What a lovely Club meeting we had on Mon 13 April.
We welcomed Ayushi Kundu as a new Member of our Club, she has transferred from SI Calcutta. We felt very fortunate to have Joan Williams with us, our longest standing Member who was celebrating her 90th Birthday! We also had a lively discussion with ideas for the Club Programme in the year ahead – you can click here to save the dates in your diaries! sigbi.org/st-albans/club-programme
It is always a special event when we officially welcome a new member to our Club.
Ayushi has followed her mother’s footsteps into being a Soroptimist and has been a Member of SI Calcutta since 2014. Ayushi describes herself as a “young and passionate Soroptimist, working earnestly to transform the lives of women and girls!” She held the position of Soroptimist International President’s Appeal Coordinator 2019-2021 for the Road to Equality President’s Appeal under past SI President Sharon Fisher. Last year she was the President of SI Calcutta (India) and is currently SIGBI’s Assistant Programme Director for Partnerships. She is a shining example of how to work remotely effectively when you can’t do things face-to-face. Professionally she is currently a paralegal in the UK, training to be a barrister specialising in domestic abuse and children’s law. When Ayushi introduced herself she said how important is is for us to engage with younger Members to take the organisation forward and she told us about the SI Youth Forum which was established in 2023 for young Soroptimists (aged 40 years and under) to engage with one another at the international level by sharing ideas, advocating for change and organising inter-Federation projects.
Ayushi is pictured here accepting the hand of friendship from Jane Slatter, the Club’s Membership Officer. Ayushi joined in with the lively group discussions and had lots of great ideas to share – we know she will be a really valuable asset to our Club and hope that she will enjoy the friendship and support that our Club can offer her.
We all felt privileged to be able to celebrate Joan Williams 90th Birthday with her. Happy Birthday Joan! A past Member and President Rita Andrews had designed and decorated a delicious cake for Joan with the theme of “coffee”. Joan taught Home Economics at St Albans Girls’ School and until quite recently she took responsibility for all of the catering requirements of the Club – coffee in particular!! There were also balloons and bunting that went with the coffee theme. We all sang happy birthday while Joan blew out the candles. The cake was washed down with glasses of zero alcohol fizz so that we could all raise our glasses in a deserving toast to Joan.
Joan is pictured in the photo with Jean Eaton (left), Madeline (right) and Janet Audley-Charles presenting the cake.