Regional Conference 2009
Please click here:-
http://soroptimist-gbi.co.uk/midland-chase/files/2009/11/regional-conference-2009.pdf
for a report from the 2009 Regional Conference
Regional Newsletters
Newsletter 2 - June 2008 - September 2008
Newsletter 3 - October 2008 - March 2009
March 2008
The March Regional Meeting was held on Saturday 1st March 2008 and hosted by SI Newcastle.
The theme of the day was water. Attendees were given some very interesting facts, figures and thoughts about water.
This was followed by a presentation by our guest speaker Karen Mercer from Pump Aid. Karen began by saying that 1 person dies every 15 seconds from drinking contaminated water.
Pump Aid came about as a result of a student who went to Zimbabwe. He was so appalled by the conditions he saw there, especially in relation to the provision of water that he felt he had to do something. He came up and designed an ‘elephant pump’.
Local people can build a pump in 4 hours and only locally sourced materials are used. It is easy to maintain and provides a village with clean drinking water and irrigation. There are now over 4 thousand pumps installed in Zimbabwe and also in Malawi and Mozambique all providing villages with safe, clean water for drinking and irrigation.
If you would like to know more about the work of Pump Aid then please use the link below.
Regional Conference 2008
The theme of this years Regional Conference was – Putting the “I” into “act on”.
The conference was a two day event, the speakers on Saturday focusing on the issues of homelessness and literacy and the speakers on Sunday focussing predominantly on Soroptimism.
The first speakers on Saturday were Gill Brown, CEO Brighter Futures and Linda Thomas CEO, Arch. Their organisations work closely with young people, particularly homeless women. They spoke of the reasons young people become homeless and the support and services they can offer them. For further information about their work please see:-
www.brighter-furtures.org.uk and
www.archnorthstaffs.org.uk
The second speaker was Ian Dixon from the Salvation Army. He spoke of the range of services they offer to meet the needs of homeless people. Services from soup runs, through support groups to providing advice and tailored programmes to meet an individual’s specific needs. For more information on the variety of programmes they provide please see:- www.salvationarmy.org.uk
All the morning speakers left with car loads of food, clothing and toiletries for their organisation.
After a buffet lunch delegates reconvened for a lively discussion on literacy. A diverse panel gave their thoughts and views on topics such as the literacy hour, supporting pupils with a variety of educational needs and how to balance the National Curriculum with extra curriculum activities.
The forum was followed by David Beckwith from Stafford Castle Rotary Club who described how Rotarians go into schools to help with literacy through their Rotary Readers programme.
The final speaker of the day was Hilary Ratcliffe, SIGBI Federation Programme Director who assured us that we are all diamonds making up the tiara of Soroptimist International.
On Sunday we all awoke to snow!
The day began with a short service entitled “Pause for Reflection”, led by Pat Tennant from SI Sutton Coldfield – it was inspiring and set the foundations for an invigorating day.
The first presentation was by Ann Dawson, SIGBI Past Federation President, who spoke of the welcome she had received during her travels as Federation President and how Friendship Links really can help to make a difference to people’s lives.
The second speaker was Carwen Wynne-Howells, SIGBI President Elect on – thoughts for the future. She went on to describe how the words on the Cardiff Opera House – In these stones Horizons sing – can be applied to Soroptimists. The words were written by Wales’ first Woman Poet Laureate. If we replace stones with foundations, horizons with future and sing with celebration or success then we could be describing what we as Soroptimist needs to be doing, especially in 2009, our 75th anniversary. We need to have “Hopeful horizons” and to accentuate the positive. We need to put the ‘O’ of optimism back into Soroptimism remembering that Optima not only means best it can also mean hopeful. We need to mentor one another, respect each other, value one another, just as sisters would hopefully do, if we are to continue to grow and maintain our membership.
Although we have 90 thousand members in 125 countries, people still ask “What is a Soroptimist?” so we need to get out there and show people who we are and what we stand for – we need to accentuate our positives.
After a traditional Sunday lunch, Anne MacDonald spoke about Project Sierra.
The final speaker was Lynn Dunning, Immediate Past International President on the strategic plan and the proposed vision of the future of drawing together all of the four Federations to give us overall joint projects, a wider profile and to spread the message of Soroptimism. She too, spoke of our lack of recognition in the wider world saying that when we are asked “what is a Soroptimist?” we mumble stuff about women’s organisation, the rights of women around the world, justice for women etc or just say the female equivalent of Rotary. However, our vision and mission can be explained in one simple but poignant phrase – we are working towards the empowerment of women and girls through education.
Throughout the weekend there were also presentations by Clubs on their projects.
