastic Free July https://youtu.be/UnXVU-06ciI
WHAT CAN WE DO? Get inspired using the resources on the Plastic Free July website – https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/get-involved/what-you-can-do/category/getting-started/#categories
Accept the Challenge https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/take-the-challenge/
During Plastic Free July I will:
- Avoid single-use plastic packaging
- Target takeaway items (the Top 4: bags, bottles, straws and coffee cups)
- Go completely plastic-free
If you sign up to the Challenge You sign up to one of these 3 categories and commit to joining for a day, a week or for the whole of July.
After Helen’s presentation we split into Breakout Groups and attempted to answer these questions in the short time available:
- What plastics have you already cut out and how?
- What are you struggling to find alternatives to?
- Are you interested in working on reducing your plastic even more and taking the Plastic Free Challenge? Is there a specific level or category of plastic you want to tackle?
Helen and the Planet Team are collating the feedback after the event.
The Challenge https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/take-the-challenge/
- You go to the Plastic Free website and sign up for
- 1 Day/1 Week/Whole of July/From now
- You will be sent a link to click to confirm your subscription
- Then a welcoming email with hints on getting started
- You will receive resources, ideas and encouragement to help you throughout Plastic Free
More information will be emailed directly to Club Members – if you’re reading this and you’re interested in finding out more please email us at sistalbans@hotmail.com
After this Club President Barbara Saunders and Club Secretary Kat Clark quickly took us through Club business – including elections for Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI). Sarah Lichman reported back on the brilliant Soroptimist London Chilterns region Meeting and Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Soroptimist International on 12 June – click here to read all about it and view photos and videos www.sigbi.org/london-chilterns/12jun We also ran through forthcoming events – click here to view the Club’s busy programme for the months ahead www.sigbi.org/st-albans/club-programme
What a busy and inspiring meeting!