London 2023
One representative from Tiverton and District Club joined nine members from St Austell & District Club to attend the national conference this year. Storm Ciaran’s arrival on the morning of departure meant that our travel plans were disrupted but we made it in time and it was certainly worth the trip. Our party was also joined by Soroptimist Margaret from Plymouth.
On the first night in London, our group went to see the show ABBA Voyage. This is a virtual concert residency by the Swedish pop group ABBA. The concert features virtual avatars, depicting the group as they appeared in 1979, and utilises the songs’ originally-recorded vocals accompanied by a live instrumental band on stage. This was an amazing show and it was hard to tell what was real and what was virtual. The light show was truly spectacular and it is not an understatement to say that we were all mesmerised throughout the performance. Definitely one that everyone should see!
SIGBI’s 89th conference was opened by Hilary Ratcliffe OBE. Ann Dawson Conference Chair welcomed everyone. President Cathy Cottridge welcomed members and guests, and explained that 80 first time attenders were present wearing yellow lanyards. (Club member Jennie was one of these!) Thanks was given to past members.
It was great to see Soroptimists from Africa, America, Europe, & Asia who make up Soroptimist International. The Roll call included not only all the countries but each region present. We waved our St Piran’s flag when they announced the South West and Channel Islands Region! Overall Soroptimists International (SI) President Maureen Maguire declared SIGBI’s ‘Climate for Change’ conference open.
Retiring International President Maureen spoke about the International President’s Appeal which has already helped more than 3,000 women and girls. Fundraising has been so successful that the six projects will continue to Open Doors to a Brighter Future for a further year in projects across the world from Paraguay to Georgia. She and the project teams and participants have greatly enjoyed meeting each other over the last year, this joy still embodied somewhere in Uganda by a rooster called Maureen!
Due to a late cancellation, Monty Halls, was given one day’s notice to give a presentation at the conference. He started his presentation with a humorous explanation, as to his slightly casual appearance! Monty is a trained Marine Biologist.
He has two young daughters and with his wife, travelled to the Galapagos Island to film their adventures for a TV series, while developing a conservation project, Generation Sea Change. While the majority of people that Monty worked with used to be men, in recent years he has seen a growth in women scientists. This pleases him no end, especially in view of having two daughters, who are confronted with negative messages about climate change every day. He wants them to grow up knowing that they have an equal share in marine conservation. There is certainly a rise in young women interested in conservation.
Generation Sea Change is now promoting a Blue Box scheme, to encourage coastal communities with conservation. SI Programme Director, Lindsay Green made a suggestion that the Soroptimists could perhaps become a partner in the initiative.
The Membership session was next, chaired by Dishi Attwood, Federation membership Director. You can read all about this session here.
The SIGBI AGM followed. There were no Resolutions to be discussed at this year’s General Meeting, so the main focus was on the Chairman’s Report. She welcomed Gillie O’Rourke to the Board of Directors, as she is taking up the role of President Elect 2023-2025. This is the only change to the Board members, except that Ruth Healey will be President 2023-2025. Cathy will be stepping down from the Board, and she thanked Gina and the SIGBI Staff for their help during her tenure, as well as the Federation Consultative Council (FCC) and the Standing Committees.
Here’s a round up of Day 1 from Soroptimist Jennie.
Saturday began with three inspirational speakers. (Follow the links to read about their presentations.)
Louisa Rolfe Assistant Commissioner Frontline Policing Metropolitan Police was our first invited speaker this morning. She spoke about the national approach to domestic abuse and how it has changed across the years. While accepting that there is still much to do she shared many developments that have improved policing approaches. (Our President Jill wrote this blog for SIGBI!)
Soroptimist Hasina Safi, women’s rights activist, spoke about Afghanistan and the oppression of Women and how life has changed since the Taliban took control.
Divya Arya, BBC Women’s Affairs Reporter based in Delhi was the third speaker. Her talk entitled From Fear to Fightback covered violence against women in India. 95% of cases of sexual violence against women in India are where victims know the perpetrators. She discussed recent developments but continued shortfalls for victims.
After this there was a question and answer session where roving microphones enabled audience members to engage with the speakers.
After lunch the first session of Day 2 was entitled Eradicating Cervical Cancer. SIGBI President Cathy and Soroptimist Lindsay Green talked about ideas to support this cause including the setting up of a SIGBI working party. Follow the link for more. (Our member Soroptimist Jennie wrote this blog for SIGBI!)
Next, Tracey Horner CEO of Lendwithcare talked about Microfinancing. This charity aims to support the most vulnerable with financial services. Click the link to find out more.
The Programme Action Awards were a highlight of the conference.
1,861 reports were submitted by clubs in 2022-2023. These were whittled down to just two worthy nominations in each Assistant Programme Director’s area, one of which won the category award and one was the runner up. New for this year was the Delegates Choice Award, which was chosen by Conference Delegates from all 10 nominated projects after they had given their presentations. Details of the 10 projects are here, and the Delegates Choice award winner was……..
Congratulations to all these Clubs and SI Stafford, in particular.
The closing ceremony began by Hilary Ratcliffe OBE inviting Soroptimist International President Maureen to perform the change of the Soroptimist International chain as this was not able to be done in Dublin. She passed the chain to President Elect Siew-Yong, and thanked President Cathy for incorporating this into the SIGBI conference. Siew-Yong confirmed she was dedicated to saving Mother Earth and eliminating violence against women.
The SIGBI chain was passed from Cathy to Ruth, and the President elect chain passed to Gillie. Ruth began by presenting the new board, all of who are continuing, and a ‘watch this space’ for a new finance director.
The conference next year will be in Edinburgh at the Assembly rooms and we saw videos which showed the beauty and interest of both! It will take place from 1st to 3rd November 2024 and will be from Friday lunchtime to Sunday lunchtime. The AGM will be on the Sunday morning followed by a session to ask questions of the Board.
As we will celebrate 90 years of SIGBI, Ruth threw out 2 challenges:
Firstly, do 90 things in the year, and there will be the opportunity to show posters at Edinburgh about the projects.
Secondly, we have 5361 members today, increase your club membership by one (over and above any lost) and together we can make the change we need to make.
The Soroptimist flag was handed by Anne Dawson to Alison Cramer, the chair of the Edinburgh conference, and thanks were expressed to all the stewards and the staff at the Friends House as the formal part of the evening finished.
We were then treated to entertainment from Tashara Forrest who sang a variety of songs, received well by members who danced enthusiastically along to them.
Here’s a round up of Day 2 from Diane.
We enjoyed a South West Regional dinner after the conference and on the day we left we had a little time for some sightseeing around St Pancras Station and, of course some retail therapy.
