Membership Best Practice Awards 2025

SISEAP Friendship Links Award 2025

noting activities undertaken with a Friendship Link Club in the past two years (social, training, programme, and/or other).

SISEAP Diversity of Membership Award 2025 

What is your understanding of the importance of diversity in a Soroptimist club, and how has your club taken steps to enhance inclusivity and diverse representation?Share examples of how your club has worked to create an inclusive environment within your Soroptimist club, ensuring diverse voices are heard and respected. Diversity can include a range of cultures, ages, skills, socio-economic backgrounds, geographical locations, abilities and disabilities, and membership categories, all showing the club's inclusive nature. Supply a photo/s showing the diversity of your club, if possible.

SISEAP Membership Innovation Award 2025

An open award that showcases a club’s creativity and/or originality, a positive impact, potential for sustainability or adaptability, and instances of collaboration or partnerships, with a membership outcome for training or recruitment or retention.

Kristeen Johnston

SISEAP Membership Convenor 2024-2026

membership.kristeen@siseap.org

Federation Fees 2025

All Clubs have been emailed notification of the Federation Fees and the Annual Return Packs for 2025.

All Soroptimists:
A reminder that the due date for Soroptimists to pay their membership fee to their Club is 31 December 2024.

All Clubs:
To be eligible for the Early Payment Discount. Federation Fees must be received at HQ by no later than 31 January 2025.  Otherwise, the final due date for Clubs to pay fees is 28 February 2025.

HQ Office Holiday Closure

The SISEAP HQ Office will be closed for the holiday period from Monday 23 December 2024 through to Monday 6 January 2025. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2025

SISEAP Shop - End of Year Orders

Orders with Name Badges – Order and payment must be received by 12pm Wed 4 December
Orders without Name Badges – Order and payment must be received by 5pm  Tues 10 December

16 Days of Activism Ribbon
We want to remind you that our 16 Days of Activism Ribbons are available for purchase! By wearing one of these ribbons, you can show your support for this crucial cause and help raise awareness about the need to end gender-based violence. Don’t miss your chance to make a difference—get yours today and join us in taking a stand during this important campaign!

New Name Badge Design

We are thrilled to announce a fresh update to our SISEAP name badges.  The new design incorporates the new SI emblem, includes our Federation name and is consistent with our SISEAP branding colours.
The new design is available now.

New Member Badges - Coming Soon
We’re excited to announce that a new design for our member badges is currently in progress, featuring the new SI emblem. In the meantime, we are offering our existing badges with the old emblem at discounted prices. This is a great opportunity to grab your badge at a fantastic price while we transition to the new design. Stay tuned for updates on the launch of our fresh look!

We are excited to invite you to an impactful online event: Preventing Gender-Based Violence. Mark your calendars for 26 November 2024 6pm AEDT, and be ready to engage in critical discussions that can drive change in our communities.

This event features an amazing lineup of guest speakers who are renowned experts and advocates in the field of gender-based violence prevention. They will share their insights, strategies, and experiences, equipping you with the tools and knowledge necessary to make a difference.

All attendees will have access to the recording for 30 days following the event.

Tickets are $40 for non-members and $35 for members. 

Members can use the code "16DAYSACTIVISM" to receive the member price. 

Helena Hassani
Executive Director, Boland Parwaz

She is a human rights advocate and campaigner for the prevention of child and forced marriage and family violence. Helena is the recipient of the Echoing Green Fellowship 2024 working towards ending child and forced marriage in Australia and globally.

Helena was a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva for the Annual Tripartite Consultation on Resettlement in 2023. She has also been an NGO delegate to the United National recently in March 2024 in New York for the Consultation on the Status of Women 68^th Conference. She is a silver medal winner of the Women Changing the World Award 2024 for the Cultural Diversity and Inclusion Impact category. Helena has significant experience in family violence and modern slavery particularly forced marriage. 

Currently Helena is the Director of Boland Parwaz PTY LTD which is working towards a future without child and forced marriage. She is one the multilingual female facilitators of Men’s Behaviour Change Program for Intouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence in Victoria. Helena is a research assistant for the Anti-Slavery Australia at the University of Technology Sydney and the Modern Slavery Lead at the Mercy Foundation.