SI Bilston gave a very entertaining skit on the work of the camel library. This is a mobile library that was set up to improve the literacy rates of members of the nomadic tribes in the north east of Kenya.
SI Sutton Coldfield spoke about their story sacks which they take into schools. These contain books and visual aids to help at story time and they also give out free books much to the joy of the school children.
SI Walsall spoke of their project – the Big Write – in which they organised a competition inviting children to write on a specific topic and had an overwhelming response.
As always all the speakers were thought provoking and interesting. It was chastening to learn how much homelessness we have in Staffordshire and informative to learn how matters of literacy and homelessness can be linked. Carwen Wynne-Howells gave an invigorating and positively inspiring speech making us all want to go out and put the Optimism back into Soroptimism. Lynn Dunning was as inspirational as ever, as she spoke of some quite radical thinking and outlined the challenges and exciting opportunities facing Soroptimist International in the future.
Report by Vanessa Bell, Edna Schäfer-Hughes and Dawn Perry, SI Tamworth
Regional Conference
Every year SI Midland Chase has a Regional Conference.
To find about previous conferences please use the links on the left hand side.
Regional meetings
The clubs in the Region meet 4 times a year. The meetings take place on a Saturday at different venues in the Region.
At each meeting the morning is given over to Programme Action. The Programme Action Officer from each club attends together with any other members who are interested. Sometimes peer group meetings are also held at this time.
After lunch the Regional Council meeting takes place. Each club has 2 official representatives, but the meetings are open to all club members and is an excellent way for new members to find out more about Soroptimism and their own particular Region. Members wishing to attend the Council meeting do not have to attend the morning session unless they wish to.
Please use the links on the left to find out more about specific meetings.
Meeting dates
Please note that Programme Action Meetings will start at 10:00 and the Council Meetings at 13:30, unless otherwise notified.
Saturday 5th December 2009
Meeting hosted by SI Wolverhampton
Venue:- Coven Memorial Hall
Saturday 13th March 2010
Meeting hosted by SI Walsall
Saturday 12th June 2010
Meeting hosted by SI Stafford
Saturday 18th September 2010
Meeting hosted by SI Smethwick
Other Regional meetings
Friday 6th November 2009
Change of Insignia
Terrace Restaurant
Saturday 24th April - Sunday 25th April 2010
Regional Conference
Holiday Inn, Telford
Sunday 27th June 2010
3 Regions Lunch
Lea Marston Hotel
Wednesday 14th July 2010
Annual General Meeting
Terrace Restaurant
About our Region
Soroptimist International of Midland Chase is currently made up of 14 clubs.
Many of the clubs have their own website, but if not, then please email us at simidlandchase@yahoo.co.uk for further information.
President’s message
I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I cry. And I know you do the same things too, so we are not really that different me and you.
Collin Raye is an American country music singer, who has been writing and singing music since the 1990s, and I felt that these words and the fact that they are actually the lyrics of a song, bring together two concepts underlying what I want to offer for my year in office.
I have been fond of what you could call “the arts” since I was young. I love music of all kinds, dance, visual art, poetry and literature. The one thing, I feel, that all these have in common is that they are all universally acceptable and understood. There is something inherent in each of them that creates feelings that everyone whatever sex, colour or creed, can experience. All individuals have the capacity to feel all the emotions mentioned in Collin Raye’s words. All nations sing, dance, paint and write expressing everything from joy to despair in whatever way they can. And other nations can join in with them and experience the same things too. It is the most basic form of communication.
This leads me directly to communication, and how it lies at the very heart of everything we are, everything we do. George Bernard Shaw said that “the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”. How right he was… Even today, with all the aids to communication at our fingertips, many times we still fail to do so.
I would ask for us all in the coming year to step back and look at how we communicate – with family and friends, other club members, and so and so on. When it comes to communication, what you say and what you don’t say are equally important. Being a good listener is quite crucial too! So, let us brush up on saying what we mean and really mean what we say!
And to finish with another quote – from Hans Christian Anderson – Where words fail – let music speak.
Gail Wedge
Regional Officers
Officers and Representatives 2009 - 2010
President - Gail Wedge
President Elect - Patricia Cross
Vice President - Judith Healey
Immediate Past President - Pauline Wright
Honorary Treasurer - Elizabeth Fruer
Secretary - Cherril Pritchard
Programme Action Chairwoman - Carol Bailey
Membership Officer - Ann Dawson
Benevolent Fund Representative - Angela Reynolds
Development Officer - Jan Merralls
Public Relations Officer - Margaret Matthews
Midland Chase Councillor -Bozena Benton