Soroptimist International St Albans and District celebrated its 69th birthday at the Club’s AGM on 13 Apr (the actual date of the Club’s charter is 27 April 1957).
The AGM was a wonderful reflection and celebration of the Club’s achievements over the last year, inspiring everyone to look forward with energy and enthusiasm to the Club’s forthcoming 70th year.
Members were delighted to welcome Liz, the Safe Accommodation Manager for the SAHWR Refuge, Rita Beaumont President of Soroptimist International London Chilterns Region and three prospective Club Members! The photo here l to r is of Rita Beaumont, Barbara Saunders OBE (who chaired the meeting) and Liz from the Refuge with a huge stash of tea, coffee and toiletries to take away with her!
Liz Perry gave an update on the SAHWR Refuge. It is always really powerful to hear the challenges of delivering the services and the positive stories of women and children being able to have a new start in life, free from abuse. Liz always says that the Refuge runs on tea, so it was great that she was able to take with her donations of tea from Club Members (plus coffee and toiletries). The provision of tea and coffee means their can be no arguments and everyone is welcome to a cuppa.
We were able to give Liz two cheques on the night – one for £750 from Club’s fundraising and a special one for £550 which was from donations in memory of Jean Eaton (click here to read more about Jean https://sigbi.org/st-albans-and-district/about-our-club/inspirational-members/jean-eaton/). The money in Jean’s memory will pay for the new garden furniture at the refuge’s new property in Dacorum. See the photos. Liz explained how important the safe garden space is for the women and children at the refuge, and the beautiful furniture is a fitting tribute to 
Jean. Liz said she will arrange a visit when Soroptimists can go and have tea and cake in the garden, which we are sure will be lovely.
The Club has supported the Refuge for nearly 30 years now, and Liz told us that they think of Soroptimists as much more than donors, they feel cared for by the Club – what a special thing to say!
After the event SAHWR put this post on Facebook: “A huge thank you to the St Albans Soroptimists for the generous donations. Liz said, ‘it is always a privilege to meet with the Soroptimists who put a lot of their time and efforts into not only supporting SAHWR, but working to end Violence against Women and Girls.’ Once again, thank you for supporting us and we look forward to welcoming you to our new property where we can honour the late Jean Eaton with a cuppa and some cake!”
Reports were circulated ahead of the AGM and are available to Members in the Members area of this website.
Project Reports from each team – Peace, People and Planet
• Finance report and Year end accounts
• Communications Report
• Friendship Links Report
• Membership Report
• Orange the World Report
• Programme Action Report
• Lend With Care Report
• Region Report
The image above is a list of all the projects reported on to our Federation over the year by the Club. There were continuations of established actions, including our bra collections to send to Smalls for All, recycling printer cartridges, jewellery and used stamps. These do not get written up each year, but contribute to our service activities.
Once again, we agreed to make Orange The World an all-Club activity, and this year a composite project report, pulling together all the strands and creating a document of the whole project of which the Club can be proud. Click here to read the report SISTA OTW 2025 Report. It is the reporting of the projects that provides proof of the work of Soroptimists to maintain Consultative Status at the United Nations – click here to read more https://sigbi.org/what-we-do/soroptimists-and-the-un .
Total funds raised from meetings, events and ad hoc donations was £4200 which is impressive when the Club’s focus isn’t on Fundraising. We were able to support the Refuge with donations of £2900. A wide range of other charities benefited from donations totalling £1500, which included 6 end of year donations of £100 each.
The Club has about 30 Members who do what they can, when they can so it is amazing how much is achieved over the year!