Lucy Gregory

CEO, Domestic Violence Prevention Centre Gold Coast

Lucy Gregory is the CEO of the Domestic Violence Prevention Centre in the Gold Coast. (DVPC GC) DVPC GC provides specialist domestic and family violence service and support to adults, children and young people who have experienced DFV and to those who use violence. DVPC also leads the Gold Coast Domestic Violence integrated Response, which has been in operation for over 25 years.

Lucy has had the honour of working in the domestic and family violence space for almost 20 years, including in the ACT, Victoria and Queensland in both direct client service delivery and program and policy development. Lucy previously worked for Family Safety Victoria and was responsible for the practice and operational guidance for the state-wide The Orange Door Network in Victoria. Highlights of Lucy’s career include being Senior Advisor to Rosie Batty, supporting the establishment of the Victim Survivor Advisory Council in Victoria and working on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Lucy is a qualified lawyer and sociologist and is committed to ending violence against women and girls globally.

Karima El Korri

Resident Coordinator Malaysia, United Nations

Ms. Karima El Korri is the Resident Coordinator in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam. She has more than 20 years of international development experience within the United Nations and externally. Within the Organization, she most recently led the 2030 Agenda division at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), a role she assumed after managing the population and development portfolio and pioneering the work of the Commission on international migration, population ageing, and youth empowerment.

Before that, she served as a regional advisor on governance and project coordinator at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. El Korri worked in Morocco as a lecturer at the Al-Akhawayn University as well as with a think-tank engaging with government, civil society, the private sector, academia, youth, and international organizations on development issues in the country.

Richie Hardcore

Activist and Educator - Family and Sexual Violence Prevention

Richie Hardcore is a public speaker, consultant, educator and advocate. His work discusses masculinity, mental health, pornography, sex and consent and how we can end sexual and domestic violence.

He has a Masters's degree in Sociology, is a White Ribbon New Zealand ambassador, and is part of the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development’s ‘Change is Possible’ anti-domestic violence campaign. His work has been featured regularly in the media and was recently part of the SBS Australia documentary series “Asking For It”. He was a multiple New Zealand champion in Muay Thai, and now he has retired from fighting is a coach and trainer. Through his charitable trust he uses Muay Thai and Kickboxing as part of a mentoring program for people who have left the criminal justice system, are in alternative education or alcohol and drug rehabilitation.

Lorraine Finlay

Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission

Lorraine Finlay is the Human Rights Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission.  In this role Lorraine leads the work of the Commission in areas including modern slavery, asylum seekers and refugees, business & human rights, and technology & human rights.

Prior to joining the Commission, Lorraine has worked as a lawyer and academic specializing in human rights and public law.  She holds a dual Masters in Law from New York University and the National University of Singapore, where she studied as a Singapura Scholar.  Her past roles have included working as the Senior Human Trafficking Specialist with the Australian Mission to ASEAN, an academic at Murdoch University, and a State Prosecutor with the WA DPP. 

Naomi Pfitzner

Deputy Director, Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre

Dr Naomi Pfitzner is Deputy Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre and a Lecturer in Criminology at Monash University.

Naomi is also a Associate Investigator on an ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women awarded in 2023. Naomi has extensive research experience in family violence prevention and response. She conducts research in the area of family violence, gender, family studies, social policy and law. Her work has a key focus on the primary prevention of family violence, respectful relationships education and gender equality.

We encourage your club to purchase tickets for this essential event and host an impactful gathering that brings all members together. Additionally, individual members are welcome to buy tickets on their own to enjoy this enlightening experience independently. By joining this collective effort or attending individually, you can foster meaningful discussions and strengthen your commitment to preventing gender-based violence.

Don’t miss out—buy your tickets now to ensure your place and make a difference together!

Soroptimist International South East Asia Pacific can offer up to 7 Delegate places to Federation members who wish to attend CSW69 for any period of time. 

