SI St Albans and District AGM Monday 24th April – marking 66 years since the Club was chartered in April 1957
On the evening we were able to welcome a special guest, Margaret van Laan Martin from our Friendship Link Soroptimist International Chico, California. Margaret is travelling in Europe with her husband Richard and they are staying with her long-standing Soroptimist friend Joan Williams. They are travelling to celebrate Margaret’s “special 0” birthday, and we were delighted to be able to present her with some gifts and a cake that Joan had made. Margaret is pictured here with her gift bag, she is on the left with Barbara Saunders in the centre and Diana Kingham on the right. Later in the week some Club Members and friends were able to join Margaret and Richard at the Luton Hoo Walled Garden – please scroll down for more about that…
The AGM is a time for reflection enable us all to celebrate how much the Club has achieved over the last year. All of the Officer reports will be available to Members in the Members area of the Club website soon www.sigbi.org/st-albans-and-district/members and there is just a summary here.
Sarah kicked off with the accounts and the financial report. We don’t consider ourselves to be a “fundraising” kind of Club, however in the last year we held four major fundraising events (the bookstall, the “Orange Party”, carol singing and the quiz) which raised between them the amazing total of £3445. This enabled us to support a wide range of charities who are all very grateful for our support – SAHWR Refuge, Herts Domestic Abuse Helpline, Welwyn & Hatfield Refuge, Rape Crisis, Herts &Middx Wildlife Trust, Girl Guide Becca Britton to go to the world Jamboree, St Albans Foodbank, Viewpoint, Eco Stars, Homestart Herts, Earthworks, Steve Sinnott Foundation Period Poverty Project and Open Door. Sarah also reported on our excellent investments helping women via the microfinancing charity “Lend With Care”.
Officers reports were as follows: Jane – Communications, Membership and Region Report, Denise – Programme Action and Peace Team, Helen Planet Team, Barbara People Team.
Margaret van Laan Martin spoke about the value of Soroptimist Friendship Links and She extended a very warm invitation to Members of the Club who would like to visit. She brought boxes of chocolates as a gift from her Club to ours. She also presented the Club with handmade key chains (made by a Member of SI Chico) 
and a card from Chico Club Members. Pictured here with the Club’s Charter certificate are the Exec team from 22/23 – l to r Kat Clark, Barbara Saunders, Jane Slatter, Sarah Lichman, Helen Byrne, Diana Kingham and Denise Powell – some of them are holding up their key chains. See the photo of the “SIGBI” keychains and the pretty gift tags. There are enough for all Members to have one.
Jen Simpson, our Region’s Councillor explained her role and it’s contribution to Clubs.
To wrap up Barbara picked out items from her full report that hadn’t been covered elsewhere. She shared her pride at how the Club has been recognised both within SI and the wider community. “Orange the World” was a very successful project this year and was awarded best practice award by SIGBI at the last Conference. Toilet twinning – more than 30 toilets are now twinned and St Albans was awarded the honour of being a “Toilet Twinned City”.
During the year we have returned to face to face meetings monthly as well as a monthly online meeting. This has provided additional opportunities for speakers and fundraising and transformed Team and Exec meetings making them more accessible for many members. Barbara shared how well the quiz evening went and how delighted she was with how well the first face to face quiz went since the start of the pandemic. Barbara thanked members for putting their hearts and soul into the projects.
Barbara introduced the new “Planning Team”, which is how the Executive will be known because that is what it does in the main. Diana will work with the Planning team to lead the Club through the first third of the year. The proposal is that members of the three teams (Peace, Planet and People) will take on a chairing role for one Club meeting and attend the prior Planning meeting. Each team will need to agree a pair of members to attend the Planning meeting prior to leading a Club meeting.
To see who is on the Club Planning/Exec committee for the coming year click here https://sigbi.org/st-albans/about-our-club/club-officers
Barbara repeated that more involvement is needed to assist particularly with the Membership and Chairing roles. The current Club Planning/Exec Committee extended a warm welcome to anyone interested in taking on a more active role within the club. If you are interested in coming along to a Planning Meeting please speak to any of the existing committee and check the dates on the website https://sigbi.org/st-albans-and-district/club-programme/exec/
After the AGM reports we had a celebration with drinks and nibbles. We were also able to sample some of the delicious Californian chocolates that Margaret van Laan Martin had brought with her, and share the delicious birthday cake that Joan had made for Margaret. Margaret is pictured here blowing out the candles on her cake.
Next to the cake are the Club’s old photo albums that people were able to view on the night.
Reflecting on the year just gone we certainly had good reason to celebrate!
Two days after the AGM we had a visit to the Luton Hoo Walled Garden. This was organised by Diana Kingham who is a volunteer there. This was another lovely opportunity to spend time with Margaret Van Laan Martin from our Soroptimist Friendship Link Club in California, this time with her husband Richard. This visit was an exclusive session starting at 10.30 for coffee and biscuits and a presentation all about the history of the estate and the garden. Afterwards we had a fascinating guided tour around the garden including some parts not 
normally included in the standard tours and lots of historical information too. This is one slide from the presentation – to find out more click on lutonhooestate.co.uk/the-walled-garden/
The £15 we paid for the event was great value and all the money goes to the maintenance and restoration of the garden.
It was a cold day, but our Californian friends managed to brave it out! We were a group of 12 which included partners and friends. all glad to get to the Woodyard Cafe on site for lunch and a warm up.
Everyone agreed it had been a great idea and we look forward to arranging another trip in the future.