In 2025 SISEAP is pleased to announce that there will be one (1) CSW69 Scholarship to the value of $2000.00 AUD, and 6 self funded delegate positions. 

CSW69 will be held in New York, between the 10 -21 March 2025 

Applications are now open until the 30 November 2024 for Soroptimists to apply for these delegate positions.  

  pdf Download and read the CSW69 Information sheet here (203 KB)

SISEAP will be changing their email address from @siswp.org to @siseap.org, this work is scheduled to commence on Friday 11th of October at 6pm AEDT.  The change from one email account to the other could take up to 48 hours. Clubs will need to monitor the SISEAP website and Facebook for the announcement when the work has completed.

Soroptimists and Clubs were sent an email informing them of this work and actions they should undertake prior to and after this work.  If you club did not see this email,  please now read this information available on the siseap website below.

Appointment of SI Director 2025-2026

We are pleased to advise that Dolgormaa (Dolly) Jamiyan of SI Ulaanbaatar has been appointed as Director of Soroptimist International from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026.

This is a significant achievement and well-deserved recognition of her commitment and dedication as a Soroptimist over the past 24 years, along with her contributions in the leadership roles at a Club and Federation level that she has undertaking during that time.

Dolly has been a Soroptimist since the Charter of SI Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in 2020 and has served 3 terms as National Representative of Mongolia from 2004-2006, 2006-2008 and 2018-2020.

Dolly joins Anthea Penny who is SISEAP’s other appointed SI Director currently serving until 31 December 2025.

Congratulations to Dolly on this well-deserved appointment in furthering the mission of Soroptimist International to transform the lives of women and girls.

SI Director of Advocacy for the 2026 – 2027 Biennium

Soroptimist International (SI) is inviting applications for the volunteer position of Director of Advocacy for the 2026–27 biennium.

The selected candidate will start on January 1, 2026, following a year as Director of Advocacy Elect in 2025, where they will shadow the current Director. This role involves leading the SI Global Impact Committee and aiding the Global Policy Committee.

Key qualifications include experience in advocacy, impact reporting, and familiarity with the United Nations. The director will collaborate with global teams of Soroptimists and staff, requiring cultural and language awareness, as well as IT literacy for daily communications and presentations.
 
The role includes membership on the SI Board and Executive Team and involvement with the SI Foundation Committee. This position offers both challenges and rewards. For application details and key dates, please refer to the recruitment pack below.

Programme Zone Coordinator 4

Expressions of Interest are called for from eligible members to take on the role of Programme Zone Coordinator 4, this is a 2 year term of office (2024 to 2026).  Successful applicant will be able to take up the position for the remainder of this biennium.

The role involves supporting up to 35 clubs across the Federation with reporting on their actions. There is opportunity for progression, and participating regularly in some exciting events with the full Programme Team. Please complete the Federation Programme Convenors CV Template, please send your completed application to Federation Secretary Berice at  swpsecretary2020@siswp.org  and HQ at hq@siswp.org.

SISEAP CSW69 Delegate applications are now open.

this year SISEAP is pleased to announce that there will be one SISEAP CSW69 Scholarship to the value of $2000.00 AUD and 6 Self Funded Delegate positions available.
 
The SISEAP CSW69 scholarship to the value of $2000.00 AUD will assist the successful applicant with her travel and accommodation costs. Accommodation will be in a shared apartment. There will be up to 6 self funded delegate positions available 

Review the Guidelines and complete the application form below.

The email domain name change was successful.   All Federation email accounts have now been migrated to @siseap.org.

Whilst there is still some work to be completed I can confirm the following.

Your google profile (email account) has been updated to the new account.

Email accounts have migrated successfully with all emails appearing.

Emails sent to your old @siswp.org will be redirected to the new account automatically.
Remember to go to settings and create a new email signature.

Calendars have been updated successfully
Meeting invites have been retained.
The Federation calendar was copied over .

Contacts,
You will need to delete all instances of @siswp.org in your contacts lists.
Remember that the directory in contacts will display ALL SISEAP new email addresses, this will assist you whilst you get to know all the new ones.
To see the full list of all email contacts,  go to Contacts, on the right hand side menu, select Director. 

Forms
Forms have all been copied over.

Drive
All files in your Drive account have been copied over.
Documents shared with me - these links appear to be all working.
Shared Drive, Whilst you can see the shared drives that you have rights to, these are being displayed due to the email alias of your old siswp.org account, over the next few days I will start updating access to the drives for the new email accounts, If you are the owner of a shared drive account, you could assist me by updating these email accounts.

Mobile Devices
The google profile on your mobile device has been updated.automatically along with access to your emails. This also includes the google drive app on mobile devices. Google calendar on mobile devices has also updated.

Google Drive for Desktop
If you use google drive for desktop, this will still be viewable and accessible via the siswp.org email account, there will be instructions shortly on how to add your new email account and remove the old one from the google drive app.  Prior to a step by step instructions,  you can click on the Drive for desktop icon, Click on Settings > Preferences, Click o our Google account icon and on the menu, select Add another account,  add in your new @siseap account, and then remove the @siswp.org account. 

As I said there is still more work to do, but the main items are functioning.

In this video tutorial, we'll take you step-by-step through accessing the SISEAP branding guide and resources. Discover how to navigate our SISEAP Trello board, where you'll find a wealth of materials designed to enhance your branding efforts. We’ll also show you how to easily download and save these resources for immediate use. Whether you're a new member or just need a refresher, this guide will ensure you have everything you need to effectively represent SISEAP. 

The name change of Soroptimist International South West Pacific to Soroptimist International South East Asia Pacific affected what is termed the domain name. A domain name is our website address, which was changed from siswp.org to siseap.org.  A business email account would be the same as the domain name, ours at present is still @siswp.org. It is planned to change our email accounts from @siswp.org to @siseap.org. This is a major piece of work, and does involve the clubs being prepared for this change.

It is planned to prepare for this work during September.  Clubs will receive important communications from HQ during September. It is important that club elected position holders, President, Secretary, Treasurer are aware of these communications, read them thoroughly, inform their members and undertake the actions required of them. 

Club email accounts will change from SI<CLUBNAME>@siswp.org to SI<CLUBNAME>@siseap.org.

• SISEAP Position Holders Conflict of Interest Policy and Procedure
• SISEAP Anti-Fraud and Anti Corruption Policy
• SISEAP Conflict of Interest Policy and Procedure for Internal Conduct
• SISEAP Cybersecurity Policy

We invite you to complete the attached survey, which is designed to conduct a SWOT analysis to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats facing our organisation. Your honest and thoughtful responses are crucial in helping us shape our strategic direction and maximize our impact.

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights!

Programme Zone Coordinator 4

Expressions of Interest are called for from eligible members to take on the role of Programme Zone Coordinator 4, this is a 2 year term of office (2024 to 2026).  Successful applicant will be able to take up the position for the remainder of this biennium. 

The role involves supporting up to 35 clubs across the Federation with reporting on their actions. There is opportunity for progression, and participating regularly in some exciting events with the full Programme Team. Please complete the Federation Programme Convenors CV Template, please send your completed application to Federation Secretary Berice at  swpsecretary2020@siswp.org  and HQ at hq@siswp.org.

Virtual communications platforms play a vital role in keeping our members connected, engaged, and informed. Acknowledging this and in response to member feedback on the GoTo Meeting platform and requests for Zoom, the Federation has acquired Zoom Pro for clubs, regions, and Federation use. This decision has been validated with 70% of members preferring Zoom, according to a survey by Hanaa Abdullah, our Federation Communications Convenor. We believe these changes will bolster our leadership and further our mission of empowering women and girls.

For access to Federation Zoom Pro, please contact Federation Secretary Berice at swpsecretary2020@siswp.org

Dear Soroptimists,

I hope you are all well. I’m writing today to say a warm hello, introduce myself and share some plans for fundraising moving forward.

I’m Jemma Arundel and I’ve been brought on by SISEAP into the role of Fundraising Manager. It’s a privilege to be here working with so many amazing woman who are passionate about, and committed to, transforming the lives of women and girls.

 Over the last 20 years I’ve worked with more than 40 national and international organisations helping them grow their income, enabling them to increase their crucial work and make an even greater impact in the world.

This is exactly what I’m excited to do here at SISEAP.

The overarching goal is to create sustainable income streams to enable the organisation to run as effectively as possible, to grow, to fund more projects and ultimately make an even bigger difference in the lives of women and girls

In addition to running fundraising campaigns and activities across the region, I’m here to help clubs with their own fundraising initiatives by sharing resources, ideas and tools, and collaborating to raise more funds for the incredible work you do in your areas.

I’ve recently developed a fundraising strategy and would like to share some exciting upcoming campaigns and activities which it would be amazing for everyone to get involved in.

Firstly, over the coming weeks we will be launching the Brilliant Future Fund appeal. The more we can grow this area, the more projects we can fund for clubs, increasing our impact across the region. Other exciting initiatives include:

• 16 Days of Activism webinar event with inspiring guest speakers sharing their stories of impact
• Christmas/Holiday Campaign – giving gifts of opportunity to women and girls
• International Women’s Day Community Challenge

I’m so excited to be joining you on this journey and would be grateful if you could share these exciting plans with your members. Together we can scale up our incredible work and increase our impact in the world for more women and girls.

Please reach out to me anytime for any assistance you need with current fundraising activities and ideas for future ones – jemmaarundel@siswp.org

I look forward to working with you all.

Kind regards,

Jemma Arundel
SISEAP Fundraising Consultant
jemmaarundel@siswp.org

We are pleased to announce Theresa Lyford has been appointed as Company Secretary for SISEAP.  Theresa has held many roles with SISEAP including Federation President 2016-2018, Director of SISEAP 2022-2023 and National President of SI Australia 2022-2024, with all these roles exposing her to the requirements of Australian Company Law.  Theresa is also currently SISEAP’s representative on the Soroptimist International (SI) Board.

We are pleased to welcome Jemma Arundel, an experienced fundraising consultant, who will be working with SISEAP for the next 12 months. Jemma will be developing long-term revenue generation through the development and implementation of a SISEAP fundraising strategy.

Jemma is a passionate fundraiser with over 20 years’ experience within the NFP sector. She has worked with many national and international organisations helping them to substantially grow their income across the whole range of fundraising channels. She has run her own fundraising and marketing agency, and social enterprise, providing fundraising and business development services enabling organisations to grow exponentially in order to increase their impact in the world. Over her career she has raised over $126 million for non-profit organisations.

You will need to upload your CV, photo and supporting documents.

Programme Zone Coordinator 4

Expressions of Interest are called for from eligible members to take on the role of Programme Zone Coordinator 4, this is a 2 year term of office (2024 to 2026).  Successful applicant will be able to take up the position for the remainder of this biennium. 

The role involves supporting up to 35 clubs across the Federation with reporting on their actions. There is opportunity for progression, and participating regularly in some exciting events with the full Programme Team. Please complete the Federation Programme Convenors CV Template, please send your completed application to Federation Secretary Berice at  swpsecretary2020@siswp.org  and HQ at hq@siswp.org.

You must be logged into the SISEAP website to view the pages above.

Virtual communications platforms play a vital role in keeping our members connected, engaged, and informed. Acknowledging this and in response to member feedback on the GoTo Meeting platform and requests for Zoom, the Federation has acquired Zoom Pro for clubs, regions, and Federation use. This decision has been validated with 70% of members preferring Zoom, according to a survey by Hanaa Abdullah, our Federation Communications Convenor.  We believe these changes will bolster our leadership and further our mission of empowering women and girls.

For access to Federation Zoom Pro, please contact Federation Secretary Berice at swpsecretary2020@siswp.org

We are delighted to announce that the new SI Emblem club straplines are now available to download for club use!

These straplines are designed to help you promote your club and our mission, and can be used on flyers, posters, documents and more. 

To access the straplines, simply visit the downloads section on the SISEAP website or via the SISEAP Trello Board and start downloading today! If you have any questions or need assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to HQ.